SIMPLIFICATION
Simplifying your Faith
versus "The Last Rites"
SIMPLIFICATION .
Perhaps one of the top 3 hopes for the future is the hope that more churches adopt the doctrine of "Simplification of your Faith" when you know you are in the process of dying, rather than any notion that rites, rituals and acts of priestcraft will help assure you of salvation.
The problem - and the healing offered by simplification of your Faith, versus the "last rites".
The Gospel :
When a person first believes the "Jesus Saves Gospel" Evangelical preachers tell the person "you are now saved". Repentance is always the quality indicator of such belief. For this reason if a person falls into long term unrepentant sin they will be damned, and have made a shipwreck of their faith. This does not mean it was inaccurate to say the person when first believing the good news of salvation in Christ "is now saved", and that is because it simply means in a state of salvation should they die at that time, as Evangelicals such as myself do not believe our works or acts of priestcraft contribute anything whatsoever to salvation itself. The entire meaning of the phrase "believes in me" in John 3:16, or the concept in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, is "to trust in Jesus for salvation" and in him alone.
The problem .
The problem now is many who at first believed the gospel then lose their salvation *(1), and how this happens in broad terms is warned about in the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13). A frequent way converts step out of the grace of God into unrepentant sin is to meet one of the plague of false Protestant pastors who preach heretical forms of Evangelicalism or Anabaptist beliefs. False pastors lure these early converts with the seduction of being in a social setting in church, which people obviously love, but heresy will mean they are not in a church, actually it is a religious social club.
Example :
A recent convert is seduced into joining a so called church that believes the following very common but deadly combination of heresies:
1) Love your enemies - means kill them
2) What God has joined together let not man tear asunder - means here are 15 reasons you can get divorced and remarried.
3) Above all things do not swear an oath - means swear oaths.
It is extremely common to see this deadly cluster of heresies in Protestant churches, not just in the Catholic or Orthodox religions. The simplicity of the faith of the early believer is destroyed. This is the PROBLEM to be resolved by simplifying your faith on the death bed.
When a plane crashing :
With only minutes to live on a crashing plane, I entirely believe in last minute salvation. By this I mean if an unbeliever believes in Jesus, crucified to wash away his sins, resurrected to justify him before God, he will be saved. Such true belief however is characterised by repentance, that is repentance is the quality indicator of that belief. If the pilot regains control of the plane and lands it safely, and the person who trusted in Christ goes off back into a life of unrepentant sin, it obviously shows he never really believed, or that he has cast of his faith.
The death bed - and simplification of Faith.
THE HEALING OF YOUR SOUL .
The good thing is that whether you are Protestant, Evangelical, Anabaptist, Catholic, Orthodox or otherwise, simplification of faith can lead to salvation of your soul on your deathbed, as the concept or idea behind it involves detachment from all ties with the world. You isolate with Christ alone, withdrawing yourself from all defiling influences and communicating with God in his presence, holding only to the pearl of great price, the Gospel by which we are saved, without the frills offered by heretic pastors, priests, or pseudo religious persons tied to it. You go back to that moment you first believed, or believe if you never truly have. It is the new start gained by the power of the blood of Jesus, and the glory of the resurrected, offered by Christ Jesus in his "new and better covenant".
THE PERSONALITY OF GOD :
"And the LORD passed by before him (Moses), and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,"
Exodus 34:6 .
Bible study on simplicity of Faith:
2 Cor 1:12, 2 Cor 11:3, Acts 2: 46, 2 Cor 8: 2, 2 Cor 9: 11. Proverbs 11:3. Proverbs 2: 7. There are many other scriptures about this concept.
This is contrasted with - Proverbs 1: 22
*(1) Some over optimistic Evangelicals may at this point cry: "Wrong! It is not possible to lose your salvation! Jesus will always turn the believer to repentance at some point!" If so, all well and good, and it becomes almost a moot point, as I agree all truly repentant believers will be saved. The reality is however that is over optimistic, and can breed complacency. I do not fall out with such believers whenever possible, it is those who say "Once saved always saved! Whether you stay in repentance or not!" I fall out with, as such are Antinomian heretics, preaching a false gospel I believe Jude warns us about in his epistle.