Back then, I remembered reading the Hylestic site Jesus-is-Savior. Oh yes, some Christians were gullibly sucked into the sinister world of conspiracy theories. How I landed into Jesus-is-Savior was because of Chick Publications. Back then, David J. Stewart promoted Chick Publications and then stopped promoting him. I was sucked into that conspiracy world. It’s very easy to avoid noticing the glaring errors on that page. Conspiracy theories feel so interesting. Sadly, that’s where the KJV Only controversy is built upon. These days, I feel like asking, “Is your best source Chick Publications? Is your best source Jesus is Savior?” Both sites are severely misguided! Even worse, Jesus-is-Savior is run by diehard followers of the late Jack F. Hyles. One of the many issues that the site raised was on lordship salvation. It was more of a severe miswrite.
Reading Jesus-is-Savior started to make me doubt my salvation. It’s because I heard the Gospel with an invitation to repent one’s sins and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. A lot of articles written against the reformers are either misquotes or just plain whatever Hyles wanted his followers to believe. The wickedness of the Hyles movement can be compared to the late Tony Alamo. Alamo died in jail after some time he was arrested for his sexual immorality. I used to believe they were innocent of the accusations because I read all six parts of the Alberto series. I used to believe Islam was a product of the Vatican. I used to believe that many of the cults today are Jesuit projects. Right now, I question the claim because the evidence is moot. Just remember cults tend to hate each other.
For reference, Hyles has a printed tract against lordship salvation. The term lordship salvation is so often confused. I used to think about it as a synonym for works salvation. It’s because of the conclusion that Hyles links conditional security to lordship salvation. This is one part of Hyles with his dangerous half-truths:
- Lordship salvation necessitates the doctrine of losing one’s salvation.
If one must make Jesus his Lord in order to be saved, then when he backslides to the position to where Jesus is no longer his Lord, consistency would drive us to believe that he is no longer saved. This would make us doubt the salvation of Peter when he denied the Lord, the salvation of Barnabas when he had contention with Paul, the salvation of Jonah when he left the will of God, etc.
This is the problem with Hyles. Once a person has Jesus as Lord, Jesus never ceases to be the Lord of that person’s life. The person may backslide but Jesus is still the Lord of that person’s life. If Jesus ceased to be the Lord of those backsliders, why even bother disciplining them? Hebrews 12:5-7 says God chastises only those who are His. Every saved person will still have Christ as Lord. The Lordship of Christ continues even when the person momentarily falls away.
In contrast, I have managed to read The Gospel According to Jesus and Hard to Believe by Dr. John F. MacArthur. There’s not one single page that suggests that salvation can be lost. True, the book Hard to Believe became a victim of shoddy editing. Fortunately, a second edition was released with better editing. MacArthur was highlighting the distinction between true converts and false converts. MacArthur acknowledges that Christians can be carnal but not indefinitely. No Christian is perfect. My sins aren’t 100% nailed to the cross. However, good works happen because of salvation.
MacArthur also wrote this in his footnotes on page 44 of The Gospel According to Jesus:
20. I do not like the term “lordship salvation”. It was coined by those who want to eliminate the idea of submission to Christ from the call to saving faith, and it implies that Jesus’ lordship is a false addition to the gospel. As we shall see, however, “lordship salvation” is simply biblical and historic evangelical soteriology. I use the term in this volume only for the sake of argument.
This is also another dangerous side of Hyles’ position:
- Lordship salvation makes no provision for the carnal Christian.
None of us takes pleasure in the carnality of a Christian, but the fact remains that there is such a person taught in the Bible. In I Corinthians 3:1 we have the carnal Christian and the spiritual Christian. “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as babes in Christ.” The world is divided between saved and lost. The saved are divided between carnal and spiritual. I do not delight that there carnal Christians, but I must accept the fact that they exist.
The doctrine of the carnal Christian, or that is the perpetually carnal Christian is very dangerous. I guess that’s why Stewart also demonizes Paul David Washer. I was looking at Washer’s sermons and he preaches eternal security. What Washer is against is the idea that a person can get saved and never change. Some people can easily falsely accuse preachers who preach against false conversions, as works salvation preachers. When asked where in the Bible can find such a verse, they start throwing personal attacks. Some even pretend to be “Jesuit experts”. I feel Jesuit conspiracy theories are even used to cloud issues. The late Jack T. Chick even falsely accused critics of the late Alberto R. Rivera Sr. as “Jesuit agents”. Rivera did the same thing to his opponents. I’m not surprised at Hyles followers who falsely label anyone who criticizes their idol, as a “Jesuit”. The best “proof” isn’t even reliable such as the hand-in-coat gesture (which some even try to dismiss Charles H. Spurgeon with) or just any nonsense conspiracy theory.
When I thought of the distinctive of lordship salvation, I just found myself agreeing to it. However, I prefer to use the term repent from sin instead of turn from sin. True, repentance unto salvation involves a turn from sin, in the sense, that the person changes their mind about sin. It may not be perfect, no one should expect perfect repentance, but there’s a turning from sin anyway. When a sinful person turns from sin to trust the Savior, the person is turning from sin from the mind and the turn from sin goes on daily from without. For the distinctions, it can show that Hyles himself is really misrepresenting things:
First, Scripture teaches that the gospel calls sinners to faith joined in oneness with repentance (Acts 2:38; 17:30; 20:21; 2 Peter 3:9). Repentance is a turning from sin (Acts 3:19; Luke 24:47) that consists not of a human work but of a divinely bestowed grace (Acts 11:18; 2 Timothy 2:25). It is a change of heart, but genuine repentance will effect a change of behavior as well (Luke 3:8; Acts 26:18-20). In contrast, easy-believism teaches that repentance is simply a synonym for faith and that no turning from sin is required for salvation.
Second, Scripture teaches that salvation is all God’s work. Those who believe are saved utterly apart from any effort on their own (Titus 3:5). Even faith is a gift of God, not a work of man (Ephesians 2:1-5, 8). Real faith therefore cannot be defective or short-lived but endures forever (Philippians 1:6; cf. Hebrews 11). In contrast, easy-believism teaches that faith might not last and that a true Christian can completely cease believing.
Third, Scripture teaches that the object of faith is Christ Himself, not a creed or a promise (John 3:16). Faith therefore involves personal commitment to Christ (2 Corinthians 5:15). In other words, all true believers follow Jesus (John 10:27-28). In contrast, easy-believism teaches that saving faith is simply being convinced or giving credence to the truth of the gospel and does not include a personal commitment to the person of Christ.
Fourth, Scripture teaches that real faith inevitably produces a changed life (2 Corinthians 5:17). Salvation includes a transformation of the inner person (Galatians 2:20). The nature of the Christian is new and different (Romans 6:6). The unbroken pattern of sin and enmity with God will not continue when a person is born again (1 John 3:9-10). Those with genuine faith follow Christ (John 10:27), love their brothers (1 John 3:14), obey God’s commandments (1 John 2:3; John 15:14), do the will of God (Matthew 12:50), abide in God’s Word (John 8:31), keep God’s Word (John 17:6), do good works (Ephesians 2:10), and continue in the faith (Colossians 1:21-23; Hebrews 3:14). In contrast, easy-believism teaches that although some spiritual fruit is inevitable, that fruit might not be visible to others and Christians can even lapse into a state of permanent spiritual barrenness.
Fifth, Scripture teaches that God’s gift of eternal life includes all that pertains to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3; Romans 8:32), not just a ticket to heaven. In contrast, according to easy-believism, only the judicial aspects of salvation (e.g., justification, adoption, and positional sanctification) are guaranteed for believers in this life; practical sanctification and growth in grace require a post-conversion act of dedication.
Sixth, Scripture teaches that Jesus is Lord of all, and the faith He demands involves unconditional surrender (Romans 6:17-18; 10:9-10). In other words, Christ does not bestow eternal life on those whose hearts remain set against Him (James 4:6). Surrender to Jesus’ lordship is not an addendum to the biblical terms of salvation; the summons to submission is at the heart of the gospel invitation throughout Scripture. In contrast, easy-believism teaches that submission to Christ’s supreme authority is not germane to the saving transaction.
Seventh, Scripture teaches that those who truly believe will love Christ (1 Peter 1:8-9; Romans 8:28-30; 1 Corinthians 16:22). They will therefore long to obey Him (John 14:15, 23). In contrast, easy-believism teaches that Christians may fall into a state of lifelong carnality.
Eighth, Scripture teaches that behavior is an important test of faith. Obedience is evidence that one’s faith is real (1 John 2:3). On the other hand, the person who remains utterly unwilling to obey Christ does not evidence true faith (1 John 2:4). In contrast, easy-believism teaches that disobedience and prolonged sin are no reason to doubt the reality of one’s faith.
Ninth, Scripture teaches that genuine believers may stumble and fall, but they will persevere in the faith (1 Corinthians 1:8). Those who later turn completely away from the Lord show that they were never truly born again (1 John 2:19). In contrast, easy-believism teaches that a true believer may utterly forsake Christ and come to the point of not believing.
Yes, lordship salvation teaches that carnality, backsliding, and falling away (for a while) can happen. Jesus still remains the Lord of that person! The true test is that the true believer is frequently brought back by His faithful Lord. Why would those who reject Jesus as Lord be subject to chastising? They’re just left to their own devices. Eventually, they will be cast away. John 15:1-8 talks about the Father pruning the branches. The branches that bear even the slightest fruit get pruned. A true Christian may backslide but they come back to their senses, like the prodigal son. Another proof of salvation is that the person falls away but returns to Christ. The fact that the backslider repented and returned to Christ is proof of genuine conversion. Genuine conversion will have Jesus as the Lord of the person’s life. Jesus never ceases to be the Lord of the lives of those who are His.
Some preachers, like the late J. Vernon McGee, don’t understand lordship salvation. However, they end up saying something like this. Here’s an excerpt from McGee’s sermon “Is Repentance Part of Salvation”:
You can’t turn to Christ, without turning from something, and that from something is your repentance. If the drunkard that comes to Christ, if he turns to Christ and then goes on drinking, he hasn’t turned to Christ; because when you turn to Christ you turn from whatever your gods are, whatever it is today, and there are a lot of gods being worshipped today—liquor and pleasure and immorality and violence; all of these things. My friend, when you turn to Christ, you’re going to turn from those things, and if you don’t turn from them, you have not turned to Him. But the important thing is to turn to Christ. We preach Christ, not repentance. John the Baptist preached repentance UNTO salvation, not FOR salvation.
True, I can’t pass judgment on persons since it’s not righteous judgment. A person turns away from sin as a result of salvation. Some people do get saved because they want to be free from the burden of drug addiction, alcohol addiction, or any sin. I was so sick and tired of sin that salvation from it was more than welcome. Again, I would no longer give credit to myself but to God’s calling. I still struggled with it in my teenage years. I wanted to be free from chasing unholy skirts. Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus presumably out of that guilt feeling.
In my case, I really wanted to do what was right even if I was very prone to doing wrong. I still had a lot of issues as a teenager. I tried to rely on myself to grow in grace. The only results were disastrous especially the teenage years are very unstable. I knew I was a sinner and I couldn’t work my way up. I needed Christ’s righteousness and then my life changed. I never realized that people who were correcting my wrong behavior were only concerned with what could happen. I got “assaulted” by one accountability partner after the other after I got saved. I did something wrong back in high school and the accountability partner/s marched in. I experienced my parades being rained on when I was chasing unholy skirts in college. Back then, I was told to just mind my own business. In Christianity, there’s no such thing as people being told to reprove each other (Galatians 6:1). Nathan did the right thing by reprimanding David’s sin in a private confrontation (2 Samuel 12). Matthew 18 also talks about correcting others, between two people alone.
There’s really no way to get saved and live like the Devil. Christians aren’t perfect but they’re being perfected. Right now, I still feel shame over my past failures then marvel at what God can do for a weak person like me. I do feel pastoral abuse also happens because the pastor believes he can sin all he wants. After all, he’s “saved”. Maybe, that’s why Hyles did what he did and coveted his deacon’s wife. Maybe, that also explains why the late Bob Gray Sr. did what he did. Maybe, that explains why you’ve got this very sexually immoral pastor here. Maybe, that’s why the webmaster of Jesus-is-Savior ended up doing his sexually immoral activities in Guam. Sure, the Bible contains records of believers who fell into sin. However, there’s a big difference between Christians falling into sin and so-called Christians living in sin. That’s why I refuse to believe that anyone can know Jesus as Savior and live a criminal and/or very immoral life.
Yes, I believe in once saved, always saved, but the Bible is full of warnings against false conversions. Salvation can’t be lost but many people aren’t really saved to begin with. The evidence of their salvation being fake was finally falling away. In apostasy, it would really be a road to no return. It’s a departing of the faith. As 1 John 2:19 says, those false converts left proving that they weren’t really saved.
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