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Rev. Earl Jackson

Can sinners be saved through Arminian preaching?

11/07/2010

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Php 1:15-18  Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: 16  The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: 17  But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. 18  What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.


Christ is not always preached from the best of motives, the purest of hearts, or from a position of truth.  Someone once asked me if a sinner can get saved from the preaching of an Arminian preacher?  Needless to say that's a loaded question,  because if the answer is yes,  that implies that the Arminian gospel is not a false gospel,  and if the answer is no, it implies that nobody has ever been saved in a Methodist church, or any other kind of Arminian church.  But I have to tell you, that this passage offers a definitive answer and the answer is definitively YES!  Sinners can get saved from less than doctrinally perfect preaching.  And praise God for that.  We should rejoice in this even as Paul does. When Christ is preached even from impure motives, God can use the message to save sinners,  and Paul rejoices in that.   This is not to condone false doctrine in the least.  Certainly God wants every pulpit to be pure, and to be a bastion for truth and not error.  But the fact is,  that no pulpit is that way,  because no person who ever carried the name of Jesus on his lips, is perfect, or has a perfect understanding of all doctrines.   Should we endores or condone false doctrine,  absolutely not.  We must stand for the truth, and we must fight against errors, and this includes condemning false doctrine.  But does pure doctrine exist in any church?  No it does not.  Indeed it cannot, since all people living this side of glory are imperfect, even at their regenerated best.  So lets not be too swift to say that no Arminian can be saved.  That plainly contradicts Paul.  Anyone can be saved,  if God has chosen them to salvation, and somehow he has delivered His saving message to that person,  irregardless of the vehicle which carries the message.  We all hold God's "treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us" (2Cor. 4:7).
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Do not miss the series of studies on "What is the gospel?"

10/13/2010

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There are four vitally important studies on the Pastoral/Church page, which you should not miss.   As a matter of fact,  you should probably study these before you study anything else on the site.   This is especially true if you are a pastor.  I know this sounds weird.  Why should pastors read a bunch of Bible studies on "what is the gospel?"  Surely they already know what the gospel is?  Well, you would hope so, but I fear that the actual case is far different.  I have traveled extensively, and have been in churches all over the America's,  and I am actually appalled at how few times I have actually heard preachers preach anything that would truly qualify as a gospel message.   Most preachers who are half way Biblical are involved in long drawn out, expositions of various books of the Bible, and that does not qualify as gospel preaching, even though it may be Biblical preaching, and may occasionally have the gospel in it.  Most expositions of that kind, are simply dried out kernels of truth, with little or no forceful driving home of the gospel, and urging people to repent and believe.  When people are falling asleep week after week,  it is doubtful that sinners are being drawn to Christ, who is life itself.

I'm not trying to criticize the expository method here.  I have done that in other places.  I believe exposition belongs in every church,  but it should  not be the primary function of the pastor  on Sunday morning, when visitors come to the church who desperately need to meet Christ.  Sunday mornings should be devoted to gospel preaching,  and bringing the living message of Christ to a dead world.  Not only that, but our churches will be dead if we never preach the gospel.  People will cloak themselves comfortably behind all that impersonal exposition, and will never be driven to the foot of the cross, even though you may mention it repeatedly.  The gospel, seeks sinners out wherever they may be hiding, and grabs them when they are not expecting it, and drags them to salvation's fountain where they will be cleansed by the Sovereign Grace we talk about so often.   Only the gospel can do that.   That's why preachers need to preach it, and not just talk about it.  It is the power of God unto salvation.  The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and talking about it,  will never be a substitute for actually preaching it.  This is what we should give ourselves wholly unto in our ministries.   If every sermon seeks men out, in their furrows and caves where they hide,  and drives them to repentance and faith,  then every sermon will be alive and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, and will accomplish that whereunto God has sent it.   Let us be Gospel preachers first.   Then all the other preaching and teaching we will do,  will not fall on the ears of the slumbering and dead,  but will fall on ears to hear and eyes to see, and hearts that have been prepared by saving grace.  CLICK HERE to go to the pastoral/church page to begin studying the four lessons on "what is the gospel?
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