25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,
If you said “faith”, then read Philippians 1:29
29 For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,
Your believing is the work of God – John 6:28,29
28 Therefore they said to Him, "What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?" 29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."
So again…What can you do? You can receive – John 1:12
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,
What are you able to do to become saved? The only thing you can do is to trust in Christ. What if someone were to say to you that God’s grace is a substance that that is infused into a person’s soul and this infused grace in them enables them to do good works and then God judges their salvation based upon two things. 1) Their faith in Him and 2) Their good works. What would you say to that? Would that type of thinking be damnable heresy?
What are we talking about here? Justification. How are we justified?
Romans 4:5 - But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,
Romans 5:1 - Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
I can go on and on quoting verses plainly stating we are justified (made right) by faith alone. Paul does not combine grace, faith, and works. He says it is either grace or works. Not grace and works. If you are saved by grace and your works, then you are saved by your WORKS! Because grace is the unmerited favor of God. Works is what is due to you because you have earned something. So, you cannot be saved by the unmerited favor of God and the merited favor. Which is it?
So to say that you are saved by grace through faith with works that you perform is damnable heresy because it is denying justification by grace through faith alone in Christ alone.
Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and many other so-called Christian religions are false because of the reasons mentioned above. They deny the essentials of the Christian faith by saying grace is given to us by God but YOU have to do something to finish the work that Jesus Christ did on the cross. The grace of God is then given to them so that they may perform good works by which they are ultimately judged for salvation. But these works they say are done with the grace of God. So, they can call it salvation by grace. What they are doing is speaking from Satan’s mouth and speaking lies about the Word of God.
Now, I have a tough question for you. Do you want to honor God and serve Him in truth? Do you want to do what Jesus did, what the apostle Paul did, and what Peter did? What happened to them when they spoke the truth? They were persecuted. Did they cower down to change their message to what the crowds wanted to hear? No way. They stood on the truth of the Word of God just as Christ did in the Gospels. We are all called as Christians to do the same thing and as Christians we better get this concept down and understand it. That justification by grace is through faith in Christ alone and if you mix works with it then you are damned. Because what you are doing is saying that you have to accomplish and finish what Christ hasn’t finished on the cross.
Mormonism is an apostate religion because it has a false god and it adds works to earn salvation. The same is true for Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Watchtower. Whenever you compromise the doctrine of God then the next thing that is compromised is the doctrine of salvation. If God is the true and living God who alone saves, who alone predestines and elects, then your effort is nothing before Him and you cannot be saved in anyway by what you do which is why the Bible says “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness”.
So, grace in order to make works is salvation by works and grace, but biblically grace is unmerited favor of God. Works is what is due, what is merited, so you cannot be saved by grace through faith and by the works that He works in you. Because then it is by merit that YOU accomplish those things. This is a contradictory, self-refuting system. It is false and it is from the pit of Hell. I am sure that I will have to say this a hundred times or more over the next year.
Please understand that I am not in any way mocking Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses. But, we must ask whether or not anyone can achieve salvation through his own efforts of keeping the Law or any part of it. The Word of God is clear…
7 comments:
Ty, in all fairness, I think you're misinterpreting how Mormons interpret 2nd Nephi 25:23. The heart of it is saying that we are saved by grace NOTWITHSTANDING all we can do. Or in other words, "after all is said and done, or after all we can do (which isn't much)--we are saved by the grace of Christ." This is much more in line with LDS teaching and with all the other scriptures in the Book of Mormon, which eloquently states the doctrine of salvation by grace.
See A "Works Based Gospel"? You're Badly Mistaken
President Spencer W. Kimball said,
“One of the most fallacious doctrines originated by Satan and propounded by man is that man is saved alone by the grace of God; that belief in Jesus Christ alone is all that is needed for salvation” (12th Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, p.206; also cited in The Book of Mormon Student Manual, religion 121 and 122, 1996, p.36).
Though Christians are saved “unto good works” (Ephesians 2:10), the good works of Christians do not justify (or make right) the believer before God. The apostle Paul made this very clear when he wrote, “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Hi Ty. It wasn't until I read the watershed book "How Wide the Divide?" that I began to understand how Evangelicals and Latter-day Saints often talk past each other because we attach different vocabularies to similar terminology. When Latter-day Saints downplay the “grace alone” doctrine, it is in the assumption that merely saying the words “Lord, Lord” will save you. (See Matthew 7:21).
Salvation by “belief” alone is not biblical. (By the way, the phrase “by grace alone” doesn’t appear in the Bible either). However, both Latter-day Saints and Evangelicals can agree that we are saved by “faith alone”, if we have true faith. True faith is, of course, evidenced by our works—our new life in Christ. But our works don’t save us. Christ is called the Savior for a reason. So it’s a mischaracterization of Latter-day Saints to say that we don’t believe in salvation by the grace of Christ, or that our works save us.
I’ve been made aware that most Evangelicals would say it is a mischaracterization if Latter-day Saints assume, as I once did, that Evangelicals believe that salvation comes without any effort, obedience, commitment, or response on our part. That’s what many Latter-day Saints probably think you mean when you say “by grace alone"--that merely because you said the words you now have a license to sin, no need to follow Christ, cause no matter what you'll still be saved.
So the middle of the road explanation that we can both live with is that both Paul and James were apostles and both were right. I talk about their different definition of “faith” here. Latter-day Saints believe that Christ extends his saving grace to all those who respond appropriately to the gospel message. We respond appropriately to the gospel by having faith in Christ, repenting of our sins, and being baptized in order to enter the covenant relationship. Then He confirms that covenant through the reception of the Holy Ghost.
So truly it is by faith that we are saved. But we believe it is possible to fall from His grace, especially if we deny Christ as Lord by denying him our total commitment, and choose instead to follow the evil one. Thus after we’re saved (or after we enter the covenant and are converted) we believe we must demonstrate our faithfulness to our Lord—and our desire to remain in the saving covenant—by enduring to the end. “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matthew 24: 13). As part of our “enduring to the end” while in the gospel covenant, we continue to exercise faith in Christ, repenting of our sins, and renewing our covenant with him as we partake of the sacrament each week.
That’s the gospel in a nutshell according to Latter-day Saints. I’d be happy to clarify or answer your questions if something was not made clear.
By the way, I highly recommend How Wide the Divide?: A Mormon & an Evangelical in Conversation. They address our surprising similarities and our genuine differences on issues such as Scripture, God and Deification, Christ and the Trinity, and Salvation.
You are also misrepresenting Jehovah's Witnesses. They do not teach or believe that you earn salvation through good works. I think this accusation originates with people who do little or nothing in appreciation for Christ's free gift of life, yet want to feel morally superior to those who do. I am not claiming that is true of you. Most likely you are merely repeating what you have heard.
"Works" that Jehovah's Witnesses perform are in appreciation for that gift, and in obedience to Christ's command to "go and make disciples." (Matt 28:19) They do not imagine for one minute that they are "earning" everlasting life. The importance of Christian activity is supported by James 2:26: “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” KJV
According to the Watchtower, there is no salvation outside of their organization.
Here is a quote from one of their publications “…there will only be one organization – God’s
invisible organization – that will survive the fast approaching “great tribulation”. It is simply not
true that all religions lead to the same god. You must be part of Jehovah’s organization, doing
God’s will, in order to receive his blessing of everlasting life” (You can live forever in paradise on Earth, pg 255)
Romans 10:9 - that if you confess with your mouth the Lord
Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him
from the dead, you will be saved.
If you want to be sure that you will be saved at the coming battle of Armageddon, the WT teaches that you must be faithful and active in
what they call “kingdom work”, which for them is mainly door-to-door ministry.
This amounts to a works based salvation, something that the Bible clearly rejects. The Bible
teaches that salvation cannot be earned or merited. Over and over again the Bible teaches that salvation is God’s free gift (Romans 6:23) to those who believe.
Ephesians 2:8,9 - For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
As stated: "The importance of Christian activity is supported by James 2:26: “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”" Accordingly, there is some emphasis on good works within our community.
But that doesn't mean that life is something that can be earned by works. It is a free gift made possible by Christ's sacrificing his life. Everyone here understands that.
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