Pure Grace: A Review (Part 8)
…when someone prays to receive Christ the best thing to do would be to pull out a gun and blow him away on the spot. Then he would be in Heaven with no chance of “losing” it! (134).
The it in the above quotation refers to salvation. The first flaw in the above reasoning is that shooting someone who prayed to receive Christ would send them to hell since nowhere in the New Testament is anyone commanded to “receive Christ.” People are told to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins in order to receive salvation and the blessings that attend it (Acts 2:38), but no one is told to pray to “receive Christ.” But, second, even if Whitten were right in his book on Pure Grace, how many converts would be lining up to get shot? A Colt 45 Evangelism Program would certainly fail rather quickly.
The word translated “pitch” in Genesis 6:14 (which is what Noah covered the gopher wood with inside and outside the ark), Whitten says, is the same word translated as “atonement” more than 70 times in the Old Testament. He is correct. He equates that protection of the ark with Christians being “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13-14). His point is that Noah could not get out of the ark if he wanted to, and Christians cannot get outside of Christ if they wanted to (136). Neither of these points is valid.
Noah could have departed from the safety of the ark through the window. Whitten says that wanting out of the ark would have been insane (one of his favorite words). It certainly would be unwise—even foolish. But how intelligent is it to leave the safety of the church, wherein lies salvation? Yet people do so all the time. Furthermore, Jesus said that it would happen in the parable of the sower.
Some “receive the word with joy” (which is the word of God, according to Luke 8:11), but “in time of temptation fall away” (v. 13). Notice: They receive the Word with joy, but they fall away. Is this not as incomprehensible as Noah jumping overboard? How could anyone who has embraced the truth and received so many blessings, as well as the promises yet to be fulfilled, even think about departing from the safety of the church?
“Eternal life is the only kind of spiritual life in existence. There is no such thing as temporary eternal life,” affirms Whitten (136). And he quotes John 5:24, in which Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” No one is going to disagree with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but we do disagree with Whitten, who fails to understand that the promise is conditional. Mankind must remain faithful, or he passes from life back into death (James 5:19-20). One who is walking in the grace of God can fall from grace (Gal. 5:4). He can trample the Son of God underfoot (Heb. 10:29). And, according to Jesus, he can fall away (Luke 8:13). Whitten, therefore, disagrees with James, Paul, and even Jesus!
“One cannot go into and out of eternal life,” Whitten affirms (137). No? Has the author considered the Book of Life? Paul wrote of fellow workers that their “names are in the Book of Life” (Phil. 4:3). According to Whitten’s logic, these brethren had eternal life, and, having such, they could not possibly lose it. But the Scriptures teach otherwise, as Revelation 3:5 shows. Jesus told those in Sardis:
He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and His angels.
When these brethren obeyed the gospel—that is, when they were born again of the water and the Spirit, they became a new creation. Their names were entered into the Book of Life. But remaining in that book is conditional: It depends on one’s faithfulness. Some in Sardis had apparently defiled their garments; their works were not perfect. Christians are expected to overcome the temptations of the world; they cannot drift into a state of lethargy. They must not quit because of persecution. If one or more of these things occurs, Jesus will blot their name out of the Book of Life.
What? They had eternal life, but they could lose it? That’s what the Word teaches—Whitten notwithstanding. Even Moses understood this principle:
“Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which you have written.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book” (Ex. 32:32-33).
Moses knew the precarious position of his fellow Israelites. He knew that God could blot them out of His book; so, he volunteered to be blotted out in their place, which God explains was not possible. Everyone must bear his own responsibility for his sin. But the point is that, once their names were in God’s book, they could be removed, which is contrary to Whitten’s erroneous theology.
“The Grace of the Devil”
Some do not believe that the devil has any power over the Christian at all. One wonders why Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days if he had no chance of success. What a waste of time that was! Furthermore, he continued to tempt Him (Luke 4:13).
According to Whitten, if the devil could reclaim us, he would. “If he could and simply hasn’t, it is because he hasn’t chosen to, and if that is the case you are going to Heaven by the grace of the devil” (139). Really? Whitten seems to assume that if the devil tempts the Christian, he will be successful, which is false. He reclaims some who became followers of Jesus, but certainly not all. For example, he tempted Judas successfully, but he did not get Peter. Consider the following conversation between Jesus and Peter.
And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren” (Luke 22:31-32).
It sounds as though Peter was spared by the grace of Jesus—not the devil. Satan wants everyone to be lost. What child of God has not been under attack just because he is a Christian? Why is the devil wasting time with Christians if he knows that he cannot possibly succeed in getting us away from eternal life? Even the devil knows that Whitten’s theology is wrong. He probably rejoices and supports his false teaching, since it will convince a “Christian” that he cannot lose his salvation. How dangerous is that?
The Holy Spirit
The final topic to analyze in this book is the Holy Spirit. Whitten already misapplied what Jesus taught His disciples in John 14:25-26 and 16:12-13. But he misrepresents even more passages of Scripture. While continuing to harp on legalism, which is anyone who thinks obedience is necessary, he introduces what he thinks is an antidote—listening to the Holy Spirit. Whitten appears to be totally arbitrary when he says, “In the last days, there will be greater revelation concerning God being our Father” (148). What?
The term Father is used 10 times just in the Sermon on the mount. It also appears a few hundred other times in the New Testament. What more is there to find out? “There will also be a spiritual experience available to every Christian who is willing to receive the fullness of God as our Father” (148). Oh, so Christians will be having some kind of personal experience. Where is this promise found in the Bible?
God gave to the nation of Israel three feast days to keep during the course of the year. Whitten believes that these feast days ought to be kept by Christians. He writes: “Every born again believer should also keep the Feast of Pentecost by being filled with the Holy Spirit” (156). First, the phrase born again believer is redundant. The same process by which one is born again is the same as it takes to become a believer. No one is a believer unless he has been born again (been baptized) (Acts 16:31-34). Second, The Holy Spirit had nothing to do with the Feast of Pentecost in the Old Testament. Third, no command is given to keep such a feast in the New Testament.
No one should misunderstand; the Day of Pentecost is a landmark occasion. The Holy Spirit came upon the apostles that day, thus inspiring them with the Word of God and allowing them to do miracles, such as speaking in tongues. The spiritual gifts were designed, however, to be temporary (1 Cor. 13:1-13; Eph. 4:11-16). Whitten erroneously thinks these are still available. He makes an incredible claim—that “the ministry of the Holy Spirit will unify and empower the Church” (156).
The church at Corinth had spiritual gifts, and they were anything but unified. Paul had to exhort them to “be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Cor. 1:10). They achieved that unity when they obeyed the words of the inspired apostle Paul (1 Cor. 14:37). The Holy Spirit is not speaking to anyone today—except through the written word. If all has been revealed, which Peter affirmed (2 Peter 1:3), then there are no personal messages that are to be regarded as inspired as the teachings of the New Testament.
When one looks at what has happened in the religious world, he will notice that there is anything but unity. Most obvious is that fact that there are “oneness” Pentecostals as well as Trinitarian Pentecostals. The former avers there is only one person in the Godhead (Jesus only), while the latter claims the number to be three: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yet both of these groups claim to “speak in tongues,” work miracles, prophesy, etc.
A second problem is that the prophecies vary and contradict one another. If these gifts actually were legitimate, how would anyone know whom to believe? Should we have believed those who thought the world would end in 1988? How about if someone suggests 2024? Or we could just accept what Jesus, Who was actually inspired of God, said—that no one knows the day or the hour except the Father (Mark 13:32).
But Whitten has even more problems. Not all Holy Spirit-inspired folks agree on the plan of salvation, either. Some have as many as six steps required in being saved; others, like Whitten, have just one or two. Some are Calvinistic; some are not. Some are pre-millennial; some are not. How is the Holy Spirit going to achieve unity out of all this mess?
The fact is that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God (2 Tim. 3:16). On this basis we can have unity. No unity will result from what people think the Holy Spirit is saying to them today. That is the reason we have the written Word, which was delivered once for all to the saints (Jude 3). The Word alone is our standard of authority and cannot be supplanted by so-called personal experience.
Does God extend grace to us? Absolutely. The offer is to all. Do all accept it? No. Many have no interest in salvation or God, for that matter. Are we saved by grace alone? No. Grace will only save those who trust and obey Him, as we often sing. And we must continue to be faithful until death (Rev. 2:10).