DANGER: The Church of Christ
By David J. Stewart
Reviewed and
Refuted by Terry W. Benton
Part 1
DS: The Church of Christ is a
false church. They require good works for
salvation.
TB: Would belief
be a good work? (John 6:28,29). If so, then David Stewart is
falsely teaching
that a good work is required for salvation. Would repentance be
a good work
or a bad work? (Acts 17:30,31; Acts 2:38; Rom.2:4). If repentance
is a good
work, then Stewart is teaching falsely that you must not repent
for
salvation. Is it a "good work" to "say a little prayer"? If so, then
Stewart is
telling you that you must not say a little prayer for salvation.
On one post
Stewart said: "All that God REQUIRES of a man to be saved is that
he "confess"
(admit) his sinful condition and turn to the Saviour in faith,
that man does NOT
need to give his all." But, is confessing a good work or a
bad work? If it is
a good work, then Stewart is shooting his own doctrine in
the foot. He would
have to say that one must not confess or turn, since those
are good works for
salvation. Work is defined as exertion or effort directed
to produce or
accomplish something; labor; toil. Well, Stewart teaches that
you must exert
effort to learn, believe, confess, and turn. All of that is
work. Thus, Stewart
teaches false doctrine according to his own claim against
churches of Christ.
Thus, Stewart shows that he is not going to be fair and
honest right here in his
first two sentences.
DS: The Church of Christ
is just as dangerous as Catholicism, Jehovah's
Witness, or the Mormons,
because they claim to be "Christian"; BUT they are not!
Whereas religions
like Islam and Black Muslim openly deny the Christian faith;
the Church of
Christ claims to be Christian, and so Satan uses them to seduce
people into
Hellfire.
TB: Well, if that is so, then David Stewart is used by Satan to
seduce people
into hellfire because he teaches that one must do good works to
be saved. He is
just as dangerous as Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the
Mormons. He claims
to be "Christian", but he is NOT. Satan is using David
Stewart to seduce people
into Hellfire.
DS: The following doctrinal
statement is taken directly from the Church of
Christ website:
How
does one become a member of the church of Christ?
In the salvation of
man's soul there are 2 necessary parts: God's part and man's
part. God's part
is the big part, "For by grace you have been saved through
faith, and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift if God; not of works, that no
man should
glory" (Ephesians 2:8-9). The love which God felt for man led him to
send
Christ into the world to redeem man. The life and teaching of Jesus,
the
sacrifice on the cross, and the proclaiming of the gospel to men
constitute
God's part in salvation.
Though God's part is the big part,
man's part is also necessary if man is to
reach heaven. Man must comply with
the conditions of pardon which the Lord has
announced. Man's part can clearly
set forth in the following steps:
Hear the Gospel. "How shall they call
on him whom they have not believed? and
how shall they believe him whom they
have not heard? and how shall they hear
without a preacher?" (Romans
10:14).
Believe. "And without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing
unto him; for
he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a
rewarder of them
that seek after him" (Hebrews 11:6).
Repent of past
sins. "The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked; but now
he commandeth
men that they should all everywhere repent" (Acts 17:30).
Confess Jesus
as Lord. "Behold here is water; What doth hinder me to be baptized
? And
Philip said, if thou believeth with all thy heart thou mayest. And
he
answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God"
(Acts
8:36-37).
Be baptized for the remission of sins. "And Peter said
unto them, Repent ye, and
be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus
Christ unto the remission of
your sins and ye shall receive the gift of the
Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38).
Live a Christian life. "Ye are an elect race, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people for God's own possession, that ye
may show forth the excellencies of
him who called you out of darkness into
his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9).
SOURCE: Who are the churches of
Christ?
There is much heresy in the preceding statement.
First,
salvation is of God alone, and not men. This is plainly stated
in
John1:12-13, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become
the
sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not
of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
Man
has no part in God's salvation.
TB: Notice carefully the verse and
then notice how David Stewart denied the
verse. The verse says that man has a
part. Man has to "receive him". Those that
receive him are given power to
become sons of God. Born of the will of man means
our parents wanted us to be
born so that God would have another human to call
His. No, physical birth by
the will of man does not make a child of God.
Stewart goes too far in saying
that "man has NO PART in God's salvation". Man
cannot be born of God's will
without some cooperation. If man has NO PART, then
only God is to blame if
people are not His children. Stewart makes another
self-contradicting
statement in another article of his. He says:
People go to hell for one
reason and for one reason only, because they rejected
Jesus Christ as their
own personal Saviour.-Unquote.
But, if there is no WILL to reject or
accept, and it all depends on God and "Man
has NO PART in God's salvation",
then rejection is not man's fault. How can I be
blamed for "rejecting" when I
was not given the power to reject or not reject?
Stewart is certainly
twisting the scriptures to get himself in this mess.
John 1:13 is not
saying that man has no part in his salvation. Man does have, at
the very
least, a "cooperative" part. The text is best view this way:
John
1:13
therefore, neither the will of the flesh-anything that the corrupt
heart of man
could purpose or determine in its own behalf; nor the will of
man-anything that
another may be disposed to do in our behalf, can avail
here; this new birth must
come through the will of God-through his own
unlimited power and boundless
mercy, prescribing salvation by Christ Jesus
alone.
(from Adam Clarke's Commentary)
John
1:13
[Nor of the will of the flesh] Not by natural
generation.
[Nor of the will of man] This MAY refer, perhaps, to the will
of man in adopting
a child, as the former phrases do to the natural birth;
and the design of using
these three phrases MAY have been to say that they
became the children of God
neither in virtue of their descent from
illustrious parents like Abraham, nor by
their natural birth, nor by being
"adopted" by a pious man. None of the ways by
which we become entitled to the
privileges of "children" among people can give
us a title to be called the
sons of God. It is not by human power or agency that
men become children of
the Most High.
[But of God] That is, God produces the change, and confers
the privilege of
being called his children. The heart is changed by his
power. No unaided effort
of man, no works of ours, can produce this change.
At the same time, it is true
that no man is renewed who does not himself
"desire" and "will" to be a
believer; for the effect of the change is on his
"will" (Ps 110:3), and no one
is changed who does not strive to enter in at
the strait gate, Phil 2:12. This
important verse, therefore, teaches
us:
1. that if men are saved they must be born again.
2. that
their salvation is not the result of their birth, or of any honorable
or
pious parentage.
3. that the children of the rich and the noble, as
well as of the poor, must be
born of God if they will be saved.
4.
that the children of pious parents must be born again; or they cannot
be
saved. None will go to heaven simply because their "parents" are
Christians.
5. that this work is the work of God, and "no man" can do it
for us.
6. that we should forsake all human dependence, cast off all
confidence in the
flesh, and go at once to the throne of grace, and beseech
of God to adopt us
into his family and save our souls from
death.
(from Barnes' Notes)
John 1:6-9
Believers
are further described in terms of what God does for them. They are
born . . .
of God. This is not a natural process such as brings people into
the
world-not of blood (literally, bloods), suggesting the mingling of
paternal and
maternal strains in procreation. The will of the flesh suggests
the natural,
human desire for children, as the will of man (the word for
husband) suggests
the special desire for progeny to carry on a family name.
So the new birth,
something supernatural, is carefully guarded from confusion
with natural birth.
(from The Wycliffe Bible
Commentary)
John 1:13
There is a progress of thought in
the three following clauses, describing the
proper origin of a believer's new
life. Children of God are begotten, not of
blood, nor of the will of man.
"The new birth is not brought about by descent,
by desire, or by human power"
(Westcott).
(from Vincent's Word Studies in the New Testament)
So,
Stewart has misused John 1:12-13 to teach that man has NO PART in
the
salvation process. If that is so, then it cannot be man's fault if he
remains
lost. If it is totally up to God, then it is totally up to God, and
man cannot
be faulted for not being among the arbitrarily selected ones.
Stewart teaches
"unconditional election" and "limited atonement" and
"irresistible grace" which
means that God arbitrarily selects the individuals
he wants and rejects the
rest. They can do nothing about it. The selected
cannot resist salvation and the
rest cannot desire and get it. Yet, Stewart
wants you to think that the Churches
of Christ are teaching false doctrine
when the fact is that Stewart is teaching
heresy.
DS:
In Philippians 2:12 the Apostle Paul states, "Wherefore, my beloved, as
ye
have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my
absence,
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Carefully
notice that the
Bible says "work out YOUR OWN salvation"; it does not say
anything about God's
salvation.
TB: Your own salvation is what God has
given you. When God gives the gift of
salvation TO US, then it becomes OUR
OWN salvation. The gift of salvation is a
package of things: 1) remission of
our past sins, 2) the blood to use when we
need it for new sins we will
commit, 3) the hope of heaven, 4) the access to the
throne of grace in the
name of Jesus to find help in time of need. How do we
"work out our own
salvation"? We use the tools He gave us. Stewart is wrong
about this passage
as well.
DS: When God saves a man, it is then up to that man whether or
not he is going
to obey God or not. God saves us by faith, but then it is up
to us to allow the
Lord to live the Christian life through us.
TB:
Stewart sounds very confused. He speaks as though "it is NOT up to
man"
whether God will save him, but then after saving him against his will,
Stewart
then speaks as though NOW it is "up to us" whether to allow the Lord
to work out
our salvation by obedience. Stewart is struggling with this
passage also.
Obviously these brethren have a part in their salvation to both
accept initial
salvation from sin AND continuing the salvation by yielded
obedience.
DS: This has nothing to do with salvation. So many heretics
today are trying to
add holy living to faith for salvation. No sir! As we see
in 1st Corinthians
5:5, some believers live in unrepentant sin; yet, they are
still saved.
TB: Once again David J. Stewart is denial of the word of God
because it does not
agree with his Calvinistic doctrines. He says salvation
is "NOT up to man" but
totally up to God, and then says is "up to us" whether
we allow the Lord to work
out our salvation, and then says Phil.2:12 "has
nothing to do with salvation"
even though it says "salvation". Perhaps
Stewart's dilemma is increased by the
fact that the Bible uses "salvation" in
two ways: 1) Salvation from past sins
and condemnation due, and 2) Salvation
from a corruptible body and a world of
temptation. So, one can be saved from
sin, but need to work out making sure
that we stay saved by faithful
obedience so that we can reach the goal, eternal
salvation (1
Pet.1:5-10;Heb.5:9).
But did you notice David J. Stewart's contradiction
above? If "some believers
"live in unrepentant sin" and yet they are still
saved, then one sin they can
live in is the sin of heresy. He cannot say that
we who have believed in Jesus
for salvation are now lost. He teaches that
"some believers live in unrepentant
sin; yet, they are still saved." So, at
best that is all he can say about the
churches of Christ. Yet, he is in
contradiction of his own doctrine because he
calls these believers a heresy
that is "damnable". AT the end of his article he
says:
The Church of
Christ is straight from the pits of Hell. I plead with you not to
become a
victim of their damnable religion.-Unquote.
But, all members of the
church of Christ believe in Jesus Christ. We believed
even before we were
baptized. Thus, Stewart would have to say that we are saved
at the moment of
faith exactly as the Jews in Acts 2:37. What we do and teach
after that point
cannot effect our salvation (according to his doctrine
of
Once-Saved-Always-Saved). His misuse of 1 Cor.5:5 should be apparent to
all. So,
Stewart is claiming a group of believers today is not saved by faith
only, and
not "once-saved-always-saved". Stewart cannot have it both ways.
Either the
churches of Christ are still saved by faith only and
"once-saved-always-saved"
regardless of false teaching, OR the doctrines of
Stewart about salvation by
"faith only" and "once-saved-always-saved" are
false. Stewart cannot have it
both ways.
(To be continued). Terry W.
Benton
