CARNALITY
Within
evangelicalism is a distressing drift toward accepting a Christianity that does
not demand a life-changing walk with God.
Many evangelicals (today) do not realize that the church has always been
an island of righteousness in a sea of paganism, but as a result they turned
the world upside-down.
The carnal
mind seeks to create its own god which loves everyone, puts up with all matter
of evil and foolishness, and gives in to the will of evil men who cry
“Inequality!”
TULIP, The Five
Points of Calvinism in the Light of Scripture, Baker, 1979, p. 21.
Nine serious
errors of teaching affirming a “carnal Christian”:
1.
The
“carnal Christian” doctrine depends upon a wrong interpretation and application
of 1 Corinthians 3:1-4.
2.
The
“carnal Christian” teaching divides the two basic blessings of the new covenant
[forgiveness of sins and a new heart] because it denies that one of them is
experienced by all true Christians.
3.
This
teaching does not distinguish between true, saving faith and the spurious
belief mentioned in John 2:23-24; 12:42-43; Luke 8:13 and Acts 8:12-23.
4.
The
“carnal Christian” teaching lies in its virtual exclusion of repentance from
the conversion experience. This is implied by the suggestion that the “carnal
Christian” has not changed in practice but lives and acts just like the natural
man.
5.
The
three-class theory is prone to give assurance to those who were never really
converted.
6.
The
fruits of this teaching are not new to Christianity even though the teaching
appears on the present scene under a new mask (see Romans 6:1-2).
7.
“Carnal
Christian” teaching is the mother of many second work-of-grace errors in that
it depreciates the biblical conversion experience by implying that the change
in the converted sinner may amount to little or nothing.
8.
The
“carnal Christian” teaching is also the mother of one of the most
soul-destroying teaching of our day. It suggests that you can take Jesus as
your Savior and yet treat obedience to His lordship as optional.
9.
This
teaching breeds Pharisaism in the so-called
“spiritual Christians” who have measured up to some man-made standard of
spirituality. There ought to be no professed “spiritual Christians,” much less
“super-spiritual” ones!
Ernest C. Reisinger
What
Should We Think of the Carnal Christian? 1978, p. 10-21. By
permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
The “carnal
Christian” teaching appeals to those who are supposed to be justified, as
though a new heart and life are optional. Sanctification is spoken of as though
it can be subsequent to the forgiveness of sins and so people are led to
believe that they are justified even though they are not being sanctified! The
truth is that we have no reason to believe that Christ’s blood covers our sins
in the record of heaven if the Spirit has not changed our hearts on earth.
These two great blessings are joined together in the one covenant. The working of
the Spirit and the cleansing of Christ’s blood are inseparably joined in the
application of God’s salvation.
Ernest C. Reisinger
What
Should We Think of the Carnal Christian? 1978, p. 14. By permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
Every
Christian is carnal in some area of his life at many
times in his life… All the marks of Christianity are not equally apparent in
all Christians. Nor are any of these marks manifest to the same degree in every
period of any Christian’s life. Love, faith, obedience, and devotion will vary
in the same Christian in different periods of his Christian experience; in
other words, there are many degrees of sanctification. The Christian’s progress
in growth is not constant and undisturbed. There are many hills and valleys in
the process of sanctification; and there are many stumblings,
falls and crooked steps in the process of growth in grace…[Yet] the Bible [does
not] divide men into three categories.
Ernest C. Reisinger
What
Should We Think of the Carnal Christian? 1978, p. 8-9. By permission
Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
In Romans
8:1-9 there is a division stated, but it is not between carnal and spiritual
Christians. It is a division between those who walk after the flesh (the
unregenerate) and those who walk after the Spirit (they that are Christ’s).
There is no third category. Again, in Galatians 5:17-24 we have only two
classes or categories – those that do the works of the flesh and those that are
led by the Spirit. There is no third or fourth class or group.
Ernest C. Reisinger
What
Should We Think of the Carnal Christian? 1978, p. 4. By permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
The
seriousness of a Christian’s life of failure is clearly outlined in many
portions of God’s Word, for the life lived outside God’s will suffers a dual
loss. It has a serious effect on his earthly life in loss of power, joy and
communion with God; but the loss revealed at the Judgment Seat of Christ is
even more tragic.
I would like
to buy three dollars worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or
disturb my sleep, but just enough of Him to equal a cup of warm milk or a
snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of Him to make me love a black man
or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation. I want the
warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper
sack, please. I would like to buy three dollars worth of God, please.
The nature of Christ's salvation is woefully misrepresented by the
present-day evangelist. He announces a
Savior from hell rather than a Savior from sin.
And that is why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes
who wish to escape the Lake of Fire who have no desire to be delivered from
their carnality and worldliness.
In our
generation we have increasingly suffered from spiritual lethargy and
powerlessness. There is
a high percentage of weak and lukewarm Christians in western churches who
evidence little interest in growing in grace and knowledge. The church may be bustling with activity and
at the same time be infiltrated and permeated with the world's thinking and
doing. It is sometimes the case that our
bright forms of worship camouflage a dead spiritual condition.
A Call to Extraordinary Prayer for
Revival.
When the
reality of sin and its radical effects on the whole man are bypassed the idea
takes over that it simply takes a decision for Christ to bring about the new
birth. A decision for Christ is all that
is needed. This is 'easy-believism', in which repentance from sin is sidelined. Those who make a decision receive a
pronouncement that they are saved. This
proves premature. False converts are the
outcome. The theory of the carnal
Christian has been invented in order to accommodate those who have made a
decision but who bear no marks of the new birth.
Who Are the Puritans? Evangelical Press, p.
131.
I daresay the
devil finds himself at home in Hades.
But if he could be converted into a seraph, he would not stop in hell
for an hour. He would never want to go
there again for pleasure. Of that I am
certain. And when a man who professes to
be converted says that he goes into the world and into sin for pleasure, it is
as if an angel went into hell for enjoyment.
I do not
think the devil cares how many churches you build, if only you have lukewarm
preachers and people in them.
Is it not
strange that we can for one moment lose sight of
heaven, and the increasing glory; and grovel in the dust to gather pebbles, for
the pleasure of throwing them afterwards away?
Disturb us,
Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come
true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have
sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us,
Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for
the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of
eternity; and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision
of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us,
Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your
mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to
push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push into the future in strength,
courage, hope, and love.
Quoted in OC Missionary Prayer Letter
of Jeanie Curryer, September, 1997.
A
fleshly/carnal life will corrupt morals, weaken personal relationships, produce
doubt about God and His Word, destroy prayer life and provide fertile ground
for heresy.
If I see aright, the cross of popular evangelicalism is not the
cross of the New Testament. It is,
rather, a new bright ornament upon the bosom of a self-assured and carnal
Christianity. The old cross slew men, the
new cross entertains them. The old cross
condemned; the new cross amuses. The old
cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it.
There is a common, worldly kind of Christianity in this day, which many
have, and think they have enough – a cheap Christianity which offends nobody,
and requires no sacrifice – which costs nothing, and is worth nothing.
J.C. Ryle
Holiness,
Baker, 1979, p. 204.
Many who say
"Our Father" on Sunday spend the rest of the week acting like
orphans.
Author Unknown
Funny
how a $100 "looks" so big when you take it to church, but so small
when you take it to the mall.
Funny how
long it takes to serve God for an hour, but how quickly a team plays 60 minutes
of basketball.
Funny how
long a couple of hours spent at church are, but how short they are when watching
a movie.
Funny how we
can't think of anything to say when we pray, but don't have difficulty thinking
of things to talk about to a friend.
Funny how we
get thrilled when a baseball game goes into extra innings, but we complain when
a sermon is longer than the regular time.
Funny how
hard it is to read a chapter in the Bible, but how easy it is to read 100 pages
of a best selling novel.
Funny
how people want to get a front seat at any game or concert, but scramble to get
a back seat at church services.
Funny how we
need 2 or 3 weeks advance notice to fit a church event into our schedule, but
can adjust our schedule for other events at the last moment.
Funny how
hard it is for people to learn a simple gospel well enough to tell others, but
how simple it is for the same people to understand and repeat gossip.
Funny how
everyone wants to go to heaven provided they do not have to believe, or to
think, or to say, or do anything.
Funny how you
can send a thousand 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but
when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about
sharing.
Funny how we
set our clocks to arise at 4:00am or 5:00am to be at the job by 7:30, yet when
Sunday comes we can't get to church for 11:00am to praise the one who gave us
the jobs!
Funny
how we call God our Father and Jesus our brother, but find it hard to introduce
them to our family.
Funny how
small our sins seem, but how big "their" sins are.
Funny
how we demand justice for others, but expect mercy from God.
Funny how we
are so quick to take directions from a total stranger when we are lost, but are
hesitant to take God's direction for our lives.
Funny how so
many churchgoers sing "Standing on the Promises" but all they do is
sit on the premises.
Funny
how people want God to answer their prayers, but refuse to listen to His
counsel.
Funny
how we sing about heaven, but live only for today.
Funny how
people think they are going to Heaven, but don't think there is a Hell.
Funny how it
is okay to blame God for evil and suffering in the world, but it is not
necessary to thank Him for what is good and pleasant.
Funny how
when something goes wrong, we cry, "Lord, why me?" but when something
goes right, we think, "Hey, it must be me!"