MZTV 1645: Satan Loves it When the Dangers of Free Will Are Downplayed

An essential element of Paul's gospel is believing that Jesus Christ died for one's sins. Another way to put this is that the death of Christ for sin was THE THING, AND THE ONLY THING, that lifted the sin problem from the backs of humans. Yet another way to put it is: THE CROSS OF CHRIST WAS AND IS FULLY SUFFICIENT FOR SALVATION.

There is a diabolical doctrine infecting humanity, however, insisting that the cross of Christ was not enough to take away Sin and, in fact, left Sin completely intact (the same as it was before the cross) as the premier condemner of the human race.

Correspondingly, this teaching makes it the responsibility of humans (yes, the same humans made helpless by Sin) to effect their own deliverance from Sin by believing in Jesus.

Additionally, this aforementioned belief in Jesus, according to the teaching of Free Will, must be accomplished independently of any help or even the slightest influence from either God or Christ.

The difference between the truth of the cross and the lie of Human Free Will can be demonstrated thus:

a) Jesus Christ, crucified, delivered humanity from Sin
b) each person must deliver him or herself from Sin by believing in Jesus Christ

Or, even more simply:

a) salvation is of Christ
b) salvation is of human willpower

Or,

a) Christ saved you
b) you save you

Remarkably, there are those even in the body of Christ who see no conflict whatsoever between elements a) and b), above. They assert that a person who believes human willpower saves them can ALSO believe, at the same time, that Jesus Christ saved them. How do we account for the downplaying of so drastic a denial of Christ's work as Free Will?

Our enemy, Satan, is a master schemer and strategist. Free Will is certainly one of the "doctrines of demons" referenced by Paul in 1 Timothy 4:1. Nothing more thoroughly denies the power of God to effect His will upon the earth than the teaching that God CANNOT enter into what the Free Will teaching calls the "sovereign realm" of man's will. The teaching of Free Will removes God from the throne of human activity and replaces Him with man, reducing the Deity to a wishful spectator in His own universe.

Do you think Satan wants this teaching to be seen for what it is? Does he want it exposed as the cross-denying lie that it is? Of course not. And so he has blinded even some members of the body of Christ to its dangers, causing them to downplay it by referring to it as "merely a doctrinal flaw," or "an unnecessary detail," or "simply a misunderstanding." Those downplaying the dangers of Free Will, therefore ("You can believe it and still be in the body of Christ") must simultaneously downplay the necessity of exposing the teaching, and certainly the necessity of heralding the cross.

If believing that Christ wrought salvation is the same as NOT believing He wrought salvation, why go to the trouble of exposing the lie? ("The lie doesn't matter. Let the lie go.") Why go to the trouble of heralding the truth? ("The lie works just as well as the truth. Stop making such a big deal of it.")

Can anything please Satan more than this?

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