"Damnable Heresies"            

2 Peter 2:1

 

 Specifically, there are three damnable heresies to which all men and women are naturally attracted, which appeal to the flesh, but are damning to all who embrace them. And these three damnable heresies need to be clearly identified, that they may be carefully avoided.

 

        1. FREEWILLISM - Freewillism is that doctrine that says, "God loves you, Christ died for you and the Holy Spirit is calling you; but all will be vain unless you choose, or decide to be saved." Freewillism makes the determining factor in salvation the will of man. It makes the work of the triune God, and the grace of God, to be impotent without the consent of man' s "omnipotent" free will! Freewill religion is in direct opposition to the gospel of the free grace of God. The Bible declares that salvation is not by the will of man, but by the will of God (John 1:11-13; Rom. 9:16). "Freewill" is an obscenity, a blasphemous obscenity!

 

        2. Legalism is the teaching that men and women are saved, justified, sanctified and accepted with God, to some degree, upon the basis of their works. The Bible says the exact opposite. We are neither justified, nor sanctified by our works. Salvation is not, in whole or in part, by the works of man (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16; 3:1-3; 5:1-4; Eph. 2:8-9; II Tim. 1:9; Rom. 11:5-6). Legalism is as damning to the souls of men as freewillism, Mormonism, or atheism!

 

        3. ANTINOMIANISM - Antinomianism is that doctrine that says, "Since we are saved by grace, it does not matter how we live. We have no law by which to govern and regulate our lives. Character and conduct are of no importance to a believer." I have heard preachers make such statements with my own ears! I realize that it is not possible for a man to preach salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone without being denounced as an antinomian. As the Pharisees accused our Lord, so the Judaizers accused Paul of antinomianism. And I have had this scandalous charge thrown at me for over twenty years. But anyone who really is an antinomian is as ignorant of God and his grace as the freewiller and the legalist. According to the Bible an antinomian is lost (Tit. 1:16). Grace teaches godliness (Tit. 2:12)!

 

 

Don Fortner