In the May/June 2016 edition of “The Expositor,” a magazine published by OnePassion Ministry, Michael Horton, Professor of Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California, commented that - “Arminian theologians Clark Pinnock and John Sanders share the presupposition that all God’s attributes are subservient to His love and that His purpose is to save every person.” While I am tempted to challenge the entirety of the Arminian position of salvation it is this erroneous notion that God wants to save every person that I address here.
Unfortunately, this particularly damaging ideology has infiltrated the vast majority of evangelical churches today. This Liberal Christian theology is nothing but a sweeter-tasting, more appetizing spiritual poison. It has become so ubiquitous that one can scarcely find a sermon on Sundays which addresses hell, the wrath of God, or the imminent peril we face as unrepentant and unforgiven sinners! Christ Jesus is preached as a buddy or loving big brother in these churches, and I use the term, “churches” in the loosest sense. Christ is neither a buddy or big brother. He is Lord and Savior. And His place as Lord demands that we recognize and acknowledge all His attributes, not merely the ones we find most comforting.
We know from Holy Scripture that God has many attributes, some incommunicable and some communicable. From His aseity to His wisdom and every other attribute in between, this “wholeness” of God is irreducible. So for anyone to suggest that God’s attributes play off in a measured order of importance is, for lack of a better description - sacrilegious! It implies that we choose on our own behalf to speak where scripture has not spoken. And in such cases, where would each of us begin to order God’s attributes? One might think God’s mercy supersedes all others while I may think it is His truthfulness. Can we all understand the error in such thinking? God does not sow confusion. So let’s be clear - Nowhere in the Bible does it teach that God’s justice is subservient to His mercy. Nowhere!
Any teaching that contradicts scripture - any doctrine that is held in opposition to what scripture clearly teaches - is by definition a heresy. “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” - Galatians 1:8. The gravitas of deliberately misinterpreting Holy Scripture is impossible to measure.
As Reformed Christians, we must preach the whole word of God and nothing but the whole word of God. To shorten, lengthen, or altar the Gospel of Jesus Christ in any way is a spiritual crime of the highest magnitude and will certainly bring to bear a couple of God’s attributes that none of us sinners want to experience - His justice and His wrath! "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." - Revelation 22:18-19
May we always and under all circumstances remember that the wrath of God is no more to be trifled with than His love.
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