An Open Response to Steve Smith & "Liberty for Captives"
By Sean Morris
This section is an open response to Steve Smith, the writer of the blog "Liberty for Captives."
“If we saw that such would reform without reproof, we would gladly forbear the publishing of their faults. But when reproofs themselves prove so ineffectual, that they are more offended at the reproof than at the sin, and had rather that we should cease reproving than that themselves should cease sinning, I think it is time to sharpen the remedy.” - Richard Baxter
Dear Steve,
Please let me begin with this. If I could empty my veins for your soul's eternal welfare, I would, and such is the intense longing of my heart that I could wish harm and hurt to myself, that if, in some way possible, this could bring blessing and salvation to you, then I would happily endure it and count my life a full one. All of this is only by the mind of Christ so graciously filling me, for without Him I can do nothing (John 15). He is the lively Vine which fills this dead man to live and move in His person, and Oh! How intensely I have loved you these past days, willing even, that if God would grant me the privilege to live for nothing else but to pray for your soul every day and all the time (secretly) for the rest of my life, having no other significant purpose to exist, this I would gladly do - God is my witness that I lie not. It is needful for me to tell you of my love for you in Christ, for, I will not be speaking to you on terms in which the nominal internet-public or fleshly men would consider friendly. Thus, I expect that men and women who are now under the delusion of the Devil will fulfill the sad woe that Isaiah speaks of, "Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter" (Isa. 5:20), and so, they will call me evil for the way I will (God helping) speak to you, while they applaud your stout word against us (and that, without even inquiring of us first). May God, the living Christ, have mercy, oh so extensively and evermore.
Gross Misrepresentations & Outright Lies
Steve, I do not know where you get your information. Had I been unaware of "the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb. 3:13), I would still be in utter perplexity at how confidently you report of things concerning us, things you know not of. The first of the three points in which you summarized your critique of us entitled, The Elders & Church of Wells, I do now wish to address.
You said that we have an "excessive fear of contamination by culture," and that, in this fear we made the decision to move from Arlington to Wells. You said, "One reason the Church moved to Wells from Arlington, Texas, was to find a remote place to live holy lives." You stated your affirmation of James 1:27 & 4:4, and rightly so, you stated that holiness is not in proximity or location. What can I say to this? I am not in any disagreement to this definition of holiness. Stating that our understanding of holiness is different than this is a lie, a fabrication I know not how you came to. WE have NEVER believed that holiness is by location or proximity. WE have NEVER believed, taught, spoken, or stated such a foolish interpretation of "holiness." God knows I utterly disdain even the thought or idea of it! In such a deception are the Amish and other kinds of cults, but not us. If you had not spoken so rashly and foolishly you might have known this. You speak as if you know our beliefs, what we do with our time, and in what manner we live. You said that Jesus lived and ministered in "the humdrum areas of life." Indeed He did, and you will find such a place to be the very place Faith Pursley died - The Wells Manor Apartments. Surrounding this area is drugs, harlotry, and all manner of evil, and we are continually risking our lives, threatened often with murder, pleading and preaching to men and women in the very places where they continually engage in evil (not neglecting other means of witness either). Come to the Wells Manor Apartments and you will see for yourself. Before long one of us could be martyred if God does not restrain them. Our definition of maintaining holiness is not in the "paranoia" of being near the world in proximity or location, as you falsely allege. If I did believe such a thing, then all of your corrections in the first point of your summary of our error is correct. Indeed, "to the pure all things are pure" Steve, as you said, but we do not believe the way your report of us states. My question then is, are you pure in heart? Your false report of our belief is proof that your thoughts toward us are "of deceit, uncleanness, and guile” (1 Thess. 2:3). As for others who have reported or do believe we are building a complex, or trying to find a field to all move onto like a commune, all these things are false - God knows.
As for your second point, where do I begin? You speak as if you know our doctrine, deeds, and mind toward practices of "separation." Would to God you would have contacted me as I contacted you to make sure your beliefs before you wrote against me. I would have come in peace to you but you have come for war. We do believe most Churches are FULL of hypocrites and hypocrisy, and if you disagree you are spiritually blind. Also, we do not allow hypocrites a place of democracy in Church affairs, Church vision, or Church doctrine. In this manner there is "information control" as it is written and commanded in the New Testament (see Romans 16:17-19). However, you say of us that, "biblical passages are interpreted by the elders without outside input." I am not sure what you mean by "outside input," but judging based upon your summary point number 1, you believe we are paranoid of outsiders instead of going into all the world to preach and serve people. In the way in which you mean "outside input," this is not true. We have an enormous amount of outside input which we continually study - extra-biblical Church History, Renowned men of God's works like Jonathan Edwards, Spurgeon, Whitefield, Wesley, Bunyan, Brainerd, Hudson Taylor, The Scots Worthies, Puritans, Rolfe Barnard, James A. Stewart, Leonard Ravenhill, and far more than should be mentioned here, Commentaries such as Henry, Gill, Clarke, etc., Books of Theology, Lexicons, Manners and Customs, etc.. Nevertheless, because we are in the latter days most works we hold in high regard are from men who lived in other centuries
Allegation That I Preach Works-Based Salvation
The most astonishing and twisted misrepresentation I have found that you have made concerning us is the section of your blog report, "You shall know them by their fruits." In this section you misquoted me in a way which entirely changes the meaning of what I said, making it seem that I was saying we have to work for the grace of God. I did not say this, mean this, I have never preached this, and do certainly believe whosoever does believe this is lost and in their sins. I did rather say that the grace of God works in us, and this is salvation. In context of what I said, as you sited in my very quotation, I was speaking in reference to Ephesians 2:10. I know you know what it says. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). My statement in the sermon was, "The grace of God works because it's His work," directly in context to what scripture was referenced, Ephesians 2:10, "For we are His workmanship" - OR HIS WORK, therefore accompanying a true work of grace is "GOOD WORKS." For the reader's sake and your memory, this is what you said that I said directly scribed from your site - "“Pharisees” in Morris’s terms are hypocritical Christians who don’t evidence the fruits of salvation, namely good works. Instead, said Morris, “The grace of God works because it takes work, because God has ordained work for us to do (Eph 2:10), and we want to be pure since only the holy will see God. We judge between those who are saved and those who are not by their fruits, since their words and deeds manifest what is in their heart. By their fruits you will know them.”" Had not a faithful and unbiased reader caught your mistake you would not have even known it (The man “Jeff” on your comments below.). Your lie makes me out to preach works-righteousness. After the reader named Jeff corrected you in the comments below your blog, you admitted to your error after having re-listened to the sermon and seen it for yourself. AND YET, after you were corrected you did not edit the original blog post where you misquoted me. Now, anyone who continues to go onto this website will still read a complete misquotation, and this seems to prove that I believe the grace of God works because it takes work. Steve, why did you not edit the blog and change it after you were corrected? Should you not correct it? Why have you not already? You told Jeff that you were wrong in your misquotation and yet you left the original blog the same. In brokenness and grief of soul I say this - I fear your conscience is so seared that you are not afraid of lying. "All liars," Steve, "shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone" (Rev. 21:8). You may say or think lightly about this. You may say to yourself, "I just forgot, that is all." It is unthinkable to me to forget about such a lie. And for that matter, all men who are right with God would not forget a lie that makes out an upright and cross bearing expositor to be a works-righteousness heretic of the worst form. Men forget about what they don't care about. "Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast forgotten Me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms" (Ezek. 23:35).
In the Spirit of Christ, I do wish that I could meet with you in person. I don't want to know your "speech," or fair words; if I were to meet you face to face then I could know (God granting grace) "not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. For the Kingdom of God is not in word, but in power" (1 Cor. 4:18-20). Power, Paul says, to live a holy life. At this moment I come to you by this internet letter, and I cannot come to you "in love and in the spirit of meekness" - yea rather, as Paul says, "with a rod" (1 Cor. 4:21). With a rod, that is, not to discipline a sheep but to defend saving truth and "brake the jaws of the wicked" wolves (Job 29:17). I must do this, that I may (God willing) pluck "the spoil out of his teeth" (Job 29:17). I cannot speak to you as a sheep nor give you the honorable name brother, but rather a "dog" (Php. 3:2). A Christian ought not to ever call a man a dog or serpent, except he is enabled to do this "even weeping" (Php. 3:18), in true hurt for them. This is as Jesus wept in secret (not openly) over the city of the condemned, the place in which He openly declared woes and judgments, even calling men what they were - Serpents (Luke 19:41-44). Such name address is not name calling, insulting speech, or disrespect, nor is it a disruption of true, godly charity. Oh! If you could only see the harm and destruction you have caused by your lies and misinformation, your one-sided, biased accusations, then perhaps you would own the title - Serpent, Wolf, or Dog
This blog has had devastating consequences on my/our families and friends, and countless individuals influenced by the ministry of YMBBA across the expanse of this country. Your words and false reports have strengthened the hands of the wicked (Ezek. 16), inflamed the temptations of those that are true Christians across this country and world, temptations which were formerly subdued and resisted because of our blameless conversation in their midst and the evident token of God's Spirit and power with our word and deed. You have gratified the evil lusts of men to write us off, as well as our gospel, and one of the only witnesses many have had toward holy living. Your tongue has proved to be "a fire, a world of iniquity," and it "setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell" (Jas. 3:6).
Yet in all of this, I am encouraged to hope that God is working in your life, even seeking to unblind you of your guile, pride, and lust for fame, your desire for blogging traffic through the means of demoralizing individuals to the unrighteous admiration of your smooth, scholarly intellectualism. I have been, and shall be humbled before God to bewail your sin (2 Cor. 12:21), and I seek your repentance under the "heaviness" of the Holy Ghost (2 Cor. 2:1). I perceive that you need "sharpness" (2 Cor. 13:10, Gal. 4:20, Titus 1:13). You need the pursuing zeal of Paul to find you out, that he might (through the Holy Ghost) "make you sorry," not glad (2 Cor. 2:2). You need "punishment" and the affliction of many (2 Cor. 2:6), not the lightness which steals "godly sorrow." You need "godly sorrow" which "worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of" (2 Cor. 7:10). You need "carefulness, indignation, fear, vehement desire, zeal, and revenge" (2 Cor. 7:11), not a glazed smile with Christian words. These fruits I have mentioned express true Christianity of the heart: the expression of greater and greater repentance which is obtained by true Christians as they go from glory to glory.
The Spirit which I am possessed by sets me free from sin. Not all sin, but an overwhelming victory over the character and evil that rules this evil world of Satan (2 Cor. 4:4). Yet, Steve, you seem altogether oblivious to the Burden of Christ in this day and hour - namely, the necessity for fruitfulness, the rampant false conversions worldwide, and the eternal significance of such a situation requiring men of God to be heavy in sorrow (Rom. 9:1-3), being burdened to make known true Christianity by Christian living (fruitfulness), for the sake of men deluded in self-confident, lukewarm worldliness
Why am I encouraged to have hope for you?
Your recent blog published July 20, 2012, titled, "Throwing Christians to the Christians? Blogging as Bloodsport." This post reveals the conviction of the Holy Ghost you need to take heed to. You have admitted to being beguiled by the following evil lusts - seeking to be "clever" rather than sincere, and in this way, seeking to make the posts "juicy." You are convicted that you struggle being "angry" against those you write against. You say that you are "simplistic" in your argumentation. Therefore you present a biased presentation of your opponents argument and you unrighteously prop up your own cause. Further, in the beauty of your writing skills, or, things well said, in these things you are "gloating." You admitted that in these ways, I quote you, "My motives aren't right." You used Driscoll as an example of your struggle, saying, "Do I really have Driscoll's best interest in mind? Or do I just want to generate blog traffic by capitalizing on his polarizing name?"
Your post toward YMBBA is as the sword of Saul slaying the priests, and Nob, the city of the priests (1 Sam. 22:19-21). You have murdered us with your blogging as blood-sport, being inflamed to this hellish game by sin. You are massacring men with eternal consequences. How much evil has snared you, even as you have said - "It seems so easy - gratifying, even - to publicly sink a knife into his back and hear the crowds roar. Blogging as blood-sport, you might say. I wonder if anyone else struggles with the same problem." Many men like Doeg, and many Edomites, these men have joined you in your cause, themselves also killing and roaring on. May God have mercy. Might I add Steve, stop watching UFC. In case you don't know what this is Dale, Mose, Don, and others, UFC stands for Ultimate Fighting Championship. Steve, stop defending it as a viable Christian practice to watch and keep up with. You and Dylan McCabe (my dear old friend and one time brother), SHAME ON YOU! If you were not so overtaken in the sin of violence and blood-sport like UFC, then perhaps you would not be so numbed when you create the same arena on your internet website to flex your own battle muscles. How disciplined Seminary has caused you to become, so skilled you are with your words, and, being blinded to your God-given conscience you shamelessly boast in your intellectual prowess as you kill Christians. May God drive you to your knees in fear that you could be so bold in iniquity, so satisfied in your works when it is all without charity - therefore whether tongues, understanding all mysteries, all knowledge, or any sacrifice of time or effort, IT IS "NOTHING" (see 1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Steve, I believe it is like what you said, you are snared by seduction, but I say, it is the seduction of the harlot named counterfeit Christianity. You said, 'The seduction of such ritualized opposition is the perceived merits of sounding smarter than another scholar, author, or public figure. It is the adrenaline rush of intellectual combat. The ecstacy of agony." And again, "I believe that this climate of stylized opposition and over-simplification has occasionally infected some of our Christian blogs - if not always the original blog posts, then certainly in the comments section. The result is throwing fellow Christians to the lions."
Most of the commentators below the blog have followed in this, your iniquity, just as you have said. Mose Troyer, (if I'm not mistaken) you are an Anabaptist and do you join hands with Steve who openly defends and supports UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship)... the most violent, gruesome, and dangerous form of one-on-one combat in this country - FOR SOME EVIL & SICK ENTERTAINMENT! This is the countries rising luster in blood-sport and violence, and will you now join with this man Steve as he turns his blog into blood-sport and violence, all the while justifying yourself because you believe in non-resistance? "Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God" (Lk. 16:15). I do not think I know you in person, nor have we ever met, but I suspect you are going off of the word of your cousin Aden who grievously resisted the work of God in Indiana. May the Lord have mercy.
Don (Don Litchfield I suspect), I write the same thing addressed to you, dear man. Look up for yourself the spiritual condition of Steve as he, and Dylan McCabe, defend UFC in the sad oblivion to a good conscience - see here the article he wrote about it - The Good Fight: Christians and the UFC
Furthermore, Mose, Aden, and Don, was it Satan that cast out Satan when the man Lynn of the Amish community was set free from his strong men that so infamously bound him. That whole Amish community shook at the wonder." This thing was not done in a corner" (Acts 26:26).
Steve Smith, you don't even know your companions of war! Rushing in your heart is the carnal lust of adrenaline, blog violence, and in this you glory in your shame (Php. 4). Had you practiced prayer instead of justifying prayerlessness, had you not been so busy redefining grace and other amalgamations seminary is poisoning your mind with, then you would not have done what you have done. God have mercy - I write swelling with tears. Oh Lord help! Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Woe to the internet arena, the modern tower of Babel, interconnecting those whom God has separated worldwide, finding cooperation and advancement which the Lord sought to make impossible. Behold, the world prepares for the Anti-Christ.
The stadium circles around me, the crowd with its roar astounds me,
It shakes the earth with its cry, to see a slave as I violently die,
Unto God is my up-lifted cry, that here, not now, I would not die,
I raise my hope to Him that is on High, that my life would continue against their lie,
That they cannot burn me while tied to this stake, that the lion would be powerless to hurt me because my bones will not break. That God would resist them as they try, And in seeing this they would recognize why.
It is my desire, Steve, that you would obtain repentance. You may know that you have sinned, but have you obtained repentance? What has been addressed thus far is but the tip of the iceberg. I pray that I would be used of God to help you obtain repentance. As you said, "I know that I must do better. I am guilty of thinking the worst of public figures in Christianity without asking for the other side of the story. I almost wrote an article tearing to shreds a man I have never met. I don't want to be a lion. I want to be like Christ." Catholics confess their sins but never actually repent, and your internet confession could be nothing more than your very own priestly confessional. Steve, "If thine eyes by evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matt. 6:23).
Monica, dear woman. I know not where you are getting your information. We do not hold all the keys of the members of the Church. You speak lies. “An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire.” – Proverbs 16:27
Dr. Miller and Jan Bard, Kristin received the shot that was necessary to protect baby faith from harm. I don't know where you are getting your information but it is incorrect. The child did not die because we refused to get that shot.
Dale (Dale from NY I suspect), God knows the truth concerning your son and our blameless behavior.
Drew (Jordan Fraker's friend) you said, "I've tried relentlessly to argue the logical and theological issues with him - he cannot operate in that framework (nor is he allowed to)." Jordan says this is incorrect. Surely you argue logic but he argues scripturally and he says that you will not go to the scriptures on matters but rather logic. You have not attempted to contact him since January 3rd and before this time you were invited to Well's or Dallas numerous times to no avail. The last time you both talked Jordan was greatly discouraged by your refusal to be convicted over the most obvious sin - your support of Miss California (Lauryn Greenstene), your support of the Pageant, watching it, and their nakedness, bikini-sensual show. After you posted her body on your facebook page calling others to support this, and Jordan confronted you in meekness on it, you would not admit to any sin, even a matter such as this. Jordan was greatly discouraged and fighting for hope concerning your soul. Alongside this, you, Cory, William, and Doug - all of you - believe that being drunk is not a matter of alcohol consumed but bad decisions made. So although "they" may have hangovers the next morning from the pub or wherever else you justify your night-play, they weren't drunk because they (in their opinion) didn't make any bad decisions. What is a man like Jordan to do in such a situation as this?
Jordan has every reason to withdraw himself from you as is commanded in 1 Tim. 6:5. He cannot be your companion in crime, or let himself be ill effected by your hypocrisy. Yet, he primarily ceased pursuing you as he did because of the hopelessness of the situation seeing that you would not heed sound doctrine according to holiness. He has not ceased to pray but has been greatly fearing you are swine, to which Christ says, "Give not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you" (Matt. 7:6). Did not Christ and the apostles teach this truth? Jesus says of such, "Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch" (Matt. 15:14). Proverbs says, "Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him" (Prov. 26:4). And again, Drew, you are as it is written - "Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: FROM SUCH TURN AWAY" (2 Tim. 3:4-5). But know this, the only reason Jordan would turn away, is, in hopes that one day you would be reasonable, broken, willing to yield to the conviction of the Holy Ghost and Holy Writ, and one day saved. If you ever took him up on coming down here he would allow it, yet you have not tried to contact him since January 3rd. (Anyone desiring proof of these conversations, Jordan has them saved and is willing to send them to honest seekers.)
Jan Bard, Nickie Fraker's (that is, Jordan's wife) mother, you say that we (or, Jordan and Nickie) cut you off. This is not the case. When you came to visit after Elijah's birth you left around four days before you were planning to leave at the first. We didn't want you to leave and desired to speak with you (yea, some already had spake to you), also Jordan has invited you down since, but the last time this invitation was given you refused to come. Why did you refuse? You said something to the effect, you fear that Nickie (or Jordan) is going to try to see you saved in truth (while you believe you are already saved). This is the essence of what was said or meant. You refused to come while they (Jordan and Nickie) and we (the entire Church of Wells) still appeal to you now, come! But do not expect the careless, callused, and carnal love which the world is inundated in, having no mind to eternity supposing that compassion is tolerance to a world going to hell; feigned love at the expense of biblical truth. As for us in Wells, we must abide in the doctrine of our Lord Jesus - True Love - "What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops" (Matt. 10:27).
Steve and Dylan (first and foremost Steve), and all other participators, let it be known to you that you have succeeded to cause truly regenerate persons across this country to believe your lies, to reject us without question, and the like, even men and women who (had they known your doctrine or manner of life) would not have believed you. For this, Steve, I remind you of this word which you yourself quoted in your recent blog post concerning blogging as bloodsport, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me" (Matt. 25:40)
Lamentation Over the Righteous
“A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.” – Proverbs 16:28
Our prayer is that the righteous regenerate, who have rejected us thus far will turn again. Today liars congregate cross country and sea. All kinds of boundaries which formerly made impossible the unity of their mockery, yet now through internet they unite with unimaginable speed and guile. They need no skill to cover up their reputations as to make their witnesses believable, they just leave their surrounding communities by entering into the arena of the internet. Here they can give a false witness with an easily fabricated false righteousness, and they don’t even need to overcome the fear of their hypocrisy being found out because the internet is where everyone who doesn’t know hardly anyone speaks about everything. On the internet there is no need for the asinine smile that is upon the face of this generation. There is no pressure of face-to-face encounters. Each person is represented by text and so they all do take strength in numbers, that a simple passerby who believes every word might side with them; and, if this passerby met this community of slanderers in person he would have never believed their lies because of the clear absence of the presence of God in their life. In this way the internet has become “the seat of the scornful” (Ps. 1:1).
Oh Lord, give the righteous wisdom and prudence in this our day where blogs and forums have become assemblies of mockers. Oh let the righteous be able to say, “I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of Thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation” (Jer. 15:17). These internet sites and blogs are like territorial bears robbed of their whelps who all agree together in a single pursuit of rage, destruction, and death. They are mindlessly raging as the flames of hell do animate their hearts, and if you meet them in this internet arena they will devour you with foolishness and folly. “Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly” (Prov. 17:12). Can a man speak to a bear so as to make peace with him, so I cannot put out these fires nor tire myself in their endless and outrageous misrepresentations of truth. Note: “Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth” (Prov. 17:24). If I did seek to answer all these slanders, then my eyes would be to the ends of the earth, and so, I would be beguiled in their vomit from being a profit to those who don’t hide behind the covering of a computer screen. It is easy for the wicked to take courage behind a computer screen. Lord Jesus have mercy, I pray.
These internet assemblies bare the fingerprints of the Devil's handiwork - "Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was confused; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together" (Acts 19:32).
A Biblical Critique of Steve Smith’s Beliefs
1. Steve believes that, if repentance is necessary at conversion it is requiring works for salvation. He essentially holds repentance to be works. Repentance meaning - making Jesus Lord of every area of life (consciously), otherwise known as complete surrender, and this surrender/repentance is experienced within the drawn soul making one "cast oneself in utter brokenness at the feet of Jesus weeping and wailing over sin." Note: I do not hold that this is the exact description of all persons when they repent, namely, they don't have to weep and wail outwardly but they do need to, in this way, sorrow inwardly (a godly sorrow that works repentance to salvation, 2 Cor. 7). Steve says these conditions of repentance are conditions of works prior to salvation. They need to do these things before they can be saved, this is the understanding of Steve. Steve is misunderstanding the gospel of grace. These are not things a person does, these are the work of the Holy Ghost within a soul that is drawn to Christ upon the hearing of the word of God (John 6:44). However, repentance is not obtained before salvation but it is obtained at salvation as an inseparable experience with saving faith. When one truly understands the gospel and their own sin, when men rightly behold the Savior of sinners and the work of the cross which depicts, more than ever before, the greatest revelation of the wrath of God colliding with the greatest revelation of the love of God, then the effect of this experience is saving faith, and repentance is inseparable with saving faith. Why would a man be broken, mourning, weeping (inwardly or outwardly), and surrendering? Because he believes and therefore agrees with God, and God hates sin, is broken over sin, is weeping over sin, and is calling sinners to be forgiven and re-created into the Image of His Son, necessitating therefore that the recipients of this gospel are giving themselves to be regenerated by the power of God as to never return to their former state of enmity that is sin-loving, God-hating, and wicked. How does a man come to this place at salvation? He is drawn by the convicting powers of the Holy Ghost even though he is a lost man, he is therefore loved and pursued by God (John 6:44). These are not the works of man but the works of God.
2. Steve believes - After regeneration, if a man falls into unrepentant sin such as murder & adultery, such a man in this state is presently in a saving condition of soul under no threat of damnation, he is in a saving relationship with God and does not need to repent to be received before the Judgment Seat of Christ. He is therefore denying the perseverance of the saints. He is therefore denying true grace, the gospel, and the doctrine according to godliness - justifying the wicked as a preacher of false peace. Steve is essentially misunderstanding the gospel and the grace of God. Redefining it to license this ungodly behavior.
Please let me begin with this. If I could empty my veins for your soul's eternal welfare, I would, and such is the intense longing of my heart that I could wish harm and hurt to myself, that if, in some way possible, this could bring blessing and salvation to you, then I would happily endure it and count my life a full one. All of this is only by the mind of Christ so graciously filling me, for without Him I can do nothing (John 15). He is the lively Vine which fills this dead man to live and move in His person, and Oh! How intensely I have loved you these past days, willing even, that if God would grant me the privilege to live for nothing else but to pray for your soul every day and all the time (secretly) for the rest of my life, having no other significant purpose to exist, this I would gladly do - God is my witness that I lie not. It is needful for me to tell you of my love for you in Christ, for, I will not be speaking to you on terms in which the nominal internet-public or fleshly men would consider friendly. Thus, I expect that men and women who are now under the delusion of the Devil will fulfill the sad woe that Isaiah speaks of, "Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter" (Isa. 5:20), and so, they will call me evil for the way I will (God helping) speak to you, while they applaud your stout word against us (and that, without even inquiring of us first). May God, the living Christ, have mercy, oh so extensively and evermore.
Gross Misrepresentations & Outright Lies
Steve, I do not know where you get your information. Had I been unaware of "the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb. 3:13), I would still be in utter perplexity at how confidently you report of things concerning us, things you know not of. The first of the three points in which you summarized your critique of us entitled, The Elders & Church of Wells, I do now wish to address.
You said that we have an "excessive fear of contamination by culture," and that, in this fear we made the decision to move from Arlington to Wells. You said, "One reason the Church moved to Wells from Arlington, Texas, was to find a remote place to live holy lives." You stated your affirmation of James 1:27 & 4:4, and rightly so, you stated that holiness is not in proximity or location. What can I say to this? I am not in any disagreement to this definition of holiness. Stating that our understanding of holiness is different than this is a lie, a fabrication I know not how you came to. WE have NEVER believed that holiness is by location or proximity. WE have NEVER believed, taught, spoken, or stated such a foolish interpretation of "holiness." God knows I utterly disdain even the thought or idea of it! In such a deception are the Amish and other kinds of cults, but not us. If you had not spoken so rashly and foolishly you might have known this. You speak as if you know our beliefs, what we do with our time, and in what manner we live. You said that Jesus lived and ministered in "the humdrum areas of life." Indeed He did, and you will find such a place to be the very place Faith Pursley died - The Wells Manor Apartments. Surrounding this area is drugs, harlotry, and all manner of evil, and we are continually risking our lives, threatened often with murder, pleading and preaching to men and women in the very places where they continually engage in evil (not neglecting other means of witness either). Come to the Wells Manor Apartments and you will see for yourself. Before long one of us could be martyred if God does not restrain them. Our definition of maintaining holiness is not in the "paranoia" of being near the world in proximity or location, as you falsely allege. If I did believe such a thing, then all of your corrections in the first point of your summary of our error is correct. Indeed, "to the pure all things are pure" Steve, as you said, but we do not believe the way your report of us states. My question then is, are you pure in heart? Your false report of our belief is proof that your thoughts toward us are "of deceit, uncleanness, and guile” (1 Thess. 2:3). As for others who have reported or do believe we are building a complex, or trying to find a field to all move onto like a commune, all these things are false - God knows.
As for your second point, where do I begin? You speak as if you know our doctrine, deeds, and mind toward practices of "separation." Would to God you would have contacted me as I contacted you to make sure your beliefs before you wrote against me. I would have come in peace to you but you have come for war. We do believe most Churches are FULL of hypocrites and hypocrisy, and if you disagree you are spiritually blind. Also, we do not allow hypocrites a place of democracy in Church affairs, Church vision, or Church doctrine. In this manner there is "information control" as it is written and commanded in the New Testament (see Romans 16:17-19). However, you say of us that, "biblical passages are interpreted by the elders without outside input." I am not sure what you mean by "outside input," but judging based upon your summary point number 1, you believe we are paranoid of outsiders instead of going into all the world to preach and serve people. In the way in which you mean "outside input," this is not true. We have an enormous amount of outside input which we continually study - extra-biblical Church History, Renowned men of God's works like Jonathan Edwards, Spurgeon, Whitefield, Wesley, Bunyan, Brainerd, Hudson Taylor, The Scots Worthies, Puritans, Rolfe Barnard, James A. Stewart, Leonard Ravenhill, and far more than should be mentioned here, Commentaries such as Henry, Gill, Clarke, etc., Books of Theology, Lexicons, Manners and Customs, etc.. Nevertheless, because we are in the latter days most works we hold in high regard are from men who lived in other centuries
Allegation That I Preach Works-Based Salvation
The most astonishing and twisted misrepresentation I have found that you have made concerning us is the section of your blog report, "You shall know them by their fruits." In this section you misquoted me in a way which entirely changes the meaning of what I said, making it seem that I was saying we have to work for the grace of God. I did not say this, mean this, I have never preached this, and do certainly believe whosoever does believe this is lost and in their sins. I did rather say that the grace of God works in us, and this is salvation. In context of what I said, as you sited in my very quotation, I was speaking in reference to Ephesians 2:10. I know you know what it says. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). My statement in the sermon was, "The grace of God works because it's His work," directly in context to what scripture was referenced, Ephesians 2:10, "For we are His workmanship" - OR HIS WORK, therefore accompanying a true work of grace is "GOOD WORKS." For the reader's sake and your memory, this is what you said that I said directly scribed from your site - "“Pharisees” in Morris’s terms are hypocritical Christians who don’t evidence the fruits of salvation, namely good works. Instead, said Morris, “The grace of God works because it takes work, because God has ordained work for us to do (Eph 2:10), and we want to be pure since only the holy will see God. We judge between those who are saved and those who are not by their fruits, since their words and deeds manifest what is in their heart. By their fruits you will know them.”" Had not a faithful and unbiased reader caught your mistake you would not have even known it (The man “Jeff” on your comments below.). Your lie makes me out to preach works-righteousness. After the reader named Jeff corrected you in the comments below your blog, you admitted to your error after having re-listened to the sermon and seen it for yourself. AND YET, after you were corrected you did not edit the original blog post where you misquoted me. Now, anyone who continues to go onto this website will still read a complete misquotation, and this seems to prove that I believe the grace of God works because it takes work. Steve, why did you not edit the blog and change it after you were corrected? Should you not correct it? Why have you not already? You told Jeff that you were wrong in your misquotation and yet you left the original blog the same. In brokenness and grief of soul I say this - I fear your conscience is so seared that you are not afraid of lying. "All liars," Steve, "shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone" (Rev. 21:8). You may say or think lightly about this. You may say to yourself, "I just forgot, that is all." It is unthinkable to me to forget about such a lie. And for that matter, all men who are right with God would not forget a lie that makes out an upright and cross bearing expositor to be a works-righteousness heretic of the worst form. Men forget about what they don't care about. "Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast forgotten Me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms" (Ezek. 23:35).
In the Spirit of Christ, I do wish that I could meet with you in person. I don't want to know your "speech," or fair words; if I were to meet you face to face then I could know (God granting grace) "not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. For the Kingdom of God is not in word, but in power" (1 Cor. 4:18-20). Power, Paul says, to live a holy life. At this moment I come to you by this internet letter, and I cannot come to you "in love and in the spirit of meekness" - yea rather, as Paul says, "with a rod" (1 Cor. 4:21). With a rod, that is, not to discipline a sheep but to defend saving truth and "brake the jaws of the wicked" wolves (Job 29:17). I must do this, that I may (God willing) pluck "the spoil out of his teeth" (Job 29:17). I cannot speak to you as a sheep nor give you the honorable name brother, but rather a "dog" (Php. 3:2). A Christian ought not to ever call a man a dog or serpent, except he is enabled to do this "even weeping" (Php. 3:18), in true hurt for them. This is as Jesus wept in secret (not openly) over the city of the condemned, the place in which He openly declared woes and judgments, even calling men what they were - Serpents (Luke 19:41-44). Such name address is not name calling, insulting speech, or disrespect, nor is it a disruption of true, godly charity. Oh! If you could only see the harm and destruction you have caused by your lies and misinformation, your one-sided, biased accusations, then perhaps you would own the title - Serpent, Wolf, or Dog
This blog has had devastating consequences on my/our families and friends, and countless individuals influenced by the ministry of YMBBA across the expanse of this country. Your words and false reports have strengthened the hands of the wicked (Ezek. 16), inflamed the temptations of those that are true Christians across this country and world, temptations which were formerly subdued and resisted because of our blameless conversation in their midst and the evident token of God's Spirit and power with our word and deed. You have gratified the evil lusts of men to write us off, as well as our gospel, and one of the only witnesses many have had toward holy living. Your tongue has proved to be "a fire, a world of iniquity," and it "setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell" (Jas. 3:6).
Yet in all of this, I am encouraged to hope that God is working in your life, even seeking to unblind you of your guile, pride, and lust for fame, your desire for blogging traffic through the means of demoralizing individuals to the unrighteous admiration of your smooth, scholarly intellectualism. I have been, and shall be humbled before God to bewail your sin (2 Cor. 12:21), and I seek your repentance under the "heaviness" of the Holy Ghost (2 Cor. 2:1). I perceive that you need "sharpness" (2 Cor. 13:10, Gal. 4:20, Titus 1:13). You need the pursuing zeal of Paul to find you out, that he might (through the Holy Ghost) "make you sorry," not glad (2 Cor. 2:2). You need "punishment" and the affliction of many (2 Cor. 2:6), not the lightness which steals "godly sorrow." You need "godly sorrow" which "worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of" (2 Cor. 7:10). You need "carefulness, indignation, fear, vehement desire, zeal, and revenge" (2 Cor. 7:11), not a glazed smile with Christian words. These fruits I have mentioned express true Christianity of the heart: the expression of greater and greater repentance which is obtained by true Christians as they go from glory to glory.
The Spirit which I am possessed by sets me free from sin. Not all sin, but an overwhelming victory over the character and evil that rules this evil world of Satan (2 Cor. 4:4). Yet, Steve, you seem altogether oblivious to the Burden of Christ in this day and hour - namely, the necessity for fruitfulness, the rampant false conversions worldwide, and the eternal significance of such a situation requiring men of God to be heavy in sorrow (Rom. 9:1-3), being burdened to make known true Christianity by Christian living (fruitfulness), for the sake of men deluded in self-confident, lukewarm worldliness
Why am I encouraged to have hope for you?
Your recent blog published July 20, 2012, titled, "Throwing Christians to the Christians? Blogging as Bloodsport." This post reveals the conviction of the Holy Ghost you need to take heed to. You have admitted to being beguiled by the following evil lusts - seeking to be "clever" rather than sincere, and in this way, seeking to make the posts "juicy." You are convicted that you struggle being "angry" against those you write against. You say that you are "simplistic" in your argumentation. Therefore you present a biased presentation of your opponents argument and you unrighteously prop up your own cause. Further, in the beauty of your writing skills, or, things well said, in these things you are "gloating." You admitted that in these ways, I quote you, "My motives aren't right." You used Driscoll as an example of your struggle, saying, "Do I really have Driscoll's best interest in mind? Or do I just want to generate blog traffic by capitalizing on his polarizing name?"
Your post toward YMBBA is as the sword of Saul slaying the priests, and Nob, the city of the priests (1 Sam. 22:19-21). You have murdered us with your blogging as blood-sport, being inflamed to this hellish game by sin. You are massacring men with eternal consequences. How much evil has snared you, even as you have said - "It seems so easy - gratifying, even - to publicly sink a knife into his back and hear the crowds roar. Blogging as blood-sport, you might say. I wonder if anyone else struggles with the same problem." Many men like Doeg, and many Edomites, these men have joined you in your cause, themselves also killing and roaring on. May God have mercy. Might I add Steve, stop watching UFC. In case you don't know what this is Dale, Mose, Don, and others, UFC stands for Ultimate Fighting Championship. Steve, stop defending it as a viable Christian practice to watch and keep up with. You and Dylan McCabe (my dear old friend and one time brother), SHAME ON YOU! If you were not so overtaken in the sin of violence and blood-sport like UFC, then perhaps you would not be so numbed when you create the same arena on your internet website to flex your own battle muscles. How disciplined Seminary has caused you to become, so skilled you are with your words, and, being blinded to your God-given conscience you shamelessly boast in your intellectual prowess as you kill Christians. May God drive you to your knees in fear that you could be so bold in iniquity, so satisfied in your works when it is all without charity - therefore whether tongues, understanding all mysteries, all knowledge, or any sacrifice of time or effort, IT IS "NOTHING" (see 1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Steve, I believe it is like what you said, you are snared by seduction, but I say, it is the seduction of the harlot named counterfeit Christianity. You said, 'The seduction of such ritualized opposition is the perceived merits of sounding smarter than another scholar, author, or public figure. It is the adrenaline rush of intellectual combat. The ecstacy of agony." And again, "I believe that this climate of stylized opposition and over-simplification has occasionally infected some of our Christian blogs - if not always the original blog posts, then certainly in the comments section. The result is throwing fellow Christians to the lions."
Most of the commentators below the blog have followed in this, your iniquity, just as you have said. Mose Troyer, (if I'm not mistaken) you are an Anabaptist and do you join hands with Steve who openly defends and supports UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship)... the most violent, gruesome, and dangerous form of one-on-one combat in this country - FOR SOME EVIL & SICK ENTERTAINMENT! This is the countries rising luster in blood-sport and violence, and will you now join with this man Steve as he turns his blog into blood-sport and violence, all the while justifying yourself because you believe in non-resistance? "Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God" (Lk. 16:15). I do not think I know you in person, nor have we ever met, but I suspect you are going off of the word of your cousin Aden who grievously resisted the work of God in Indiana. May the Lord have mercy.
Don (Don Litchfield I suspect), I write the same thing addressed to you, dear man. Look up for yourself the spiritual condition of Steve as he, and Dylan McCabe, defend UFC in the sad oblivion to a good conscience - see here the article he wrote about it - The Good Fight: Christians and the UFC
Furthermore, Mose, Aden, and Don, was it Satan that cast out Satan when the man Lynn of the Amish community was set free from his strong men that so infamously bound him. That whole Amish community shook at the wonder." This thing was not done in a corner" (Acts 26:26).
Steve Smith, you don't even know your companions of war! Rushing in your heart is the carnal lust of adrenaline, blog violence, and in this you glory in your shame (Php. 4). Had you practiced prayer instead of justifying prayerlessness, had you not been so busy redefining grace and other amalgamations seminary is poisoning your mind with, then you would not have done what you have done. God have mercy - I write swelling with tears. Oh Lord help! Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Woe to the internet arena, the modern tower of Babel, interconnecting those whom God has separated worldwide, finding cooperation and advancement which the Lord sought to make impossible. Behold, the world prepares for the Anti-Christ.
The stadium circles around me, the crowd with its roar astounds me,
It shakes the earth with its cry, to see a slave as I violently die,
Unto God is my up-lifted cry, that here, not now, I would not die,
I raise my hope to Him that is on High, that my life would continue against their lie,
That they cannot burn me while tied to this stake, that the lion would be powerless to hurt me because my bones will not break. That God would resist them as they try, And in seeing this they would recognize why.
It is my desire, Steve, that you would obtain repentance. You may know that you have sinned, but have you obtained repentance? What has been addressed thus far is but the tip of the iceberg. I pray that I would be used of God to help you obtain repentance. As you said, "I know that I must do better. I am guilty of thinking the worst of public figures in Christianity without asking for the other side of the story. I almost wrote an article tearing to shreds a man I have never met. I don't want to be a lion. I want to be like Christ." Catholics confess their sins but never actually repent, and your internet confession could be nothing more than your very own priestly confessional. Steve, "If thine eyes by evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matt. 6:23).
Monica, dear woman. I know not where you are getting your information. We do not hold all the keys of the members of the Church. You speak lies. “An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire.” – Proverbs 16:27
Dr. Miller and Jan Bard, Kristin received the shot that was necessary to protect baby faith from harm. I don't know where you are getting your information but it is incorrect. The child did not die because we refused to get that shot.
Dale (Dale from NY I suspect), God knows the truth concerning your son and our blameless behavior.
Drew (Jordan Fraker's friend) you said, "I've tried relentlessly to argue the logical and theological issues with him - he cannot operate in that framework (nor is he allowed to)." Jordan says this is incorrect. Surely you argue logic but he argues scripturally and he says that you will not go to the scriptures on matters but rather logic. You have not attempted to contact him since January 3rd and before this time you were invited to Well's or Dallas numerous times to no avail. The last time you both talked Jordan was greatly discouraged by your refusal to be convicted over the most obvious sin - your support of Miss California (Lauryn Greenstene), your support of the Pageant, watching it, and their nakedness, bikini-sensual show. After you posted her body on your facebook page calling others to support this, and Jordan confronted you in meekness on it, you would not admit to any sin, even a matter such as this. Jordan was greatly discouraged and fighting for hope concerning your soul. Alongside this, you, Cory, William, and Doug - all of you - believe that being drunk is not a matter of alcohol consumed but bad decisions made. So although "they" may have hangovers the next morning from the pub or wherever else you justify your night-play, they weren't drunk because they (in their opinion) didn't make any bad decisions. What is a man like Jordan to do in such a situation as this?
Jordan has every reason to withdraw himself from you as is commanded in 1 Tim. 6:5. He cannot be your companion in crime, or let himself be ill effected by your hypocrisy. Yet, he primarily ceased pursuing you as he did because of the hopelessness of the situation seeing that you would not heed sound doctrine according to holiness. He has not ceased to pray but has been greatly fearing you are swine, to which Christ says, "Give not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you" (Matt. 7:6). Did not Christ and the apostles teach this truth? Jesus says of such, "Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch" (Matt. 15:14). Proverbs says, "Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him" (Prov. 26:4). And again, Drew, you are as it is written - "Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: FROM SUCH TURN AWAY" (2 Tim. 3:4-5). But know this, the only reason Jordan would turn away, is, in hopes that one day you would be reasonable, broken, willing to yield to the conviction of the Holy Ghost and Holy Writ, and one day saved. If you ever took him up on coming down here he would allow it, yet you have not tried to contact him since January 3rd. (Anyone desiring proof of these conversations, Jordan has them saved and is willing to send them to honest seekers.)
Jan Bard, Nickie Fraker's (that is, Jordan's wife) mother, you say that we (or, Jordan and Nickie) cut you off. This is not the case. When you came to visit after Elijah's birth you left around four days before you were planning to leave at the first. We didn't want you to leave and desired to speak with you (yea, some already had spake to you), also Jordan has invited you down since, but the last time this invitation was given you refused to come. Why did you refuse? You said something to the effect, you fear that Nickie (or Jordan) is going to try to see you saved in truth (while you believe you are already saved). This is the essence of what was said or meant. You refused to come while they (Jordan and Nickie) and we (the entire Church of Wells) still appeal to you now, come! But do not expect the careless, callused, and carnal love which the world is inundated in, having no mind to eternity supposing that compassion is tolerance to a world going to hell; feigned love at the expense of biblical truth. As for us in Wells, we must abide in the doctrine of our Lord Jesus - True Love - "What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops" (Matt. 10:27).
Steve and Dylan (first and foremost Steve), and all other participators, let it be known to you that you have succeeded to cause truly regenerate persons across this country to believe your lies, to reject us without question, and the like, even men and women who (had they known your doctrine or manner of life) would not have believed you. For this, Steve, I remind you of this word which you yourself quoted in your recent blog post concerning blogging as bloodsport, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me" (Matt. 25:40)
Lamentation Over the Righteous
“A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.” – Proverbs 16:28
Our prayer is that the righteous regenerate, who have rejected us thus far will turn again. Today liars congregate cross country and sea. All kinds of boundaries which formerly made impossible the unity of their mockery, yet now through internet they unite with unimaginable speed and guile. They need no skill to cover up their reputations as to make their witnesses believable, they just leave their surrounding communities by entering into the arena of the internet. Here they can give a false witness with an easily fabricated false righteousness, and they don’t even need to overcome the fear of their hypocrisy being found out because the internet is where everyone who doesn’t know hardly anyone speaks about everything. On the internet there is no need for the asinine smile that is upon the face of this generation. There is no pressure of face-to-face encounters. Each person is represented by text and so they all do take strength in numbers, that a simple passerby who believes every word might side with them; and, if this passerby met this community of slanderers in person he would have never believed their lies because of the clear absence of the presence of God in their life. In this way the internet has become “the seat of the scornful” (Ps. 1:1).
Oh Lord, give the righteous wisdom and prudence in this our day where blogs and forums have become assemblies of mockers. Oh let the righteous be able to say, “I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of Thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation” (Jer. 15:17). These internet sites and blogs are like territorial bears robbed of their whelps who all agree together in a single pursuit of rage, destruction, and death. They are mindlessly raging as the flames of hell do animate their hearts, and if you meet them in this internet arena they will devour you with foolishness and folly. “Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly” (Prov. 17:12). Can a man speak to a bear so as to make peace with him, so I cannot put out these fires nor tire myself in their endless and outrageous misrepresentations of truth. Note: “Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth” (Prov. 17:24). If I did seek to answer all these slanders, then my eyes would be to the ends of the earth, and so, I would be beguiled in their vomit from being a profit to those who don’t hide behind the covering of a computer screen. It is easy for the wicked to take courage behind a computer screen. Lord Jesus have mercy, I pray.
These internet assemblies bare the fingerprints of the Devil's handiwork - "Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was confused; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together" (Acts 19:32).
A Biblical Critique of Steve Smith’s Beliefs
1. Steve believes that, if repentance is necessary at conversion it is requiring works for salvation. He essentially holds repentance to be works. Repentance meaning - making Jesus Lord of every area of life (consciously), otherwise known as complete surrender, and this surrender/repentance is experienced within the drawn soul making one "cast oneself in utter brokenness at the feet of Jesus weeping and wailing over sin." Note: I do not hold that this is the exact description of all persons when they repent, namely, they don't have to weep and wail outwardly but they do need to, in this way, sorrow inwardly (a godly sorrow that works repentance to salvation, 2 Cor. 7). Steve says these conditions of repentance are conditions of works prior to salvation. They need to do these things before they can be saved, this is the understanding of Steve. Steve is misunderstanding the gospel of grace. These are not things a person does, these are the work of the Holy Ghost within a soul that is drawn to Christ upon the hearing of the word of God (John 6:44). However, repentance is not obtained before salvation but it is obtained at salvation as an inseparable experience with saving faith. When one truly understands the gospel and their own sin, when men rightly behold the Savior of sinners and the work of the cross which depicts, more than ever before, the greatest revelation of the wrath of God colliding with the greatest revelation of the love of God, then the effect of this experience is saving faith, and repentance is inseparable with saving faith. Why would a man be broken, mourning, weeping (inwardly or outwardly), and surrendering? Because he believes and therefore agrees with God, and God hates sin, is broken over sin, is weeping over sin, and is calling sinners to be forgiven and re-created into the Image of His Son, necessitating therefore that the recipients of this gospel are giving themselves to be regenerated by the power of God as to never return to their former state of enmity that is sin-loving, God-hating, and wicked. How does a man come to this place at salvation? He is drawn by the convicting powers of the Holy Ghost even though he is a lost man, he is therefore loved and pursued by God (John 6:44). These are not the works of man but the works of God.
2. Steve believes - After regeneration, if a man falls into unrepentant sin such as murder & adultery, such a man in this state is presently in a saving condition of soul under no threat of damnation, he is in a saving relationship with God and does not need to repent to be received before the Judgment Seat of Christ. He is therefore denying the perseverance of the saints. He is therefore denying true grace, the gospel, and the doctrine according to godliness - justifying the wicked as a preacher of false peace. Steve is essentially misunderstanding the gospel and the grace of God. Redefining it to license this ungodly behavior.
“While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage” (2 Peter 2:19).
Steve Smith, you are fighting for liberty, as your website is entitled, “Liberty for the Captives,” but let the reader beware of what liberty you are fighting for. There are many who preach “liberty” and yet “are the servants of corruption,” or of the Devil, when they ought to be slaves for Christ. There is no biblical freedom which is outside of complete slavery to Christ – there and only there is a man FREE! Which laws you fight against make all the difference. Let me explain. Are you fighting against the ceremonial law or dead works (Gal. 5:1), or are you fighting against “the law of the Spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2)? Are you fighting for freedom from the law which condemns (dead works) or freedom from the law which gives life (the Holy Spirit’s works), for, there is a law which gives life unto obedience?
False teachers are zealous for salvation, that it is by “grace through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). However, have you ever read that “he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant” (1 Cor. 7:22)? Grace does not make a man free to sin or to live in Adam! This is the liberty of the false prophets - “While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption” (2 Pet. 2:19), therefore their liberty is “for an occasion to the flesh” (Gal. 5:13). “Ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness,” they abhor any manifestation of grace which makes a Christian zealous “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:4). They spend their time and energy settling down the consciences which God is stirring up because they do not fulfill the righteousness of the law in the Spirit of God. They are seducing these afflicted consciences to believe that adultery with the world is of no consequence to your eternal standing with God. In other words – they argue that when a man is in such a state, God does NOT become your enemy. What saith the scripture? “Whosoever is a friend of this world is the enemy of God” (Jas. 4:4). Without obtaining repentance, all these enemies (adversaries) will suffer the fate written, “a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries” (Heb. 10:27). False prophets want to argue that there is a certain peaceful looking for salvation for all the adversaries of God when God says the opposite. False prophets speak friend when God speaks enemy, peace when God speak woe.
False prophets are not burdened that a Christian WORK. They cannot understand it! They cannot even see the Kingdom of God so how could they be burdened for its work? They are agitated in their soul against those who are zealous for work supposing such persons have an inferior understanding of grace in Christ. What fools! They fancy themselves they are fighting against a false zeal to earn salvation but they just don’t understand God’s work (Eph. 2:10). What they resist in true Christians they falsely allege to be “dead works” (Heb. 6), however in truth, these works are they which Jesus said are “MY WORKS” (Rev. 2:26), those things we must (by grace though faith in Jesus Christ) keep to be saved. The true grace of God is alive and therefore works, and for this cause it is written “that faith without works is dead” (James 2:20): “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). “What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid” (Rom. 6:15), “for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11).
False teachers are “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God” who have no zeal but to defend their own heretical view of grace. They are drunken in a disgraceful intoxication of a counterfeit salvation that is, as they falsely claim, “not of works lest any man should boast,” therefore they are aliens to the boast and glory of Paul which was ONLY “in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified to me and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14). They are zealous to keep salvation with no works but Christ “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14). They are zealous to excuse themselves from works but true salvation makes an individual zealous for good works. It is true, salvation is by grace through faith, apart from works, but if God is not working in you the vibrant expression of His holy image and deeds to this wicked and fallen world then you have no part with Him. He said, "If you love me, obey My commandments."
Many say, ‘we are not under the law but under grace.’ ‘There is freedom in Christ.’ ‘Salvation is a gift.’ All three of these claims are true but not in the unbiblical sense most people warrant. Their grace is a grace that gives license to live worldly and sinful. Their freedom is not a freedom to live in Christ but rather a freedom to live in Adam. Their free gift of salvation is a mental reception of Christ’s crucifixion, yet they are not willing to give God anything, therefore they do deny their personal crucifixion which is true salvation. Paul said “I am crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20). They have made the gospel worldly instead of heavenly, weak instead of powerful, and horribly invaluable. This is not the gospel! Did you know there is another gospel, spirit, and Jesus preached in the world today; see 2 Corinthians 11:3-4. Which grace, freedom, and gift a man speaks of determines which gospel, spirit, and Jesus! Yet there is only one Jesus that makes depraved sinners free to obey, that freedom is under the dominion of grace. Salvation is God’s work therefore it works! O what a gift!
“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him” (2 Cor. 11:3-4).
Do you know any false teachers?
Herein is your command from God:
Can your heart be good if your eye enjoys the relish of beholding evil? Do you not know that the world is an ungodly disease, viscously contagious to the soul (1 Peter 2:11)? Even as Isaiah says, “Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isa. 6:5). Though this blistering vision Isaiah obtained a pure heart, and if you had a pure heart which does presently see the Lord of glory (2 Cor. 3:17-18, Heb. 11:27), then you would not call that which is unclean, clean. Television-violence, covetousness, “evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies” (Matt. 15:18-20), are not these things unclean? “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8). Even so, to be pure and stay pure, a saint must learn and obey something of the call of God - “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. 6:17-18). You all need to know this! True grace is not liberty to un-stop your ears and open your eyes to behold and enjoy bloodshed and violence. God will save a man “that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil” (Isa. 33:15). As David said, “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me” (Ps. 101:3).
Will you truly believe that the Holy Ghost desires to watch such things like you watch? Or, has seminary taught you such an abominable understanding of “grace” that is in summary, “I don't need Christ in every part of my life.” You become careless because you don’t care about God, souls, and truth, but God cares. God cares about what you do, where you go, how you spend your time, and even every idle word you speak (Matt. 12:36), and true Christianity teaches a man to walk in the “sober, righteous, and godly” (Titus 2:11-15) Spirit of God in EVERY WORD and DEED of his life. A life of careless ease or obedience to this call, this is your choice - “Whatsoever ye do in WORD and DEED, do ALL in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3:17)! Television, overall, is a window of “fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” (Eph. 5:11), and this is the choice at hand, if you fellowship with darkness you forfeit the light because you cannot have both (1 John 1:5-7).
Dylan you have lost the sweet resolve of Jonathan Edwards and David Brainerd which at one time you had! “Resolved, that I will not give way to that listlessness which I find unbends and relaxes my mind from being fully and fixedly set on religion, whatever excuse I may have for itthat what my listlessness inclines me to do, is best to be done, etc. May 21, and July 13, 1723” (Resolution # 61). “Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can” (Resolution # 5). “Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life” (Resolution # 7). “Resolved, to live so at all times, as I think is best in my devout frames, and when I have clearest notions of things of the gospel, and another world” (Resolution # 18). “First, Resolve upon, and daily endeavor to practice, a life of seriousness and strict sobriety” (Brainerd).
Dylan you need conviction again! Even the cry, “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in Thy way” (Ps. 119:37). Could the mind of God be any clearer toward physical blood-sport and violence? God says, “The wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth” (Ps. 11:5)! “Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment” (Ps. 73:6). And will you say that UFC is a clean meditation for spiritual edification as you misapply Php. 4:8? UFC is not “true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and of praise” (Php. 4:8) in any biblical sense! I know your unconverted state before you were illuminated, how you relished the chance to fight and beat people to a pulp any chance you could get, and now you have returned to your former lusts as you are entertained to watch others do what you desired to do. Had you been meditating on scriptural truth which discerns the thoughts and intents of your heart to be evil, you would not have used Php. 4:8 to justify the ungodly entertainment of UFC. Rather you would remember, “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether” (Ps. 19:9). True is the confession of David - “I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked. I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O LORD: That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works. LORD, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honour dwelleth. Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men: In whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes. But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity: redeem me, and be merciful unto me” (Ps. 26:4-11).
The true knowledge of God causes the Holiness of the Spirit of God to be your fellowship “all the day” and “ever with” you (Ps. 119:97-100), and “the wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts” (Ps. 10:4). Has seminary caused you to forget the inexpressible joy and love of being in God’s presence all the day long? Has seminary caused you to forget the fervent burden and expending labor that the Spirit of God presses a man into when abiding in Him? Dylan where are your tears, your burden for souls, your zeal for the lost, and your boldness to share the gospel? These fruits are the energy, thoughts, words, works, and fruits of GOD in your thoughts! It is the apostle Paul who is the pattern of grace (1 Tim. 1:14-16), it was he who knew the ways of Christ in an uncorrupted morality. When an onlooker beheld Paul's words and deeds, Paul could command, “be ye followers of me” (1 Cor. 4:16) and “my ways which be in Christ Jesus, as I teach everywhere in every church” (1 Cor. 4:17). Do you walk in those ways of Paul, or has the worldly wisdom of the carnal “teachers” corrupted you like as the carnal Corinthians were corrupted? Whose description do you pattern in your life now? Read 1 Cor. 4:8-17.
You have a care-free life now at the expense of your Savior and God in Christ? Turn back Dylan, go back to Christ! You can either have “lasciviousness” (Jude 4) or a burden to follow Paul who was relentless in preaching (Acts 20:25-27), who “ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears” (Acts 20:31), who did “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18), and so much so, he said, “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Rom. 9:2-3).
Oh! That God would give you the loathsome reflections of David Brainerd – True Godly Repentance - “Was exceedingly pressed under a sense of my pride, selfishness, and party-spirit, in times past, while I attempted to promote the cause of God: It's vile nature and dreadful consequences appeared in such odious colours to me, that my very heart was pained: I saw how poor souls stumbled over it into everlasting destruction, that I was constrained to make that prayer in the bitterness of my soul, Lord, deliver me from blood-guiltiness. I saw my desert of hell on this account. My soul was full of inward anguish and shame before God, that I had spent much time in conversation tending only to promote party-spirit. Oh, I saw I had not suitably prized mortification, self-denial, resignation under all adversities, meekness, love, candour, and holiness of heart and life: And this day was almost wholly spent in such bitter and soul-afflicting reflections on my past frames and conduct. --- Of late, I have thought much of having the Kingdom of Christ advance in the world; but now I saw I had enough to do within myself. The Lord be merciful to me a Sinner, and wash my soul” (David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd, Friday April 8).
Dylan, when you can say again, spiritually, “mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts” (Isa. 6:5), then you will know the sinfulness of your sin and the ever-present repentance wrought in a man that is right with God. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 5:3). “I remember thee” (Jer. 2:2) Dylan, and “thy first love” (Rev. 2:4)! Now you are “fallen” and in desperate need of repentance or you too will be thrust out of “the paradise of God” (Rev. 2:7)! We have wept for you for years my dear friend, and I write with tears, repent! YOU ARE DECIEVED! “He that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be” (Gal. 5:10).
What is the amazing thing about the Grace of God?
They say, "You don't have to obey the word of God to be saved" - The scripture saith, "Let no man deceive you with vain words" (Eph. 5:6, Jas. 1:22, Matt. 7:24-27).
They say, "God is not so much burdened about works as long as you have imputed righteousness, which is apart from works. By this you are justified, therefore, don't burden yourself but rest even though you may not have works-righteousness. We are not under the law but under grace, this matter is not of any eternal consequence." - The scripture saith, "Be not deceived" (1 Cor. 6:9-10).
They say, "God wants you to rest from fear and doubt of your salvation even when you don't do righteouseness, because He alone did righteousness. This is your peace." - The scripture saith, "Let no man deceive you" (1 John 3:7).
They say, "You don't have to care so much about your words and tongue, they are irrelevant to your eternity" - The scripture saith, this man "deceiveth his own heart" (Jas. 1:26, Matt. 12:36- 37).
They say, "Who you are companions with is of no real consequence on your soul because God has called you to be a light. Therefore go out into the world and salt it by being in the places where they celebrate iniquity, like Bars, Clubs, Entertainment Parks, etc. Go with your friends, they will not corrupt you but you will be a witness to them in a dark place." - The scripture saith, "Be not deceived" (1 Cor. 15:33, Eph. 5:9-11, 1 Peter 4:3-4).
Oh God hear my words. Look upon this assembly of internet men. Oh God, judge it I pray, and save thine elect! Please Lord, Amen.
Be sure reader, if not in this life, God will judge this internet madness the moment your soul fly's into eternity. Now at this time, may God never leave you in peace. May He trouble you if indeed you are headed for hell.
In sincerity for Christ and for Truth,
Sean Morris
False teachers are zealous for salvation, that it is by “grace through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). However, have you ever read that “he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant” (1 Cor. 7:22)? Grace does not make a man free to sin or to live in Adam! This is the liberty of the false prophets - “While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption” (2 Pet. 2:19), therefore their liberty is “for an occasion to the flesh” (Gal. 5:13). “Ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness,” they abhor any manifestation of grace which makes a Christian zealous “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:4). They spend their time and energy settling down the consciences which God is stirring up because they do not fulfill the righteousness of the law in the Spirit of God. They are seducing these afflicted consciences to believe that adultery with the world is of no consequence to your eternal standing with God. In other words – they argue that when a man is in such a state, God does NOT become your enemy. What saith the scripture? “Whosoever is a friend of this world is the enemy of God” (Jas. 4:4). Without obtaining repentance, all these enemies (adversaries) will suffer the fate written, “a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries” (Heb. 10:27). False prophets want to argue that there is a certain peaceful looking for salvation for all the adversaries of God when God says the opposite. False prophets speak friend when God speaks enemy, peace when God speak woe.
False prophets are not burdened that a Christian WORK. They cannot understand it! They cannot even see the Kingdom of God so how could they be burdened for its work? They are agitated in their soul against those who are zealous for work supposing such persons have an inferior understanding of grace in Christ. What fools! They fancy themselves they are fighting against a false zeal to earn salvation but they just don’t understand God’s work (Eph. 2:10). What they resist in true Christians they falsely allege to be “dead works” (Heb. 6), however in truth, these works are they which Jesus said are “MY WORKS” (Rev. 2:26), those things we must (by grace though faith in Jesus Christ) keep to be saved. The true grace of God is alive and therefore works, and for this cause it is written “that faith without works is dead” (James 2:20): “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). “What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid” (Rom. 6:15), “for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11).
False teachers are “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God” who have no zeal but to defend their own heretical view of grace. They are drunken in a disgraceful intoxication of a counterfeit salvation that is, as they falsely claim, “not of works lest any man should boast,” therefore they are aliens to the boast and glory of Paul which was ONLY “in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified to me and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14). They are zealous to keep salvation with no works but Christ “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14). They are zealous to excuse themselves from works but true salvation makes an individual zealous for good works. It is true, salvation is by grace through faith, apart from works, but if God is not working in you the vibrant expression of His holy image and deeds to this wicked and fallen world then you have no part with Him. He said, "If you love me, obey My commandments."
Many say, ‘we are not under the law but under grace.’ ‘There is freedom in Christ.’ ‘Salvation is a gift.’ All three of these claims are true but not in the unbiblical sense most people warrant. Their grace is a grace that gives license to live worldly and sinful. Their freedom is not a freedom to live in Christ but rather a freedom to live in Adam. Their free gift of salvation is a mental reception of Christ’s crucifixion, yet they are not willing to give God anything, therefore they do deny their personal crucifixion which is true salvation. Paul said “I am crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20). They have made the gospel worldly instead of heavenly, weak instead of powerful, and horribly invaluable. This is not the gospel! Did you know there is another gospel, spirit, and Jesus preached in the world today; see 2 Corinthians 11:3-4. Which grace, freedom, and gift a man speaks of determines which gospel, spirit, and Jesus! Yet there is only one Jesus that makes depraved sinners free to obey, that freedom is under the dominion of grace. Salvation is God’s work therefore it works! O what a gift!
“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him” (2 Cor. 11:3-4).
Do you know any false teachers?
Herein is your command from God:
- “From such turn away” – 2 Tim. 3:5
- “From such withdraw thyself” – 1 Tim. 6:5
- “Receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed” – 2 John 1:10.
- See also: 1 John 2:19, Jude 3-4, Phillippians 3:1-3, Matt. 15:13-14, 23:13, Gal. 4:29-31, 1 Thess. 2:16, 1 Cor. 5:11, 13, Luke 12:1, Matt. 16:6, 11-12, Jude 16, 2 Peter 2:3, 13-14, 18, 3:17, 2 Cor. 6:17-7:1.
Can your heart be good if your eye enjoys the relish of beholding evil? Do you not know that the world is an ungodly disease, viscously contagious to the soul (1 Peter 2:11)? Even as Isaiah says, “Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isa. 6:5). Though this blistering vision Isaiah obtained a pure heart, and if you had a pure heart which does presently see the Lord of glory (2 Cor. 3:17-18, Heb. 11:27), then you would not call that which is unclean, clean. Television-violence, covetousness, “evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies” (Matt. 15:18-20), are not these things unclean? “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8). Even so, to be pure and stay pure, a saint must learn and obey something of the call of God - “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. 6:17-18). You all need to know this! True grace is not liberty to un-stop your ears and open your eyes to behold and enjoy bloodshed and violence. God will save a man “that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil” (Isa. 33:15). As David said, “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me” (Ps. 101:3).
Will you truly believe that the Holy Ghost desires to watch such things like you watch? Or, has seminary taught you such an abominable understanding of “grace” that is in summary, “I don't need Christ in every part of my life.” You become careless because you don’t care about God, souls, and truth, but God cares. God cares about what you do, where you go, how you spend your time, and even every idle word you speak (Matt. 12:36), and true Christianity teaches a man to walk in the “sober, righteous, and godly” (Titus 2:11-15) Spirit of God in EVERY WORD and DEED of his life. A life of careless ease or obedience to this call, this is your choice - “Whatsoever ye do in WORD and DEED, do ALL in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3:17)! Television, overall, is a window of “fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” (Eph. 5:11), and this is the choice at hand, if you fellowship with darkness you forfeit the light because you cannot have both (1 John 1:5-7).
Dylan you have lost the sweet resolve of Jonathan Edwards and David Brainerd which at one time you had! “Resolved, that I will not give way to that listlessness which I find unbends and relaxes my mind from being fully and fixedly set on religion, whatever excuse I may have for itthat what my listlessness inclines me to do, is best to be done, etc. May 21, and July 13, 1723” (Resolution # 61). “Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can” (Resolution # 5). “Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life” (Resolution # 7). “Resolved, to live so at all times, as I think is best in my devout frames, and when I have clearest notions of things of the gospel, and another world” (Resolution # 18). “First, Resolve upon, and daily endeavor to practice, a life of seriousness and strict sobriety” (Brainerd).
Dylan you need conviction again! Even the cry, “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in Thy way” (Ps. 119:37). Could the mind of God be any clearer toward physical blood-sport and violence? God says, “The wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth” (Ps. 11:5)! “Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment” (Ps. 73:6). And will you say that UFC is a clean meditation for spiritual edification as you misapply Php. 4:8? UFC is not “true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and of praise” (Php. 4:8) in any biblical sense! I know your unconverted state before you were illuminated, how you relished the chance to fight and beat people to a pulp any chance you could get, and now you have returned to your former lusts as you are entertained to watch others do what you desired to do. Had you been meditating on scriptural truth which discerns the thoughts and intents of your heart to be evil, you would not have used Php. 4:8 to justify the ungodly entertainment of UFC. Rather you would remember, “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether” (Ps. 19:9). True is the confession of David - “I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked. I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O LORD: That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works. LORD, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honour dwelleth. Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men: In whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes. But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity: redeem me, and be merciful unto me” (Ps. 26:4-11).
The true knowledge of God causes the Holiness of the Spirit of God to be your fellowship “all the day” and “ever with” you (Ps. 119:97-100), and “the wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts” (Ps. 10:4). Has seminary caused you to forget the inexpressible joy and love of being in God’s presence all the day long? Has seminary caused you to forget the fervent burden and expending labor that the Spirit of God presses a man into when abiding in Him? Dylan where are your tears, your burden for souls, your zeal for the lost, and your boldness to share the gospel? These fruits are the energy, thoughts, words, works, and fruits of GOD in your thoughts! It is the apostle Paul who is the pattern of grace (1 Tim. 1:14-16), it was he who knew the ways of Christ in an uncorrupted morality. When an onlooker beheld Paul's words and deeds, Paul could command, “be ye followers of me” (1 Cor. 4:16) and “my ways which be in Christ Jesus, as I teach everywhere in every church” (1 Cor. 4:17). Do you walk in those ways of Paul, or has the worldly wisdom of the carnal “teachers” corrupted you like as the carnal Corinthians were corrupted? Whose description do you pattern in your life now? Read 1 Cor. 4:8-17.
You have a care-free life now at the expense of your Savior and God in Christ? Turn back Dylan, go back to Christ! You can either have “lasciviousness” (Jude 4) or a burden to follow Paul who was relentless in preaching (Acts 20:25-27), who “ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears” (Acts 20:31), who did “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18), and so much so, he said, “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Rom. 9:2-3).
Oh! That God would give you the loathsome reflections of David Brainerd – True Godly Repentance - “Was exceedingly pressed under a sense of my pride, selfishness, and party-spirit, in times past, while I attempted to promote the cause of God: It's vile nature and dreadful consequences appeared in such odious colours to me, that my very heart was pained: I saw how poor souls stumbled over it into everlasting destruction, that I was constrained to make that prayer in the bitterness of my soul, Lord, deliver me from blood-guiltiness. I saw my desert of hell on this account. My soul was full of inward anguish and shame before God, that I had spent much time in conversation tending only to promote party-spirit. Oh, I saw I had not suitably prized mortification, self-denial, resignation under all adversities, meekness, love, candour, and holiness of heart and life: And this day was almost wholly spent in such bitter and soul-afflicting reflections on my past frames and conduct. --- Of late, I have thought much of having the Kingdom of Christ advance in the world; but now I saw I had enough to do within myself. The Lord be merciful to me a Sinner, and wash my soul” (David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd, Friday April 8).
Dylan, when you can say again, spiritually, “mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts” (Isa. 6:5), then you will know the sinfulness of your sin and the ever-present repentance wrought in a man that is right with God. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 5:3). “I remember thee” (Jer. 2:2) Dylan, and “thy first love” (Rev. 2:4)! Now you are “fallen” and in desperate need of repentance or you too will be thrust out of “the paradise of God” (Rev. 2:7)! We have wept for you for years my dear friend, and I write with tears, repent! YOU ARE DECIEVED! “He that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be” (Gal. 5:10).
What is the amazing thing about the Grace of God?
They say, "You don't have to obey the word of God to be saved" - The scripture saith, "Let no man deceive you with vain words" (Eph. 5:6, Jas. 1:22, Matt. 7:24-27).
They say, "God is not so much burdened about works as long as you have imputed righteousness, which is apart from works. By this you are justified, therefore, don't burden yourself but rest even though you may not have works-righteousness. We are not under the law but under grace, this matter is not of any eternal consequence." - The scripture saith, "Be not deceived" (1 Cor. 6:9-10).
They say, "God wants you to rest from fear and doubt of your salvation even when you don't do righteouseness, because He alone did righteousness. This is your peace." - The scripture saith, "Let no man deceive you" (1 John 3:7).
They say, "You don't have to care so much about your words and tongue, they are irrelevant to your eternity" - The scripture saith, this man "deceiveth his own heart" (Jas. 1:26, Matt. 12:36- 37).
They say, "Who you are companions with is of no real consequence on your soul because God has called you to be a light. Therefore go out into the world and salt it by being in the places where they celebrate iniquity, like Bars, Clubs, Entertainment Parks, etc. Go with your friends, they will not corrupt you but you will be a witness to them in a dark place." - The scripture saith, "Be not deceived" (1 Cor. 15:33, Eph. 5:9-11, 1 Peter 4:3-4).
Oh God hear my words. Look upon this assembly of internet men. Oh God, judge it I pray, and save thine elect! Please Lord, Amen.
Be sure reader, if not in this life, God will judge this internet madness the moment your soul fly's into eternity. Now at this time, may God never leave you in peace. May He trouble you if indeed you are headed for hell.
In sincerity for Christ and for Truth,
Sean Morris
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