Yow! I thought Steve Anderson was crazy!
Openairpreacher, or Michael Markley, is to Steve Anderson what Steve Anderson is to any preacher with a brain in his head.
Is he right? Does the Bible teach that we are to be sinless before God will accept us into Heaven? Well, let's take a look at some of the verses Mike likes.
1 John 3:6: "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him."
Now, here's where I'm probably going to be attacked by rabid fundamentalists. I'm gonna come right out and say it. I don't believe the Bible is to be taken entirely literally at all times.
"I knew it!" the fundies are screaming. "This guy only believes the Bible when he wants to! Heretic! We're not listening to another word you say. You either believe the whole Bible or you believe none of it!"
Calm down, fundies. I believe the whole Bible. But let me ask you: how many of you have cut off your right hand or plucked out your left eye when you realized they were causing you to sin? (Matthew 18: 8-9). How many of you refuse to bury your departed relatives? (Matthew 8:22). Or how many of you hate your parents, your wife, your children, your brothers, sisters, friends and your own life? (Luke 14:26)
Do ANY of you take those verses 100% literally? I don't think so, because I haven't seen a large assortment of one-eyed, one-handed fundamentalists who refuse to bury their dead relatives and hate literally everybody. (Well, that last part is possible, I suppose. Many fundies love to hate.)
Often the Bible states things in a very extreme sense, so that we will know how important the issue at hand is. It's very important not to cast blame on someone or something else, such as our own hand or eye, as if they acted of their own accord, when faced with our own sin. It's also important that we not allow ourselves any excuses as to why we're not following Christ in everything we do, such as having to take care of family arrangements, burials, etc. And nothing should come before Christ: not our parents, our brothers and sisters, our spouses, our children or ourselves.
So what is John 3:6 saying? If you read it in context, it's obvious that John is talking about those who PRACTICE sin, that is, live in it with no repentence. And I agree; I've met many "Christians" who seem to care far more about doing whatever they want to do and not at all concerned with what Christ wants for them. I don't like to question salvation, but I can't believe a new creation in Christ would ever WANT to sin as much as these people clearly do. Mike is right about one thing: Christians have no desire to sin. That's Biblical.
But let me put it another way: I consider myself a law-abiding citizen. I have no desire in me to break the law. But every now and then, I look down at my speedometer and realize I've been speeding. This is clearly breaking the law, but I did not set out to break the speed limit. For that matter, if a cop were to pull me over (and some have), I don't immediately get sentenced to death, or even to life without parole, for something like speeding. According to Mike Markley, God punishes us for speeding with a death sentence.
1 John 3:9: "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."
Boy, Mike seems to like 1 John 3. Of course, he likes to focus on JUST THAT PART OF IT, which seems to back him up. He fails again to grasp the spirit of what is being said. How just like a legalist.
Verse 2 of that chapter says "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."
Am I the only one who sees that this very chapter, which Mike likes so much, is saying that we are not yet what we shall be in Heaven? That we are not yet like God? That we won't be until He appears?
1 John 3:9 says to me that a Christian is without sin because Jesus has seperated the Christian from sin through His sacrifice at Calvary. As I've said before, God looks at one who is covered with the blood of Christ, and He doesn't see our sin anymore. He sees Jesus.
1 John 1:7: "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."
Mike is waaaaay off in his interpretation of this one. Note that it says "the blood of Jesus Christ...CLEANSETH us from all sin." ALL SIN. Sin of the past, the present and the future. This verse isn't even TRYING to say that we'll never sin again if we truly love Christ. I'm not sure how you can twist a message of Christ's sacrifice cleansing us from sin and make it say that anyone who loves Christ will stop sinning or God will send him to Hell.
John 8:11: "She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."
Of course He told her to "sin no more." But...did Mike not read this passage? Jesus had just been told of the sin she had been caught in: adultery. When He told her "sin no more", he was clearly telling her to turn away the sin of marital infidelity.
For that matter, her accusers were apparently much wiser, or at least honest with themselves, than Mike Markley is. Jesus didn't join in and stone her, as Mike would probably do. He said "Let he that is without sin cast the first stone." And that shut them up. Jesus didn't immediately condemn the entire crowd to Hell, but He knew that sin is in all of us. Apparently the crowd did, too.
Jesus does not wish for us to live in sin. All sin saddens God, and I'll never pretend otherwise. But did Jesus tell her "go and sin no more, or you will go to Hell?" No. He was telling her "I've delivered you from this sin." Delivering one from one's sin does not mean that God will not deliver you from any further sin committed, and nothing in the Bible suggests that this is true.
In his picking and choosing, Mike carefully avoids the following passages:
Romans 7:25: "I myself in my mind am a slave to Gods law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin."
Woah! Here's Paul, one of Christ's most dedicated apostles, one of the most oft-quoted biblical scribes, admitting he's still a sinner! This should end all argument right now, unless those who preach sinlessness believe that Paul wasn't really saved. By their logic, Paul is going to Hell.
James 3:2: "We all stumble in many ways."
James, a disciple of Christ. One of the twelve. He never betrayed Christ. Never denied Him. And yet, here he is, admitting he stumbles, and saying that we ALL do. In fact, scripture is RIDDLED with good men who did bad things. Moses committed murder, Noah was a drunk, Lot offered his daughters to rapists, Abraham laughed at God, Peter denied Christ, and David committed adultery and then conspired to have his lover's husband killed! I guess they're all in Hell today.
1 John 1: 8-10: 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Hey, alright! We're back in Mike's favorite chapter. And here it is, in black and white: If we claim sinlessness, we make God a liar. While it may be possible to twist verse 10 to say that it's only talking about sins we committed before becoming saved, verse 8 clearly says that we still have sin, and that trying to claim we don't is self-deception.
Ecclesiastes 7:20: 20 For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
Kinda says it all, doesn't it?
Psalm 142: 2: 2 And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.
Last I checked, I'm still alive. So is Mike. So is ANYONE who is still walking around trying to claim sinlessness. NONE OF US are justified. Not ONE.
Besides, like I've said before, you can't just pick five or six verses and say "look, here's what the Bible says about that." It reminds me of the suicidal man who turned to the Bible, hoping to find something in there that would stop him from killing himself.
He flipped through the Bible, his eyes landing on Matthew 27:5: "...Then he went away and hanged himself."
Thinking he must have done something wrong, he flipped through it again, until he saw Judges 9:48: "...What you have seen me do, hurry and do likewise."
Picking and choosing can be used to effectively back up ANY position you wish. God does not want us to pick this verse and that verse. He wants us to accept ALL scripture as a whole.
When you look at what the Bible teaches us about the character of God, as exemplified through the character of Christ, this is not a God who would deny us Heaven because we are not good enough to be allowed in. Believing in sinlessness for salvation leads to the following unbiblical ideas:
-It can lead us to believe that we can earn our salvation, when the Bible says over and over that salvation is by grace, not of works.
-It causes us to believe that we are justified while others around us are not, while in the Bible it says that NO ONE is justified.
-It can cause us to live in fear that we'll lose our salvation several times per day.
-It can cause us to live in the sin of pride and vanity, not even noticing the sin we're living in and committing the entire time, because it's not the same sin that we see others falling into.
-It basically negates Calvary, and turns Christ's sacrifice into a big joke. We're telling God, "Hey, thanks for dying for my sin and all, but it wasn't really necessary. I have no sin." What is the point of Christ covering us in His blood so that the Father sees Jesus in us if that blood gets wiped right off again any time we sin? Did God only send Jesus to pay for the sins that had already been committed? Will Jesus have to die again to cover the sins of the following generations? Was it only to save sins committed prior to our salvation? How can that be when Jesus said "It is finished", meaning all sin is now paid for?
Those who preach sinlessness do so mainly because they believe that the gospel of grace will cause people to believe they can sin all they want. Mike Markley clearly believes this as he told me that Calvinists just want to keep sinning like the Devil. Folks, the Bible teaches us that a new creation in Christ no longer has the desire to sin. I believe that as surely as Mike does. We are to repent, to turn from sin, to live a life pleasing to God. No, those aren't requirements for salvation, but all of it is evidence for salvation. Without that evidence showing itself, is the person really saved? Are you really saved if the fruit of your salvation doesn't exist?
No, we don't preach that you can sin all you want because God has taken away your sin. But we're not blind to the passages of scripture that teach us that the sin nature has never left us, and won't until God appears at the end of time. We remain vigilant against the sin nature tempting us to be drawn into sin again.
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