Whats Up Dad (Pt 3) - Dividing Soul and Spirit

Feeling a little disconcerted in the light of all thats going on at home and in family, and in personal life coping with it all, balance has not yet returned, but I cling on to faith and Father for life. Trusting the sensings of the Spirit and not trying not to suffer from analysis-paralysis, circumstances do point me to a season of exploring the truth and theology, so that is where I go.

The search for biblical truth in light of God's word is imperative... guiding our lives by our convictions. And while no man is infallible (and by extension, no church is perfect :p), nonetheless heresies should be nipped in the bud for the good of the body. As today's BT so succintly puts it:

"If the low hum of a refrigerator were to increase in pitch over several weeks, the appliance could be singing soprano by the end of the month and no one would be the wiser."

(OOP: Perhaps im drawn to mentions of 'refrigerator' cos its prayer season :p)

today, 2 heresies that are creeping into the church. I never did have a taste for -isms, but whats in a name? If we are to build His church, it should be upon His Word... so, for the love of God and the body of christ, here we go:

(Excepts taken from brother's page)

Pelagianism

A works based, self reliant moral philosophy and heresy. Its all about me and my capability, with no room for the grace of God. We are born good and do good works to get closer to salvation and do bad deeds to get further from salvation.

Points:

1. That Adam would have died even if he had not sin;
2. That the sin of Adam injured himself alone, not the human race;
3. That newborn children are in the same condition as Adam was before the Fall; corollary; that infants, though unbaptized, have eternal life;
4. That the whole human race does not die because of Adam's death or sin, nor will it rise again because of Christ's resurrection;
5. That the Old Testament Law, as well as the New Testament Gospel, gives entrance to heaven; and
6. That even before the coming of Christ there were men who were entirely without sin.

False for many reasons and references, for e.g.

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned - Rom 5:12

All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." - Rom 3:12

Semi-Pelagianism

Still a works based philosophy, but man starts out sinful (biblical) and the 'work' is through faith. Which, while not wrong, is also not complete. Grace and God is still absent.

"In Semi-Pelagian theology, unlike pure Pelagianism, Man is born sinful. Thus, Semi-Pelagianism at least has a veneer of Christianity. It affirms that Jesus came to die for our sins. However, in pandering to the carnal mind, it proposes that Man can seek after God without God's grace and seize hold of God's grace through faith. God's grace would then save the person by applying Christ's work on the cross to him/her. This could be seen in the Semi-Pelagianism chart above where the Man could either seek God or don't seek Him. Those who don't seek him are doomed to hell whereas those who do would one day use their faith to find him apart from grace which would lead to God's grace saving the person. The person would thus either remain saved by doing good works or lost his salvation by not doing good works.

Therefore, in the Semi-Pelagian system, faith precedes grace. God's grace thus become a reward for a person's faith in Him and is dependent on it. This is heretical as 1) God is totally sovereign (Job 42:2; Mt. 19:26) and thus not dependent on anybody to do anything and 2) Grace is unmerited (Eph. 2:4-5). "

A capsule summary capturing the main point:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God - Eph 2:8

For by faith you have been saved, apart from grace, apart from God. - Semi-P-ism