Article 46

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"The Subterfuge of Self-Righteous Grace Haters"

In light of a recent event I was again reminded of, and thought it needful to again expose, one of religion’s most subtle self-righteous tactics. Although the recent event may not be exactly what I will mention here, for I only know some of the details, nevertheless, it did remind me of the subterfuge of self-righteous grace haters. The tactic I mentioned is a smoke screen used for misdirection. They use this smoke screen to avoid having to deal with their hatred for God’s reigning, free grace in Christ. And what is this smoke screen? Grace haters will point out the supposed overt sins of another to direct attention away from the reality about themselves concerning their own hearts. This smoke screen is seen in two ways but in both of these the actual intent is disguised. While feigning concern for spiritual matters their true intent is to judge another in order to make themselves look righteous. The two different ways are what I will term direct and indirect confrontation but both are designed to exalt the confronter who hates grace.

The direct method is when the grace hater, under the guise of a mere inquiry, begins asking questions about religion as though concerned for a person’s soul so as to provide help. Yet, all the while, the confronter already knows the answers, at least in general, and that is that the person confronted is suspected of believing in reigning, free grace. With the subject of religion now breeched under the guise of concern the grace hater now springs the trap and points out a supposed fault in the grace believer in order that the grace hater may make themselves appear righteous. Since they each believe differently then the grace hater thinks to have the upper hand by inadvertently being able to blame the confronted person’s faith.

There is also the indirect method. This happens when the grace hater can find no supposed overt sin with which to judge the grace believer at hand so the grace hater attacks another grace believer associated with the first grace believer. The second grace believer’s supposed sin is brought up so as to make the grace hater appear more righteous than either grace believer because, of course, they neither do such things nor associate with those who do. For instance, the grace hater despises the truth of God’s election of grace in Christ but to avoid that subject they mention having seen, whether in the direct or indirect way, a grace believer purchasing a bottle of wine, which of course, they would never do. Would the fact that the wine was purchased for the Lord’s Table make a difference to the grace hater? No! They use grape juice not evil wine, claiming that scripture means grape juice when it says wine, and thus Christ was accused of being a God awful grape juice bibber. Would it matter to them that the use of wine is never condemned in scripture but rather that its abuse (Eph. 5:18) and misuse is (Rom. 14:20-23)? No! They believe nothing but abstinence based upon what their preacher has told them because they cannot prove it by God’s word. Or, the grace hater despises predestination unto adoption for those chosen in Christ but rather than deal with that subject at least they do not attend a church where the preacher uses tobacco. Would it matter to them that tobacco is never even mentioned in the scriptures thus never condemned? No! For they have two scriptures they twist to make their point. The first speaks not of the human body as the temple of God but rather of the spiritual body made up of believers in Christ, which no man is to defile by the exaltation of men (I Cor. 3:16-23). The second does speak of the bodies of believers being the temple of God the Spirit and that He is to be glorified but the only sin against the body is fornication and nothing else (I Cor. 6:18). Does this truth matter to the grace hater? Of course not since it takes away their advantage. Does it matter to them that the preacher may no longer even use tobacco? No! At least they are better for they never did it to start with. Does it matter to them that others in the grace haters own church uses tobacco, which even professes to be God’s people? No! Somewhere they must have heard that the bible teaches that the preacher shall not smoke or chew but the rest can and do.

Truly indeed do the self-righteous grace haters gag at a gnat as they are wolfing down camels one after another, hooves and all! They will reject the direct revelation of scripture and all the while base their hope before God upon the interpretations and doctrines and commandments of men being caught up in the touch not, taste not, and handle not of ascetic religion. They did this in Christ’s days on earth and the days of the apostles and they are yet at it today. Just because religion says its wrong does not make it wrong, and when it’s avoided by grace hating religion it’s generally a matter of conscience, which they make a matter of acceptance with God. This is not so (Rom. 14:1-23). Let us deal with them as our Lord did. It was against such as this that our Lord gave His strongest judgments!

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