Responding To NAR Doctrine - Part 2
For the born-again believer the incorrect understanding of scripture and the holding on to inaccurate beliefs are not a matter of salvation. Salvation is by the blood of Yeshua by the grace of God, period.
The belief in faulty teachings and a poor interpretation of scripture have the potential of weakening the believer.
False teaching and misinterpretation produce fear by focusing on the things of earthly man instead of on the heavenly things of God. And we do not have a spirit of fear but a spirit of power and love and of a sound mind.
Our focus and our desire should be Yeshua. When in love with Yeshua we desire His immediate return.
James 5:8
You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
When we depend on Yeshua we know that he is the fulfilment of all things and that all the works of the law are completed in him; and we rest in this promise and reality.
We are under the grace of the new covenant. The old things have passed away and all things have been made new. Because the law came by Moses but grace and truth by Yeshua the Messiah, the high priest and finisher of our faith.
What comfort, What confidence with reassurance, what liberty do we have in the truth that has set us free. For Yeshua is the way the truth and the life and in and through Yeshua we approach the Father.
We are dead to the law and free to marry another. We are crucified with this world and this world crucified to us. Buried with him in baptism and raised in glory.
Is this too good to be true? Do we want to earn our salvation-or maybe part of it? Why do we put our new wine in old skins and patch up our old tunic with new cloth? All is new in Yeshua.
I foolish Galatians did you receive the spirit by faith or by the works of the law? If indeed the Spirit of Yeshua dwells in you. And if by faith then why do you so willingly return to the obligation of performing the works of the law?
If you break one of the commandments you are guilty of breaking them all.
If we love Yeshua we will do his commandments because of the new covenant by which they are written on the tablets of our heart. Not by obligation but by grace; living in the spirit as a new creation walking in the good works that the Father prepared for us before the foundation of the world. For love is the fulfilment of the law.
Let’s be in communion with Yeshua.
Let’s be led by the spirit, leaning not on our own understanding, always trusting in God; knowing and accepting that we are under grace because Yeshua paid the price in full with His blood when He offered Himself as the Lamb of God for the forgiveness of our sins; then defeating death and rising in power and glory that we may have eternal life, and that in abundance. It is finished.
I will gradually address some or all of these teachings in future posts on my blog
Please prayerfully and in light of Scripture look into them yourself.
Ephesians 5:13 (NASB) 13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.
These are new doctrines—another gospel.
It makes total sense that some or even much sound doctrine will proceed out of the mouths of false teachers but even A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. Galatians 5:9 (NASB)
Matthew 16:6 (NASB)
6 And Jesus said to them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
1 Corinthians 5:7 (NASB)
7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
If these teachers, apostles and prophets didn’t teach that we are saved by the blood of Yeshua and on Yeshua’s divinity there would be no power at all in their message.
The name of Yeshua is what attracts the multitudes to their deception.
Matthew 7:22-23 (NASB)
22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’
In my last post, I list the teachings of what Peter Wagner called The New Apostolic Reformation or NAR. https://www.yeshuamytestimony.com/post/falseprophets
Many of the NAR teachings are founded on the over-expounding and personal interpretation of individual verses of the Bible which have been taken out of context.
Religions, denominations, sects and cults employ this tactic to support and promote their deceptive teachings.
It is dishonest and worldly to use solitary verses, which have been suspended from scriptural context, as slogans to formulate unbiblical theology and to promote false teachings which eventually develop into long lasting dogma.
I would even go as far as saying, beware of teachers who preach individual messages which are based on and developed around one or two solitary verses.
Scripture can really explain and interpret itself with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit. When we are in the habit of reading the Bible in its entirety, we will encounter verses and chapters that will clarify and help us understand verses and chapters that were previously unclear to us.
As believers we have a responsibility to be true witnesses to Yeshua’s perfect and completed redemptive work on the cross.
1 Peter 1:3-5 (NASB)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
1 Peter 1:18-19 (NASB)
18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
The guarantee of eternal salvation is not a secondary teaching. The promise and guarantee of eternal salvation is a foundational teaching. To be eternally saved by the precious blood of the perfect Lamb of God is a most elevated and heavenly idea that we can only begin to grasp and understand after we are supernaturally born again from above and indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:9 (NASB)
9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
Spiritual things are understood by one in whom the Holy Spirit dwells.
1 Corinthians 2:12-13 (NASB)
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
1 Corinthians 2:16 (NASB)
16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.
It’s critical to understand that the central message of the Bible is the Good News and promise of comfort, forgiveness of sin, redemption and eternal salvation for those who accept Jesus the Messiah as Lord and Savior and who are born again and filled with the Holy Spirit; while, on the other hand, condemnation to those who do not accept Him. The message is clear cut and there are no blurry areas.
Eternal salvation in Jesus the Messiah or condemnation without Him is the central message of the Bible.
John 3:18 (NASB)
18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
We are made Holy by the Blood of Christ. We are set apart.
3 But know that the LORD has set apart the godly man for Himself;
The LORD hears when I call to Him.
Psalm 4:3
When there are verses that are either unclear or which seem to contradict or not be in harmony with the central message of the whole Bible, we must seek to understand these verses in the context of the central Biblical message of salvation or condemnation.
We should not take these verses out of context and form theology, doctrines and dogma from them.
The Bible does not contradict itself.
Let’s not reduce our supernatural salvation to the lowly level of sinful man by putting our salvation in our own hands and thereby denying the Lord that bought us for 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8-9 (NASB)
The New Covenant is unlike the Sinai Covenant—which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. 33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Jeremiah 31:32-34 (NASB)
Teaching that salvation may be temporary and that it is in fact conditional, in order to protect the flock, actually weakens the flock and submits them not to the rightful authority of Yeshua, but to the usurped authority of the teachers of such false doctrines.
The teaching that one can lose their salvation is one of the fundamental teachings of the Catholic Church which was used to sow fear and thus subject the masses to its authority.
Teaching that salvation can be lost is a great way of causing people to fearfully focus on themselves and on the enemy rather than turning their eyes to heaven from where we expect our saviour.
Philippians 3:20 (NASB)
20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ;
Colossians 3:1-2 (NASB)
1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
The doctrine of losing your salvation is also accompanied by an over emphasis on the power of sin and on the power of the enemy. Let’s focus on Yeshua. The enemy has no power unless the Lord allows him it. 7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. James 4:7 (NASB)
He who overcomes will be saved is not a warning to the believer; it is a call to unbelievers to come to Christ and be born again because only in Christ will they receive the power from above to overcome. 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
Romans 8:37 (NASB)
1 John 5:4-5 (NASB)
4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
God in His endless mercy and abounding grace is always ready and willing to forgive those who earnestly call on His name.
Matthew 18:21-22 (NASB)
21 Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus *said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
How much more will God forgive us when we truly repent?
Romans 5:8-9 (NASB)
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
Proverbs 24:16 (NASB)
16 For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, But the wicked stumble in time of calamity.
Proverbs 4:18 (NASB)
18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, That shines brighter and brighter until the full day.
Romans 8:28-30 (NASB)
28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
Philippians 1:6 (NASB)
6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.