By johninnc
John 5:24: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
As the darkness of the world-wide coronavirus response was unleashed, one of its tools was the use of government mottos that could be easily parroted by the public. Thus, rather than thinking critically about what was happening, citizens could avail themselves of this alliterative mnemonic and even participate in amplifying the government’s talking points.
Here in North Carolina, our version is: Know Your Ws: Wear, Wait, Wash
If you leave home, know your 3 Ws!
Wear a cloth mask over your nose and mouth.
Wait 6 feet apart. Avoid close contact.
Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer.
I have heard commercials and seen billboards with all, or parts of this message hammered home over and over again. Of course, the most popular component is the mask, because handwashing is hard to display!
I will not make this post about the efficacy of these measures. Our governor dictated a statewide mask mandate on June 26, 2020, a day on which there were around 1,700 recorded “cases,” which eventually grew to a daily high of more than 11,000 several months later.
Whether the 3 Ws increased, decreased, or had no impact on the spread cannot be empirically determined. However, we have succeeded in making people objectify one another, in creating another arbitrary division between people, in abrogating civil liberties, and in conditioning people to accept, and even promote, previously unfathomable encroachments on bodily autonomy.
As I have covered in other posts, almost all institutions, including many churches, have been brought into the brainwashing effort.
Having said all of the above, much of professing Christendom has fallen prey to a disease represented by another version of the 3 Ws: Work, Wait, Watch!
Work for eternal life: The Bible says that eternal life is received the moment one believes in Jesus as Savior. In stark opposition to that, many churches teach either subtle, or not-so-subtle versions of believing in Jesus as helper, instead of Savior. They do this by adding some element of a person’s works to how one receives eternal life. In so doing, they change the life-giving gospel into a false gospel of works. Some examples include:
- Turn from sins for eternal life
- Be willing to turn from sins for eternal life
- Believe and be water baptized
- Put Jesus on the throne of your life
We see one of these examples imbedded in “The Baptist Faith and Message,” which is used by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), as well as many other Baptist organizations and churches:
Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God.”
“Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Saviour.
Wait to see if it “worked”: Whereas the Bible says that one need not wait for a “changed life” to have assurance of eternal life, not everyone agrees. According to a popular false gospel website called “Got Questions”:
Lordship salvation is not a salvation-by-works doctrine. Advocates of lordship salvation are careful to say that salvation is by grace alone, that believers are saved before their faith ever produces any good works, and that Christians can and do sin. However, true salvation will inevitably lead to a changed life. The saved will be dedicated to their Savior…
Faith must involve a personal commitment to Christ (2 Corinthians 5:15). It is more than being convinced of the truth of the gospel; it is a forsaking of this world and a following of the Master
For the Lordship Salvation camp, assurance of salvation comes through the observation of change in the professing believer, i.e., that he is accomplishing good works.
Watch yourself and others for evidence of eternal life: This concept is completely alien to scripture, yet it has been propagated by some of the biggest names in the religion business. The late Charles Haddon Spurgeon, often called “The Prince of Preachers,” had this to say:
Another proof of the conquest of a soul for Christ will be found in a real change of life. If the man does not live differently from what he did before, both at home and abroad, his repentance needs to be repented of, and his conversion is a fiction.
And this, from the late Arthur Pink:
There is a faith in Christ which is saving, and there is a faith in Christ which is not saving. Possibly, the reader says, “But I know that mine is the former: I have seen myself as a lost sinner, realize I can do nothing to gain acceptance with God, and have put my trust in the finished work of His Son.”…Dear friends, others who were equally sure as you are now in Hell! Suffer us to enquire, Have you tested your faith by Scripture? Have you taken the trouble to ascertain whether your faith is accompanied by those evidences which are inseparable from a saving faith?
We may not know for a long time, if ever, whether the 3 Ws of the coronavirus were effective in suppressing anything other than human dignity. But we know right now that the 3 Ws found so prominently in the word of churchianity undermine the gospel of Jesus Christ, and serve only to keep people lost and to undermine the assurance and growth of believers.
If you would like to know how to have eternal life click here: THE GOSPEL
Notes From A Retired Preacher 