Counterfeit Gospels: Temporary Salvation

[Posted With Permission, Peter Meney Of “New Focus“]

Counterfeit: To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value than the real thing.

Of all the Baptist denominations, I always stood very near the Particular Baptists. It was only recently that it was pointed out to me by my friend Richard Schade of Grand Rapids that, at times, movements had arisen amongst their ranks who believed, like many non-Baptists, that salvation was as short-lived as the will of the ‘saved’ would have it. He called this ‘time salvation’, which was quite a new term to me. I had always believed since my own conversion that salvation must be ‘for keeps’ otherwise it is not salvation. I immediately began to look into this mystery, starting on a helpful book on the subject by an Elder Boaz which I found on the Internet Archive. Boaz wrote at the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century. The idea seems to have lain dormant for a number of decades since then but, judging by the number of web-sites who have taken up the subject in recent years, it seems both to be growing in popularity and abounding more and more in diversities, causing churches to quarrel with churches. This has always been the ‘divide and rule’ policy of the devil. According to the new delight in using capitalized initials to describe modern movements, Time Salvation is now called the CTS which stands for Conditional Time Salvation. However, just as most new ‘theologies’ such as New Covenant Theology (NCT), seem bound to go through many different opinions, modern CTS enthusiasts such as Michael L. Gowens have already altered the meaning of CTS to Conditional Temporal Salvation. Such titles alone are enough to frighten off any Bible-believing Christian as we are assured that all the conditions of salvation were met by our Saviour and He promises us that, once met, they are valid for all eternity. 

Salvation is in Christ’s hands, not in our own 

Thinking of Romans 4:5 and 5:6 which teach that God justifies the ungodly, I had always believed since my conversion that it was 

because we could not keep the necessary conditions that Christ has kept them for us. Thus, by unconditional grace (as far as the sinner is concerned), we are saved and this is not of ourselves but it is the gift of God. He is the Creator and Finisher of our faith. This gift is eternal as Paul so mightily preaches throughout Romans 4-6. To talk about a conditional time salvation is to deny Christ’s glorious words in John 6:37-39:

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

1 Timothy 4:16 and John Gill

A favourite text of the Time Salvationists is 1 Timothy 4:16 which reads:

Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

Paul here is advising Timothy, whom he describes as a gifted Christian, of what manner of meditation and study a Christian ought to pursue. He is not talking about how one may appropriate time salvation but how one behaves as a Christian who has received eternal salvation. Paul is obviously not telling Timothy how he might obtain a temporary salvation but explaining to him how eternal salvation works out in the body of a believer who is set apart for the ministry.

John Gill claimed by the Conditional Baptists

One anonymous writer, using the name Tim Herrin, presumably as a pen name, reacted against an article on The Old Baptist Test website concerning the Historical Criteria for Conditional Time Salvation arguing that:

John Gill believed in ‘conditional time salvation’. In his comments on 1 Tim 4:16 (Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.), Gill says, ‘a minister by taking heed to himself, and doctrine, saves himself from the pollutions of the world, from the errors and heresies of false teachers, from the blood of all men, and from all just blame in his ministry’. That is as clear and plain a statement of conditional time salvation as was ever written or spoken. John Gill would not have written it if he did not believe it. It was true when Gill wrote it, and it is just as true today.

Herrin seems to have combed through Gill with a small-toothed comb merely to find supposed proof texts out of context. Anyone with Gill on his side cannot go far wrong. Here, in a context, which Gill makes perfectly clear, but is lost to Herrin, the Baptist Pastor is obviously addressing ministers concerning their responsibilities to their flocks in order to lead them into eternal life. There is nothing temporary about Gill’s admonition.

Happily, a brother named Kevin Fralick was quick to correct Tim Herrin and wrote:

Tim,

The specifics of which Gill mentions here as to from what Timothy was to be saved are not (to) be seen as something independent of eternal salvation, but part of it. In being saved with an eternal

salvation there would be an implicit preservation from the world’s pollutions, heresies, etc.. Paul has reference to Timothy’s ongoing salvation commenced in the new birth (Philippians1:6). But why did you not quote Gill on the remainder of the passage?

And them that hear thee; by being an example to them in doctrine and conversation, a minister is the means of saving and preserving those that attend on him, from erroneous principles, and immoral practices; and by faithfully preaching the Gospel to his hearers, he is instrumental in their eternal salvation; for though Jesus Christ is the only Saviour, the only efficient and procuring cause of salvation, yet the ministers of the Gospel are instruments by which souls believe in him, and so are saved; the word preached by them, being attended with the Spirit of God, becomes the ingrafted word, which is able to save, and is the power of God unto salvation; and nothing can more animate and engage the ministers of the word to take heed to themselves and doctrine, and abide therein, than this, of being the happy instruments of converting sinners, and saving them from death;

He mentions that ministers are instrumental in the eternal salvation of

hearers of the gospel. Do you agree with the learned theologian here? Please reconsider, Tim.’

Dividing the inseparable

The trouble with most CTS people as I see it, is that though they are far from speaking with one voice, they separate election from conversion, a supposed time salvation from eternal salvation and election from a life of faith. Indeed, they appear to really believe that one can be of the elect but remain unconverted until after death. Thus, their real salvation does not begin when Christ enters their lives but merely after the resurrection as a kind of pie in the sky when they die. Yet such contenders for this hotchpotch call their CTS suppositions and superstitions ‘rightly dividing the Word of God’. Theirs is a theology of isolated bits and pieces all weighed up in a paper-weight scale of finely balanced works-righteousness whereby one sin only after conversion leaves them without their salvation. Thus, Michael L. Gowens, admitting that the term ‘time salvation’ can mean one thing or another, calls his salvation ‘temporal salvation’, thinking his new term is self-explanatory.

Making words mean what we want them to mean

Gowens in his article Temporal ‘Salvation’: A Bogus or Biblical Concept? has his own interpretation of Gill’s words on dealing with ‘dividing the word of truth’ as meaning what the great Baptist theologian and pastor never taught, sought or thought in his commentaries on Timothy. Gill followed the Word in distributing it in palatable portions as the Spirit leads. He certainly did not believe in cutting and separating truth from truth making a plurality of conflicting mock truths and a plurality of salvations and saviours as does Gowens. Indeed, I was most surprised to find that Gowens drew in not only Gill and Bunyan into his CTS fold but also myself in his online essay. On pages 12 and 13, Gowens seeks to divide the one teaching of Gill on Justification which he has quite misunderstood, into two distinct and separate justifications just as he argues for two distinct kinds of salvation. He believes he has found ‘evidence’ in my book John Gill and the Cause of God and Truth, though Gill, Bunyan and myself are speaking of the source and application of the one, single truth. Besides, Gill never taught a twofold meaning of justification but of a three-fold cause and effect

relating to eternity, time and our resurrection in Glory. What would Gowens then make of Witsius who speaks of nine causes and effects of justification? Would he say that Witsius believed in nine justifications? I fear he would. But Witsius, Gill, Bunyan, and if I may add my own name, Ella, are speaking of one action of God in its various applications. Justifying salvation comes from God but it is the same justification when it reaches man. Just as God says ‘Let there be light’, then light appears. This is true of all God’s saving actions. Man can neither annul them, nor tamper with them. If he tries, he makes a mess of things as we see from the CTS fantasies. As God’s saving action is from eternity and God’s justification of a sinner in salvation is for eternity, we see that Gowens is grasping at the straw of his own split-up reasoning in lieu of the real thing. However, the CTS people separate justification from the Atonement, salvation, adoption, the forgiveness of sins, election, perseverance and all the applications of God’s wonderous Work through Christ, applied by the Holy Spirit in the one, eternal salvations. They present us with an extra-Scriptural salad rather than the pure meat of the Word.

Many online pastors promote a depressive theology

It is hard to believe that online pastors, on whom older Christians are beginning to lean more and more because of restrictions on worship and worldliness in the local churches, do not realise what damage they are doing to the sinner’s soul in preaching their conditional salvation. It is as if they are striving to rob both unbelievers and believers alike of the gospel of security in Christ. This is a gospel which not only saves but keeps the justified sinner eternally. Typical of this falling away in the churches which must surely be called ‘worldliness’ and their efforts to drag others with them is one of many CTS anti-gospel statements online today as found in Bible Truth Resources dated May 7, 2014. Here, Jesse Morrel tells us:

Just as the Bible teaches that our own choice and role is necessary in getting saved, so it also teaches that our own decision and activity is necessary in order to stay saved. Paul said, ‘But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway’ (1 Corinthians 9:27).

In other words, if Paul did not keep his body under subjection, he himself would become a reprobate! If even the Apostle Paul said that he was capable of losing his salvation, then anyone can lose their salvation!

It is thus no wonder that many Christians are being scared out of their wits by this condemnable heresy!

A gospel of self-contradiction

CTS preachers are adamant in insisting that their conditional, temporally and time-bound understanding is clearly represented in God’s Word. Yet strangely enough, the very passages of Scripture which they interpret quite out of context with their cutting and pasting methods of exegesis, on examination, appear to mean just the opposite to the meaning the CTS give them. One of the most provocative and militant CTS preachers today is surely Kerrigan Skelley of the Refining Fire Fellowship who shows us in his videos that he possesses a fine evangelistic zeal, but his way of ‘dividing the word’ is in no way synergistic and as far as his short-term salvation is concerned, Skelley has no overview of the process of salvation. As Skelley gives Ezekiel 33, John 15, Romans 11, 1 Corinthians 9-10, Hebrews 3-4 & 2 Peter 2 as passages which emphatically prove that the Doctrine of Conditional Security is BIBLICAL!’, in closing this article, it would be perhaps profitable to examine their overall message.

Ezekiel 33

First here, we must remember Ezekiel’s calling outlined in the earlier chapters and to which Chapter 33 refers back. We are dealing with the responsibilities of a watchman over Israel whose task is to prevent the wicked from triumphing. If they refuse to hear the Watchman’s warning they shall perish in their sins. However, the Watchman shall not be responsible for such an apparent failure but is seen by God as preserving his soul through his faithfulness. To imagine that the Watchman, or the son of man (surely a Messianic title) mentioned here and appointed by God to warn the lost, has himself preserved his soul would be true of the Messiah but not of God’s appointed one Ezekiel. The prophet was true to his initial God-given appointment with the lovely song and pleasant voice of the true prophet and his being guided by the Holy Spirit as outlined in the context which Kelley does not mention. So

too, we must note that Ezekiel’s calling is to preach that a remnant of the rebellious people will be surely saved (Chapter 6). The whole idea of the Christian gospel in Ezekiel is that God is securing a remnant to be made Christ’s Bride. So, too, we obviously must distinguish between the true and false Israel here and there is no evidence anywhere in Ezekiel that the true remnant of Israel is a people of a mere conditional, temporal, timebound salvation. It is of note that after Chapter 33 continues into Chapter 34 with a solemn warning against false shepherds, amongst whom I would certainly include the CTS’s ministers of doubt, despair and hopelessness, Chapter 34 is a triumphant chapter for the Church as it shows how God will save, cherish and unite His scattered remnant. Then Chapters 35-48 abound with the eternal Covenant promises of God. I have heard Skelley preaching myself that the Lord will make all our sins as white as snow, so why does he contradict himself by believing that the prophets taught time salvation which could be lost after one single sin.

John 15

Skelley obviously believes that Christ’s Bride can escape from His salvation by severing their branches from His true vine, though He has chosen His elect who never chose Him, a fact which immediately refutes CTS thinking. I take this chapter, especially verse 19 on, to mean that Jesus points His Church to what they have been chosen from but the servant is not greater than his Lord. Indeed, Christ tells His disciples, here principally spoken to, that they are His witnesses that He has chosen them to keep them in the vine. Yet the education of the disciples was still going through a process of instruction and they had still much to learn.

So, too, even tackling a whole chapter out of context is inadvisable and in Chapter 14, the disciples had just learnt that the Lord had prepared a Heavenly mansion for all His disciples bar Judas and that they would presently receive the Holy Spirit as their Comforter in the faith. To impress the truth of this statement, Christ says, ‘If it were not so, I would have told you’ There is nothing temporal or time-bound in being given hopes of eternity and forgiveness of sins.

Romans 11

When a chapter starts with telling us that God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew, one can hardly speak of Conditional

Time Salvation. Though Paul deals heavily with the disobedient Jews, he offers them hope in their Messiah Jesus who tells Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles that his work was to win both Jews and Gentiles for Christ. Nowhere is Paul told that the salvation he preaches is sometimes short-term and sometimes long term.

1 Corinthians 9-10

Again, we have in Chapter 9 the castaway verse which causes CTS people such concern. Again, I can only emphasise that Paul is assuring his readers that the life he lives in Christ saves him from such a predicament. Chapter 10 is a warning against sinning, sure enough, but Paul does not see this as a losing of salvation for the elect, whatever the consequences of a bad conscience are. Christians have a liberty in Christ which is a source of constant forgiveness with Him. Even if a Christian behaves in an unedifying way, he has an Advocate to plead for him before God. He is therefore not deemed as lost whether temporally or eternally.

Hebrews 3-4

Hebrews 3 cannot possibly be aimed at the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ as the author is speaking of the broken covenant of the unbelieving Jews who perished for their sins in the wilderness. Jeremiah goes into great detail here in speaking of those who had broken God’s Covenant and the people of the New Covenant set up by Abraham, Moses and the Prophets. The author of the book of Hebrews is obviously of one voice with Jeremiah on the Covenant. Hebrews 4 continues this story and the ones which did not profit from the gospel were the Covenant breakers who had set up a rival covenant and form of worship and have nothing to do with the remnant people of God which we call the House of Israel or the New Jerusalem. Saved sinners, Chapter 4 tells us, may come boldly to the throne of grace and obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

2 Peter 2

Here CTS writers invariably point to verses 20- 22 as the crowning argument in their human rejection of the doctrines of grace.

For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Of course, here is the High Priestly Hymn of Wesleyans, Methodists, Arminians, CTS-ites and all other freewill sceptics who talk as much about the chances of a Christian losing salvation than they do about gaining it. Yet, before going on to examine this passage in more detail, it will be seen that if the CTS interpretation is correct, it proves to be the death knoll of the CTS’s view of faith, hope and salvation. This is because, though the CTS faith believes in gaining and losing salvation as they go from one sin to another, their sheet anchor is always given as election which ensures their future inheritance despite their short or long-term lack of faith. It is obvious here that the reference in 2 Peter 2 is to those who are lost and thus not of the elect Bride of Jesus Christ. Here, there is no election to hope for but only spiritual darkness and eternal doom, depicted as eating vomit and wallowing in mud.

We keep pigs in the back garden and after weeks of rain my daughter-in-law strove to rescue the pigs from the deep mire they were grovelling in. She was rewarded by her ‘pet’ boar attacking her in protest and she landed for over a week in hospital with three- and four- inch gashes in her thigh. The pigs were happy where they were and did not wish to leave the mire. Here is the picture of a sinner who refuses grace.

Looking into the background of the CTS view of temporal salvation in 2 Peter 2, we see that Peter is talking about brute beasts who have rejected the gospel and are spots and blemishes and likened to Balaam who was more stupid than his ass. We Christian ministers, indeed, every Christian, is called on to preach the knowledge of the Lord which comes as a savour of life to some and a savour of death to others. 2 Peter 2 refers to the ‘others’ who hear news of Christ’s fold but prefer their own shabby, miry, temporal domicile to the safe haven of Christ’s secure and eternal fold. May this be a solemn warning to those who preach and teach the foolish and soul-chilling Conditional Time Salvation counterfeit gospel.