The Hyper-Grace Gospel: A Response to Michael Brown and Those Opposed to the Modern Grace Message (17 page)

[57]
Prince,
The Power of Right
Believing
, p.160.

[58]
See, for example, 1 Corinthians 1:2–3, 1
Thessalonians 5:5–6. We’ll look at some more scriptures exhorting us to be holy
in Part C.

[59]
Wommack,
Grace,
p.5.

[60]
Jacobsen,
He Loves Me
,
p.23.

[61]
Darrin Hufford,
The
Misunderstood God
:
The Lies Religion Tells About God
, Windblown Media:
Newbury Park, CA, 2009, p.133.

[62]
This poem was attributed to John
Bunyan (1628–1688) by Corrie Ten Boom in her “Personal Testimony,” presented at
“Let the Earth Hear His Voice: The International Congress on World
Evangelization,” Lausanne Switzerland, July 16–25, 1974, website:
www.lausanne.org/docs/lau1docs/0279.pdf
(accessed March 10, 2014).

[63]
Tchividjian,
One Way Love,
p.186.

[64]
That said, the grace of God has opened my eyes to the
treasure in the Bible like never before. Some days I probably spend six or
seven hours reading it. I don’t think of this as “Bible study.” It’s what I do
for fun.

PART C: A Response to Michael L. Brown

[65]
In the subtitle of his book, Dr.
Brown conveys his concern that the modern grace message is “dangerous.” How
dangerous? He never says but he drops enough hints for you to realize that the
hyper-grace gospel could be destructive to your faith. Directly or indirectly
it may cause you to lose your salvation. Other opponents of the modern grace
message are less reserved when warning of the dangers of the hyper-grace
gospel. One of Dr. Brown’s endorsers has said that we who preach it “will be
held accountable for the spiritual death of millions.” Source: Steve Hill, “The
spiritual avalanche that could kill millions,”
Charisma News
, December
11, 2012, website:
www.charismanews.com/opinion/34894-steve-hill-the-spiritual-avalanche-that-could-kill-millions
(accessed March 25, 2014).

[66]
Michael L. Brown,
Hyper-Grace:
Exposing the Dangers of the Modern Grace Message,
Charisma House: Lake
Mary, FL, 2014.

[67]
Prince,
The Power of Right Believing
, pp.126–7.

[68]
Andrew Farley,
The Naked
Gospel,
p.216.

[69]
Personal correspondence with the author.

[70]
Not every hyper-grace preacher
will agree with me when I say the whole world was forgiven at the cross. The
difference hinges on whether one defines forgiveness as a gift given or a gift
received. I take my lead from John the Baptist who said Jesus took away “the
sin of the world,” and John the apostle who said Jesus is the propitiation for
the sins “of the whole world” (John 1:29, 1 John 2:2, ESV). Both were referring
to the finished work of the cross.

[71]
In a related note (see his
endnote 11 on page 256), Dr. Brown repeats a comment he heard from a
hyper-grace pastor that Jesus’ words in the Revelation letters are too hard to
understand. I beg to differ and would direct any interested reader to the
archives of Escape to Reality (
escapetoreality.org/index
).
There you can find many grace-based posts unpacking Christ’s words to the
churches in Ephesus, Laodicea, Sardis, etc.

[72]
Whitten,
Pure Grace,
p.91.
Which other hyper-grace authors discuss 1 John 1:9? Joseph Prince discusses it
in chapter 13 of
Unmerited Favor
; Andrew Wommack discusses it in chapter
4 of
The True Nature of God
; Jeremy White discusses it in chapter 8 of
The
Gospel Uncut
; Andrew Farley discusses it in chapter 22 of
The Naked
Gospel
and chapter 24 of
God Without Religion
; and I discuss it in
chapter 2 of
The Gospel in Ten Words
.

[73]
For more on these distinctions,
see my article, “Why confession is still good for you,” Escape to Reality,
October 25, 2012, website:
wp.me/pNzdT-1rc
(accessed March 10, 2014).

[74]
W. Ian Thomas,
If I Perish, I
Perish: The Christian Life as Seen in the Book of Esther.
Torchbearer,
Estes Park, CO, 1967/1993, p.47.

[75]
Ellis,
The Gospel in Twenty
Questions
, p.119.

[76]
I owe this insight to Jennifer MacRae Howie who
shared it with me after reading an earlier draft of this book.

[77]
C. H. Spurgeon, “All of Grace,”
Sermon, The Spurgeon Archive, date unknown, website:
www.spurgeon.org/all_of_g.htm
(accessed
March 25, 2014).

[78]
Andrew Wommack,
A Better Way to Pray
, Andrew
Wommack Ministries (Europe): Walsall, England, 2009, p.27. If you like this
classic “Wommackism,” you can find more in a post entitled, “Wommackisms – Top
20 Andrew Wommack quotes,” Escape to Reality, July 11, 2011, website:
wp.me/pNzdT-11c
(accessed March 10, 2014).

[79]
See my article, “Three reasons
why I don’t preach repentance (turn from sin),” Escape to Reality, November 28,
2011, website:
wp.me/pNzdT-19Y
(accessed
March 10, 2014).

[80]
G5048 (
teleioō
)
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, website:
concordances.org/greek/5048.htm
(accessed March 10, 2014). Jesus calls to imperfect, incomplete man and says,
“Be perfect (
teleios
or complete), therefore, as your heavenly Father is
perfect (complete)” (Matt. 5:48). Apart from Him you never will be, but in Him
you are and always shall be.

[81]
Bill Gillham,
Lifetime Guarantee
, Harvest
House: Eugene, OR, 1993, p.126.

[82]
Ralph Harris,
God’s
Astounding Opinion of You
, Harvest House: Eugene, OR, 2007, p.20.

[83]
Quote taken from “Lloyd-Jones on
Holiness,” CultureWatch, website:
billmuehlenberg.com/2014/01/22/lloyd-jones-on-holiness
(accessed March 20, 2014).

[84]
Bill Gillham,
Lifetime Guarantee
, pp.181–2.

[85]
Ibid., p.202.

[86]
See also Romans 8:15–16, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians
4:6–7, and Ephesians 1:5 if you have any doubts about your adoption in Christ.

[87]
Since I don’t have space to unpack 1 Corinthians 11
here, I direct the interested reader to chapters 10 and 13 of my book
The
Gospel in Twenty Questions.

[88]
G1381 (
dokimazo
), Strong’s Exhaustive
Concordance, website:
concordances.org/greek/1381.htm
(accessed March 14, 2014).

[89]
Dr. Brown argues that Revelation
3:1–2 destroys hyper-grace claims. I’m not sure how it does but if you are
interested in a grace-based interpretation of Christ’s words to the saints and
sinners at Sardis, I encourage you to check out my post entitled “Incomplete
deeds: The Zombie church of Sardis,” Escape to Reality, April 11, 2010,
website:
wp.me/pNzdT-8h
(accessed March 10,
2014). In a related note, Dr. Brown queries my view that many and possibly all
of the Laodiceans were unsaved (see his endnote 23 on page 267). He argues that
the Laodiceans must have been believers because the term used to describe them,
ekklesia
, always refers to churches or congregations of believers. This
is both circular reasoning (“Paul Ellis always speaks the truth because Paul
Ellis says so”) and incorrect (alternative translations of
ekklesia
can
be found in Acts 19:32, 39, 41). In my observation, most congregations contain
a mix of believers and unbelievers.

[90]
Prince,
The Power of Right Believing
, pp.203–4.

[91]
Sheasby,
The Birthright,
p.102.

[92]
Paul Ellis,
The Gospel in Ten
Words
,
p.21.

[93]
For more on this, see my
article, “What is the ‘whole’ gospel?” Escape to Reality, Dec. 6, 2012,
website:
wp.me/pNzdT-1tV
(accessed March
10, 2014).

[94]
So how do grace preachers interpret Jesus’ words
about chopping off hands? For my take on these harsh words, see my article,
“Chop off your hand?! Was Jesus serious?” Escape to Reality, April 7, 2011,
website:
wp.me/pNzdT-Hj
(accessed March 10, 2014).

[95]
C. H. Spurgeon, “The barley
field on fire,” Sermon No.563, The Spurgeon Archive, date unknown, website:
www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0563.htm
(accessed February 18, 2014).

[96]
Andrew Wommack,
The True Nature of God
, Andrew
Wommack Ministries (Europe): Walsall, England, 2008, p.2.

[97]
Ellis,
The Gospel in Twenty
Questions
, pp.10–11.

[98]
Cornel Marais,
So You Think
Your Mind is Renewed,
New Nature Publications, Hong Kong, 2009, p.8.

[99]
Andrew Farley,
God Without Religion
, Baker
Books: Grand Rapids, MI, 2011, p.31.

[100]
Which is that honoring your
parents is always a good idea. Whether you’re under grace or law, it’s a good
thing to do. We are not righteous because we honor our parents; we honor our
parents because we are righteous.

[101]
Steve McVey,
Grace Rules
, Harvest House:
Eugene, OR, 1998, p.75.

[102]
If this makes no sense to you,
I encourage you to check out my article, “How to walk after the flesh in 20
easy lessons,” Escape to Reality, August 11, 2011, website:
wp.me/pNzdT-135
(accessed March 10, 2014).

[103]
Joseph Prince, “How believers
fall from grace,” Sermon, April 17, 2011, website:
youtu.be/h2c0SbFim6w
(accessed March 10,
2014). For more on the different types of covenants I recommend a little book
by Chad M. Mansbridge called
He Qualifies You
and a bigger book by
Malcolm Smith called
The Lost Secret of the New Covenant.

[104]
Farley,
The Naked Gospel
, p.80.

[105]
Ellis,
The Gospel in Ten
Words
, p.92.

[106]
Brian Zahnd,
Beauty Will
Save the World
, Charisma House: Lake Mary, FL, 2012, p.186.

[107]
See my article, “By which
gospel are you saved? The gospel of grace!” Escape to Reality, April 11, 2010,
website:
wp.me/pNzdT-l7
(accessed March 10,
2014).

[108]
Steve McVey,
52 Lies Heard
in Church Every Sunday
, Harvest House: Eugene Oregon, 2011, p.75.