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An Open Letter to Dr. R. N. Wilkin and Grace Evangelical Society Miles J. Stanford 19 February 1998
Dear Robert This is to share some kindly thoughts concerning your article, "Salvation Before Calvary," in the present Jan./Feb. '98 Grace In Focus. I appreciate the ministry you and your co-workers are carrying out to establish soteriological grace--especially in this day of Lordship Salvation. Grace justification (the new birth), however, is but a step, and can be accomplished, and usually is, with little or no knowledge of the Word of God. (I didn't even know John 3:16!). This cannot be said of grace sanctification, that of growth in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18). This latter I would like to see more emphasized in your outreach than the soteriological aspect. A helpless babe requires a great deal of grace teaching if there is to be a safe passage to maturity. The key to growth is the how. Spiritual maturity in the ascension life of the One who is our Life is not accomplished by means of exhortation, threats, or fear concerning eternal rewards and kingdom positions--or lack of same. Do you feel, Robert, that you are providing your recipients with as much for their walk as you are for their initial step? As for your article in question, I think that the terms "salvation," and "eternal life," tend to have a detrimental effect when utilized without adequate explanation. There are several factors to be considered in this matter. 1) "Salvation" and "eternal life" are predicated upon the finished work and shed Blood of the Cross via the everlasting covenant of Hebrews 13:20. However, "salvation" and "eternal life" are not the same for all. These factors concerning the Gentile nations that will enter the Millennial Kingdom cannot be equated with those that apply to the redeemed nation of Israel, nor will Israel's salvation and eternal life be the same as those of the heavenly, in-Christ Body, the Church. As a member of the heavenly Bride of Christ, would you, Robert, settle for what the Gentile nations will have--or even Israel? 2) This comprehensive salvation and eternal life tend to break down the distinctiveness of His Body. The result is what we have throughout the Church today, with its crippling admixture of law, kingdom, and grace. It is for this very reason that you are waging the battle to establish grace for the believer. 3) This amalgamation also leads to such teaching as "the saved of all ages will enjoy the benefit of an eternal consummation of all things under Christ in a permanent commingling of identities and destinies," i.e., the "people of God." 4) Establish that error and it will flow back to "already/not yet," a kingdomization of the present-day Church, which is already extensively established via Covenantism and Progressivism. A final factor to be touched upon is that of pointing to the Messiah, as such, for salvation. That tends to start converts on the path of Jesus' Kingdom Gospel, with its law and kingdom emphasis. An unfortunate beginning for a newly-born member of the heavenly Body of Christ--and the start and continuance of most of the Law-bound Church. Paul's Gospel of the grace of God in 1 Corinthians 15:3,4 provides a much better foundation and vertical direction for their position and identification with their ascended Life. This heavenly Gospel was given by the same Person as that of the earthly Gospel to Israel, but with the infinitely superior and rightly-divided truth of being on the new-creation, glorified side of the Cross. Would you attempt to modify that difference, Robert? Tragically, just about everyone does, it would seem. The crux of Pauline Dispensationalism is the complete separation between Israel and the Church; they are two separate and diverse entities. Scripture leaves no question as to the content of Israel's future New Covenant kingdom salvation. They will have their iniquities cleansed, a new heart of flesh, the Spirit of God indwelling and causing them to walk in the theocratic law written upon their hearts, living in the Millennial Kingdom in the land of their fathers, and under the rule and reign of the King. Dispensationalists, from Darby to the present, have been all too cognizant of Israel's New Covenant, to the extent of seeking to "appropriate" those "spiritual" blessings for the Church--this being the primary source of the breakdown of separation between Israel and the Church. The result is the present obvious shambles of Dispensationalism today. Why, Robert, should a Christian--especially a dispensationalist who knows who and where he is in Christ--descend from his heavenly position in the presence of the Father, and grasp anything that belongs exclusively to future earthly Israel? The believer is crucified, dead, buried, re-created and ascended in Christ in the heavenlies, a citizen of heaven, and is already blessed with all spiritual blessings in those heavenly places-"hidden with Christ in God." Being in union with the ascended and glorified Lord Jesus Christ, the believer has been made nigh by the Blood. When He returns to earth to establish His Millennial Kingdom--both to judge Israel with the baptism of fire, and then bless the remnant of that nation via their New Covenant--every risen and glorified member of the Body of Christ will attend the Bridegroom/King to rule with Him over the earth. All of this and more is for the Church, none of which will ever be true of the recipients of Jesus' pre-Cross Kingdom Gospel-the kingdom Jew. Different content of faith, different salvations resulting--but all through faith and based upon the Blood of the everlasting covenant. Both are eternal, but each differs from the other. The heavenly Church needs to realize her unique positional peculiarity, her life in the glorified Lord Jesus Christ. This is in contrast to all other salvations outside of Him, outside of the Rapture-completed Body. Dr. Chafer wrote:
"Now to Him that is of power to establish you according to my Gospel [1 Cor. 15:3,4], and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret (Israel's New Covenant was well known from the eighth century B.C.] since the world began" (Rom. 16:25). "I make known to you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached by me is not after man. For I neither received it of man [progressively], neither was I taught it [via Jeremiah, or Ezekiel, or the Apostles], but by revelation of Jesus Christ [glorified]" (Gal. 1:11,12). The Lord bless you and yours, dear brother.
P.S. Upon completion of this, I checked the e-mail for incoming letters--the average is 20 a day, from believers. The first listed was as follows:
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MJStanford
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