Jesus Words Only Podcasts

Personal danger to those who teach faith alone -- the watchmen who did not warn.

Topics include: Make A Choice to Follow Jesus' Way Instead. The Shortest Possible Synopsis of Jesus' Doctrine of Salvation. Empowerment comes from God to Obey and hence it is not by your Own Merit. Why then is Jesus' Gospel of Salvation Rejected? It gives Jesus' answer from John 8.

Final thoughts on being the watchman. And a post-script that Protestants must come to grips with the fact we are inside of a revived Marcionism. But this is encouraging because the church in 144 AD to 325 AD defeated Marcionism, and its faith alone doctrine. That example can be achieved again today.

In 1548, Luther's successor upon his death, Melancthon, began a campaign to have Lutheranism adopt a new salvation doctrine. In place of faith alone, Melancthon engineered the acceptance of double justification doctrine. This teaches a non-believer is justified by faith alone, but that a Christian requires a secondary justification by adding works and obedience to their faith. Without the latter, the Christian would not be saved. Melancthon began this campaign by a planning meeting in 1548. This ended with George Major being asked to write a book On the Necessity of Good Works. This sparked the controversy that led to a Synod of the entire Lutheran church in 1556. At this Synod, Melancthon finally succeeded in having the church adopt double justification. Only in 1580, after his death, the faith-alone advocates rose up and repealed this, and declared faith alone suffices for justification of not only the unbeliever but also of the believer. Regardless, this episode confirms that the 6 major leaders of the Reformation all agreed in the end that faith alone was incorrect to teach a believer -- Erasmus, Tyndale, Luther, Bucer, Malancthon, and Meno Simons. But their earlier teachings had become so cemented in less Biblically-literate followers who were also a more zealous group that all the efforts of these six to undo this error met with failure. It encourages us, however, to take the course these six reformers laid out in the end, and try to complete the course correction that they outlined. We need to revisit the words of Jesus to find His teachings on salvation, and do so objectively, and without preconceived conceptions.

What is Jesus's Gospel if you solely focused upon Jesus' Words Only? Bonhoeffer said it was a message of costly grace. Jesus called us to obey His words and His Father's commandments. While Luther in the early reformation taught faith alone, Luther tried changing course later. Luther started the reformation in 1517 relying upon his reading of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. However, by 1531, Luther realized that teaching of faith alone did not match what Jesus taught. His lieutenants -- Bucer and Melancthon -- developed a single new doctrine that was intended to supplant faith alone doctrine, at Luther's request. It was called DOUBLE JUSTIFICATION. This taught you were initially justified by faith alone. But then, as a Christian, you needed a second justification by works as indispensable to salvation. Thus, rather than passing over Jesus' words as belonging to a defunct dispensation, as is the common solution to the contradiction between Paul and Jesus, Luther retained Jesus, and during ecumenical negotiations with the Catholic church temporarily succeeded but ultimately failed to get the Catholic church to accept double justification. The point of the book Jesus' Words on Salvation is to only take encouragement from what Luther taught. The point is to find in Jesus' words His true doctrine about salvation, and then we will see what impelled even Luther to change direction.

A twenty second introduction to question whether Jesus Words Only is relevant inquiry, i.e., is there a difference between Jesus' views on salvation and those of Paul, for example.

25 second clip. The Bible in Deut. 13:1-5 teaches us to ignore a subsequent prophet if he contradicts the message of a prior prophet.