Many who regularly occupy church
pews, fill church rolls, and are intellectually acquainted with the
facts of the gospel never strike one blow for Christ. They seem to be at
peace with his enemies. They have no quarrel with sin and, apart from a
few sentimental expressions about Christ, there is no biblical evidence
that they have experienced anything of the power of the gospel in their
lives. Yet in spite of the evidence against them, they consider
themselves to be just what their teachers teach them -- that they are
"Carnal Christians." And as carnal Christians they believe they will go
to heaven, though perhaps not first-class, and with few rewards.
That something is seriously
wrong in lives which reveal such features will readily be admitted by
most readers of these pages; no argument is needed to prove it. But the
most serious aspect of this situation is too often not recognized at
all. The chief mistake is not the carelessness of these church-goers, it
is the error of their teachers who, by preaching the theory of "the
carnal Christian," have led them to believe that there are three groups
of men, -- the unconverted man, the "carnal Christian" and the
"spiritual Christian."
My purpose in this booklet is to
argue that this classification is wrong and to set out the positive,
historic, and biblical answer to this "carnal Christian" teaching. The
argument from Church history is not unimportant, for it is a fact that
less than two- hundred years ago this teaching was unknown in the
churches of North America, but I am concerned to rest my case on an
honest statement of the teaching of the Bible. I have written after
study, private meditation and prayer, and after using many of the old
respected commentaries of another day, but my appeal is to the Word of
God and it is in the light of that authority that I ask the reader to
consider all that follows. Continue at Ernest C. Reisinger
See also: Carnal Christian
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