SPIRITUAL FOOD ADDITIVES

All Scripture is from the Old King James Bible

7/19/01

Many people are having problems today with food additives. Some of these additives are natural and some are chemical, but the allergic reactions are similar. There are allergies that are immediate, and some build up to a bad reaction.

I have found that physical food additive reactions are similar to spiritual food additive reactions, except that the spiritual additives most always are not so much reactive, but passive. These are the worst kind of additives; they are like the devastating results of excessive candy in children’s diets, which in time cause havoc.

Just as there are lists of food additives that cause reactions in the physical, there is also a list of spiritual additives that should be identified for good spiritual health. There are eleven additives which are the most common that need identifying for the edification of the Body of Christ today. Most of these have been added to our spiritual meals for so long that they are thought to be part of the main course. Let’s review each of these along with the true Word of God to see that they are not part of the food that God has provided us in His Word.

(1) First, let’s study the phrase, “We ARE all sinners, saved by grace.” When God saved us, we were ‘born again’; we became new creatures in His eternal kingdom. We are not the foul, Hell-bound sinner we had been. We are now cleansed by the blood of Christ; we have been given a new heart, one that loves God’s laws, and would not offend them even though we have the choice to do so. We were a sinner, but are now saved by His grace through the faith He has given every person. To say we are still sinners would be true if we continued sinning, but the Spirit of Christ in us would so convict us that we would be the most miserable of people for our disobedience and would be hard pressed to not repent of this sinning. It is expected of saved persons not to commit sin, which is sinning.

“And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:24-29)

We see from these words that to commit sin after we have become a Christians is a very dangerous thing, and repugnant to God who gave us His Son to deliver us from the power of sin. So, to say, ”I’m just an old sinner saved by grace” is an affront to God and to Christ if we have really been committing sin. If we are not really committing sin, we should not use this spiritual food additive because we would be lying, which in itself is sin. This additive needs to be trashed!

(2) The next additive is the teaching that if we do not do the things which God has given us to do, this is sin, or, “sins of omission” . This comes from “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” (James 4:13-17) As we look at the context of this verse, we see that the sin referred to is a sin of fulfilling the lust of the flesh, warned about in Galatians 5:19-21; “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” The word ‘emulations’ is defined as “endeavor to equal or excel”, which is exactly the attitude of one who rejoices in their boasting, which God says is evil. The person knows to do God‘s work, (good), but would rather do his own work and brag on it. So, if a person were to act this way, he/she would not inherit the kingdom of God, they are sinners, not having been saved. Many times, we Christians feel guilty because we see others doing more than we are doing, and say that we are sinning because we are not doing some good that we could do. This is a trap of the enemy to make us think we are sinners and cause us to go and do things that God has not called us to do at all. We must wait upon the Lord. Also, if we know that God wants us to do something and we put it off until some other time, this is not sin because it is not breaking God’s commandments, nor is it emulation. By identifying this as sin, we are also condemning others of sin, because we are all falling short of the glory of God, which is not sin because we are not perfect in the body, only in God’s eyes because we our part of Christ’s Body, and counted righteous therein by the Father through the Blood of His Son. There is no such thing as a “sin of omission” for a Christian, because a Christian shall inherit the kingdom of God unless he/she denounces the faith and becomes a “castaway”.

(3) Our next spiritual food additive is “once saved, always saved”. This additive has come about by several verses from John’s Gospel with regard to Jesus being the ’bread of life’. These verses have not been interpreted correctly with regard to God’s covenant with His people. There has always been the requirement of agreement and choosing on both parts of covenant agreements. We know the faithfulness of God, that He will perfectly keep His part, but man wavers in his convictions and promises, as born out by Israel’s unfaithfulness. Jesus’ statement with regard to His keeping what God has given Him is conditional based on the faithfulness of those who are being kept. Note in these verses that there is no word that restricts one chosen by the Father to depart from the faith.

“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. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:37-40) The context with the understanding of covenant agreements clearly indicates the faithfulness of the Father and the Son to keep their part of the agreement, but it says nothing regarding whether any of those who have “seen Him” will break the contract of covenant as did the Israelites. God has given us free will to choose; “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”(Joshua 24:15)

(4)This leads us into the next spiritual food additive: “the sovereignty of God”. This is a strong additive, and should be removed from the table of true spiritual edibles. Hear what our Lord says concerning this false statement, which is found no where in the Bible, “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”(Matthew 6:9-10) God must take the will of man away from him in order that He be sovereign, but He has not, as shown in the last segment, above, concerning “choosing whom to serve”.

The “Lord’s Payer” makes it even more clear, when Jesus includes in His model for prayer the important portion concerning God’s will being done in earth. If God chose to be sovereign, He would have been, but He has allowed us free will to choose; He has set aside His sovereignty for us in order that we might be free to use our will. This does not mean that He has changed His loving will that all would be saved, even though He knows that this shall not be the case.

Again, covenant requires the faithful completion of the contract for there to be a fulfillment of the agreement. Since God’s proposal to us is one of love, and He first loved us, He has already fulfilled His part; it is left, with the help of His Holy Ghost in us to fulfill our part, if we so choose. If God did not allow us a choice, we would be robots, doing His bidding out of a legal system, from which He has made us free by the Lamb of God and the Holy Ghost. God has chosen not to be sovereign.

If God has chosen not to be sovereign, how do some say that He is sovereign? They say so out of pride and arrogance so they can bring fear in the hearts of those who are seeking, telling them that they have no choice in the matter of salvation, that the sovereign God has already made the choice for them, and all they can do is hope their name is written the book of life.

Why men want to either say the “God is dead”, or to say that your choice of God is dead, we may never understand, but the enemy will find any way he can to hinder the growth of the Body of Christ in the world, where he is god, as you will see by the following text: “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4) It is sad that our leaders should without thought place such spiritual food additives on the Lord’s table for our “health”, while all the time our churches are becoming more and more like social clubs and markets for the publishing houses.

(5) Now we move along to another spiritual food additive, “Irresistible grace”. The meaning here is that God’s grace cannot be ignored or set aside by the recipient, so that as God chooses whom He will save, there will be no resistance on their part. Well, if this were Biblical, all people would be saved because God’s grace through Christ’s gift of His life for us was and is for all, and all would have no choice but to accept His grace. Also, once received it could not be annulled. But God’s word says otherwise: “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. (Galatians 5:4) If grace were irresistible, no one could fall away from it. So, even salvation is in question in this case, because we are saved by grace, through faith. If either grace or faith is abandoned, salvation is set aside until repentance of the broken covenant on the part of the one who has sinned in falling away by returning to hope of their salvation, Jesus Christ and His shed blood. There are several accounts of grace being offended. another is, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9) These are strong words, needed to warn teachers and other leaders to take care how they pervert God’s Word with “other gospels” which are not the true Gospel of Christ. This is why we are presenting these false, philosophical “food additives” provided for the unwary one who will be seduced by them. Also, see Hebrews 12:14-15; “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Many verses in the New Covenant show the conditions that God requires of His children. Jesus says, “If you love me, keep my commandments”. Grace is not provided that it cannot be resisted, because of the free will given us by our God and Lord. Without free will, again as said before, we would be robots, unacquainted with love. Irresistible grace would negate covenant agreement because there would be no choice on the part of the lesser party in the agreement.

(6) We now come to another philosophical food additive: “The total depravity of man” . This philosophy is based upon the assumption that man has no capacity to even comprehend that God exists, let alone that he could communicate with Him. Let’s look at Romans 1:18-21, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” If men were born totally depraved, he could not be condemned since his depravity was not of his doings. Further, babies who die would be consigned to Hell because of the “total depravity” they had inherited. “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.” (Psalms 127:3-5) It is evident that these children are loveable and God is not determined to consign them to the Hell they would deserve if they were “totally depraved”.

This “nutritious food additive” to supplement God’s Word is false according to Scripture, as are all these “additives” offered by philosophers who hope to become popular through their “advanced” thinking. Many teachers today still ignore the truth in God’s Word and cling to these and other imaginative theories because they have set the Word aside to press their views into being for personal profit.

(7) Our next “additive” is a difficult topic to deal with since there are some aspects of it that are true to the Word. This is “Election”. It is taught that those whom God elects will become recipients of His grace through His gift of faith. This sounds reasonable except for one important truth, God’s ‘elect’ would not hear Him. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. (Romans 10:17-21) If “election” as it is taught were true, all Israel would be saved, but according to God’s Word, they will not all be saved, even though they were all His elect. “Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:” (Romans 9:27)

Election is akin to predestination, and/or God’s choosing His people. God does choose some for salvation, but most of His choosing of persons is to accomplish some needed task for the accomplishment of His will. He chooses armies of men, individual men, and nations of men. The one verse that determines salvation for the ‘chosen’ is: “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: (2 Thessalonians 2:13) But notice that this is conditional salvation. It is dependent upon the believing of the chosen ones. Remember Abraham, that he was counted as righteous by God because he believed God. So, we see that election is conditional because it requires a covenant as we have said before. If only the elect were saved there would be no need to preach the Gospel because there would be no “bad news” to dispel with the “good news” of the Gospel. Also, Christ would not have had to come since the elect would already have been predestined to eternal life.

(8)Now we come to a very important “additive”, unconditional forgiveness. This is one of the worst deceptions of the enemy because it removes three important elements required for salvation. If we forgive anyone at any time for anything, they have no responsibility to change their ways. The first words of John, Baptist and our Lord as He began His ministry was, “REPENT”. Now, if we are to give free forgiveness, there would be no need to repent, rather, just say, “thanks” and walk away. Also, free forgiveness relieves us of any confrontation with the guilty where we are able to share the Gospel with them. And third, there would be no opportunity for the guilty to learn the seriousness of sin, no matter how small or large the matter. Read what St. Luke pens for us, “Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. (Luke 17:3-4) Also, you should remember the instructions given for one who would not listen to the elders and should be taken before the whole church for his hardness toward repentance.

Those who teach true forgiveness should learn to add that we must always be willing to forgive anyone who has sinned against us if they repent after they have been rebuked, even seven times seven in a day.

(9) Our next additive is Progressive sanctification. Teachers using this false statement will bring the lie forward that we are not fully sanctified, and therefore still in the throes of sin and are still classified as sinners until Jesus comes to perfect us. Well this sounds believable except there are so many scriptures contrary to this lie that we must wonder how a Christian could be caught in its trap. Look at what God tells us about our sanctification: “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. (Hebrews 10:10-14)

We see here that we are not only sanctified, but perfect through the perfect sacrifice of our Lord, forever. Are we to suppose that if we do not look perfect then we are still all sinners? Jesus is our judge, not man, yet man sure does want to belittle one another to make themselves look better as the Pharisees did in Jesus time whom He had to set straight. We tend to see our righteousness without seeing God’s work of righteousness in us. We are not being sanctified; we are being trained by the loving hand of our Father by the Holy ghost ways in which we can glorify Him who loves us. We are not being sanctified, we have been sanctified.

(10) Our next topic is akin to the previous, Perseverance of the Saints. This additive to God’s Word means that a Saint will not fail of either grace or faith, the two requirements for salvation, for we are saved by grace through faith, without works. We have seen before that there are scriptural accounts of saints falling from grace, and have read that we are to “keep the faith”. If a Saint cannot fail of either grace or faith, why are the Saints constantly warned against failure? There are evil works we did before our salvation, and there are good works that we are saved unto. The good works are the works that will be judged by Christ. Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate: Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. (1 Timothy 6:17-19) Those who are “weary in well doing” and have no determination to labor for the Lord are in question as to their eternal life, as well as those who have “failed of the grace of God” and those who have not maintained the faith according to Peter’s warning, “Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. (2 Peter 3:17)

Without doubt, the possibility of falling aside is real, in spite of the “Perseverance of the Saints” taught for some strange reason. If we really believed that we could never fail in grace, faith or works, we would be off guard in our spiritual warfare, and subject to falling aside with false confidence in this spiritual food additive, a dangerous food substitute, indeed. “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:” (Hebrews 10:23-24 )

(11) The last of our spiritual food additives comes from a verse that typically is not studied for punctuation. The verse is found in Romans 3:23; “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”. The problem occurs at the word, “and”, which is a conjunction, meaning that there are two elements involved with the subject, “all have”. The subject relates to the verbs, “sinned” and “come short”, with the subject understood for the last clause of the sentence, “and (all have) come short of the glory of God.” So, two things are related, but not the same. Sin has no context with God’s glory, for they are non-related. On the other hand, coming short implies that God is glorified to some degree, but short of perfect. Again any measure of our glorifying our Lord has nothing of sin in it.

These two separate elements of man‘s relationship with God, one of the unsaved,

and the other of the saved, show man’s failings in these two creatures which are the natural man and the regenerated man. The natural man’s whole life is sin, punctuated by various acts of sinning. After his salvation, being a new creation in Christ, he has a new calling, to glorify His Lord. His condition is no longer a sinner, but righteous in God’s eyes. Since we are growing in faith and the use of our gifts, it is obvious that we have faults in our abilities even though we are fully sanctified. Even Jesus had to grow in stature and learn obedience, and when He was twelve, His sanctification of life was obvious as He was “about His Father’s business”.

Our lack of perfection is not sin, for we have been delivered from the power of sin, and are helped by God’s Spirit to bring glory to Him as we labor in His kingdom. Jesus told His disciples that they were “all clean, only their feet needed washing”. As we walk with the Lord we do not walk as perfectly as He walks, and we come short of His glory, and always will, but this is not sin as many teachers will tell you falsely today. What this does is to bring the burden of death upon God’s righteous saints, because the wages of sin is death. But to convince these teachers otherwise is a hard task because they have been taught this bad grammar in their training by other teachers.

Here we have for your study and edification presented truths from God’s Word to denounce the determinations of the philosophers and false teachers. We hope you will study these to see for yourselves what is true and what is not. God bless you.