Question:
Dear Greg,
I
have been reading some of your questions and answers and I cannot tell by the
answers what you believe. It seems
to me that you believe whatever suits your purpose at the time.
As close as I can tell you think that all one has to do is believe in
Christ and the rest doesn’t matter—not even the 10 Commandments.
You can go to whatever church you want, do anything you want as long as
you have the love of the Lord in your heart.
Is that what you believe?
Carol
Answer: Dear Carol,
What
does PTM believe? We believe what
suits God’s purpose. We have a
rigid methodology we use, and we do not pick and choose, as you seem to infer.
Our rigid methodology is God’s grace and the cross of Christ.
That is the fulcrum and hinge of our relationship with God.
Yes—we
are saved by faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone.
Salvation is all about Jesus—it is not about us.
What we do is not the basis of our salvation.
Thank God for that! Does the
rest “matter”? Of course many
things matter—but Who matters most is our Lord and Savior.
What matters is what he determines as having relevance and significance.
Christians who accept Jesus obey and follow him.
That’s what matters.
Does
the church we attend save us? Not
according to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus
saves us—the church we attend might teach that, and get out of his way—or
the church we attend might attempt to teach another gospel (Galatians 1:6-10),
which is that the church and its doctrines matter as much, or even more than
Christ. A healthy, well-balanced
church will never make some exclusive claim that it alone is “right” (i.e.,
that they have the exclusive right and franchise of God’s kingdom on earth)
and other churches are “wrong” (i.e., Christ is not present in those
churches).
In
Christ,