An Answer to “God's Simple Plan of Salvation”
Today, as I was driving back from a business trip to Atlanta, I found a gospel tract in the bathroom. Unfortunately, it was a false gospel tract.
It used to be I was scared to say that. I used to pass out tracts like that, and I really had a relationship with God. I'm not the only one. There are many—depending on your definition of many—people who have a real relationship with God and pass out tracts like the one I found. So I'm hesitant to insult them by calling the gospel in the tract a false one. Unfortunately, the gospel in the tract is false. So it doesn't do any good to pretend it's not.
And let's not pretend that it doesn't have repercussions. The vast majority of those who believe the gospel in the tract do not have a real relationship with God. Their churches are a pitiful representation, a travesty really, if I understand the word right, of a true church; so pitiful that a 1st or 2nd century Christian would surely call them a mockery. These travesties (if I understand the word correctly as meaning “a pitiful representation”) of true churches don't get along, and they thus testify to the world that the Gospel of Christ cannot unite people in a divine love. It's their gospel, not their “sincerity,” that produces these terribly results. (You might try Ronald Sider's The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience for a picture of how bad things really are.)
The tract I read is called "God's Simple Plan of Salvation," and it is very popular. In fact, the back of it says, “Carefully embodies 1933 original and 1956 revised editions of GSPS.” Apparently, “God's Simply Plan of Salvation dates all the way back to 1933 and is so common that they can refer to it by its initials. Antiquity, however, does not prove accuracy.
Let's look through it.
It begins by saying, “In the Bible God gives us the plan of how to be born again which means to be saved.” There's some problems here with the ignorance implied in this statement. “Saved” is a very wide word. One can be saved from hell, saved from sin, saved from his flesh, saved from the influence of the world, saved from sickness, and even saved from drowning. That's not simply semantics. The Scripture uses the word “saved” in several ways, and there are terrible assumptions made by "born again" evangelicals that lead to the errors that are in this tract.
This particular error is too deep to go into in a blog. You might try reading through the articles in the salvation section, which address such issues. For now, let's look at some of the later errors in the tract, which are a product of the “born again equals saved equals going to heaven” mentality that pervades “born again” Christianity.
The next thing the tract says is “you must realize you are a sinner.” Then it quotes Romans 3:23, which indeed says they are sinners, to back this up. However, Romans 3:23 does not say that they must know they are sinners to be saved. Romans 3:23 is written to a church, not to the lost. In addressing the lost, the apostles never told them they were sinners. They didn't have to! Once the apostles made it clear that Jesus was raised from the dead by God (since this is what they were sent to proclaim; Acts 1:22; 4:2, 33; 17:18) and thus was proven to be Son of God and Judge of all, they immediately recognized themselves as sinners.
It would stun most evangelicals to take a look at what the apostles preached to the lost, which is found in the Book of Acts. Instead, they preach to the lost what is said to the church, getting almost their entire proclamation to the lost from letters to the churches. It is important to know your audience!
The tract goes on to say, “Because you are a sinner, you are condemned to death.” It then quotes Romans 6:23, which says that the wages of sin is death. However, that verse is taken completely out of context. Because they are sinners, they are already dead! We who are Christians are not saved from a future death that was coming, we are resurrected out of a death we had already experienced. Eph. 2:5 says, “Even when we were dead in sins, he made us alive together with Christ.” The wages of sin is death, and they are already experiencing those wages!
The tract then tells us that God loved us so much that he gave his only begotten Son for us. This, at least, is true. However, there are two problems. One, the apostles never discussed any of this in their proclamations to the lost. (It's true; look it up in Acts.) Two, the way they apply this is simply silly, no matter how widely believed it is.
The explanation the tract gives is at least humble. They say, “Although we cannot understand how, God said my sins and your sins were laid upon Jesus and He died in our place. He became our substitute. It is true. God cannot lie.” Amen, God cannot lie. However, man can, and I can't find anywhere that God said Jesus is our substitute or that he died in our place. The Scripture does say he died for us, but it does not say he died in our place or that he was our substitute. I just did a search through the New Testament for “substitute” and “in our place.” No occurrences at all.
The idea that sin causes God to kill someone, and it can be anyone, is bizarre. I can't think of another word to describe it. I picture God running around in heaven, telling the dragons (“Seraphim” means “snakes,” and the ones in heaven have wings, according to Isaiah 6, so I call them dragons), ”Someone has sinned, and the law of the universe says that the wages of sin is death, so I have to kill someone. I don't care who it is. Anyone will do, as long the cosmic law is fulfilled and someone dies.”
That's very sad, and it's a completely false picture of God, who can forgive anyone he wants for any sin he wants, because he's God, and there is no law higher than himself. Not only can you be forgiven for one sin without Christ's death, but you can be forgiven for a lifetime of sins without Christ's death. All you need to do is repent and begin to do righteousness. At least, that's what Ezekiel believed. In fact, Ezekiel believed that God said that (Ezek. 18:27-28). The church for all its existence has believed that God really said that to Ezekiel and that Ezekiel is a prophet. Therefore, it is okay for me to say, “It is true. God cannot lie.” However, for the statement made in the tract, that Jesus died in our place as our substitute, no one can find that in the writings of any trusted prophet or in any trusted apostle, so it is false for them to claim God said it. Their tradition says it. Martin Luther says it. But the Scriptures do not say it, and thus they have no proof that God said it.
When David, another prophet recognized by the church throughout its existence, committed adultery and murder, God was very angry with him. David needed to know how to placate God. He sought God, and he determined this: “You do not want sacrifice, or else I would give it...The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise” (Ps. 51:16-17).
It is true. God cannot lie.
The tract then says something that many tracts leave out. It says, quoting Paul (in the 17th century English that I'm sure all the apostles spoke), “‘God...now commandeth all men everywhere to repent’ (Acts 17:30).” However, lest anyone take this too seriously and actually repent in a Biblical way with a broken and contrite heart over their sin, they redefine repentance as “a change of mind that agrees with God that one is a sinner and also agrees with what Jesus did for us on the cross.”
Of course, when Peter told the crowd to repent on the day of Pentecost, they could not have understood him to mean that they must change their mind and agree with what Jesus did for them on the cross, because Peter never told them what Jesus did for them on the cross. I'm sure he told them later, because when he wrote to Christians in a general letter known as “First Peter,” he told them very clearly what Jesus did on the cross. However, he didn't tell the crowd at Pentecost, nor any other lost person that we know of, what Jesus did on the cross.
Repentance, Biblically, is to turn from your sin. God, through Ezekiel, told the Israelites that if a sinner “turns away from all his transgressions that he has committed,” then “he shall surely live, he shall not die” (Ezek. 18:28). Just two verses later, he tells them, "Repent, and turn from all your transgressions so that inquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions...and make you a new heart and a new spirit, for why will you die, O house of Israel?" (vv. 30-31).
Did this somehow change after Jesus died? Personally, I don't think so. Paul, in describing his overall ministry, told king Agrippa, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but proclaimed first to those of Damascus and at Jerusalem...and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and do works worthy of repentance” (Acts 26:20).
Interesting, huh? Do you suppose that maybe Paul read Ezekiel? Remember, he's talking to lost people here, and he's preaching repentance. He had a good standard to follow. When the Jews on the day of Pentecost asked Peter what to do, he said something very similar. He said, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:38).
Was the Gospel to the Gentiles any different? Paul said not in Acts 26:20. The church in Jerusalem said not even earlier. When they heard that the Gospel had reached the Gentiles, they said, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life” (Acts 11:18).
Interesting pattern we have here, isn't it? It's consistent, and it's not nonsensical. If you were God and you had filled the earth with people, what would you do? If those people came to you in repentance for their disobedience to your rules for them, broken-hearted and contrite, would you cry out, “Never! I will not forgive you. I may be merciful, but I am also holy and just, and I must punish sin. You must die!” Then, would you pause and add, “Well, someone must die. Anyone. I don't care, as long as he hasn't sinned himself. His death can serve for all of you.”
No, you would never do such a thing. You would simply forgive them, and the reason you would do that is because you are made in the image of God and he would forgive them too! It says so in the Bible, therefore...
It is true. God cannot lie.
Well, what about faith? What about Jesus' death? If his death was unnecessary, then why did he die?First, I didn't say Jesus' death was unnecessary. What's really wrong with my illustration about the people coming to God in repentance, broken-hearted and contrite? The problem with my illustration is that's not what people are doing! They are continuing in their sin. They will not repent. They have all sinned, they are all continuing to sin, they are all dead in their trespasses and sins, and they are all walking according to the spirit of this age (Rom. 3:11ff; Eph. 2:1-3). Worse, even the ones who are repenting are sinners, dead in their sins, walking according to the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience, and they have sin living in their bodies that they cannot overcome (Rom. 7). What are they going to do? How will they turn to righteousness and be saved when they are slaves to sin?
Well, not by works. They can't do good works.
Not by the Law. The Law is perfect and good, but all it does is arouse and expose sin.
What then? Who will deliver us from this body of death!!!
God will. What the Law could not do, says the Scripture, God did.
How did he do it? “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3,4).
It is true. God cannot lie.
What an amazing plan! Jesus came as a sacrifice for sin, breaking the power of sin in us, bringing grace to the earth. As Paul put it, “Sin will not have power over you, because you are not under law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:14). What is this grace that it can do such a thing?
Grace is an amazing power from heaven, brought to earth to save us sinners so that we can walk according to the Spirit of God and not the spirit of this age. “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age” (Tit. 2:11-12). Neat, huh? What is the result of this? It is that Christ “might purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works” (Tit. 2:14).
So what of faith? Faith is what gives us access to grace (Rom. 5:2). Notice that Eph. 2:8, that verse we all love to quote, says that it is "by grace" that we are saved. It is not “by faith,” but it is “by grace through faith.” It is the grace that breaks sins power and enables us to walk by the Spirit of God that is brought by the death of Christ.
However, that grace comes by faith in Christ, not faith in his death. His death brought the grace, but you don't have to know that to receive his grace. Peter didn't tell the Jews on the day of Pentecost about grace or why Christ died. He simply told them to repent and to exercise their faith in baptism. Then he promised them that if they would do this, they would receive the Holy Spirit. When that happened, they would receive grace as well. After that happened, he would explain to them where that grace came from and why every person in the church is given the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the gift of God, purchased by the precious blood of Christ, the sole source of the salvation that we experience.
Before that happened, however, he simply told them who Christ was, that he was risen from the dead and thus proven to be Christ, Lord, and Judge, and he told them to repent of their sins and believe in him. Not long later, he told another set of Jews the same thing: “Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out...and he shall send Jesus Christ” (Acts 3:19). God had promised long ago that if the wicked would repent, he would forget all their wickedness.The Gospel said nothing new in this respect. It simply provided the power for repentance, a power known to us as grace.
It is true. God cannot lie.
Ok, back to the tract. It's final requirement, among all the others that the apostles did not require, is, “Simply believe on Him as the one who bore your sin, died in your place, was buried, and whom God resurrected.” Again, Peter and Paul's hearers could not have done this, because Peter and Paul didn't tell them that Jesus bore their sin. However, at least that's Scriptural. Jesus did bear our sin. "Died in your place" isn't Scriptural or true.
Either way, none of this is the faith God requires in the Gospel. God wants you to believe in Christ, not in facts about Christ. The false gospel espoused in this “God's Simple Plan of Salvation” has led to the ridiculous occurrence of Christians who supposedly believe in Christ but not only don't do what he says, but don't even believe they have to! Mr. T, for example, the famous actor, once said, “I'm a Christian, but I'm not Jesus. If you hit me on one cheek, I'm gonna hit you back.”
Great, Mr. T. That goes well with the false gospel of this tract, but Jesus is stunned at people who call him Lord but don't obey him. “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I say?” he asked in Luke 6:46. It's a worthless thing to do. He said those who do it won't enter the kingdom of heaven; only those who do the will of the Father will enter (Matt. 7:21).
It is true. God cannot lie.
This squares well with the Gospel we have been describing in the Scriptures here, but it has nothing to do with the false gospel of this tract. You do need to believe in Christ, but you need to believe in Christ as Lord, Savior, and Judge. He'll tell you about the power of his death later. And he expects you to really believe. In fact, he expects you to believe so much that you'll deny your own father and mother, and even your wife and children, for him. You'll have to forsake all your possessions for him, or he won't let you be his disciple (Luke 14:26-33). And if, in the long run, he decides that you are not walking worthy, then you will not be allowed to walk with him in white (Rev. 3:4-5).
It is true. God cannot lie.
Welcome to the true Gospel and the fear it inspires. Fear? Yes, fear. You are commanded by Peter to walk in it. “If you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, then conduct yourself throughout the time of your journey on earth in fear” (1 Pet. 1:17). “Therefore, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men,” wrote Paul in response to his knowledge that “we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10-11). In response to this terror, “We preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, so that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Col. 1:28). How important is this warning and instructing?
Paul took it deadly seriously. “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection lest, having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:27).
We are all told to have the same attitude as Paul. The word “disqualified” there in 1 Cor. 9:27 is adokimos, and it is used in 2 Cor. 13:5 as well. There we read, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Prove yourselves. Do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are disqualified?”One final thing. The tract ends with a prayer announcing faith in all the false things mentioned in the tract. This is fitting, I suppose, since the Bible never mentions praying to receive Christ, either. Of course, as you may already know, the “prayer” of the early church was baptism. Everyone was baptized into Christ in the New Testament. Whether we like it or not, as the tract says, “God is true. He cannot lie.” It's just so, and it's impossible to miss, no matter how much doctrinal dancing, extreme exegeting, or heremeneutic heaving we do (nice alliteration, huh? I'm impressed with myself, though I feel a little silly).
In fact, 1 Peter 3:21 probably calls baptism a prayer. There's a word there that no translators seem to agree on. In the King James it reads, "The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." (Why does anyone still read that version?1)
The word at question is the word translated “answer” by the KJV translators. The NIV and other modern translations like to translate it “pledge.” Neither of those translations make much sense. As usual, it's the NASB that gets it right. The word is eperotema. it's not found anywhere else in the New Testament, but its verb form, eperotao is in the NT 59 times. It means “to ask.” Obviously, then, the noun form of the word means “question.” The NASB uses “appeal,” a very similar word. Strong's Concordance, the version that came with my Online Bible, says it should be translated "enquiry" or "question." As I said, this is obviously correct, and that's what's suggested by Liddel & Scott's, the ultimate standard for New Testament lexicons. They found several uses of the word is secular Greek literature proving this translation is best.
So, without the archaic language and with “appeal” inserted for eperotema, it reads, “There is a similar type which now saves us, namely baptism, not by removing the filth of the flesh, but by an appeal to God for a good conscience.” Now admittedly I used “for a good conscience” rather than “from a good conscience” out of preference, because there's no way to determine which is best (according to several commentaries and Scott & Liddel's Lexicon), but whether “for” or “from” is accurate, baptism is still an appeal to God and thus a prayer. It is either a prayer to God for a good conscience or from a good conscience, but it saves us by being a prayer to God, or at least that's what Scripture says, so—you guessed it—it is true; God cannot lie.
Footnotes:
1 You need to keep a KJV around as a reference. It was translated back when English still had a singular and plural you. All the "thou's," "thee's," and "thy's" are singular, while all the "ye's," "you's," and "your's," are plural. That matters in a lot of Scriptures, especially in the New Testament, where you can often differentiate between what's written to individuals and what's written to the church by those words. Matthew 5:16 and 1 John 2:27 are great examples of this. Return to text