COUNT THE COST

"Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise , when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'

 Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions."    Luke 14:27-33

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I'll never forget it. 

I was in high school going to Dallas Junior Academy, a Seventh-day Adventists church school. At a youth camp religious retreat on Friday night a pastor gave a fiery--but relevant--sermon. The music, tailor-made for the 1970's youth, had been emotional. The altar call to come give your life to Christ had been short when one of the cool kids went up front. 

It was a very impactful moment for the rest of the teenagers, as well as the adults.

Soon many more of the cool kids, known to have been involved in both promiscuous relationships and occasional drug use, went to the front of the out-of-doors picnic area to dedicate their lives to Christ.  

They all cried, I cried. I thanked the Lord for this moment. It was a miracle.

I was on supernatural wings until school started again on Monday. Those kids would be different now. Their lives will begin to change and the school will become a little piece of heaven.

Then, at lunch, those same kids began to talk to each other and the rest of us who had watched them. They mocked their spiritual experience and brushed it off as if it had been stupid. I was aghast. Hurt for them, hurt for God. But it taught me a lesson.

The Lord wants us to really think about becoming a disciple, not just have an experience that takes us to the altar of a church on an emotional whim. Jesus said we are to calmly, rationally think about what it means and the sacrifice we must make to be a follower of His.

It takes time to count the cost.

One can have an experience of God's love and an emotional supernatural understanding of the gospel in a moment. Christ can show us our sins and we can truly repent and determine to turn from our sins in one short evening. Yet Christ says that once we begin plowing we are not to look back. We need to take a few minutes to think about it. 

Becoming a disciple of Christ is life changing. 

The Self-Refuting Doctrine of Sola Fide by Teresa Beem

NOTE:  

Sometimes I forget actual people read this. I pretend others read it just as a child I pretended all the dolls I lined up on my bed were listening to me teach them. 
I tend to write in a tone as if my only audience is me. And my tone can be unemotional because I already know my heart and it's seems wordy to write out how sincere my heart is--since I can feel it myself. If I write with a calculated emotional tone, I am sorry. Believe me, I have enormous love for anyone who might take the time to read my blog. Wow. Thank you. 

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Protestants teach that a person is saved by grace, through faith alone (sola fide). 

Before I write anything else I need to give you the working definition of the doctrine of sola fide for this post:

Sola Fide: A person is justified by God's grace, through faith alone and that means that the person has entered a covenant with God, through the atoning blood of His Son Christ Jesus, which gives the believer eternal security that he or she will live with God in heaven.

Some, if not most, American Evangelicals teach that you can't be a true Christian without embracing the doctrine of sola fide. But I have heard the following type of statements often over the last decade:

A Seventh-day Adventist: 

"The remnant (true believers in these last days) are those who keep the Ten Commandments. The fourth commandment requires that we keep Sabbath holy. If you aren't keeping the correct Sabbath holy, you cannot be obeying God."

A Southern Baptist Sunday School Teacher:

"Every born-again believer must know the date he was saved. If he doesn't, I have to guess whether he was saved or not."

Assemblies of God Choir Director:
"Ya haven't spoken in tongues? (hummm) Well, you can join our choir on the contingency that ya let us know when you become a full member of God's family by being baptized with the Holy Spirit. Until then, well, we'll be prayin' for ya."

A Member of the Reformed Church:
"I am sorry, I am just very concerned for your soul because you haven't accepted the Bible truth of Limited Atonement and Predestination."

A Pentecostal:

"According to Romans 8:16, my spirit is not bearing witness to me that your spirit is a child of God. You just keep studying scripture, honey."

An Evangelical Minister to His Congregation:

"A true Christian is required to believe in the inerrancy of scripture and sola scriptura."

A Non-Denominational Friend:

"All who claim to be Bible-believing Christians must believe in once-saved-always-saved. If you don't, you're a heretic."

Adventist Online: 

"No true Christian can accept the doctrine of an everlasting hell."

Calvinist Online:

"No true Christian rejects the doctrine of an everlasting hell."

A Southern Baptist scholar, Ph.D in Theology:
"A Christian must accept sola fide, period, or he isn't saved."

These were Protestants who insisted that nothing, nothing can be added to our faith to secure our justification and salvation. Faith plus anything equal a works-righteousness that will place a person in hell. 

Yet, each Evangelical denomination, in reality, adds correct theology to faith in Christ. One added correct theology on Sabbath-keeping and obeying the Ten Commandments. Another a born-again date, or talking in tongues, predestination, everlasting hell. Each Protestant denomination holds fast to certain theology required to be a true, Bible-believing Christian. And even the idea of the requirement of being a Bible-believer is adding something to faith alone.

These responses have always proven to me that sola fide may be believed on a theoretical, ideological level, but not on a practical, functional one. A living faith is never truly alone, St. James said so. And Protestants' demand that all Christians believe in the doctrine of Righteousness by Faith Alone is adding to faith alone just as the above list of additions Christians insist be believed in order to be true Christians. 

Think about this:

If one believes that faith alone is all that is needed for justification, then insisting that the doctrine of sola fide (faith alone) be believed is adding to the simple conviction of faith alone. Not only must you believe in Christ but you then are obligated to believe in the doctrine of sola fide.

For Evangelicals to require that Christians must believe in the doctrine of sola fide in order to be saved is self-refuting theology, an internal contradiction. And so it must be because it is not Biblical. 

The inerrant, infallible written Word of God does talk one time about faith alone. Here it is in James 2: 24. 

You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

Punishment for a Believer's Intentional and Unintentional Sins.

But suppose the servant says to himself, 'My master is taking a long time in coming,' and he then begins to beat the menservants and maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Luke 12: 45-48

A multitude of people were listening to Christ tell a parable of a master who is away for his own wedding and in his absence, he places his servant in charge. The servant is warned to keep watch and be ready ("keep your lamps burning"), because his master will unexpectedly return from the wedding banquet and knock at his door. Then he will enter and judge the servant's performance as keeper of the household. Jesus is telling His disciples that faithful servants will be ready for the return of their master by their obedience.

This parable is obviously the Second Coming of Christ and the Judgment, because He says to those listening, 

You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him....Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 

Those are the rewards of the faithful servants. 

Next, Jesus says the words cited in the first passage at the top. This warns His followers about the eternal judgment of the unfaithful, wicked servant who thinks his master is delaying his return, so he starts a drunken party and beats the other servants. That wicked manager will be given this judgment:

He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. 

That is very graphic language. The place of the unbelievers is usually thought of as hell. So the wicked servant will be torn apart and we can assume cast into hell.

Notice that Christ distinguishes unfaithful servants  from the unbeliever. Their end will be the same, but He doesn't call them unbelievers, He calls them servants. In judgment, the unfaithful servants will be given the same eternal punishment as the unbeliever. 

Now, scholars differ on how to interpret the next passage. 

That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. 

Is Christ speaking of the same unfaithful servant here who is cut in half? Or is this another servant?  

If this is the same servant, he is both cut into many pieces and beaten with many blows. That is awkward. Why would Christ punish them with cutting them up and also blows? Sounds as if this is a different servant. This one was aware of what he was supposed to do, but failed to do it. He may not have been beating other servants, but did not obey his master. So this second servant who fails to obey his master will be severely punished at his eternal judgment. 

A third servant's judgment is brought up. This one is different in that he wasn't aware of what he was supposed to do. He wasn't being deliberately disobedient.

But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows.

The culpability seems to decrease the severity of punishment, but it does not totally excuse him. Perhaps there was some negligence on the part of the servant for not inquiring about his duties. 

Jesus is judging His servants on a sliding scale of obedience with those servants who willfully, flagrantly disobey given the worst punishment. Those who did not know the instructions are still given punishment but only light blows. 

Protestant theology would interpret Jesus' parable as saying that all three of these servants are faithless and their verdict is eternal punishment, but of differing degrees. Most Protestant theology gives the ignorant servant no hope of heaven only mercy in everlasting damnation.  

There is no mainstream Protestant church that would allow for a punishment of the servant's disobedience and then an entering into heaven. 

However, the text could naturally be interpreted to mean that the first wicked servant was sent to hell while the other two were sent for a temporary punishment that would be over. It would have an end and then what? 

Seventh-day Adventists would respond, "annihilation." But that is an interpretation most Christians reject. That is a additional punishment that would create injustice. After all, the person unaware of having sinned would be mildly punished and an additional payment for their crimes of obliteration would follow. That adds too much to the text.

Catholics have what I consider the best and most loving interpretation of this passage because we believe Christ taught purgatory. I will not go into the other scriptural references Catholics use to back up the theology of Purgatory. We will concentrate on this parable. 

Christ is clear here, sins that are not repented of will be punished. Even those who are God's servants. No one gets a "get out of punishment free" card when he sins. We must repent. Then Christ mercifully applies the atonement to the servant and he is cleansed of all unrighteousness. 

This is true of both intentional and unintentional sins. Even sins a believer is not aware of will be punished. However, the verdict for the uninformed who sins is not damnation. Jesus tells us that their punishment is light and temporal, and then a  servant of God will enter heaven. 

Praise God that there is another way. Purgatory. If one has lived this life as God's servant but has failed Him in some respects-- perhaps having been disobedient or lazy--but one's works have not shown utter hatred for God by dismissing Him and hurting His other servants, one may end up in purgatory and not hell. That person's faith will save them but as St. Paul wrote, "as through fire." (1 Cor. 3: 5)

If anyone read these passages as a Protestant, the best a unfaithful or ignorant servant can hope for is degrees of suffering in hell. Jesus provided another way to cleanse a believer of all unrighteousness and to make him clean and spotless as His Bride. Purgatory will make  the believer able to stand in front of a Holy God. 

Can the text be interpreted another way than Catholic, of course. But I have yet to come across a Protestant interpretation of this passage that works with other passages of scripture or the character of Christ. 

I am so thankful for the mercy of Purgatory.