the Spirit Watch

The "Do Scriptures" Twisted By Gwen Shamblin : An 8 Part Bible Study

Matthew 7:21 Rightly Divided

By Rev. Rafael D Martinez, Spiritwatch Ministries

Father, we praise and thank you this evening for your unspeakable goodness to us. Thank you for visiting us daily with mercies new each morning. Lord Jesus, set our eyes upon you - keep us ever aware that You alone are the Author and the Finisher of our Faith, the one who will complete the good work you started in us as we turned our hearts and lives to you. Holy Spirit, again we welcome you and ask that you fill our hearts, minds and souls with that wonderfully personal touch you give us all that we might see the Truth you are sent to show us. Glorify yourself in us as we open our hearts and focus our minds to what You will show us in your Word, to thy glory alone, in the name of Jesus, amen!

We studied through James 2 last week and saw what the Scriptures there in their context really mean regarding the relationship of "works" to "faith" and how Gwen Shamblin misses the mark on properly interpreting them, asserting they mean that works are what merit God's favor, and that faith in God's grace isn't enough to bring salvation to those seeking it from God. Now we want to take a look at a second Scripture she uses routinely to hammer home this skewed point, found in Matthew 7:21.

  WHAT GWEN TEACHES ABOUT MATTHEW 7:21

It is not with your mouth that you will be saved! The demons believe and tremble! Your claimed Lord and Master said very clearly, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but ONLY HE WHO DOES THE WILL OF MY FATHER who is in heaven." (Matt. 7:21) "Only he who does," Jesus said. That is finite and absolute. How come you are not so sure of this? So where have you been? Why did you not know that you would not enter heaven if you went against the will of the Father? .. The church is under the most powerful delusion in the history of mankind: you are a deliberate or continual sinner who is covered by an unconditional grace that is not found in the New Testament. The Jesus of the Bible says, "Not everyone...will enter the kingdom of heaven but only he who DOES the will of my Father..." (Matthew 7:21) (RF website)

I want to thank those who are hearing the message and using all of their efforts to concentrate on doing the will of God. Read through these Scriptures and underline the words "do the will of God," because it is those who do the will of God who will be saved: Matthew 7:21 .. " (WDA Guide, Week 5, p. 65)

 .. the only ones who were saved were not those who heard the word of God, but rather those who put it into practice (Matthew 7:21-27) ..  (WDA Guide, Week 5, p. 122)

Changed DOING into DONE .. Matthew 7:21 (RF website)

What is Gwen teaching here? It's quite clear: personal confession of faith in Christ alone isn't enough to gain salvation and access to heaven. She teaches that Jesus is contrasting the claims of those who merely call Him "Lord" to those who are doing the will of His Father. You cannot simply call Jesus Lord without "doing" His will. He is saying that personal effort and scrupulous attention to detail in defining and doing the will of God is what He expects of those who expect to enter the Kingdom of heaven: "only he who does  ..." This is what the "Jesus of the Bible" is commanding of those who would say they are His disciples.

From this we see why God is sending grave, crushing rebuke upon the adrift and backslidden Christian Church: it will be barred from heaven for fostering a comfortable "unconditional grace" that has rocked generations of sinners to a sleep of spiritual death. She further asserts that it has taught people that the doing of God's will has been completed, done, and finished, meaning no one has to do anything any more except believe and confess by "mental affirmation," as we learned last week. Gwen commends those heeding "the message" she is sending because of their wholehearted and total commitment to "doing the will of God." She encourages that the phrase itself as seen in a list of Scriptures she has compiled be the main focus of personal study. Those who DO the will of God are the ones going to be saved.

Again, Gwen's claims sound so Biblically founded, so rooted in objective spiritual reality that they cannot be denied. Jesus said, we are told, that we have to do God's will to be saved and that in this "doing" we may find the path to eternal life since it is what results in true and total obedience to God. For each and every disciple of "the message", this logically concludes in the painstaking attention to every bit of dietary detail ("from growl to growl" as she would put it) and moral minutiae gleaned from frequent contact with a persuasive and pervasive WDW/RF culture. For this, she concludes, is how we can see that someone actually proves their faithfulness, by a "total obedience" to "doing" God's will for one's life.

MATTHEW 7:21 RIGHTLY DIVIDED

Once again, with faith in the power of the Spirit of God to open our eyes of understanding, let's look again into the words of Jesus in their Biblical context as well as the Scriptures that speak most directly to the concepts raised by our Lord here. Our overview of Matthew 7:21's context is longer than I wanted it to be, yet it is exceedingly important, so I hope you will bear with me as we discuss this. We will be using the NIV version of Scripture.

Matthew 7:21 is one verse taken from the well known "Sermon On The Mount" that Jesus taught one day at the outset of His ministry in Galilee, a "sermon" recorded from Matthew 5 through 7. This was not actually a sermon, but Jesus' disarmingly simple, yet profound discourses given to Israel that were his call for them to make room in their lives for the new era that His ministry and Gospel were heralding. He began to describe a new spiritual direction to the people gathered from across Israel on that dry, sunny Palestinian hill two millennia ago that was in the sharpest contrast to the work-centered traditions upheld by the Pharisees and the scribes as the true path to God. It was the first time that Israel had ever heard of such a practical spirituality that cut against the grain of every cherished bias, pet doctrine and esteemed religious tradition that they'd been taught.

It seemed so radical because it was drawn from Jesus' warning in 5:17 that He had not come "to abolish the Law or the Prophets .. "but to fulfill them"(NIV).  The word "fulfill," drawn from the Greek word pleroo, is a reference to the complete accomplishment of something being done, of a bringing to absolute completion of an effort or task that had been undertaken. And this is precisely what Jesus meant as he explained why He had been born to the Virgin Mary as son of Man, conceived by the Holy Spirit as Son of God. The walk of Jesus Christ on the earth was not only to be a sacrifice for the sins of the world but to once and for all live out among sinful mankind a holy life demonstrating perfect submission to the Law of God and the fulfillment of the Prophets who'd foreseen His gracious coming and ministry. His perfectly lived life, Jesus said, would mark the total and complete fulfillment of the demands of the Law - in His very person, the Law would be perfectly kept for the first and only time in human history and all of the oracles of the holy Prophets would be bodily manifest through the life of only one of the sons of David. In short, all of truth, grace and God's glory would be embodied in Jesus Christ, our Lord, alone.

The fullest context of Matthew 7:21 would therefore be drawn from a good study of these chapters, but we simply don't have time here to cover that, of course. As we see, the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 5-7 here was not just a call for a higher morality, a deeper spirituality, or a more compassionate personal ethic. Jesus kept emphasizing over and over His contrast between the demands of human tradition and His teaching ("But I say unto you ..”). By raising this issue, he drove home the point that His authoritative teaching raised a standard never seen before (remember the words of the guards of the temple in John 7:46 "No one ever spoke the way this man does"). In short, Jesus' teaching and truth claims firmly established the unique nature of His person and ministry. He alone could say what He did and then measure up to His claims.

What has this to do with Gwen Shamblin's teaching? It has everything to do with it as we shall see. This understanding of the context of Matthew 5-7 provides for us the framework for understanding Matthew 7:21 itself and what Jesus meant there.

Let's now examine the passages of Matthew 7 that provide the clearest internal evidence of context with verse 21, these being verses 13 through 27.

Verses 1 through 5 feature Jesus' teaching on hypocritical judgment, Verse 6 carries His warning of careless sharing of sacred things with those who don't revere them, and His encouraging assurance of God's willingness to send blessings in response to those who seek Him diligently is found in verses 7 through 12. The focus of verses 13-27, when considered carefully, refers to some of the most sobering warnings that Jesus has ever given. He charges those seeking the way to eternal life to consider the multiple dangers facing them which could lead them astray - perils not only around them, but within them.

Matthew 7:13-27

13        "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.

14        But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

The Lord uses symbolism as He describes two gateways, one large and wide and the other small and narrow in these verses. It is clear that the "wide" and "broad" road that one gate opens up to is a path that only leads to destruction - and many, sadly, are strolling down this accursed roadway to ruin. The yawning, gaping width of the one gateway readily accepts a vast multitude of people into itself. This great host of people, being as diverse as a large number of people would be, hold multiple convictions and truth claims that are elements of the path itself; still, for all of its allure, it is a path leading to death.

But the other path is one that Jesus calls "small" and "narrow," a way found by the few, but leading to the preservation of their very lives. It's a gateway embodied in the person of Jesus Christ Himself. He is the One who speaks of Himself as "the gate" (John 10:9-10) through which "whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture." He also calls Himself in John 14:6 "the way and the truth and the life." By these verses, we can see that Jesus is once more alluding by parable that there is only one way to eternal life - and HE is that Way. The warning is crystal clear: take heed of those beckoning you to join them on the well-trod, colorful parkway to perdition! The road to life is one few travel down because of their stumbling over the Gate Himself.

15        "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

16        By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

17        Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

18        A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

19        Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

20        Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

The warnings of Jesus continue as He gives instruction on how to discern those pretensive figures in religious life that he calls "false prophets." These are those people who persist in setting themselves forth as oracular seers among us who most perfectly hear and foretell the deep things of God but who are, as Yahweh in Jeremiah 14:14 flatly states, "prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds." They will approach and infiltrate the God-fearing community under the guise of innocence and holiness, but their thin veneer cannot long hide their true nature marked by cruelty and vicious ferocity.

Jesus tears these presumptuous masks off to establish an important principle for all of those who would heed the voice those claiming to be prophets: no matter how great their claim or dazzling the delivery, in the end a true prophet of God is proven by their stability of character and purity of fruit. Discussing this would take us completely out of our study, but I am certain we would agree that Scripture teaches that the fruit of a God-sent prophet would include sound doctrine, prophecies that come true, holy character, and a ministry that calls people back to God. The way in which the professing prophet actually lives out and embodies these values out before all men ultimately proves just how true they really are. By using a parable depicting fruit picked off from different trees and the comparison between good and bad samples of fruit, Jesus is further emphasizing this essential test to discern between false and true prophets. Good and healthy trees will not produce poisonous, noxious fruit that is bitter and indigestible and one won't be picking good fruit out of weeds or wild plants.

The character traits and lifestyle choices of the prophet are the fruit Jesus is focusing in on. A direct Biblical cross-reference to what Jesus speaks of would be certainly revealed in a holy life through the fruit of the Spirit as explained in the timeless teaching of Paul in Galatians 5:22-25. No false prophet can mimic in their own fleshly strength the changed life created by the Spirit Himself for very long. Their fallen, sinful character at some point would be found out. Such a test, Jesus says, it what shows whether some one is truly God sent or not.

21        "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

22        Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'

23        Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

Here, our Lord Jesus gives what is one of the most sobering warnings He ever delivers in the Gospel accounts. It is cautionary in nature yet convicting of practice. Entrance into the Kingdom of heaven is based upon the conditional aspect of our obedience to the will of God, and sadly "many" will find themselves shut out and even expelled from God's presence at a definite point of time, judged by Jesus Himself to be "evildoers" He's never known. The tragic nature of this arises out of the plain fact that the "many" will be scrupulously religious people who exercised a practical spirituality in the name of Jesus (prophecy, deliverance, and miracles) which it is clear they believe was a demonstration of their personal righteousness. Even their innumerable and desperate confessions of Him as "Lord" will mean nothing in "that day" when all shall give account to God before His judgment seat, when the Books of Life are opened and we are judged by our deeds.

"Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment .."  Heb 9:27 (NIV)

This is a plain truth Jesus has spelled out in the clearest possible terms: there will be those who think they've secured their place in the kingdom of heaven by what they DO who He warns will have missed it completely. The supremely devastating irony of this mustn't be lost here. Those who "do" good things certainly would do so thinking they are fulfilling the will of God. But the religious works, disciplines, sacrifices and spiritual gift manifestations which are supposed to be a marker of approval before God are weighed and found wanting, and become part of a junkpile of religiosity Jesus could care less about. And this will not involve some small fringe group alone, but a multitude, a vast host of people that will find themselves naked before God in the searing light of His awful yet perfect judgment and who will be driven from Him for eternity.

It is the right relationship with Him, Jesus points out, that makes all the difference: knowing Jesus Christ Himself personally is the absolute foundation of approval with Him. He rejects those "doing the will of God" because they never knew HIM, or, worst of all, turned from HIM to pursue intimate knowledge with another OTHER than Him.

24        "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

25        The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

26        But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

27        The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."  

Jesus ends the "Sermon on the Mount" with a proverbially drawn line in the sand that to this weary day still speaks to us. He tells the crowds on that hill, and the multitudes of humanity ever since, that those who both hear what He says and lives by it are like the wise man who builds his home upon a firm foundation that will withstand any natural tumult of the elements. He then contrasts this with the foolish man who builds upon shifting sands that crumble at the first blast of stormy weather, that is, the man who hears what Jesus says but who go on to create their own foundation of truth. The wise man's house stands the test of adversity, while the foolish man's home is ruined in the first assaults of nature. Clearly, Jesus is admonishing all of us to hear and do what He commands.

So how does this all relate to Matthew 7:21? How does the interpretation of Gwen Shamblin on "doing the will of God" stand in relationship to what we've learned from the context of Matthew 5-7 and 7:13-27 as we've studied it? Here's where the rubber meets the road, so to speak .. 

1)      Matthew 5-7 is the firm establishment of one central truth that Gwen Shamblin completely rejects and/or ignores (at her peril): Jesus has completed the Law of God. He has fulfilled in His holy live all of the righteousness found in the Law and in so doing, he has COMPLETED all of the stipulations of His Father's Will, all that the Law could ever demand of those who would keep it. No one else can come close. Christ Jesus ALONE has done the only “doing” that could save anyone. His contrasts of what the Pharisees and scribes demanded and what He taught were meant to be as clear as night and day and to emphasize that point. What He did in his miracles and power over demons and the elements also gloriously underscored this. JESUS alone is Lord over salvation, not any amount of "doing" we can ever hope to perform. He came, He DID, He conquered. To live for God is to hold to this truth by a faith based upon what Jesus has done, and a practical Christian life of obedience of what Jesus has taught.

2)      Matthew 7:13-27 contains the closing admonitions of our Lord Jesus concerning how those seeking to live by His teaching would become targets for the seductions of the fallen world, our weakness in the flesh, and the deceptions of demonic design. As we've said, those seeking to follow Jesus will be threatened by perils not only around them, but within them. Compromise with the culture at large, confrontations with the lies of false teachers within the four walls of the community of faith as well as the delusional belief that one can actually be made holy in God's sight by what they do apart from saving trust and relationship with Jesus are the dangers facing us.

3)      And Matthew 7:21 asserts that the whole point of Christian life is to do the will of the Father as revealed to us by the Son. It is the will of God that is discernable in what Jesus telling us of it that will save alone. Clearly, the "doing" doesn't save - we've seen that Jesus ALONE has done that. As we've studied last week from James 2:24, our faith in God is incomplete if we do live out what we say we believe on. It is not the "doing" of our Christian lives that makes us holy, but our faith in Christ alone. The "doing" obedience we offer up is our personal commitment to conforming to what His Spirit has done in us by our faith in Him FIRST, as our personal expression of our love and praise of Him ALONE.

We resist temptation because we love Him, not just to keep ourselves pure out of a religion by rote. We share our faith with others because we love Him, not just to notch our belts with another spiritual scalp. We go to His Word because we love Him, not just to "get fed." We call on Him in prayer because we love Him, not just so we can say we had "quiet time" and met an evangelical formula for piety. Our Christian obedience is in response to our sanctifying of God's place in our hearts as Lord over our lives - not as a religious duty imposed upon by anyone else - in short we obey Him because we love Him.

 

1 John 4:19 is the anthem of the believer that loves God, stating that "we love Him, because He first loved us." 

The greatest question that now suggests itself is this:

How does Gwen Shamblin's demand that we need to do the "will of God" be equated to what she herself says should be done?

At what point did Internet webcasts or study guides of the will of a blonde dietician suddenly become confused with the will of God? This is where the consideration must also go. We are speaking of the WILL OF GOD! It's found in the teachings of Jesus Christ alone, so how dares Shamblin or anyone else under WDW/RF "authority" presume to raise up to the equivalency of divine direction their own traditions of how to eat, how to discipline children, etc. as "the will of God?" The will of God is found in Scripture!

For all of the endless repetition and attention Shamblin may lavish upon our need to "do the will of God" for salvation, she doesn't quite explain how what she says becomes "the will of God" that becomes the plumbline of judgment that God will use. She may cite pages and pages of Scripture, furiously quote verse upon verse and sound quite orthodox and persuasive. And yet, in the RF/WDW culture we've come to know so well, the "will of God" that Gwen says should be done pretty much centers around to her own biases, viewpoints, practical exhortations and worldview, even down to how to eat potato chips.

This where so many people involved in the WDW sadly got sidetracked. The will of Gwen has become the will of God. There is no more greater and more disgusting an idolatry as this kind of reckoning as sanctioned by Shamblin and her associates. But it is there as clear as a bell.

Contrary to what Gwen's rejection of confessed faith in Christ as essential to salvation, our Lord Jesus and the apostle Paul teach an entirely different standard:

John 6:26-29

26        Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.

27        Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."

28        Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"

29        Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."  

This was when Jesus was confronting the increasingly fickle and demanding crowds thronging him with their own hypocrisy: many followed him not because they were learning spiritual truth from His confirmation of His Lordship by signs and wonders, but because they got free lunches from His miraculous provision of food for thousands out of a few loaves and fishes. He commands them to leave off worrying about foodstuff that would rot away but for eternal food that would sustain them for all eternity. Jesus alone could give this food for He alone had God's divine favor to do so (again, another reference to His unique place in salvation - not food!) and His focus is entirely upon the spiritual and not the natural.

But that's not even the main point here. Look again at what the crowds asked of him, a question that speaks to us today just as powerfully. "What must we DO to DO the works God requires?" In other words, these people, many of whom were truly seeking truth, wanted to know just what it was that God commanded that should be DONE to satisfy him. And tarry here, my friends, at what Jesus is saying:

"The work of God is this: TO BELIEVE in the ONE he has sent."

Do we hear anything about living from "growl to growl" or any of the other things that  Shamblin - or any other false teacher - would demand you should DO to bring salvation? Are there any great regimens of religiosity we are meant to perform? Far from it! Jesus is again emphasizing that saving FAITH - believing on Him - was the greatest "work", the only "doing" God commands. When was the last time you heard Gwen Shamblin quote and expand upon this verse? I doubt she's ever touched it in public to any great extent for it is just too subversive, too undermining to her belief system.

It is Jesus the Son of God's words that are defining God the Father's will: "believe in the One he has sent." If ever the people of Israel - and all of humanity since then - need to hear a message, it is this. Jesus likens believing upon him as the one "work" anyone ever needs to do. If Jesus meant for us to pursue a works-based program for salvation dependent upon our DOING, he surely missed the opportunity to draw that distinction! Instead, he does just the opposite and reaffirms the essential nature of personal faith in Him for salvation, not personal effort.

Romans 10:8-13

8        But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming:

9        That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

10        For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

11        As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

12        For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile-- the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,

13        for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

What Jesus has said about the relationship between faith and works is a truth that no one in Scripture has explained more thoroughly than the apostle Paul. Here in Romans 10:8-13, Paul concisely explains it further. The railings of Gwen Shamblin against the concept of a heartfelt confession of faith in Christ for salvation are now shown to be as antichristian as any other verbalized rejection of Christian truth claims she makes. In this passage, he only reaffirms what Jesus was speaking of. It is from one's very heart that faith is expressed by their verbal confession of Christ as Lord over their lives, accompanied by any appropriate confession of sin and repentance from it. This was a mark of the new way that Jesus was proclaiming: faith in Him for personal salvation would be all that would be needed.

But Paul took pains to ensure that the Romans understood that this emphasis by Christ on the exercise of personal faith in Him was not a new thing. We've seen how Abraham was justified by his faith in our last study, and Paul rightly observes how faith in Jesus was a fulfillment of the Old Testament's provision of a foreshadowing grace. He quotes portions of the prophecies of Isaiah 28:16 and Joel 2:32 to prove how Yahweh's love for both Jew and Gentile was such that He would answer their calls upon Him and would honor their trust in His promises. Even though he had called Israel to be His chosen people, his mercy is so great that His willingness to bless Jew and Gentile alike is a facet of his self-revealed nature no one can deny. This wonderful grace was beautifully sang by the psalmist of Psalms 145:17-19:

17        The LORD is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made.

18        The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

19        He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them.

Glory to God! How precious is His mercy and kindness. Thank God His will has nothing to do with the fickle dictates of self-proclaimed "seers" of today such as Gwen Shamblin. Although she may rail upon those who have found their peace with God by faith in His Son and who don't live the way she thinks they should, she persists in her blasphemous error from very dangerous ground. She stubbornly and rebelliously repeats the error of national Israel that Paul earlier spoke of in the same chapter in verses 2-4: she and Remnant Fellowship, thinking themselves to be the true Remnant of Zion, have committed the SAME gross sin:

Romans 10:2-4

2        For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.

3        Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.

4        Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

Once again, the parallel is clear. There are many in the "Remnant Nation" that are like the Israel of old: many refuse to submit to the way of salvation by exercising faith in Jesus alone and persist in creating their own "growl-based" faith that is alien to the Biblical good news. And again, it is JESUS who - praise His name - is exalted as the one who is the "END" (or completion) of the Law so that righteousness may be bestowed upon "everyone who believes."

Sadly, so very sadly, Remnant's theology has no room for this. Indeed, there is no end to the amount of self-denial, attention to detail and personal effort that the Remnant Fellowship disciple has to engage in to ensure they are in the right frame of mind to "be saved." They have set up their own "Total Obedience" program up as their ticket to salvation, a ticket that in the end will only secure a seat on a roller coaster of driven legalism and works-righteousness that rejects the free gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus alone.

We've seen what Jesus means about "doing" the Father's will. We pray that someday Gwen and her disciples, the eyes of their understanding unshackled by the unscriptural dogma they follow, will soon see that they too are in need of a Savior who will receive them and touch them anew if they will only but repent again of their own misguided attempts to create their own righteousness at the expense of the truth of the Gospel.

IMPLICATIONS:

Gwen is RIGHT when she says doing the will of God involves a practical lifestyle focused around upholding one's beliefs which too many people ignore.

Gwen is WRONG when she implies that her body of teaching is what equates the will of God that if disobeyed, is a sign of evil doing.

Gwen is RIGHT when she points out there is a vital "doing" aspect to Christian faith that cannot be ignored which is part of one's walk with God.

Gwen is WRONG when she ignores the whole counsel of Scripture that shows that all that can be done to provide salvation was finished in Jesus' ministry ALONE.

Gwen is RIGHT when she says there are those in the church today whose personal example are a denial of personal commitment to holiness and who do wickedly.

Gwen is WRONG when she makes the blanket assumption that everyone in the church lives the same way simply because they don't happen to be members of RF.

And Gwen is RIGHT when pointing out that mere confession of faith in Christ doesn't mean one truly lives for God, and that this can create false faith.

But Gwen is WRONG when she rejects the Biblical mandate for believing on Christ by faith for salvation to set up a works-based code of conduct for salvation.

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Next week, we'll go to the book of Romans and tackle two of the Scriptures that Gwen brings to bear on those who she thinks don't measure up to her established form of righteousness, namely Romans 2:5-8 and 6:1-2.

Go To Romans 6:1-2 Rightly Divided         Back To The Spiritwatch Home Page