Phil
Robertson reaches the common folks while Max reaches out to the church folks.
They both teaches the false teaching of baptismal regeneration.
The entire Robertson
family is active with the White’s Ferry Road
Church of Christ, which meets just a few miles from the Duck Commander/Buck
Commander warehouse in this northeast Louisiana town of 13,000.
Max Lucado
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Max Lucado (born January 11,
1955) is a best-selling author and writer and preacher at Oak Hills Church
(formerly the Oak Hills Church of Christ) in San Antonio, Texas. Lucado
has written almost 100 books with 80 million copies in print, including three
recipients of the Charles "Kip" Jordon Gold Medallion
Christian Book of the Year (Just
Like Jesus, In
the Grip of Grace, andWhen God Whispers Your
Name),[1] and
has also appeared regularly on several bestseller lists including the New York Times Best Seller List..[2] After
serving as the senior minister at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, TX for 20
years, Lucado announced in early 2007 that he was stepping down due to health
concerns related to atrial fibrillation.[3] Lucado
has since resumed the more limited ministry role of writing and preaching at
Oak Hills with co-pastor Randy Frazee, formerly of Willow Creek Community
Church of
South Barrington, IL.
Doctrine
of Salvation (Soteriology)
Churches of Christ are strongly anti-Calvinist in their understanding of salvation and generally present conversion as
"obedience to the proclaimed facts of the gospel rather than as the result
of an emotional, Spirit-initiated conversion".[18]:215 Churches of Christ hold the view that
humans of accountable age are lost because of their sins.[10]:124 These lost souls can be redeemed
becauseJesus Christ,
the Son of God, offered Himself as the atoning sacrifice.[10]:124 Children too young to understand right
from wrong, and make a conscious choice between the two, are believed to be
innocent of sin.[8]:107[10]:124 The age when this occurs is generally
believed to be around 13, although it varies based on maturity.[8]:107
Churches of Christ generally teach that the process of salvation
involves the following steps:[1]
1.
One must be properly taught, and hear (Romans
10:17, Matthew
7:24);
2.
One must believe or have faith (Hebrews
11:6, Mark
16:15–16);
3.
One must repent, which means
turning from one's former lifestyle and choosing God's ways (Acts
2:38, Acts
17:30, Luke
13:3);
4.
One must confess belief
that Jesus is the son of God (Matthew
10:32–33; Acts
8:36–37);
5.
One must be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts
2:38; 1Peter
3:20–21; Romans
6:3–5; Mark
16:16; Acts
22:16); and
6.
One must remain faithful unto death (Revelation
2:10).
Beginning in the 1960s, many preachers began placing more emphasis
on the role of grace in salvation, instead of focusing
exclusively on implementing all of the New Testament commands and examples.[51]:152,153 This was not an entirely new approach,
as others had actively "affirmed a theology of free and unmerited
grace", but it did represent a change of emphasis with grace becoming
"a theme that would increasingly define this tradition".[51]:153
Baptism
See also: Baptism in early Christianity
Baptism has been recognized as an important
rite throughout the history of
the Christian Church,[58]:11 but Christian groups differ over the
manner in which baptism is administered,[58]:11 the meaning and significance of
baptism,[58]:11 its role in salvation,[58]:12 and who is a candidate for baptism.[58]:12
Baptism in Churches of Christ is performed only by bodily immersion,[8]:107[10]:124 based on the Koine Greek verb βαπτίζω (baptizō) which is understood to mean
to dip, immerse, submerge or plunge.[1][11]:313–314[14]:45–46[58]:139[59]:22 Immersion is seen as more closely
conforming to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus than other modes of
baptism.[1][11]:314–316[58]:140 Churches of Christ argue that
historically immersion was the mode used in the first century, and that pouring and
sprinkling later emerged as secondary modes when immersion was not possible.[58]:140 Over time these secondary modes came
to replace immersion.[58]:140 Only those mentally capable of belief
and repentance are baptized (i.e., infant baptism is not practiced because the
New Testament has no precedent for it).[1][10]:124[11]:318–319[43]:195
Churches of Christ have historically had the most conservative
position on baptism among the various branches of the Restoration Movement, understanding
baptism by immersion to be a necessary part of conversion.[60]:61 The most significant disagreements
concerned the extent to which a correct understanding of the role of baptism is
necessary for its validity.[60]:61 David Lipscomb consistently argued that if a believer
was baptized out of a desire to obey God, the baptism was valid, even if the
individual did not fully understand the role baptism plays in salvation.[60]:61 Austin McGary argued strongly that to be valid, the
convert must also understand that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins.[60]:62 McGary's view became the prevailing
one in the early 20th century, but the approach advocated by Lipscomb never
totally disappeared.[60]:62 More recently, the rise of the International Churches of Christhas caused
some to reexamine the issue.[60]:66
Churches of Christ consistently teach that in baptism a believer
surrenders his life in faith and obedience to God, and that God "by the
merits of Christ's blood, cleanses one from sin and truly changes the state of
the person from an alien to a citizen of God's kingdom. Baptism is not a human
work; it is the place where God does the work that only God can do."[60]:66 Baptism is a passive act of faith
rather than a meritorious work; it "is a confession that a person has
nothing to offer God".[61]:112
While Churches of Christ do not describe baptism as a
"sacrament", their view of it can legitimately be described as
"sacramental".[59]:186[60]:66 The term, "sacrament" comes
from the Latin, sacramentum which means "a thing set apart as holy".[62] The New Testament does not
differentiate certain acts of obedience from others as to bestow a special sort
of grace. An Augustinian cleric, Hugo of St. Victor (1096-1141) from Italian
Catholicism is responsible for classifying seven "sacraments".[62] They see the power of baptism coming
from God, who chose to use baptism as a vehicle, rather than from the water or
the act itself,[59]:186 and understand baptism to be an
integral part of the conversion process, rather than as only a symbol of
conversion.[59]:184 A recent trend is to emphasize the
transformational aspect of baptism: instead of describing it as nothing more
than a legal requirement or sign of something that happened in the past, it is
seen as "the event that places the believer 'into Christ' where God does
the ongoing work of transformation".[60]:66 There is a minority that downplays the
importance of baptism in order to avoid sectarianism, but the broader trend is
to "reexamine the richness of the biblical teaching of baptism and to
reinforce its central and essential place in Christianity".[60]:66
Because of the belief that baptism is a necessary part of salvation, some Baptists hold that the Churches of Christ
endorse the doctrine of baptismal regeneration.[63] Members of the Churches of Christ
reject this, arguing that since faith and repentance are necessary, and that the cleansing
of sins is by the blood of Christ through the grace of God, baptism is
not an inherently redeeming ritual.[58]:133[63][64]:630,631 One author describes the relationship
between faith and baptism this way, "Faith is the reason why a person is a child of God; baptism is the time at which one is incorporated into Christ and so
becomes a child of God" (italics are in the source).[43]:170 Baptism is understood as a
confessional expression of faith and repentance,[43]:179–182 rather than a "work" that
earns salvation.[43]:170
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1 comment:
Max Lucado preaches the same heresy. In the book Max on Life the following question is asked: “What about the people who have never heard of God? Will God punish them?” Lucado replies: “No, He will not. Heaven’s population includes throngs of people who learned the name of their Savior when they awoke in their eternal home” (p. 222).
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