A friend from college just reiterated a statement of faith that is both a rejection of the sound teaching he received as a child and one of the five most damaging heresies to ever plague the Body of Christ. It saddened and depressed me deeply, especially when I considered how the Western Orthodoxy has been displaced so thoroughly that Pentecostal Restoration is critically ill, at best. The particular heresy in question is not particularly relevant. You need only tune in to what passes for religious or philosophical programming on television to find a flood of wealthy men who teach greed, lasciviousness, sorcery (psychology), magic, rebellion, idolatry, and superstition; all in the name of Jesus Nazarene and Messiah. (I like the sound of his name and title as it would have been spoken when he walked the earth, Yehasuah Hanzari Hameshiach.) Such spiritual corruption is preached in Jesus’ name and captures far too many young believers to their destruction.
One of the major causes of such confusion and ungodly teaching is the less obvious motive of sloth. Studying the scripture in its raw state, unfettered by preconceptions or worldly philosophies takes effort that is beyond the consumer minded western heart. This failing is as prevalent among teachers and preachers as it is pew sitters and lay ministers.
The most common form that this lazybones doctrine takes is the desire to summarize the meaning of scripture in simplistic saws and cute acronyms. Even poor scholarship, such as eisegesis and proof-texting, accounts for less of the confusion of false doctrines and dogmas. It may seem hypocritical on first blush, but I’ve worried at the frayed knot of the most pernicious of these trying not to refute them but to refute them in as simplistic a manner as the original. The purpose is not to repeat the same error but outreach to those who are unable or unwilling to digest a more formal apology.
The results of my efforts have been mixed. But spurred on by me friend’s tragic confession I finally worked out the acronym: PCURS. Like the flowery acronym that it is intended to refute and reprimand, PCURS touches on most areas of the gospel including anthropology, theology, soteriology and harmatiology. So at risk of being overly simplistic, consider that the Christian Gospel can be summarized as follows:
Personal Depravity
Every human being is born with a sinful nature, a congenital deffect of the mind, which leads every person to commit evil in the same moment they first gain the capacity to distinguish good from evil.
Conditional Love
God’s love for the individual is initiated by God, but contingent on repentance, ardent pursuit and obedience on the part of the object of God’s love.
Unlimited Atonement
God’s love for corporate humanity lead him to plan and execute the perfect sacrifice, providing him the means to make overture to fallen man, without compromising his law or rectitude. It is not God’s will for any to experience the damnation called the second death. Innocent blood is the price of redemption and, like he did for Abraham, God provided the perfect sacrifice in Jesus the Lamb.
Resistible Grace
The attonement is freely offered to all humanity without discrimination. The Spirit of Holiness attempts to convict the hearts men and women through the preaching of the Gospel. Taking part in that sacrifice requires identification with Jesus in his death. The price of that identity is repentence, ritual confession through baptism, and a life spent in obedience to the moral law of both covenants & penitent restitution for prior bad acts.
Sanctification of the Persistent
No one can steal a child of God from his embrace, however he is not a jailer. If after receiving the grace of Salvation, you return to your prior life of intentional sin and rebellion, there is not more attoning sacrifice for you. Against the will of God, you may willfully seak your own destruction in the eternity of second death. However, if a believer willfully pursues a life of obedience and is persistent enough to finish the natural course of life in relationship and submission to God through Christ, you will be made holy. This holiness is at once a legal action and a progressive transformation. Beginning with a specific crisis moment, perfection of the mind is a matter of conforming to the model of Jesus character, while retaining individuality and growing as a unique and uniquely qualified individual.
Like the author of the cuter and unfortunately more captivating acronym referenced at the beginning of this musing, I have not bothered to cite the specific scripture. This is be design. However, the explication of each point is largely a collection of paraphrases. Please take the opportunity to verify these points with scripture.
Yours in Christ,
Fred