Charles Stanley: a false teacher

Charles Stanley must be avoided as a false teacher. His soteirology, as explicitly and repeated expressed in his book "Eternal Security" is all wrong. He speaks against Scripture and twists the parts he quotes. He denies biblical Eternal Security in the Lordship of Christ; that is to say, Stanley repeatedly says that as long as you expressed "faith" at one moment in your life, you can reject Jesus, reject the faith, live ungodly, and still go to Heaven. This is utterly heretical.

Here is an article at airocross which is by far the best I've read so far.

Here are some excerpts:

Below is a list of quotes from Dr. Stanley’s book Eternal Security, each followed by a rebuttal from Scripture:

1.  ”Even if a believer for all practical purposes becomes an unbeliever, his salvation is not in jeopardy” (Chapter 10, p. 93).

Here is what God says in His Scripture:

Matthew 10:22 – And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.

Revelation 21:8 – But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death”

2.  ”And last, believers who lose or abandon their faith will retain their salvation, for God remains faithful” (p. 94).

Here is what God says in His Scripture:

1 John 2:19 – They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us....

Dr. Stanley’s teachings do not match up when compared to the Word of God. Dr. Stanley’s teachings are deceptive and can give an assurance of salvation to those who should not have it. Sadly, this type of teaching is very popular and typical in most evangelical churches today. However, this teaching is bad theology and denies the Lordship of Jesus Christ, it perverts the Gospel, and I believe is one of the many broad roads leading to destruction that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 7:13-14. Anyone teaching such heresy should tremble at Galatians 1:8-9.

End quote. 

2Ti 2:19  Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, "The Lord knows those who are His," and, "Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness."

Joh 15:10  "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.....Joh 15:16  "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.

2Co 13:5  Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test?

1Jo 2:4  Whoever says "I know Him" but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5  but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6  whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. 

Jas 2:14  What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

Jas 2:17  So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

1Jn 5:18  We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

True faith has its results of obedience as we grow in Christ. The one who is in Christ, will never lose faith nor stay in rebellion against Christ because He will not allow them to. The Holy Spirit who has sealed the believer will convict them of sin (Heb. 12). A dead faith is NO faith. 

Grace Community Church rightly states:

Scripture teaches that Jesus is Lord of all, and the faith He demands involves unconditional surrender (Rom. 6:17-18; 10:9-10). In other words, Christ does not bestow eternal life on those whose hearts remain set against Him (James 4:6). Surrender to Jesus’ lordship is not an addendum to the biblical terms of salvation; the summons to submission is at the heart of the gospel invitation throughout Scripture. In contrast, easy-believism teaches that submission to Christ’s supreme authority is not germane to the saving transaction.

Scripture teaches that behavior is an important test of faith. Obedience is evidence that one’s faith is real (1 John 2:3). On the other hand, the person who remains utterly unwilling to obey Christ does not evidence true faith (1 John 2:4). In contrast, easy believism teaches that disobedience and prolonged sin are no reason to doubt the reality of one’s faith.

Scripture teaches that genuine believers may stumble and fall, but they will persevere in the faith (1 Cor. 1:8). Those who later turn completely away from the Lord show that they were never truly born again (1 John 2:19). In contrast, easy-believism teaches that a true believer may utterly forsake Christ and come to the point of not believing.

As John MacArthur points out:

Grace is not a liberal clemency or a passive indulgence that simply tolerates and coexists with sin. Divine grace doesn't guarantee heaven in the afterlife while merely overlooking the evils of this life. Authentic grace is the undeserved favor of God toward sinners, delivering them from the power as well as the penalty of sin (Romans 6:14). Grace is dynamic, "teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age" (Titus 2:12).

That's why sanctification is another major doctrine whose biblical foundations are undermined by no-lordship doctrine. The whole gist of the no-lordship message is that while justification is a free gift of God's grace, sanctification is primarily the believer's own work--and therefore more or less optional.

Sanctification is as much a work of divine grace as justification. By portraying sanctification as an optional human work, advocates of no-lordship doctrine actually fall into the very error of works-salvation they profess to deplore. They have made at least this aspect of salvation into a human work.

The errors of no-lordship theology do not find their origin in the principle of sola fide; they stem from an incomplete, man-centered soteriology that refuses to see anything beyond justification. In defending the gospel from no-lordship doctrine, we must take care not to commit the opposite error by downplaying or abandoning the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

S. Lewis Johnson critiquing a book by Zane Hodges in which Dr. Johnson concluded that the central error underlying no-lordship doctrine is nothing but the ancient heresy of semi-pelagianism--the belief that saving grace cannot be efficacious without the prior cooperation of human free will.

End quote.

More problems with Stanley:

Mysticism    and more mysticism through "In Touch" magazine.