Four Foundational Precepts
After many years of study and debate, I have arrived at certain conclusions on what is necessary to interpret the Scriptures properly. I am convinced that four foundational precepts must be understood and adhered to so that a correct understanding of the Bible can be established.
They are as follows:
- Works have no part in our Eternal salvation at any time in the history of man. Salvation has always been by God’s grace, through faith toward God, without works from the first day of creation until the second coming and the Millennium. After which, Christ will rule sitting upon the throne in Jerusalem. It will not be a question of faith anymore.
- The dual nature of salvation: Christ died for the sins of the world, opening the door of salvation to all men, but each individual must come to God by faith for the forgiveness of individual sins. Payment for the sins of the world was done en masse, all at once; forgiveness for sins is accomplished individually.
- Once Saved, Always Saved: is our liberty in Christ
- Open Theology: history is running in real time. All is not predestinated, nor is God looking down from eternity on the past, present, and future. He is guiding and controlling the flow of history according to his plan and judgments upon men.
Unless you understand and approach the study of the Bible with the above as your frame of reference, you will wrest the Scriptures, force false interpretations upon and pervert them.
Let me further illustrate.
Faith alone: Once you realize that salvation is never by works, then you know that there is only one gospel and that the Old Testament saints were saved by God’s grace, through their faith, just as we are. This does away with Hyper-Dispensationalism, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and any other teaching that works has a part in obtaining or maintaining salvation. (Mark 10:17-23) Understanding the two-part nature of salvation does away with Calvinism, Arminianism, and Universalism.
Open Theology: Means all things are running in real-time under the guidance and control of God. To put it another way, Open Theology has history open and ongoing, whereas the others all have history closed, predetermined, completed, and unchanging. Without a predetermined, unchanging history, Calvinism and Arminianism fall.
Liberty in Christ: Once saved, always saved, is due to works having no part in eternal salvation. Not being able to lose our salvation means that there is a pre-Tribulation Rapture, preventing any of the saved from taking the mark and losing it.
The framework or bias you bring to the study of God’s word matters greatly. These precepts disavow many other false teachings; understanding God’s word cannot be expected if these precepts are denied.