Arlen l chitwood biography
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Confusion about Salvation
(By Arlen L. Chitwood*)
For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
not of works, lest anyone should boast.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
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. And, contextually, this is a training of those whom God views as “sons,” looking out ahead to these sons one day being elevated into positions of power and authority with God’s Son in His kingdom.
For additional information on Hebrews 12:5-8 and child-training, with a view to sonship in the preceding respect, refer to the author’s book, God’s Firstborn Sons, Chapter 3.)
The entire process allows the indwelling Holy Spirit to progressively work the transformation (Greek: metamorphoo, a metamorphosis) of Romans 12:2 in one’s life — a transforming work, beginning from within. And the more one progresses spiritually within the scope of the metamorphosis, the better prepared he will become, the better equipped he will be, to realize and fulfill his calling in life.
Every Christian is a servant in the Lord’s house, and every Christian has been called to exercise some particular sphere of responsibility therein (Matthew 25:14ff; Luke 19:13ff). Household servants have been placed in charge of their Lord’s goods, which are of a spiritual nature, not material. And the proper use of that which is spiritual within the house requires training in spiritual matters. This is why there must be a progressive work of the Holy Spirit in one’s life, effecting the metamorphosis. This is why there must be a progression from immaturity to maturity in the faith.
To achieve this end, God has placed pastor-teachers in His Church. They are the ones who have been commissioned to lead the household servants from immaturity to maturity in spiritual matters in order that the servants might properly function within the scope of their individual, particular callings.
And He Himself gave some .
.” — are also the translation of a perfect tense in the Greek text. The reference, as tetelestai, is to a work completed in past time, with the results of this work extending into the present and existing in a finished state.
At the moment a person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ (places his trust, reliance in Christ, i.e., receives, by faith, that which Christ has done on his behalf), the Spirit not only breathes life into that person but the Spirit also takes up His abode in the individual (cf.
when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith [the faith] on the earth? Bookmark the permalink. .”
(The English word “apostasy” is simply a transliterated form of the compound Greek word, apostasia, which means “to stand away from” [apo meaning “from,” and stasis meaning “to stand”]. True apostasy is a standing away from something previously held — a previously held truth, etc.
Note that apostasy in Scripture has to do with the saved, not with the unsaved. Only the saved can stand away from previously held truth,i.e., apostatize [cf.
. . (Ephesians 4:11-13a).
(The words “pastors and teachers” in Ephesians 4:11 are structured in the Greek text in a manner that requires that the two nouns refer to the same individual — pastors, who are teachers, i.e., pastor-teachers.)
There though has been a breakdown within God’s order in Christendom; and this breakdown is of such a nature that, resultantly, gross error has supplanted biblical truth to the point that it has reached even into the very realm of soteriology itself (the doctrine of salvation). Pastor-teachers, over the years, have failed to fulfill their calling. The saints have not been led from immaturity to maturity. Household servants are in no position to handle that which is spiritual, for they lack the necessary spiritual training; and as a result, the house is in disarray. Churches today are filled with immature Christians who can be “tossed to and froand carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14). It is that period of Church history depicted by the church in Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-21), the terminal period of the present dispensation.
This is not something that has occurred overnight, or even in the past few years or decades. It has been occurring ever since the woman in the parable in Matthew 13:33 placed leaven in the three measures of meal, depicting an act of Satan, which could only have occurred very early in the dispensation; and the leaven has been doing its corrupting, damaging work since that time.
Leaven works best in a place where the temperature is not too hot or too cold. Note the “lukewarm” condition of the church in Laodicea in this respect (Revelation 3:16). The leaven, after numerous centuries of deteriorating work, is being brought into the advanced stages of its action and is doing its most damaging work within the lukewarm confines of the church in Laodicea near the end of the present dispensation, during the very time in which we presently live.
The working of this leaven is going to be so complete by the end of the dispensation that the Lord, while upon earth, looking centuries ahead, asked a question concerning conditions on the earth at the time of His return:
.
1 Peter 2:1, 2; Hebrews 5:12-14).
Inseparably connected with the reception of the Word is training at the hands of the Father (Hebrews 12:5-11). The words “chastening,” “chastens,” and “chastisement” (KJV) in these verses have to do with a training process, not with the Christian being disciplined per se, though the training process may involve discipline (cf.
.
And understanding of this passage in the light of 1 Timothy 6:12, this is a striving, not to defend “the faith” as some expositors suggest, but a striving with respect to the faith. Such a striving has to do with remaining faithful to one’s calling within the house during a day of apostasy (see the author’s book, Jude, chapter 2).
The words, “the faith,” are an expression used in the New Testament referring to biblical teachings surrounding the Word of the Kingdom,the saving of the soul, not salvation by grace. This is the message that the Lord will not find being proclaimed in Christendom when He returns, as revealed in Luke 18:8. Rather, He will find Christendom in a state of apostasy, which has to do with Christians occupying positions diametrically opposed to the exhortation, “Strive in the good contest of the faith .
. .
Scroll down to find PDF files for forty-eight books.
To make the books available for those who want printed copies, all forty-eight books may be purchased through Amazons Kindle Direct Publishing online marketplace. 18), is that those in this church, in a spiritual respect, were miserable individuals who were to be pitied because of their poor, blind, and naked condition. They had no understanding at all of that which Scripture taught on the matter at hand, which centered on the Word of the Kingdom.
Then in verse eighteen, the Lord took the three characteristics (“poor,” “blind,” and “naked”) marking those whom He had described as miserable, pitiful individuals and issued an exhortation:
Concerning their being poor, the Lord stated, “I counsel you to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich.”
Concerning their being naked, the Lord stated, “.
It’s that simple and easy.
Why Then the Problem?
Becoming a Christian and growing spiritually in the Christian life is likened in Scripture to a child being born in the world and growing in the physical realm. There is a specific bringing forth as a newborn baby, which is to be followed by growth from immaturity to maturity in both instances (John 3:16; Hebrews 5:12-14; 1 Peter 2:1, 2; 1 John 2:12-14).
In the physical realm, a child grows from a newborn baby to a mature adult in order to fulfill a purpose in life. He grows physically through a proper diet and mentally through years of training — both within and without the home. He exercises his body and his mind as he receives a proper diet and training, growing after this fashion. Ideally, the better he is prepared both physically and mentally, the better he will be able to function in life.
In the spiritual realm, matters are identical. A newborn babe in Christ is to grow from immaturity to maturity for a purpose. His food for proper growth is spiritual, for it is a spiritual growth. It is the Manna from heaven, the Living Word of God. He is to begin with “milk” and progressively move to “meat” and “strong meat” (cf.
.