Vol. 1, No. 1

January-March 2009

Free Grace Momentum

Part 1

By Ron Shea

Raheel Isaac Shakeel, the President for Clear Gospel Fellowship, Pakistan, gathered twenty-six people for two weeks.  Thirteen of whom came from the Punjab to attend, a fifteen- hour train ride.  Everyone was attentive, focused, and hard working.  We ordained all 26 as evangelists, after the completion of a very thorough course.  At least two (maybe three) pastors who attended the seminar were unsaved, and had been preaching salvation by the Ten Commandments and by morality in general.

The course focused heavily on the content of saving faith.  For homework, and then in class, we went through 30-35 "salvation formulas" within Scripture.  The students were asked to rate, on a scale of 1-10 whether it appeared, at first glance, to be telling someone how to be saved.  They then looked for the elements, expressed or implied in these verses, and made a chart.  The instructor guided them, but they did the work themselves.  After about a day and a half, a common pattern had emerged: salvation requires faith in Jesus Christ as the eternal Son of God, of his atoning death for our sins, and of his resurrection from the dead.  Additionally, the freeness of eternal life was a recurring theme within the salvation statements of Scripture.  Conspicuously absent from all of them were any demand for water baptism, morality, or good works of any sort.  Additionally, many persons had questions about the relationship of the virgin birth, the inerrancy of Scripture, or the Trinity to saving faith.  As a result of the exercise, all of them were able to confirm in their own mind the distinction between the important doctrines of the Bible and those doctrines essential for salvation. 

Another day or two was spent examining every passage in the Urdu Bible using any form of the word "repent."  The exercise was slow at first, since salvation-by-works is, sadly, engrained in every culture in the world.  Again, the students were led, not lectured to.  After three or four of the verses, they understood the importance of understanding the context, and needed little prompting to examine certain words or phrases in that context.  The conclusions they drew were not from the teacher, but their own conclusions from Scripture.  From this lengthy exercise, they concluded:

We also examined other forms of Lordship Salvation, such as the meaning of "Lord" or the call to "follow."

The whole of the doctrine of salvation was covered, including the atoning work of Jesus, the justification by the Father in view of Jesus' atonement, regeneration and eternal life, sealing and indwelling, and other benefits received at the moment of salvation.

We also studied, in depth, the many reasons for our eternal security, the mutual exclusion between the doctrines of assurance and perseverance, and examined Ephesians 2:8-9 with consideration of whether the gift of God is salvation, or faith.

The students learned to distinguish between alternative definitions of grace:  free grace, and "irresistible" or "infused" grace.  They were able to understand the connection this perverse doctrine had to tying together lordship, perseverance, and other heresies.

We examined the doctrine of rewards, both from a default perspective, and also, the role that a proper understanding of rewards has in the defense of the gospel of grace.  Many problem verses were discussed, with a focus on water baptism, public confession of Christ, James 2, the purpose of I John,  and the message of Hebrews.

Because of our emphasis on learning, rather than completing a class, as a topic was taught, questions that summarized the doctrine were progressively added to a verbal quiz.  Several times a day, as much as an hour was spent reviewing doctrines, asking hard questions, and allowing the students to answer.

To ensure that these lessons are not lost, a fifty- page final exam has been prepared, with the answers fully available for them to review the next year, and 66 memorization passages ranging from a single verse, to passages of eight to ten verses long!  And within one month of departing Pakistan, Raheel had already traveled over 4,000 miles to maintain contact, disciple,  review, and lead the willing graduates.

They have grown daily in their commitment to the gospel, and to their duty to bring it to the ends of the earth.  In addition to equipping these pastors, several completely new churches have been planted around the country.

In the first week of October, one of our graduates visited some families who were nominally "Christian," though probably unsaved.  They had been involved with a local church, and did much work there, but the pastor would never visit their homes since they were poor!  These people were so valuable in the sight of God that He sent His own Son to die for them, but they were not good enough for the pastor to visit.

There were about 20 families there.  There is no longer a church near them either.  Although every culture stresses the "importance" and "centrality" of the family, I can tell you, it is not just an axiom in Pakistan.  If the elders of a nuclear family get saved, their whole house will embrace the gospel.  And if they reject the gospel, it is very difficult to get anyone in that home to ever come to Christ.

One of our trained evangelists, after meeting with the 20 families on various visits, has decided to move his home to their neighborhood, where he can disciple them.  They have no church, and desire to grow in their knowledge and love of Christ.  Because of the closeness of the nuclear family, I suspect that represents at least 50 people, and possibly over 100.  I am not certain if they will form a church immediately, or develop discipleship groups for the next six months or so before becoming a church.  But functionally speaking, it will be a "new church" the week after he moves there.

We expect (and certainly hope for) next year's conference to include at least 100 believers willing to commit two weeks to serious, high- level training in the gospel message and its dissemination.