SOTERIOLOGY: DOCTRINE OF SALVATION PART 3

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1 SOTERIOLOGY: DOCTRINE OF SALVATION PART 3 A SALVTION CASE STUDY What does this look like in real life? What is the practical meaning of all this doctrinal information? We will briefly examine the life of a well-known person that many people believe to have been a Christian man while, at the same time, many others would make the claim that this man could not possibly have been a Christian. Then we will draw some lessons from this case study concerning justification and sanctification. Elvis Presley was born in 1935 in Tupelo, MS. He was raised in the Pentecostal Assemblies of God church there and later in Memphis, TN. His parents were not faithful Christian people in terms of church attendance and his mother was prone to extreme Pentecostal spiritual manifestations. It is likely that he would have been exposed to the gospel in these churches but the nature of the gospel they would have preached to him is unknown. These churches would have been adherents of Arminian theology and as a result they most likely preached that a person could lose their salvation. There was an emphasis on emotional manipulation, shouting, and hell fire and damnation type sermons that apparently were quite frightening to him as a child. Once he reached high school, he stopped attending church and that was the last time he was involved in formal Christian church activity. His love of music extended to gospel music and throughout his early career he spent a lot of time with some of the leading gospel groups of the period. Jake Hess was a mentor to him. Some of these groups participated in his secular music as backup singers. The problem is the characteristics of the life he lived. His life devolved into a life of immorality and drug use. It is interesting to note, however, that he was not a drinker. He poorly and cruelly treated the people closest to him. He failed to deliver on promises he made to people who helped him get to fame. He had a reputation for generosity but that was apparently more for publicity and show. He had a terrible temper and used firearms to scare and intimidate people. He once shot at a girlfriend. He was extremely immoral and promiscuous and was a serial adulterer. He had not only numerous adulterous relationships while he was married but he was with many woman who were married to other men. He was a child molester; the woman who became his wife was only 14 when he met her and 15 when he took her into his home. He was not a godly steward of the money he earned; he went broke and had to resurrect his career in order to earn some more money. Elvis also eventually developed his own system of spirituality that included elements of Hinduism, Judaism, numerology, theosophy, mind control, the occult, positive thinking, and Christianity ( He attached himself to a spiritual guide named Larry Geller who was a pagan. He was particularly fond of Madame Helena Blavatsky. He took her book, The Voice of Silence on

2 stage with him at some concerts and read from it. This book was a book of occult Tibetan incantations. He eventually developed a Messianic complex. Blavatsky founded theosophy which was a pantheistic Gnosticism that combined religion, philosophy, and science. It taught that God and man are the two phases of the one eternal life and nothing exists except God and man is one part of him. For people who are intent on examining the life of another person in order to determine whether or not they are believers, Elvis certainly gave them a lot of ammunition to deny that he was a Christian man. Certainly, he did not live a Christian life and he led many young people astray with the example he set. One man said, while we hope Elvis did trust Jesus Christ as God and Savior before he died, there is no evidence that he truly repented of his sin or separated from the world or believed in the Christ of the Bible ( Is repenting of sin and separating from the world the requirements for salvation? No. Belief is the requirement and this man has no possible way to know whether or not Elvis Presley believed in the Christ of the Bible. In fact, Elvis claimed that he had accepted Christ as his Savior. The beliefnet web site has this quote attributed to Elvis: There s only one King and that s Jesus Christ. With that ellipsis in the middle of the quote, I don t know what was left out. This site had a few other quotes purportedly from Elvis but none of them were definitive for determining what Elvis believed about justification. The theologian at jesus-is-savior said this: Three independent Baptist preachers have testified that Elvis told them that he had trusted Jesus as his Savior in his younger years but was backslidden. There was no biblical evidence for that, though. We must remember that Elvis grew up around churches and understood all of that terminology. There was never a time, though, when Elvis life changed. Empty professions of faith do not constitute biblical salvation. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Cor. 5:17). Elvis liked some gospel music but he did not like Bible preaching. He refused to allow anyone including God, to tell him how to live his life. That is evidence of an unregenerate heart. ( Please notice the assumptions this man has to make in order for him to pronounce Elvis an unbeliever. He does admit that Elvis testified that he did believe in Christ Jesus but that he had fallen away. Is falling away the determining factor on whether or not he was born again at a moment in time years before? No. Many Christian people fall away and some come back and some do not but all remain believers. The biblical evidence of justification is belief and Elvis Presley proclaimed that he had believed. A changed life is not a requirement for justification; a changed life is part of sanctification. People can be saved but their experiential sanctification can be lacking. Who is this man to decide that Elvis had made an empty profession of faith? He is judging that by the lack of experiential sanctification in Elvis life. I am referring here to experiential sanctification because if Elvis was born again, he was positionally perfectly sanctified in Christ Jesus. Experientially, however, he was certainly lacking in sanctification but that is not evidence that he never believed in the first place. How does this man know Elvis didn t like Bible preaching? Elvis had his Bible sold at auction some years ago and it was pretty well worn and marked up. We know Elvis did not submit himself to sound doctrinal teaching but we don t know what he thought about it. It is apparently true that Elvis

3 didn t want anyone, including God, to tell him how to live his life but that, in and of itself, isn t evidence he was never justified. What can we conclude from all of this concerning the doctrine of salvation? 1. Only God knows whether or not Elvis Presley was born again. Elvis told people he believed in Jesus as his Savior. Belief in the person and work of Christ Jesus is the sole determining factor for the new birth. The fact that he was pals with gospel singers and liked to sing gospel music is not an indication that he was saved. The fact that he lived a degenerate, sinful life that devolved into paganism is not evidence that he was unsaved. 2. If Elvis believed in Jesus when he was a youngster, he passed from death to eternal life at that precise moment in time, and nothing he did subsequent to that moment could undo it. If he believed, he was justified and adopted into the family of God and he will, based solely on the promises of God, also be glorified. 3. With the exception of his gospel music, he never, or at least almost never, participated in or grew in Christian maturity in terms of sanctification salvation. In fact, he did the opposite and became deeply involved in pagan spiritual pursuits including the occult. None of this negates his justification salvation, if, in fact, he was a believer. 4. In terms of justification before men, he had what James called a dead faith. However, that fact is true only if he was a believer. If he was an unbeliever, then he had no faith at all. Only believers can have the dead faith James was writing about. 5. The issue of justification before men that James was articulating is very important. Two men who grew up with Elvis and were with him his entire life, testified that they did not believe Elvis was a truly born again believer in Christ Jesus. They thought in his early years in the public marketplace he claimed to be a Christian in order to allay the fears of parents so that their kids would buy his music and attend his concerts. Remember, this is back in the 1950s and the moral climate was much different and the percentage of the population who adhered to Christian ideals was much greater than today. They knew his lifestyle did not match what they thought a Christian s life should be. But these men seem to be operating from a Lordship salvation mentality that judges justification salvation using sanctification salvation criteria. That is the error of Lordship salvation advocates. We cannot judge whether or not a person was justified at a moment in time in the sight of God by whether or not they are pursuing a godly, sanctified life. 6. If Elvis Presley was, in fact, born again, God s work in justification salvation and glorification salvation will be accomplished. Those two facets of salvation are dependent only on the promises of God in order to be brought to completion. Presley s sanctification salvation was non-existent. He never grew, he never matured, and he walked away from the Lord and engaged in apostate, pagan re-

4 ligious practices. He suffered the consequences of his personal sins in that he died young at 42 years of age as a result of his drug abuse. To what extent he suffered temporal discipline from the Lord for his apostasy, we will never know. That will be between him and his Savior. 7. To the extent that he failed to produce spiritual fruit and failed to glorify the Lord in this life, he will lose rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. That loss will have eternal ramifications yet he will be saved and enjoying life in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. His sins were judged and his sin debt cancelled on the cross. There is one further issue I want to discuss concerning this situation involving Elvis Presley and his gospel music friends and that is the issue of discipleship. This is an examination not of the life of Elvis Presley but is an examination of the actions of those Christian men who were drawn to him because of his love of gospel music. Many people think Elvis was a believer because of his association with so many great Christian gospel singers. Bill Gaither has a documentary available on that subject. As we have already noted, that association is proof of nothing more than the man liked gospel music. It is absolutely inconceivable to me that those Christian men had no idea of the sort of life Elvis Presley was living. They had a responsibility as Christian men to come alongside him and offer to help him get his life on track in terms of sanctification salvation. If they truly believed he was a born again Christian, they should have done that. If he refused to cooperate, they had a biblical duty to disassociate themselves from him. That they did not do that does not speak well of them. Their failure to separate from Elvis Presley is a tacit approval of that man s unbiblical, sinful lifestyle. It was also implied in their association with him that his behavior was acceptable. On the other hand, if they thought Elvis was an unbeliever, they should have been preaching the gospel to him rather than singing gospel music with him. Paul had some strong words on the subject of Christian people associating with Christians who are living immoral lives. 1 Corinthians 5: I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; 10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. 11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13 But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES. Assuming Elvis Presley was a believer, those Christian men should not have associated with him unless and until he was making an effort to conform to biblical sanctification standards. Even a cursory examination of Presley s life confirms that he was all those things Paul was warning against. Light and darkness are incompatible whether the

5 darkness emanates from an unbeliever or from a believer walking in the flesh and living in complete carnality, sinfulness, and even apostasy. Ephesians 5: Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them; 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; 12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. 2 Thessalonians 3:6 6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us. The command is do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness. This is an imperative; a command. We are not to do that. What those famous Christian men did, those men being looked upon as role models by many Christians, was to legitimize the carnal, sinful lifestyle of Elvis Presley in the minds of many other Christian people. The Lord left us with instructions on handling disciplinary problems in the church. Matthew 18: If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. The Lord commands us to separate from the unrepentant sinning one as if he were a Gentile and a tax collector. Gentile is also translated as heathen (NJKV) or unbeliever (HCSB). In the context of Jewish society, those people were avoided. Allowing obviously and publicly sinning Christians to remain in the body is to plant the thought in the minds of others that obvious public sinning and rebellion is acceptable at some level within that church. The goal with this process is not shunning a person or excommunicating them from the body but rather it is to turn them from their sins and restore them to fellowship. I m suggesting that many people thought Elvis Presley to be a believer because of his association with those Christian gospel singers. Since he was considered to be such, his behavior may have influenced others, particularly young people, to emulate that sinful, carnal behavior to one degree or another. Those men should have followed the biblical commands to separate from him unless and until he changed his ways. As a case study, the life of Elvis Presley clearly identifies the first two facets of salvation which are justification and sanctification. This can be understood one of two ways. The

6 first way is that he was an unbeliever and every connection he had with Christianity was false and of no consequence. He was lost and eternally condemned. The second way to understand his life is to view him as a believer who was eternally secure and was justified and who will one day be glorified. But he was also a believer who absolutely failed at any semblance of sanctification salvation; by the end of his life he fell into idolatry and the occult. His life was marked by disobedience, egregious sin, and apostasy. He suffered the ultimate consequence for his sins which was a premature death. It is possible that his death was temporal discipline from the Lord but we will never know whether that is true or not. If he did believe in Christ Jesus when he was a youngster as he was known to claim, then his justification and glorification rely solely on the promises of God and not on his sanctification. So it is with everyone.