Tag: Sin

Fig Leaves in Our Relationships

On By Dave MallinakIn Marriage, Personal, Wildcard Wednesdays

And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. (Genesis 3:7)

Genesis tells us the beginnings of everything in our world, including our problems. And relationship problems are a prominent feature of our history, culture, and life. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. Maybe they thought they would die if they ate it, or maybe Adam thought Eve would die. Maybe Adam thought it was safe when she didn’t die, so he ate it. Then, the wheels started coming off.

The Bible describes three immediate results when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, all connected. First, their eyes were opened. Notice that the verse says, “the eyes of them both” were opened. They were told this would happen, by the way, and they seemed to want that. Remember what the serpent told them?

For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:5)

They wanted to know what God had not yet revealed, and they wanted to know it independently of God. Though it doesn’t fit our discussion, we can profit from charting the relationship between the Fall and an autonomous pursuit of knowledge. But the point is that Satan didn’t lie about the result of eating the fruit. Their eyes were opened, and apparently, they knew something more about good and evil than they knew in their state of innocence.

But notice the second immediate result when they ate the forbidden fruit: they knew that they were naked. We assume (based on the third result) that they were ashamed of this nakedness because the Bible says that they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. The Bible doesn’t say anything about shame in Genesis 3, but the Bible often associates shame with nakedness, and their response is consistent with shame. Adam later confessed that he was afraid because he was naked (Genesis 3:10). We can assume that when their eyes were opened, Adam and Eve learned embarrassing things about themselves that made them want to hide from each other. Later, they hid from God, too. But the fig leaf aprons were to protect themselves from each other.

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No Faith Without Repentance

On By Dave MallinakIn Apologetic, Gospel Conversations, Hot Topics, Independent Baptists, Issues Facing the Church1 Comment

Jack Hyles and Curtis Hutson catechized and indoctrinated many Independent Baptists into believing that repentance merely means a turning from unbelief to belief in Jesus. Piggybacked onto this false notion of repentance is the idea that any attempt to call sinners to turn from their sin is preaching “works salvation.”

At the end of last week, a Tweet came across my feed, and I responded. My response shouldn’t be controversial, yet out of the woodwork came the easy-believism brigade, led by @BeBerean7, @Honest_Mommy_, and @Pastorb_IFB. @BibleLineMin jumped in briefly but without much substance. Here is the “controversial” tweet.

I can see why this would be a popular “gospel.” Telling people they only need to add “belief in Jesus” to their somewhat crowded lists of self-interests must be very attractive. Though I don’t generally hear the promoters of this false gospel say it in so many words, sinners everywhere hear the message loud and clear: “I can hang on to my sin and still go to heaven when I die.” In fact, @weecalvin1509 helpfully provided me with an example of a pastor preaching easy-believism at its ultimate conclusion:

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxZk7VBSpAmtedx94X2LH9lW9NYiKiu4dv?si=XR9iPEX2PtPU-1hY

Easy-Believism 101

It isn’t unusual for the promoters of easy-believism to isolate “faith in Christ” and treat it as if it were a lone act and as if it were possible for that to be the sole obedient response to the gospel call. They talk as if a person can make a one-time profession of faith, forget all about it, live the remainder of their days without regard for God, and still expect to hear “well done, good and faithful servant” at the end of their days. The advocates for easy-believism treat every kind of discipleship, sanctification, “following Christ,” obedience, and so forth as optional add-ons. They will argue that we don’t need to follow Christ to be saved. “Saved” merely means (as @BibleLineMin has pinned on his Twitter page) that you “believe that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and is risen to pay for all your sins. The moment you believe, you receive eternal life that can never be lost.”

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