"Is Grandpa Saved?"

Judging Others' Salvation

In a Sunday service at Homestead Heritage on September 22, 2006, the discussion was about "Is Grandpa Saved?" This meeting was eventually transcribed and printed in book form to be distributed to members. The following are a few paragraphs from this 74 page booklet.

Disclaimer: According to Homestead's beliefs you, the reader, will now be accountable for the "greater light" you receive in this teaching. To reject it means you reject God. By continuing to read, you agree to not hold HomesteadHeritageInfo.com or its author responsible for any resultant change in your salvation status.

Brother Blair: This meeting will address the weighty question of who among us and our loved ones is saved. . . (p. 1)

Our own grandpa, who in recent years has returned to his mainline denominal church, happened to call this past week. And so I asked my family, "Suppose he said he was going up to Dallas to see his son and that he might come back through here," He actually had said this, but I added, "And suppose God were to somehow show you that this was the last time you'd ever again see him alive. How would you speak to him? What would you say to him? Is Grandpa saved? If so, why? And if not, why not?" Now, tonight, everyone should know that I certainly don't assume Grandpa or anyone else is lost because they go to a church different from our own or hold to different beliefs, but I also don't merely assume they are saved. . . (pp. 2-3)

Nonetheless, when I read selections from Acts to my children, I actually made basically the same points with them that Brother Howard earlier made tonight from those chapters about Cornelius--that Cornelius was, to quote Luke, a "devout," "generous," "God-fearing" man, that he was obviously also a humble man. According to Peter's words to him, as recorded in Acts 10:2, along with verses 36-37, Cornelius even knew the Word of God that spoke of "Peace through Jesus Christ"--that, to further quote Luke, Jesus is "Lord of all." So we saw that Cornelius knew that Jesus was the Lord and Messiah who came to bring reconciliation, or "peace," to all humankind. . . (p. 3)

I then asked my children if the description of Cornelius's relationship with God, prior to his encounter with the angel and Peter, sounded to them anything like what many people might call "the plan of salvation." After all, to numerous people today, Jesus was miraculously born, struggled to live his perfect life, was slandered, humiliated, tortured, abandoned by His closest friends and family, died an excruciating death and was supernaturally raised from the dead, all only so that those who call themselves by His name could simply repeat by rote something as seemingly inane as the popular "salvation prayer" . . . (pp. 3-4)

 . . . I personally can't think of one place in the Bible that unequivocally, when taken in context, states people are saved by accepting Jesus into their hearts. . . What we do have, however, is the passage of Scripture which was read earlier, "Peter opened his mouth and said, 'In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.'" So, according to this passage, it would seem that it's not so much a matter of whether or not we are going to accept Jesus--rather, it's a matter of whether or not He, as God, is going to accept us. . . Now that point (one that sends most of the above "sinner's prayer" Christians into a apoplectic fit, scrambling for words to explain away it's obvious meaning) I do see repeatedly in the Bible. (p. 5, emphasis added)

Note the condescending attitude towards those who believe differently even though he earlier claims "that I certainly don't assume Grandpa or anyone else is lost because they go to a church different from our own or hold to different beliefs . . ."

In fact, this is what led my children and me to read the same passages in Acts that were read earlier tonight, the ones showing how Cornelius's devotion, fear of God, knowledge of Jesus as Lord and Messiah and such did not, according to Acts 11:14, yet save him but did prompt God's attention . . . (p. 6)

After reading all this to my children, I framed a new and troubling question and asked my family, "According to this passage of Scripture, is Grandpa, or any number of people we dearly love, saved?" Some of my children who had earlier said, "Yes," after we then read the rest of chapters 10 and 11 in Acts and talked about it for a while, then reluctantly answered, "No," . . . (p. 6)

Let's now look at one of the main problems in reconciling these two models of salvation--the model that shows Cornelius and "all his household . . . being saved" by experiencing the infilling or baptism of the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues (Acts 10:44-48; 11:14-17). and the model of Grandpa's view of being saved by a faith that's little more than a mental assent to the Christ-idea or Christ-concept. . . This, in fact, is supposedly what makes it real faith--that he trusts this creedal concept that says he has had a saving experience with God even when he has actually experienced nothing at all--except in his mind as a concept or in his imagination as a figment. . . (pp. 19-20, emphasis added)

Note the judgmental assumption that another believer has "experienced nothing at all." 

When we read, then, about Jesus' birth, that the "Holy Spirit . . . [came] upon" Mary "and the power of the Most High . . . overshadowed" her and that "what [was] conceived in her [was] from the Holy Spirit" (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18-23), we should expect the same miraculous power of the Holy Spirit to one day overshadow our own hearts and spirits, conceiving God's spiritual nature within us. And this is exactly what happened at the birth of the church on the day of Pentecost, when all the disciples were waiting for the experience of the Holy Spirit, of which Jesus said, "After that the Holy Spirit is come upon you, you shall receive power" (Acts 1:8)-- "and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind . . . and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:1-4). This is also the same experience that happened to Cornelius and the first Gentiles who entered the church as we've seen (Acts 10:44-48). (pp. 21-22)

So, if consistently held, 'Grandpa's' theology poses a danger of causing us to degrade these great Biblical events, events of God's direct presence and wondrous intervention into human lives. And how, you may ask, does such a degradation of the Pentecostal experience that birthed the church take place?--It does so simply by categorizing it as "subsequent" to the new birth and salvation. But why should anyone do this?--Only because 'Grandpa' assumes (mainly because he's been told this over and over again for 60 years or so) that he was "born again" the very moment he first believed the "correct" set of doctrines about Christ. (p. 36, emphasis added)

Shame on 'Grandpa' for assuming he's been "born again." 

Again, please don't misunderstand me--I'm not making any categorical statements that no one on earth since the day of Pentecost has been, or even will be, saved unless they spoke with tongues, which is what some of our detractors long for me to say, I won't say it because I believe that such a statement is incomplete-- a serious distortion of the truth on many levels. But I do believe such an experience is so necessary to our salvation that it must be imputed until it can be imparted; and if someone rejects the impartation when God brings it to them, or rejects the ongoing walk of obedience to Christ in His Body that is to follow, then surely they are lost-- and this includes us. (p. 60, emphasis added)

Oh, sure. He doesn't say that those who haven't spoken in tongues are not saved. He only says they've "experienced nothing at all," that they only assume they've been "born again," that they have an "apoplectic fit" over a different interpretation of scripture. and that they will be lost if they don't accept the necessity of speaking in tongues "when God brings it to them." You'd think a church with a persecution complex over being spoken negatively about would have more respect for the beliefs of other Christians.

Quoted material from:
Adams, Blair. Is Grandpa Saved. Elm Mott: Colloquium Press Trust, 2006.