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by: DanielLaLondJr.
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In his magnum opus, The Grace Awakening, Charles R. (Chuck) Swindoll presents himself as taking up "the torch of freedom" as brandished by protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther. In this he leads his readers to believe that by following him and his teaching in The Grace Awakening that they are being true to historical Reformation teaching on the doctrines of grace and faith alone. Consider:

Achievement must accompany sincere faith ... We continue to hear that "different gospel" and it is a lie. It is heresy. It is antithetical to the true message that lit the spark to the Reformation: Sola Fide - faith alone (The Grace Awakening, p.86).

When sixteenth-century European Reformers raised the torch of freedom and withstood the religious legalists of their era, grace was the battle cry: salvation by grace alone a walk of faith without fear of eternal damnation (The Grace Awakening, p. xiv).

Indeed, the "spark that lit the reformation" was Sola Fide or faith alone. However, the Reformers did not define their terms as Chuck Swindoll does. Swindoll's understanding of grace promises, "regardless of how you choose to live, you can't live so bad that God says to you, 'you're no longer mine'" (Shedding Light On Our Dark Side, tape sld 1A). Swindoll's belief regarding the final salvation of even the most reprobate necessitates his elimination of the biblical (as well as the Reformation) linking of works to genuine faith.

Essentially, Dr. Swindoll joins himself to the Reformers leaving the unread student with the conclusion that his views on faith and grace are in line with those of the Reformers, but they are not. Contrary to Swindoll, Luther believed that works or "human achievement," as Swindoll says, can not be separated from saving faith. Luther wrote:

"Faith must of course be sincere. It must be a faith that performs good works through love. If faith lacks love it is not true faith. Thus the Apostle bars the way of hypocrites to the kingdom of Christ on all sides...Idle faith is not justifying faith. In this terse manner Paul presents the whole life of a Christian. Inwardly it consists in faith towards God, outwardly in love towards our fellow-men" (Luther, Commentary On Galatians).

In his bookFaith Alone Dr. R.C. Sproul wrote: "The Reformers saw saving faith as necessarily, inevitably, and immediately yielding the fruit of works. Martin Luther insisted that the faith that justifies is a fides viva, a vital and living faith that yields the fruit of works." In opposition to this Dr. Swindoll insists it is heresy and a different gospel to believe that works must accompany saving faith. And this he does as if he were representing the Reformation!

Chuck Swindoll clearly entices the unstudied reader to conceive of The Grace Awakening as a book restoring the stolen truths of the Reformation from the treacherous hands of modern legalists who have perverted them. In truth, however, Luther himself tenaciously fought against the understanding of grace and faith presented in Swindoll's book.

Like those who reinvent history to suit their own ends, Dr. Charles R. (Chuck) Swindoll has rewritten Reformation history. Does Swindoll insist that "the faith that justifies is a vital and living faith that yields the fruit of works" as did Luther? Does Swindoll insist that "whoever doesn't do good works is without faith," as did the Reformers? No he does not, rather, Chuck Swindoll teaches the opposite, namely, that there is no external proof of salvation or spirituality and that it is heresy to maintain that works must accompany faith. And this he does under the banner of restoring Reformation doctrine! Is this not dishonest? How is this anything other than historical revisionism?

About the Author

Daniel LaLond Jr.'s book, The Lying Promise, tests the doctrine of Charles R. Swindoll. The Lying Promise also debunks false teaching such as eternal security and the carnal Christian.

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