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by: DanielLaLondJr.
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In The Grace Awakening, his magnum opus, Dr. Charles R. (Chuck) Swindoll presents himself as fanning the flame of "the torch of freedom" as originally held by protestant Reformers like Martin Luther. In this he convinces his followers that by trusting him and his teaching in The Grace Awakening that they are in line with the historic Reformation teachings of grace and faith alone. Swindoll wrote:

"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).

True, the "spark that lit the reformation," as Swindoll states, was Sola Fide or faith alone. However, the Reformers did not understand their theological terms as Chuck Swindoll does. Swindoll's understanding of grace maintains, "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 confidence in the inevitable salvation of even the most corrupt necessitates his elimination of the biblical and Reformation joining of works to genuine faith.

Chuck Swindoll, in essence, aligns himself with the Reformers and leaves the naive reader with the false notion that his views on grace and faith are the identical to those of the Reformers. Contrary to Swindoll, however, Luther insisted that works or "human achievement," as Swindoll says, go arm in arm with authentic, saving faith. On saving faith Luther said:

"Faith must of course be sincere. It must be a faith that does 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 God...To believe, "If faith justifies without works, let us not work," is to despise the grace of God. Idle faith is not justifying faith. In this terse manner Paul presents the whole life of a Christian. Inside it consists in faith towards God, outside in love towards our fellows" (Luther, Commentary On Galatians).

R.C. Sproul, in his book Faith Alone, 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 spite of this, Chuck Swindoll believes it is heresy and a different gospel to teach that works must accompany sincere faith, and this he does under the banner of the Reformation!

Plainly, Chuck Swindoll leads the uninformed reader to view The Grace Awakening as book recovering the lost truths of the Reformation from the devious hands of present-day legalists who have corrupted them. When the truth is that Luther himself aggressively argued against the conception of grace and faith extolled in Swindoll's book.

Like those who invent history to buttress to their agenda, Chuck Swindoll has revised Reformation history. Does Swindoll believe that "the faith that justifies is a living faith that always 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? Rather, Chuck Swindoll teaches the opposite: that it is heresy to maintain that works must accompany faith. And he does this as if he accurately represents the Reformation! Is this not dishonest? How can this be anything other than revising history?

About the Author

Daniel LaLond Jr. is a Christian, a seminary graduate and a pastor. His book, The Lying Promise, tests the doctrine of Chuck Swindoll. The Lying Promise also dismantles false doctrine within the Christian church.

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