John 6 Under Examination

AOMin's Blog today has a 5MB video clip in which Dr. White cross examines Bill Rutland on John chapter 6 (click here). Bill Rutland is trying to defend the Roman Catholic belief that people can be saved without hearing the gospel of Christ. People such as Muslims, who worship the same God as Christians do, but do so in ignorance, could possibly be saved.

This is an extremely important debate (similar to the one Dr. White had with Dr. Sanders), since it deals with human ability that is assumed by most of mankind. The idea that men are free and just need God to come along and point the way and men will just freely choose to follow is destructive to the heart of the gospel itself.

The Gospel must totally be of God and God centered. Otherwise man is not that bad of a sinner. Man may decide, "You know, I'm not ready to come to Christ today, maybe next year." This notion that man has this ability to come to Christ anytime he freely chooses is destructive to the doctrine of the atonement. Substitutionary atonement becomes a "maybe" and Jesus' work becomes a "might be".

Jesus put it this way, "No man is ABLE to come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day." John 6:44