Earlier today, I watched the videos of Lee Stoneking teaching Light Doctrine. I am very familiar with it because although my childhood pastor was a very strict water/Spirit preacher, he extended a measure of mercy and grace to Christian Apologists, pre-twentieth century, who were ignorant of Pentecostal theology.
He did so by teaching what he termed Progressive Light Doctrine. He believed that God restored the Apostolic Church bit by bit over the centuries culminating with the revelation of the New Issue in 1913. He taught that men like Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Edwards, Wycliffe and other Protestant reformers were saved because they "walked in the Light they had at the time."
Of course, he did not extend the same mercy and grace to his contemporaries in other Christian denominations, even though they believed exactly as did the Protestant reformers he so admired. Although his stance seemed inconsistent, he reasoned that the men of his day were without excuse because the fullness of truth had come, and all light had been revealed.
Of course, I am a product of my environment and had always believed as he taught until recently.
I changed my soteriology because of this passage.
Romans 3:19-28 NLT
[I]
Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.
But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.
Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.
I now believe that there was no need for progressive revelation because faith in Christ has been present in every generation, without fail, since the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The believing church has, in fact, had elements of Apostolic practice restored. But penitent sinners have been restored to right relationship with God through faith in Jesus, for two millenniums, in an unbroken chain of succession.
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