(Pulpit & Pen) Leighton Flowers, defending Billy Graham’s assertion that people can be saved without knowing Jesus, has made the waters of Synergism even muddier. Flowers himself espoused the idea that it was possible to be saved without having heard of or believing in Jesus or the Gospel. He said…
Would God show Cornelius grace even prior to when Peter showed up with the Gospel? Of course…why…of course He would. He obviously showed him enough grace to send him the Gospel. Why wouldn’t He show him enough grace to save him if he perished prior to hearing the specifics of Jesus’ work? Again, I don’t think that’s unreasonable and that’s not beyond orthodoxy to hold to that worldview.
We provided the video, pertinent timestamps, and verbatim quotations from Flowers in post 1 on this topic (linked below).
Flowers then posted a video accusing us of lying (we quoted him…that’s it) and saying that we needed to be sued for defamation. In that video, he doubled-down on the idea that one could be saved without faith in Jesus. He butchered the Gospel in the video, saying…
I wanted to give some clarity because people are asking a few honest questions about that, how do you explain those things with regard to those who don’t hear the specific news about Jesus Christ, his death, burial and resurrection. Some people have called that, in itself, the Gospel. Now, the Gospel is more generally speaking the news that God is good, and that he desires mercy over justice, that he desires to show mercy, that he’s a good God, and that if you believe in the Lord, you will be saved. That’s the basis of the Gospel.
Flowers also claimed that God has already given every person the necessary knowledge to be saved through general revelation (timestamp 23:00). For the first post on this topic click here and for the second post on this topic click here. At those links you’ll find all the video, excerpts with timestamps, and in-context quotations.
Flowers, still in damage control, did another lengthy video trying to put distance between the directness of his original claims and his continued, more-nuanced insistence that it’s possible to be saved without faith in Jesus. To do so, he invoked a 38 year-old sermon from John MacArthur, alleging that MacArthur similarly believes it’s possible to be saved without ever hearing the Good News. You can find his video below.