21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Matthew 7:21 (LSB)
There are many false teachings in our time within the visible Church. What we must never forget is that there is nothing new under the Sun. The heresies we encounter now are actually very old. Some have been around a long time in their current form while others are recycled versions of an older heresy that was dealt with hundreds of years ago. Why should our enemy and his seed come up with new attacks when the old ones wreak havoc, deepen spiritual blindness, and keep people mired in man-made religiosity instead of becoming spirit-filled, obedient Christians?
The heresy we will examine in this post was actually preached against by our Lord Himself. Sadly, it is still prevalent in our day. This heresy says that confession (religiosity) is the means of justification whether there is accompanying, good works or not. On the other hand, there are also theologians in our time who have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. Their cry is, “Deeds not creeds!” This movement seeks to ignore the creeds and confessions such as the Westminster Confession and the Apostles Creed as having any value to Christianity. However, a study of them will quickly show the reader that they are actually teaching mechanisms developed by those who came before us that were intended to teach the people in the local churches doctrinal truths. The “deeds not creeds” movement actually discourages Christians from studying theology or doctrine at all.