26 May 2008

Fake Translation of the Week--Philippians 1:6

(Real translation here)

Today's fake translation has to do with those who think that a person who has been saved can somehow "lose" their salvation--as if it is something WE hold on to. The one who thinks we save ourselves would have to read Philippians 1:6,

Philippians 1:6--You who have begun the good work in yourself must complete it every single minute of your life.

Those who think that God starts the work but we can somehow screw it up would have to read it,

Philippians 1:6--He who began the good work in you will perform it for a little while, but after that it is up to you to perfect it yourself.

Now, there will be some who will claim to belong to Christ for a while--but if that work is not perfected and they do not endure to the end, then they were never born from above, buut they just got a little spirituality for a while.

In truth, this verse tells us that it is God who begins the "good work." It is the Holy Spirit that quickens a person's dead spirit. And this is the "good work" of salvation, because He perfects it until the day of Jesus Christ--not for a little while, not just until we foul it up, but until the day Jesus returns. So in order to believe that we can "lose our salvation," we would have to believe that we begin the "good work," and we would have to perfect it until the day of Christ. Wrong and wrong.