Who is Robert Sundquist? Pastor of the 900-member Christ the King Lutheran Church in Cd'A, and the only pastor with nerve enough to go on record with his views about Christian salvation.

While I respectfully disagree with "Pastor Bob," as his congregation affectionately refers to him, on almost all he said on the subject, we did surprisingly agree on the fact that Christians can lose their salvation. Bob claims to have gotten saved when he was 14, and he is now 32. When I asked him exactly what he did to get saved, he replied that he did essentially nothing. He wasn't seeking salvation, he wasn't even interested in it, and he could not describe in words (even 18 years later) what happened at that time, other than that he somehow received God's gift of Christ, because it was all God's doings, and only God knows who is saved anyway, according to Bob.

This agrees with Bob's view of the doctrine of Predestination. Anyone who gets saved is saved only because God predestined them to be saved prior to them being born. This, of course, puts the God of love in a VERY unloving light as it would mean that God has condemned the billions He didn't predestine to heaven to eternal damnation before THEY were ever born. If this doctrine is true then Satan has the moral high ground. This doctrine also conflicts with 2nd Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise (to return) as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering towards us, and is NOT WILLING that ANY should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance."

And yet, Bob says that free-will, at least as it applies to salvation, is a MYTH! And it's not just Bob, many pastors believe in predestination, just as they believe all their sins past, present, and future are covered automatically by the blood of Christ, which translates to a license to sin, or a blank check. This position explains why Bob never once mentioned repentance, and yet God COMMANDS all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30b). And since God is referencing unbelievers in this context, repentance is obviously a 'condition' of salvation.

The visible Christian church lost its way when it lost the truth of the gospel soon after the death of the last apostle nearly 2,000 years ago. The Apostle Paul told the elders of the Church at Ephesus in Acts 20: that HE KNOWS (prophesy was one of Paul's gifts) that after he departs, grievous wolves (false teachers) will enter in among them, and they would not spare the flock. And of yourselves (elders) men shall arise speaking perverse things in order to gain a personal following (the first seeds of denomination?).

Jesus referred to the false prophets of His day as "Ravening Wolves in sheep's clothing" in Matthew 7:15. They are the same wolves still pretending to be the sheep they once were but can never become again. Brother Peter said in 2nd Peter 2:1 that just as there were false prophets among the people (Jews in the O.T.), so there will also be false teachers among you (Church). And what will they do, Lord? They will secretly bring in damnable heresies (false teachings concerning salvation)...and will bring upon themselves swift (Spiritual) destruction.

Brother Jude wanted to write the Church about the common salvation, but found it NECESSARY instead to write and exhort the Church to EARNESTLY CONTEND FOR THE FAITH that was once delivered to the SAINTS. Why? Because ungodly men had crept into the Church privately, and had introduced demonic doctrines that were (even then) turning the grace of God into lasciviousness (a license to sin). Jude 3,4.

These false teachers were once real Christians. Those who never had Spiritual life cannot become Spiritually destroyed because they never stopped being Spiritually dead in their trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). If once genuine Christians were doing those things in real Churches so soon after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, what do you really think has been happening since? Not withstanding, there has been in every generation, and in every country of the world, a less visible, or even invisible remnant who are genuinely saved and endure to the end.

Dr. Henry H. Halley wrote "Halley's Handbook of the Bible" in 1927, and it has sold over 6 million copies since. He states in the 24th edition of the compact hardback (1965), pages 629-630: "The story of the church, as a whole, even to this day, makes a sorry-looking picture. Taking a broad, general view of the visible church as it has existed from the first century to the present time, it is not inaccurate to call it an apostate church."

In other words, the visible Christian church fell away (lost its salvation) in the first century, and has remained in that state since by building upon the lies about the gospel that replaced the truth of it. Even a cursory study of the history of the visible Christian church throughout the centuries will confirm Dr. Halley's premise.

Bill Johnson is a Rathdrum resident.