Refutation of the Carnal Christian Teaching, Part 1

The well known British pastor and evangelist of the last century, Leonard Ravenhill said,

“There’s only one proof of the Holy Ghost in your life and that’s a holy life”.

He said,

“Get rid of this bunkum about the ‘carnal Christian’. For­get it! If you're carnal, you're not saved.”[1]

It is quite common to say that someone was saved—they prayed a prayer or they confessed that they were saved and trusting in Christ’s work on the cross to save them. Yet after a while they fall away and go back to their former life. We are told that they have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, but one day they need to accept him as Lord. Some eventually die in their sins. In his book I Call it Heresy Tozer loudly warned of the damage this false teaching does to the offices of Christ. He said:

The Lord will not save those whom He cannot command. He will not divide His offices. You cannot believe on a half-Christ. We take Him for what He is--the anointed Saviour and Lord who is King of kings and Lord of all lords! He would not be Who He is if He saved us and called us and chose us without the understanding that He can also guide and control our lives.[2]

Let me define what I mean when I say the “carnal Christian” doctrine or teaching.[3] This doctrine teaches that there are two classes of Christians: spiritual and carnal. This theory holds that a person who is a new creation in Christ can practice sin as a lifestyle, and though continuing in sin, he still has the hope of heaven. These professors are considered Christians who are carnal, not yet having come to a point of surrender.[4] This is seen in our churches especially with those who have made professions of faith as children. Little or no meaningful growth takes place in their life, but because they asked the Lord to save them on one occasion, they are considered a true and genuine believer in Christ.

The Heart of the Matter
I want to propose to you that the Scriptures teach that the “carnal Christian” is no Christian at all. This kind of person is addressed in Scripture in many places. He is a “hearer of the Word and not a doer” (James 1:23). As Hebrews 6 says, he is the one who seems to taste of Christianity, but falls away. He says he has faith, but he gives no evidence that God is working in him “to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). As James says, faith without the works of holiness that come from the indwelling Spirit is no faith at all—it is a dead faith (2:20).

History of this False Teaching
The carnal Christian doctrine of today is just an old heresy called “antinomianism”. “Anti” means “no” and “nomian” means “law”. In other words, antinomianism is the teaching that a Christian may practice a lawless life without the rule of Christ in his heart.

This is actually not a new controversy. H. A. Ironside, former pastor of the Moody Church of Chicago fought against it in his day when he said:

…there are not wanting[5] professed preachers of grace who, like the antinomians of old, decry the necessity of repentance… Loudly declaring they are justified by faith alone, they fail to remember that ‘faith without works is dead’.[6]

In recent days, this false teaching was revived with the Scofield Study Bible. According to Ernest Reisinger:

One reason why [the carnal Christian doctrine] is so widespread is that it has been popularized for many years in the notes of the Scofield Reference Bible. A statement from these notes will indicate the precise nature of the teaching: Paul divides men into three classes: "Natural" i.e. the Adamic Man, unrenewed through the new birth; "Spiritual" i.e. the renewed man as Spirit-filled and walking in the Spirit in full communion with God; "Carnal", "fleshly", i.e. the renewed man who, walking "after the flesh", remains a babe in Christ" (Scofield Reference Bible, pp. 1213, 1214).[7]

John MacArthur confirms this. He says:

The doctrine apparently stemmed from Chafer's misguided attempts to develop a uniquely dispensationalist soteriology. Chafer (together with other early dispensationalists, including C. I. Scofield) was so zealous to eliminate every vestige of law from the dispensation of grace that he embraced a kind of antinomianism.[8]

Charles Ryrie is also a proponent of it. He said, referring to 1 Corinthians 3:

Paul can only mean that these Carnal Christians lived like unsaved men. That clarifies why the word Carnal can label both unbelievers and believers, simply because the lifestyles of both are the same.[9]

The once well-known Baptist preacher R. B. Thieme frames the argument in the way most of us have heard it from the pulpit.

The behavior pattern of a carnal Christian cannot be distinguished from that of an unbeliever 1 Corinthians 3:3. As far as God’s Word is concerned you may act like an unbeliever; but if you have believed in Christ, you are still a believer – a believer in the status quo carnality – out of fellowship. A BELIEVER OUT OF FELLOWSHIP ACTS LIKE AN UNBELIEVER. In fact he is sometime worse.[10]

Scofield, Chafer, Ryrie, and Thieme assure us that they got this idea from a passage in 1 Corinthians 3:1-4. Let’s look at what Paul says there.

Brief Study of 1 Corinthians 3

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? (1 Corinthians 3:1-4).

Taken out of context, Scofield and the others might seem to be right. But when looking at the entire letter that Paul wrote, we find that in this passage, Paul was rebuking the church as a whole for an area of carnality in their lives. They needed to learn about how to resolve personal conflicts. They were acting as unregenerate people in an area of their lives. He was not saying that they were living without spiritual fruit in their lives. In chapter 1 Paul talked about how they were living lives that were focused on Jesus’ coming, and Paul gave thanks to God for them in verses 4-8:

I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul established that they were growing in holiness before the rebuke later in chapter 1 and in chapter 3! In the above verses, Paul testifies of their holiness. In “every thing’ they were “enriched by Him [Christ]”—in their words (“utterance”), thoughts (“knowledge”), and life (“the testimony of Christ was confirmed in [them]”). Paul affirms that the Lord Jesus Christ who saved them would “also confirm [them] to the end” (verse 8). He is not dividing the people into three classes, natural, carnal, and spiritual, but teaching that truly saved people will grow in holiness. Actually in chapter 2 Paul names only two types of people: the natural man who does not receive the things of God’s Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14), and those who are indwelt by the Spirit, who do. Paul goes to great length to explain how they have the Spirit of God in them. In chapter 2 and verse 10, Paul says God has revealed the “deep things” of God’s Spirit to them. Paul shows further spiritual fruit, how they were being taught by the Holy Spirit Himself (verse 13). He said in verse 14 that the natural or unsaved person could not understand the things of the Spirit, but they weren’t like that. Verse 16 Paul says to them: “we have the mind of Christ”.

What’s the point? Paul is not saying that their lives were characterized by carnality as a way of life. These were not people living in sin and rebellion to God who had professed salvation but had no spiritual fruit. They were people with new hearts who were producing authentic spiritual fruit, but like all believers they were struggling with an area or two of their lives, and it was affecting the whole church in this instance. They needed to progress in their sanctification.

So having shown briefly that this passage does not teach another class of believers, I want to show you that the Word of God refutes this doctrine throughout. As we look at the span of the Bible, the message is that those who are saved are new creations. They have a new heart and a new nature, and they grow and change to be like Christ. If you have no measure of fruit in your life, you are not a Christian no matter how many times you prayed a prayer.

This is not only my conclusion, but many before me have refuted this doctrine. A. W. Tozer called this doctrine a heresy.[11]

John Bunyan, who spent twelve years total in the Bedford prison for the faith, though not addressing it directly, refuted this false teaching, saying this:

…a life of holiness and godliness in this world doth so inseparably follow a principle of faith, that it is both monstrous and ridiculous to suppose the contrary. What, shall not he that hath life have motion! (Galatians 2:20). He that hath by faith received the Spirit of holiness, shall not he be holy? (Galatians 3:2), and he that is called to glory and virtue, shall not he add to his faith virtue? (2 Peter 1:4-5).[12]

The Bible teaches that an ongoing life of carnality is an impossibility in the Christian life. Why is that? The Scriptures teach that all those God has elected for salvation are also foreordained by His unchangeable decree to produce the fruits of holiness. We are "chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit for obedience" (1 Peter 1:2). The Bible teaches that all who are justified are predestined to be sanctified. All saints are predestined for holiness.

Certainly there are baby Christians, but baby Christians are guaranteed to come to some sort of holiness. There are different levels of holiness in the life. We are all growing and changing at different measures, but there is a measurable holiness. Christians also may struggle with an area of carnality in their life. The point is there is a battle. There is a difference in attitude toward sin in the Christian. A Christian longs to be holy. Why is that? We are going to see that God has ordained it to be so. He has also made sure that holiness would occur through regeneration, which gives the person a new nature that longs for holiness. He also made sure that holiness would occur by putting His Spirit inside of believers to “cause” them to walk in holiness and obedience (Ezekiel 36:27).

The Word of God directly refutes the so-called “carnal Christian” teaching in many, many places, first because of God’s decree that all Christians will be conformed to the image of Christ progressively in this life. The Scriptures teach that all those God has foreordained for salvation are also foreordained by God’s unchangeable decree to produce the fruits of holiness. In other words, it is impossible for a person who has been called by God to salvation to not be holy. We can see this clearly from the book of Ephesians.

The Teaching of Ephesians
The teaching of Ephesians is that we are foreordained for good works. God has ordained and decreed before the foundation of the world that all those the Father gives to the Son will walk in good works. Paul tells us why we have come to Jesus Christ in Ephesians 1:4, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love”. No one can claim election and justification who does not practice a lifestyle that is “holy and without blame before God in love”. Ephesians 2:10 likewise says that “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them”. We were created to be lights on a hill and candles on a candle stick. God created us anew so that we could shine as lights in this dark world. Shall those who do not shine have the right to bear the name Christian?

Sealed with the Impression of Holiness
In other words, God has predestined our holiness. If we are called into His family He will be sure that we bear the family likeness. Ephesians 4:30 tells us that all Christians “are sealed unto the day of redemption.” God’s Holy Spirit has sealed us. In other words, He put the impression of God’s likeness on our soul when we were regenerated. Regeneration is God giving to us the new nature. With that sealing of the Holy Spirit, every child of God is guaranteed to become more and more like Jesus Christ.

The Teaching of Romans
We see God’s predestination for holiness for all genuine Christians again in Romans 8:28-30. We are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. In other words, all who God “foreknew” and “called” and “justified” (i.e. all true Christians) are predestined for a holy and blameless life, being “conformed to the image of God’s Son”. Who is Paul talking about? Again, it must be emphasized that Paul is speaking of all true Christians without exception. All who are predestined are called. All who are called are justified. All whom God justified, He is conforming to the image of His Son, and He will one day glorify them with sinless perfection in glory.

If you are called, you are not simply called to be forgiven of your past sins, but you are called to forsake your present sins and follow Christ and to be conformed to His image. This is the purpose of God in drawing a sinner to Himself—to conform them and mold them into the image of Christ. As I said, a Christian will fail along the way. He will be very aware of his daily failure, but he will cling to Christ along the way. And day by day he will be more conformed to the image of Christ. This purpose of God cannot be defeated in any one of His chosen people. If some measure of a holy life does not follow salvation, then God’s purpose in saving you is defeated, and that is impossible.

We are predestined to walk in good works and to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. If that can be taken away from this chain of redemption, then our whole salvation falls.

The Teaching of 2 Corinthians
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If any man be in Christ he is a new creation”, literally a new creation, “old things are passing away, all things are becoming new” (author’s translation). Why must the old sinful life go and the new holy life take its place?—Because we are Christ’s new creation. In other words, we have a new nature. The new heart (new nature) produces a harvest of holiness. New and godly and God-pleasing fruit are coming out of your life if you are born again—guaranteed by the eternal decree of God from before the foundation of the world.

An Objection
Someone might say that demanding holiness makes works a necessary element of salvation. By salvation this person means justification. Works have nothing to do with justification. A person must come as he is to Jesus Christ. He must not seek to change himself, but simply come. As Jesus said, the sinner’s need is to be “born again” (John 3:3). Until the new birth he cannot change. But the Bible’s contention is that if a person does indeed experience the new birth (i.e. regeneration) he will inevitably and most certainly change.

Yet as far as making oneself ready to come to Christ, there is nothing that the sinner can do to make himself fit. He cannot change himself. He must utterly yield himself to Christ to perform the miracle of the new birth. If he tries to make himself better before coming to Christ, he will never come because he will never be fit. It is just as the glorious hymn says:

Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream,
All the fitness He requireth Is to feel your need of Him.
I will arise and go to Jesus
He will embrace me in his arm.
In the arms of my dear Saviour
O there are ten thousand charms.[13]

God’s purpose for every one of His redeemed children is to conform them in this life to the magnificent image of Jesus Christ. That is the doctrine of progressive sanctification, or progressive holiness. All who are genuine Christians will most definitely become more and more like Christ. We either believe this doctrine or we do not. We find it every where in the Scriptures.

Teaching of Hebrews and Philippians
Hebrews 12 and Philippians 1 are also clear about this. Hebrews 12:1 tells us that Jesus Christ is not only the “Author” of your faith (Hebrews 12:1), but He is also the “Finisher”. As Paul tells us in Philippians 1:6, “he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”. Christ conquered death to make us holy like Himself. As Hebrews 12:14 says, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord”. The word “follow” indicates “an earnest pursuit or a dedicated striving after”. This pursuit is the fruit of the new heart.

Let me say unequivocally and absolutely with no exception that all who are called and justified in Jesus Christ will be conformed in some noticeable measure to Jesus Christ. “By their fruits ye shall know them” was our Lord’s promise. Those who teach otherwise are false teachers who twist and contradict the Scriptures.

Tyndale's Words
Let us take heed to the words of William Tyndale from his introduction to the book of Romans:

“Right faith is a gift wrought by the Holy Ghost in us, which changes us, turns us into a new creature with a new nature, and ‘births’ us anew in God making us the sons of God….Right faith kills the old Adam, and makes us all together new in our heart, mind, will, desire, and in all our affections and powers of the soul. It brings the Holy Ghost with it in us. Faith is a lively thing, mighty in working, valiant, and strong, ever doing, ever fruitful so that it is impossible that those who are endued with it should not work always towards good works without ceasing.”[14]

With Tyndale we ought to say it is impossible that those endued with divine faith and the transformation of heart in regeneration should not have holiness of life! Every child of God without exception is regenerated, given a new nature, passed from death to life, or as John so often says, “born again” (John 3:3).

R C Sproul sounded the alarm on this so-called “carnal Christian” teaching on James White’s radio program. He said:

“You know, you hear so much about the carnal Christian—the person who is really saved, but his life doesn’t change. You can’t find that in the Bible. That’s nonsense. That’s a theology that’s been created to account for false professions.”[15]

The most sobering reality in this entire study is the fact that people’s souls hang in the balance. If we do not understand the Gospel rightly, we can very easily give the people we influence a false assurance of heaven and inoculate them from the true message of the Gospel. If we do not expect the Gospel to be the power of God to change the very nature of man, then we very likely may be preaching another Gospel.

[1] Leonard Ravenhill. Holiness Quotes for the Remnant (Life and Liberty Ministries, available at: http://www.lifeandlibertyministries.com/archives/000239.php).
[2] A. W. Tozer, I Call It Heresy! (Harrisburg, Pa.: Christian Publica­tions, 1974), 18-19. Available online at: http://www.theboc.com/freestuff/awtozer/books/icallitheresy/1.html, from chapter 1.
[3] I found five articles particularly helpful:John Bunyan’s “Christian Behavior: http://www.mountzion.org/fgb/Fall99/FgbF6-99.html Ernest Resinger’s refutation of the carnal Christian doctrine: http://www.peacemakers.net/unity/carnal.htm. L. R. Shelton, Jr’s “The True Gospel of Christianity versus the False Gospel of Carnal Christianity”: http://www.mountzion.org/text/TFG_1-6.rtfAW Pink’s “Sins of the Saints”: http://www.mountzion.org/PDFs/sosa.pdf Brian Schwertley. The Necessity of Sanctification: A Brief Refutation of the Carnal Christian Heresy: http://graceonlinelibrary.org/articles/full.asp?id=37%7C37%7C90
[4] A.W. Tozer has a full treatment on the false idea that Jesus Christ can be our Saviour but not our Lord in his book Call It Heresy! (Harrisburg, Pa.: Christian Publica­tions, 1974). It is available online at: http://www.theboc.com/freestuff/awtozer/books/icallitheresy/1.html.
[5] lacking
[6] Harry A. Ironside. Except Ye Repent. Available online: http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/BTP/Dr_Harry_Ironside/Except_Ye_Repent/01.htm.
[7] Ernest Resinger’s refutation of the carnal Christian doctrine: http://www.peacemakers.net/unity/carnal.htm
[8] John MacArthur. A 15-Year Retrospective on the Lordship Controversy. An article available on the Grace to You web site: http://www.gty.org/Resources/articles/2263.
[9] Charles Ryrie, So Great Salvation (Victor Books, 1989, p. 62)
[10] Robert Thieme, The Prodigal Son (R.B. Thieme, Jr. Bible Ministries: Houston, 1967), 7-8 [emphasis by Thieme].
[11] A. W. Tozer, I Call It Heresy! (Harrisburg, Pa.: Christian Publica­tions, 1974), 18-19. Available online at: http://www.theboc.com/freestuff/awtozer/books/icallitheresy/1.html.
[12] John Bunyan. Christian Behavior (Mount Zion Chapel Library: Pensacola, FL, no date), 8.
[13] Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy. Words by Joseph Hart. Accessed at http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/c/o/m/comeyspn.htm on 04 September 2008.
[14] William Tyndale, Sermon on the Book of Romans from Writings of A Puritan's Mind, Vol. 1 (Puritan Publications: Coconut Creek, FL, 2008), 28ff.
[15] RC Sproul appeared on the Dividing Line radio program hosted by Dr. James R. White. He said these words on this program on August 7, 2008.