1: What is Legalism?

This is the For Freedom Podcast. This podcast exists to bring to light the legalism and abuse in the independent fundamental Baptist movement and to encourage believers to grow in grace through the scriptures. Now here's your host, John Holyfield. Hello and welcome to the For Freedom Podcast. I am your host, John Holyfield. And this is our first episode, our first real episode of the podcast. And this podcast, let me just read off the mission statement. It exists to bring the message of Galatians 5.1. What is Galatians 5.1? It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. That message, bring that to Christians, to those within the independent fundamental Baptist movement or that have come out of the IFB movement, that were trapped in a legalistic form of Christianity. It is our goal to expose legalism, help those who may have been abused, encourage them to grow in God's grace and to accomplish all of these through the word of God by expounding the scriptures. Okay, so the idea is to bring the truth of God's word to bear on many of the claims and many of the practices that the IFB movement has done through its inception. And so in doing that, we're going to examine a lot of things in the podcast. The first couple of episodes are what I'm going to call sort of introductory episodes. So we're going to first look at legalism. And then I want to do an episode on abuse and characterize and identify the abuse that's gone on in the IFB movement. And then after that, what I want to do is we'll have a couple of episodes going into the history of the movement. I want to examine the history of the movement. A lot of people don't know the history of the IFB movement. And so I want to examine that. So first of all, let's ask the first question. Let's get into this topic today. The first question is this. What is legalism? What is legalism? The interesting thing is, is those that have left the movement, they tend to throw that term around a lot. I throw that term around a lot. But those, it's interesting that those that are in the movement, that may even be practicing legalism, not even, but I've seen this even by those who don't practice legalism within the movement, but that say this. Legalism is work salvation. How are you going to accuse everybody of work salvation? Well, I believe, and it is my conviction, that there are two forms of legalism. There is a form of legalism, what I call legalism in salvation, and then there's a form of legalism in sanctification. So let me give you this definition. This is from the work Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhew. It comes from page 622. Legalism fails to distinguish between justification and sanctification. Legalism undermines the gospel by insisting that we must add our obedience to Christ's work in order to be justified. Okay? So the idea with that is that sort of the works-based, I think that if you look at the Roman Catholicism, working your way, Roman Catholicism is a system based on faith, but faith plus works. You do this. You do the sacraments. You keep those things. And so that is a legalistic form of salvation. So it is bringing a work to the idea of justification. You are justified not just by your faith, but by also a certain thing that you must do or something. And Biblical Christianity understands salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. There is no works to be done in order to gain your salvation. Ephesians 2.8.9 explains that to us. Ephesians 2.8.9 basically says that, For by grace you have been saved through faith. Look it up here in just a second, just to make sure that I quote it correctly. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. So the idea of salvation, your justification, comes by faith and by grace. And those two things are the gift of God. They are given to you by God. Salvation doesn't come from anything in you. And so that's what a lot of people will defend legalistic practices when somebody calls them legalistic. And whenever you make, you throw out the idea or the accusation of legalism, they say, You don't know what legalism is. And they say, You don't even know the definition of legalism because legalism has to do with works-based salvation. And so in a sense they're right, but in a sense I believe that there is a form of legalism in sanctification. Legalism in sanctification. And for a definition of that, what is legalism as it pertains to sanctification? Of course, sanctification, let me define that term. Sanctification is the process that we go through once someone becomes a Christian or becomes a believer in Christ, is converted or as the term we used earlier is justified and receives justification. They then enter the process of sanctification, being set apart, growing in Christ and becoming Christ-like. Now that sanctification is a process that takes place throughout your lifetime. You never become perfectly glorified or perfect in your Christian walk. We still battle the flesh, but we are increasingly getting better, growing more like Christ. And that's the process of sanctification. And so there's many bad forms of the doctrine of sanctification out there. I may get into that later in later episodes of the podcast. But as it continues, as it has to deal with legalism, David Platt offers some very good points of this on his commentary on the book of Galatians. And he breaks it down in three points. What is legalism? Number one, he says, working in our own power. Working in our own power. He says this, a contemporary form of this error is the idea that we're saved by grace and then we live the Christian life in our own strength. Essentially leaving grace behind. And that is so true. That is so true because it happens so often. In my own experience in the IFB movement, I saw that so much. That error perpetrated or sent out there that taught and believed and practiced that you are judged as how good a Christian you are or how you have grown in the faith by what you're doing in your own strength. What are you doing? Now, works does play a part in the Christian life. Okay? It does play a part. It's an evidence of your faith, but it is not a process of your growth and sanctification. So, working in our own power. Number two, working according to our own rules. Working according to our own rules. It involves adding rules beyond what God has already defined as the basis for his relationship with us. And I think that hit the nail on the head. Because when we analyze and when we look at things that have to do with legalism within the IFB movement, most of what you see are things where someone adds to the word of God. They have their list of what they believe is spiritual or what they believe is godly conduct or what they even believe as, air quotes here, biblical. But what they, in a sense, have done is added to the Bible. They've added to the Bible. They've gone beyond what the actual scriptures teach and added something in their own list as biblical and put that burden on someone else. And so, then, those that are under that ministry or that person's list are then governing or practicing their Christian walk and their Christian life based on extra-biblical rules that this person has set up. And that is legalism. I am not against standards. I think everybody should have personal convictions or standards to help them grow or, here's a good word for it, guardrails within their Christian walk. But the moment you take extra-biblical standards, extra-biblical guidelines or something, you go beyond the Bible. There's nothing wrong with doing that to set up a standard for your own personal life. But once you do it and you make it a standard for someone else to live by, you have erred in the realm of legalism. You have put a burden on that person that the Holy Spirit did not put on them. And so, that is, and we'll talk more about that. That is, and we'll talk more about that in the coming podcast. Because what my intention is to do, I'm going to identify some areas that the IFB is legalistic. But what my intention is, eventually, to have full episodes based on breaking down each of those areas. So, we'll deal with that in the future. Number three. So, first of all, David Platt says legalism is working in our own power. Second of all, he says that it is working according to our own rules. And third of all, it is working to earn God's favor. Sometimes legalism is practiced in order to please men. But the main idea is that by doing certain things, one increases in favor before God. And this is seen quite a bit. The pastor or a staff member or something becomes the person that everyone wants to impress. They are the ones that are put in front of the people and they let known to the people what they like. And so, therefore, the culture tends to become around that ministry or around that church that whatever you're pleasing God by pleasing this person or this pastor and what they like. And that is a form of legalism. Now, let me move to the next part of this. And that is this. Why legalism is wrong and dangerous. I think this is something that needs to be identified. Because so many times I believe that we can just say, yeah, well, that's legalistic. That's not me. But this is why I believe it's a reason why I feel the burden and the passion to do a podcast and speak out on this. Because of how dangerous I believe legalism can be. Let me read that again. The Christian's freedom from the dominion of sin through union with Christ is the necessary foundation for all progress and progressive sanctification. The foundation for growing in your Christian walk is understanding your freedom that you have been saved to and saved into. I go back to the theme verse, Galatians 5.1. For it is for freedom that Christ has set you free. For freedom. And in that passage, Paul is speaking to this group of Judaizers that have come in and enslaved these converts in the area churches of Galatia to continue to uphold Jewish customs and Jewish laws. Most specifically that of circumcision. And Paul is writing to them explaining this saying, guys, this was not part of the gospel. In fact, this is the new covenant. And then he gets to chapter 5 and he says, it is for freedom Christ has set us free. So stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. He says, stand firm in your freedom. Fight for your freedom. Paul did this in Galatians chapter 2. He stands up against Peter. He stands in Peter's face. When Peter starts trying to use the Jewish customs and the Jewish rules to impress the Jews and make the Gentiles look like they're less spiritual because they're not Jewish. And he goes back to the old system in a moment's notice and Paul gets into his face and corrects him. And he fights for that. I mean, we're talking about Peter. One of the preachers, quote unquote scholars, I don't know what you'd like to call him, but men that have stood up for this, that's wrote books, that's had a preaching ministry, that has done some fantastic work in this area. And he's wrote a phenomenal book called The Grace Awakening. It's Chuck Swindoll. And I want you to hear this quote from him. In an interview he did years ago with Howard Hendricks, he said this, The problem with legalists is that not enough people have confronted them and told them to get lost. What a statement. What a statement. Because you think about that, what happens with men that come into positions of power with their preferences and preach them as scripture. I'm not saying all that are doing this, but it seems to be that the internal motivation of that is control. It's control. I can't let you live in the liberty of Christ and the liberty therewith he has saved you. Because if you do that, you might do something I don't like. We can't tell Christian people that they have liberty to decide what is right and wrong. Because then they'll start living like the world. And so in a sense, in those kinds of justifications, we move to a position, they move to a position of controlling others. And it becomes a very, very domineering and sad situation. And this is not where I'm wanting to go in this episode. We'll get to that in the next episode. But it provides an inroad to much of the abuse that happens within these churches. Because you give somebody power, you give somebody control, sinful people at that. We're all sinners. We are all walking around with this in the flesh. And you give somebody that much power, that much control over others, that they're not meant to have. They start playing, this is a phrase I like to use, they start playing the Holy Spirit in someone's life. And it's only a matter of time before emotional abuse, spiritual abuse, and sometimes physical and sexual abuse takes place. Swindoll continues on. The problem with legalists is not enough people have confronted them and told them to get lost. Those are strong words, but I don't mess around with legalism anymore. I'm 72 years old. What have I got to lose? Seriously. I used to kowtow to legalists, but they are dangerous. They are grace killers. I love that phrase. He uses that phrase, that term a lot in The Grace Awakening in the book, grace killers. They will drive off every new Christian you bring to church. They are enemies of the faith. Other than that, I don't have an opinion. I love this quote. I love this quote because he says it with such force. And I believe this would have been a quote that the Apostle Paul would have said amen to. And I think that it's time we start standing up and speaking out against this. One of the things that I want to do in this podcast and the ministry that I'm starting and for Freedom Ministries is to provide resources for people in this. And a couple of those resources are other podcasts that have begun before mine that I think are helpful with this. And I want to applaud the Recovering Fundamentalist podcast in speaking out about that, too. I think we need more of those. And we needed more of those in the past. I think we need more of them now. Warren Wearsby said, The most popular substitute for spiritual living that we have in our churches today is legalism. Let me read that again. The most popular substitute for spiritual living that we have in our churches today is legalism. And this is what happens. You have churches that are running on legalistic principles absent of the Holy Spirit. Absent of the power of the Word of God because you've superseded God's Word. Because you've added to God's Word. And in adding to God's Word and keeping people under a burden of adding to God's Word, you've said, in a sense, you know better than God. Because you've made a list trumping what God has said in His Word on what He said is acceptable. You've gone beyond that and said that people must live by this list. So, what are aspects of legalism in the IFB? Well, there are the dress standards. And then there's distinctive dress. Deuteronomy 22.5 is actually, it teaches the principle of distinction. It's the particular of what you wear. A woman shall not wear that which pertaineth to a man, neither should a man put on a woman's garment, for all that do so are an abomination. So, pertaineth, the word there pertaineth means it's something that belongs to the man, or it's something that belongs to men. It's not like my wife can't wear my particular clothing. It's not talking about what pertains to a man individually. The word pertain means it pertains to a man to what men wear, or the thing that distinguishes men as a whole culture. And you're a hypocrite. Right. And first, by the way, most of the time, it's those wives that's running those men. They all go ahead and turn in their papers. They all go ahead and go back where they came from, because the Bible said he's supposed to be the hunter of the lion, and he's supposed to have control of his family. She's running the thing. Don't bow your head, sir. Only preacher who won't preach against a woman wearing breeches is a preacher whose wife's got an arm. Don't you get quiet on me, horse. I said, don't you dare get quiet on me. I was invited to preach here. You're supposed to treat your guests when you're sick. And I know how you'll have your pastor stands. Amen. And I know how you'll have to. Amen. I know how you'll have to. I saw this quite a bit personally, where there's dress standards. There are some churches that require men to... Men can't wear shorts for some reason. I don't find that in Scripture. I don't know where that comes from in the Bible. Mostly the... The dress standards legalism, though, has been enforced upon women. And I know some people try to defend it biblically, and we'll get into that. We're going to do an episode on that, on the dress standards for women. That woman's not supposed to put on that pertaining to a man. I just find when you get into biblical interpretation, I don't think you have a leg to stand on in those passages. Because what you're doing is you're committing what's called eisegesis. These are two terms when it comes to biblical interpretation. Exegesis and eisegesis. Exegesis is going to the Scripture, going to the Word of God, and exegeting, pulling out what is there. Eisegesis is taking something that you have and reading it into Scripture. The most sure way to misinterpret the Bible is to read something into it that wasn't already there. And whenever you take modern-day dress and read that into what was written 2,000 years ago, you have just committed eisegesis. I'm not saying the Bible doesn't have anything to say about what we wear. I think the Bible talks about modesty. I do believe that. But you're adding your list of what's modest. And we have to be very careful about that. And we have to think deeply about that. But the Bible says nothing about the article of clothing called pants. Or skirts. Or, and the IFV crowd will understand this, culottes. What the heck is that? But when it comes to the legalism of dress standards, I have seen this time and time again. I saw this in the church that I worked at, in the youth group that I was in. I saw a young girl lose. Her spirit was crushed and wanted nothing to do with church when she was told that she couldn't do something unless she wore the proper clothing, which was identified proper by only the pastor, or the pastor's eyes. And we lost that girl. We were not able to minister to her in the youth group at all. And it was, it was, it bothered me. Bothered me big time. And so dress standards are an area of legalism within the IFV. Entertainment. Entertainment is an interesting area within the IFV. This is one that is, that is talked about through the verses, Love not the world, nor are the things of the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John. Chapter 2. And so because we are not to love the world, we have to separate ourselves from anything that is worldly entertainment. This was such a double standard, hypocritical thing that was preached by so many. I saw it so many times. I remember, I did not grow up in an area of IFV, when I say grow up, through my school years, in high school years, I did not grow up into an area that was this hardcore on this area. They were on the music, but as far as entertainment, it wasn't, I mean, we went to movies and that kind of thing. But when I went to Bible college, when I get to Bible college, there's a rule in the Bible college handbook that says that if you go to a movie, you're subject to expulsion, being expelled because you go to see a movie. And I did not understand it. So I decided, you know, I was having, I had a good attitude about it. I didn't, it didn't make any sense to me at all. Because there's nothing in the Bible about it. And that's the idea, right? We're talking about legalism. There's nothing in the Bible about that. So I go to one of the professors and I said, can you explain something to me? What is the deal with the movies? What is the deal with the movies? And he said, okay, well, there's two reasons behind it. He said, number one, if somebody watches you, sees you, you can hurt your testimony. If somebody watches you go into a movie, you may be going in to see a PG or a G or a kids friendly, family friendly movie. But somebody may see you go into that movie and not know what you're going to go see. And therefore it could hurt your testimony. I thought, okay, that's, that's stupid. We're off the bat. That's stupid. Okay. Number one, that person needs to grow up. We're not talking about walking into a strip club. We're talking about going to the movies. Okay. Number two, that could be applied to so many different things. I mean, you could carry that standard. That's right there. Okay. What if you go to the grocery store where they serve alcohol? They, they don't, they don't know you're going in there to buy groceries or buy booze. Or what about going to the video store, which that was acceptable. Or going to the library. That was acceptable. You think you can't find, uh, X-rated or R-rated content at the, at the library? What, what, what, what are they checking out? Really? What are they checking out? Idiotic, idiotic reasons. The other reason he gave me was this. When you go to the movie, let's say you're going to go see a film that is family friendly. But while you're giving your money to see that family friendly film, that money is also going to make and produce, uh, very ungodly content. I'm like, okay, that's also very double standard is hypocritical. Because what about your money going to, uh, stop going to Walmart, stop going to all these other places that then use their, their, their income to support ungodly causes. I mean, these, these are the reasons they, and all it was, was somebody's, somebody's list that they put up there, and some pathetic reason, pathetic reason, and people follow it. So entertainment is a, is a area of legalism in the IFB music. I, I, I hit on that, but music. Abraham ain't, Abraham ain't asking for our rock and roll group to show up. That can't kill his boy. Come on. We've come to a day, we've come to a day where we think what's going to help this generation is if we, if we take our pull pits out, and we have a rap session with the congregation, and we get some, and we get some little meaty mouth sucker up there, or they can have his ripped up blue jeans, and his shirt weighed down here, or brother, stand up, give his little inspirational message, or we get us a rap group, that can stand up, give us a little rap, and identify with the young people. Hogwash, there ain't no such thing. Or we have a like show, or a dance show, or an interpretive dance. I can interpret what that dance means. It means you all roll with God, and you need to get right with it. Say amen right now. Amen. Y'all know what rap stands for, don't you? R.A.P. Retards Attempted Poetry. Say amen right now. That's good, brother. That's right. You don't belong to you. It's not about, well, this is my style. Well, what about God's style? Amen. What about what God wants? Hey, this is the kind of music I like. Well, what does the Bible say about music? Amen. Some of y'all are listening to worldly, ungodly, and wicked music. Amen. The kind of music you need to listen to is what's sung in this church. There's a reason why there's not a drum set over on this side. And if there ever is, I won't be back. Amen. There's a reason. This was, this was something that was different in different churches. They could never agree on what the standard of music was. And I'm not even talking about secular music. I'm talking about Christian music. You know, this, this music is wrong because they use drums. Oh, well, Southern gospel is good. We just don't like the contemporary. Why don't you like the contemporary? I mean, they could never. And the interesting thing is I want to do maybe a couple of episodes on this idea right here on music. I'm writing a book on this too. And I'm going to do a chapter on this because here's the issue with the, with the music, with, with IFB issues with music, with, in the realm of Christian music, as it, as it goes. their problem is always with the style and not with the content. Because they'll sing hymns that have been around for a hundred years all day long that are heretical. That have major problems with the biblical text. but yet, a song that is new that may be played on the radio but has biblically sound lyrics, there'll be books written about them. And that is the opposite mindset that we're supposed to have. What is the theology coming through the music? And then we can have a conversation about the presentation. But the first conversation needs to be about the theology of the music. And then the last one is something that that is hits me, hits at home for me because this was a big issue in my life was and I consider it an area of legalism and that is King James only-ism. Amen! I ain't rubbed his shoulders with my rubber shoulders named King James. I wouldn't send a poodle dog to learn how to go out at a Bible college if it wasn't King James. And they better say somewhere in their statement of faith in prison. They always want to talk about in the original manuscript. You don't have one. You don't know where one's at. You couldn't read it if you had it. That's right. We believe in the preservation. Amen right there. But there's going to be someone that get there and I'm telling you he's going to be mad. Yep. That the King James Bible is the inspired, infallible, and errant word of God for us today in the English language. Not a new King James. Not a revised King James. But a King James Bible. That it is the inspired, infallible, and errant word of God for us today in the English language. And it has no mistakes in it and it doesn't need corrected. Are we good? Okay, that's the second doctrine. King James only-ism. I'm going to do several episodes about the King James only-ism. I went through this personally. I was actually somebody that knew the argument. Defended King James version only. And then I started to research it, and realized that there are viewpoints other than that. I just figured everybody was ignorant. Started researching it myself, finding out that there were half-truths, dishonesty, among a lot of the arguments for King James only-ism. And eventually, I ended up at our own church going through a study on the Bible, and then I got to translation. I spent nine weeks on the King James only issue. And the reason why I consider this an area of legalism is because this is extra-biblical. I've heard Tony Hudson even say, if you don't use the King James Bible, that's not an exact quote, if you don't use the King James Bible, that's heretical. That's heresy, using any other Bible. If they ain't got a King James, they ain't got a Bible no-how. What a tragedy. If they're not preaching out of a King James Bible, they're a heretic. Let me specify my position. If they're not using a King James Bible, that is heresy. You don't have to like this. You can lump this. Bless God, put it in your pipe and smoke it. Bless God. I was preaching before I come in here and I'll preach it when I leave out of here. And the fact of the matter is, is there is no verse in the Bible that says that you're supposed to use the King James Version translation of the Scriptures. Therefore, when you make that a prerequisite on all believers, that this is the version of Scripture that they're supposed to use, you have jumped outside of the Bible itself with a demand and that is legalism. That is legalism. And we're going to look at that. I'm going to spend several episodes on that area right there. But these are areas of legalism within the IFB. There's more that I can talk about and we're going to talk about these ones that I mentioned specifically. I want to leave, finish up today with two quotes. Two quotes from Chuck Swindoll. And this is going forward because the way to combat legalism is grace. That's why Swindoll's book was titled The Grace Awakening. The way to combat legalism. Okay, if legalism is the dark side and the Jedi is grace. Okay? I'm a Star Wars fan so a little Star Wars reference for you. Swindoll said, just as we received grace from God, we should extend grace toward others. Don't hold others hostage to your own rules and regulations. Now, I want to finish today with these two quotes and some of you may be hearing that quote and say, yes, yes, amen. That's what they do. That's what they do. Absolutely. And they need to hear that. And maybe you're listening to this and you are in the IFB. I hope you take that to heart. Let me read it again. Just as we received grace from God, we should extend grace toward others. Do not. don't hold others hostage to your own rules and regulations. But let me say this to everyone else. We need to take that to heart as well. Even when dealing with those in the IFB, extend grace. Extend grace. Can I say this? And this is probably something I'm going to have to repeat and repeat and repeat. the entirety or the totality of the IFB is not that way. Now, I do personally believe that the majority is, which is why I'm doing this. But not all. There are some good pastors, Christians, churches within the IFB movement that are moving forward with grace-filled ministries. And maybe the Lord will open up opportunities and doors for us to be able to interview a few of them as well, if they'll be willing to talk. This last quote by Chuck Swindoll, our justification, our sanctification, and future glorification are all results of God's grace alone, effected through faith alone, in the finished work of Christ alone. Grace is the way to life and the way of life. And that's it. That is it. For freedom, ministries, it is for freedom that Christ has set you free. So stand firm. That is the message. grace and use that grace that he has saved you by and saved you to continue on. So the next episode we're going to talk about abuse. And these are introductory episodes to outline sort of this idea and then after that we'll get into more detailed topics. But until next time, we will see you guys later. Thanks for listening to it. Bye. Bye. Bye.

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