The Heresy Of Ages Of Law And Grace

Romans 8:1-4, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

I heard a preacher recently say something from the pulpit that didn't set right with me. He said that people in the Old Testament were living during the Age Of Law. He said that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with fire by God because the law condemned them! Then he said that today's preachers are wrong, who say that God is going to bring judgment upon the United States for our sins! He said that everyone alive today is living in the Age Of Grace, so that God will not destroy America like He did Sodom and Gomorrah.

I have several theological problems with what this preacher said. I won't mention his name. He is a very godly man, a good man, and someone whom I admire as a pastor. However, for the sake of you my dear friend, I want to address this important issue with the Word of God.

Here are some Biblical reasons why I disagree with the aforementioned preacher, who says that God will not punish America because we are living in the Age Of Grace today:

1. The Bible plainly teaches that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah as an EXAMPLE to all mankind of what happens to the wicked, which is eternal damnation in Hell. Jude 1:7, “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” God rained down literal fire and brimstone upon the five cities located in the well-watered plains of Sodom. So it is wrong to use Sodom as an example of an alleged Age Of Law. Furthermore, the law of Moses hadn't even been given by God to Moses yet. The notion that God punished wicked nations in the Old Testament, but won't today, is unbiblical. When Christ returns, there will be THE JUDGMENT OF THE NATIONS (Matthew 25:32).
2. Salvation has always been by God's grace alone without works! Romans 4:1-7, “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.” Verse 4 of Romans chapter four plainly teaches that if salvation has ever, at any time and place in human history, been by WORKS, then salvation came by DEBT and not by GRACE. If a person could work their way to Heaven, this would violate every principle taught in the inspired Word of God. God doesn't owe anyone anything, except Hell for our sins (Romans 6:23)! The fallacy that God will not destroy America today because we are living in the Age Of Grace is ridiculous and unbiblical. The truth is that every unsaved person is still living today under the curse of God's Old Testament law. ONLY those who have been born-again through faith alone in Jesus Christ are no longer under law, but are now and forever under God's saving grace (Romans 5:20).
3. The Bible plainly warns that God will punish the world for their wickedness. Isaiah 13:11, “And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.” Believe God dear reader, He will judge the wicked world!!!
4. Revelation chapter 18 plainly foretells of the coming destruction of a nation. I am firmly convinced that Revelation 18 is a dystopian prophecy foretelling the coming utter destruction of the United States, in just ONE HOUR by fire. I believe this can only mean a coming nuclear holocaust. But I admit that I don't know for certain. I am merely speculating that it will be the U.S.A., and by a nuclear strike. What else could destroy a nation by fire in just one hour? What other nation today has made the merchants of the seas rich? With all of the importing and exporting from America, I don't see how Revelation 18 could refer to any other nation than the U.S.A. 

Dear friend, I do not like the doctrine of Dispensationalism. Whew, what a long and complicated word! God has already made two great divisions to His Word of Old and New Testament; or respectively, Law and Christ. Galatians 3:24-26, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” God intentionally made these two great and simple divisions to teach mankind THE GOSPEL. I detest dispensationalism because it draws the emphasis away from the Gospel, and instead places it upon the future nation of Israel.

Our focus as believers should always be the preaching of the Gospel, and not the restoration of the nation of Israel. God divorced the rebellious nation of Israel in 586 BC, and that wicked nation will not be regathered until Christ's Second Coming. Present-day Israel is a Satanic counterfeit, established by men in May of 1948. Just like Abraham and Sarah took matters into their own hands, so also did men do the same by reforming the modern secular state of Israel. Hosea 3:4-5 teaches that God will not regather Israel until the Jews repent of their unbelief and return to God. Jews today have no special Biblical rights to claim, any more than Gentiles do. God is not a respecter of persons (Romans 2:11). All humanity MUST be born again to get to Heaven. John 3:3, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

We are not living under an Age Of Grace today. Nor were Old Testament saints living under an Age Of Law. God initiated a system of ceremonial laws in the Old Testament, which were a shadow of good things to come. Hebrews 10:1, “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.” As we just read, the ceremonial laws were unable to give anyone salvation. ALL of the Old Testament prophets (preachers) gave witness that remission of sins only came through faith in the coming Messiah. Acts 10:43, “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.”

There has always been salvation by grace through faith alone. Never has there been a time when people were saved by keeping the law (works). Romans 3:19-20, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Back in the Old Testament, just as today, the purpose of the law was to be used as a measuring stick, by which when men measured themselves they fell short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Thus, in trying and failing to perfectly keep the law, the law gave men the KNOWLEDGE THAT WE ARE SINNERS in need of redemption. The law then brings all condemned sinners to Christ to be saved by grace through faith. Amen!

The Holy Bible is so simple, if we will just allow it to speak for itself. In God's Word we are presented with the Old and New Testament, or Law and Christ (Grace). Tragically throughout history, woefully ignorant men have sought to keep the law to get to Heaven, grossly failing to understand that the only purpose of God's law was to show all men our sinnership, and then subsequently bring us to Jesus Christ to be saved by faith. Galatians 3:26, “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”

So please beware of the fallacy of ages of law and grace, because they don't exist. People were saved by faith in Christ throughout the Old Testament, just as we are today. They didn't have all the details of the Gospel that we do today, but they were nonetheless saved by placing their faith in Christ. Luke 24:25-27, “Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Matthew 16:21, “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.”

There is no Age Of Grace! People have always been saved by grace!!! And there was no Age Of Law back in the Old Testament. The ceremonial laws were commanded by God ONLY for a specific people (the Jews), during a specific region (Palestine), during a specific time (the Old Testament). If keeping the law had been necessary to be saved, then how did the Jews taken into 70 years of captivity in Babylon get saved? How did people get saved during the 400 silent years between the Old and New Testaments? How silly and unbiblical it is for anyone to think and teach that salvation has ever been by the works of the law.