Understanding the Cause of Being Unnerved by the Doctrine on Faith and Works

OK, the classic doctrine of good works follow heartfelt faith really got to me when I realized some things.

That teaching leaves me unnerved even a little perplexed. I am apparently not alone. I now understand why I am unnerved. In my old southern baptist church before coming to the IFB, the teaching was that God was a fatherly, really grandfatherly, figure that was irritated at sin and would give us a good talking to about the sins we did as Christians. Sins we never repented of. There was regular talk about "babes in Christ," like Sanctification is ever optional in scripture.

That cannot be further from the New Testament unless you abandon the Gospel whole hog. Hebrews 12 was written for teachers like that. A God Who is our you know, real dad, who will paddle our bottom to teach us not to do the wrong thing. A disciplinarian Father that wants His other kids to be like the begotten one. The words used in Hebrews 12 is "scourge every son" i.e. using a cat o nine tales to whip us bloody if we are imperfect. All because He loves us enough to make us like Him.

As I've learned repeatedly the hard way, in the last four years after coming to Christ, when everyone is teaching falsely, getting to know what the bible really says is perplexing.

Is that how it is in your understanding of scripture? Have you run into this problem? Do you have any stories of your own?

My conclusion IMHO is that many Baptists and evangelicals do not understand their "God" at all. To be honest, I am terrified for them. Matthew 25 leaves little room for doubt about what happens to the tares among the wheat. A people claiming to be wheat that could care a wit about actually being like their God is one I am terrified for.