BAPTIST PURGATORY

Christians in the Lake of Fire and Hell,

The Latest Heresy of Joey Faust,

Apostle of Uncertainty

 

 

By HERB EVANS, Ltt.D.

157 Patties Place – Portersville, PA 16051

 

 

I have in my hands a pre publication book by Joey Faust entitled, "Will God Spare the Rod?",  which advocates severe punishment for carnal Christians at the judgement seat of Christ, namely, the temporary death of their carnal souls and bodies (after already physically dying the normal way) in the Lake of Fire in heaven temporarily and afterwards put into the regular Hell/Hades in the earth for the duration of the millennium (sort of double Baptist Purgatory, where you pay the uttermost farthing before you get out).

Since Arlen L. Chitwood has written a similar book a few years prior to Joey's book, which have striking similarities,  we suspect that at least some plagiarism of  ideas and doctrine have taken place, although Faust seems to amplify Chitwood'  teaching, which uses more innuendo than dogmatic assertions.

Of  course,  Faust, cries loudly, denying that it is not the Catholic kind of  purgatory but admits the Catholic purgatory has its roots in the proper kind of  ancient purgatory teaching.  Joey thinks that the Catholics perverted this proper teaching of this early purgatory and fancies himself  as reviving an earlier teaching.

The puzzling thing is the implication that has Christians dying, going to heaven until the JSOC and then go to the Lake of  Fire and then to Hades to burn for 1000 years, since Joey claims that he does not believe in soul sleep.  Still, Joey believes in an "intermediate state" where Christians are punished for a time. Of course, Joey does not believe in indulgences and prayers for the dead.

This latest swerving from the established salvation doctrine of Christ is a cause for alarm. We must remember that many early Jehovah's Witnesses and  Seven Day Adventists were saved and born again, but their heretical doctrines overwhelmed the organization until it became a salvation-less cult. Now, we have Joey's new heresy.

Yes,  we count Joey Faust a very unteachable and uncorrectable heretic, who is perverting endless, eternal salvation.  We have served notice on him that we cannot have fellowship with him (after more than two admonitions).  We serve notice on everyone that embraces Joey's heresy that Christians could wind up in the Lake of Fire or hell, temporarily or otherwise.  We cannot have fellowship with Joey Faust nor them and intend to "mark" them as the scripture commands us to do.

Joey name drops historical writers, making  much ado about their isolated quotes in favor of  Joey's heresies as promoted by him.  Still, Joey has opted to systematize three doctrines, using their quotes.  These three doctrines are Christian punishment at the JSOC, exclu-sion of  carnal  Christians from the millennium, and carnal Christians burning in the Lake of Fire and Hell/Hades.

Joey is a disciple of dead writers such as Panton and Govett (although he denies it), whose quotes permeate the book along  with many other writers, who do not go to this Lake of Fire extreme, but who Joey uses to support, highlight, and advance his strange views.

My own opinion is that Joey's 3 views, including his capstone heresy of Christians going to the Lake of Fire, pave the way for his split rapture position that usually does not attract many pre millennial, fundamental, Independent Baptists in our present time, so he says very little in the book about his split rapturist position, but it still shows and gains weight, being complimented by these three doctrines.

Joey Faust's  novel but radical twist and departure from established Fundamental, Independent, Premillennial Baptist eschatology and soteriology is that beginning at the JSOC, these carnal Christians will be placed in the Lake of Fire for an indefinite time and then afterwards be placed in Hades/HELL until the second resurrection, where they effectively regain life or eternal life which they have lost (although he denies that he literally teaches this).

Still, he unequivocally teaches carnal Christian second death during this time, their bodies and souls are said by Faust to be dead. Such a horrible heresy strikes at the very heart of salvation by the Saviour's promises to all born again Christians, which we have listed elsewhere plus an analysis of Joey's 40 point challenge to disprove Herb Evans' exposure of his LOF heresy.

What is Joey's motive for all this.  According to him, it is the loose living, carnal Christians, who do not repent and confess their sins. Not only are they chastised  here on earth but also in the hereafter, hence the title, "Will God Spare His Rod."

Supposedly, this novel heresy of  his is supposed to correct the situation. But all the heresy and false doctrine in the world will not correct carnal Christianity.  Still, we suspect that what Joey Faust sees is not carnal Christianity, for the most part, but Christians, who are not really Christians, the plague of most of our churches.

But how does Joey get from point A to point B.  For that we must examine chapters 7 through 9 and Chapter 25, (*see footnote) which contain the more objectionable contents of his heresy.  To critique the whole book, we would have to publish a book of equal and quite large size. Suffice it to  say that all the old "lose your salvationist" arguments and proof texts are found  in Joey's book.

Joey only changes the time frame and salvation and the how and when born again Christians temporarily lose their eternal salvation. "Temporary" is the Key word (typical lose your salvationists believe in permanent loss, if you do not have it when you die, but Joey is anything but typical).

Joey makes much use of parabolic teaching, misappropriated second coming  teaching, and quotes from many historic writers, most of which do not go to the depths that Joey has gone but do contain elements of the peripherals (JOC punishment and kingdom exclusion), which Joey uses to mask  his  more objectionable teaching; said peripherals serve to soften that teaching.

Joey also, like a JW, plays around with the words, "eternal, everlasting, never, and forever,"  trying to prove that they do not always mean that, claiming therefore that our salvation passages with those words do NOT insulate the Christian from going to hell.

This JW approach does away with eternal life being "endless" life to accommodate both Joey Faust's and Arlen Chitwood's heretical doctrines. It is the same tactic as the Calvinist, who finds a place where all does not mean all and every does not mean every and then apply it to the passages that you do not like that contain the words. But they pontificate the places, where they say it means "endless."

By the same token, it could similarly be argued that because places can be found that God is no longer eternal in the sense of "endless." A cow is an animal, a dog is an animal, therefore a dog is a cow.

Joey Faust is smart, clever, and embraces many positions that we would like to see in a Baptist, but he is not to be trusted. He seeks to rob Christians of their hope as found in the Bible's promises to them.

He is a wolf in sheep's clothing that is out to steal the believer's precious promises of eternal endless life. He is not to be trusted. The sad part of all this is that he is attempting to infiltrate The King James only groups, the Lordship groups, the unregistered church groups, anti-easy believism movements, anti-Christian carnality groups,  and judging by his flattery of my local church articles, he may have his sights on them.

The tell-tale I'll embrace your cause, if you embrace mine methodology  and flattery will no doubt sucker in many gullible Independent Baptists. This fellow is definitely a crafty used car salesman. The teaching set forth in  Faust's book is basically that of the Overcomer  movement, which is dominated by "partial," or "split" rapturists. They teach judgment of the person,  as well as the works and deeds done in his body.                                     U