Popular Alternative Rock-star Marilyn Manson sings "Personal Jesus" and makes religious folks squirm. They demonize him for that and much more but most who do have the very same theology as he does: Arminianism, or salvation conditioned on the sinner.
In his song "Personal Jesus", Manson sings of a jesus who will basically fill in your loneliness gap. But they way in which Mr. Manson sings about how this is done strikes at the root of my topic. The most repeated line in the song is, "Reach out and touch faith." This is very significant.
When we see true faith exercised the Bible clearly show where or to WHO this God-given faith is focused on. Faith looks to Christ. In other words, the kind of faith God gives in the salvation of His people looks to Christ alone.
What true faith is NOT is God does not give faith to look to faith. Manson sings from the heart, "Reach out and touch faith." The Arminian also has the same focus as if faith is a mere offer and you must fulfill the condition of faith by choosing to accept it by your so-called "free-wiil." This places the glory in this kind of faith as being the determining factor and not the merit of Christ's obedience unto death as the determining factor.
This false way is the most popular way and folks do this by the millions if not billions in the name of Christ. But "...many will say unto Me in that day, Lord, Lord, haven't we done................IN YOUR NAME?" The "many" spoken of in Matthew 7 starting in verse 13 are professing Christians not Buddhists, Muslims, Scientologist, etc. They all have one thing in common. They are deluded in the double minded thinking that salvation is conditioned on the sinner. This is "another jesus" and "another gospel."
You cannot "Reach out and touch faith." If you do you are in trouble. It is not the kind of faith God give in the salvation of His people. God creates faith in the heart of His people in the context of the true gospel being preached. "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God" it says in Romans 10:17. God works faith in a person and that faith looks outside itself to see Christ as the only satisfying, saving object. This is the safe resting place.
One final note for those of you who think Johnny Cash was cool. Shortly before he died Johnny needed to leave his mark with the younger crowd. He covered (same lyrics) this song "Personal Jesus." He didn't make it sound any better if you were wondering. Cash must have had an Arminianism running through him too.
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