There is no such thing as a "dispensation of grace" as we are using the term today. We mean by this term that God has suspended the laws of righteousness. God never has, is not now, and never shall suspend the laws of righteousness. American Christians are soon to discover this by the coming judgments.

If God ever were to suspend the laws of righteousness it would be a catastrophe of such magnitude that our very birth into the world would be an unmitigated disaster.

The grace of God is not an alternative to righteous behavior! The grace of God is the Divine means of our becoming, through Christ, righteous, holy, and obedient in personality and behavior.

I was brought to Christ in the Marine Corps on Oahu when I was nineteen, during World War II. Experienced Christians pressed on me Ephesians 2:8,9. But they didn't add verse ten. They were good men, active in personal work when the marines were preparing for major invasions. But by not adding verse ten they gave me a warped view of salvation.

I was handed a Scofield Bible, a Stamps-Baxter songbook, and was told about the nightly meetings in the Quonset hut. At that time I had a real experience of being born again.

It wasn't until nearly thirty years later when I was writing on the Tabernacle of the Congregation that it dawned on me something was wrong with evangelical teaching.

I read through the New Testament to see if there were any verses that said we had to behave righteously as part of the program of salvation. Try that sometime! I could hardly believe what I was reading. I gave up trying to make a list because there were too many verses to cope with. The verses that stressed forgiveness apart from repentance and godly behavior were indeed few in number; and even those were speaking of freedom from the Law of Moses, not freedom from righteous behavior. The verses that spoke of the compelling need for righteous behavior were far and away the majority of the text.

Over the years I have listened to evangelical preaching and read evangelical writings. I have come to the conclusion that in the area of Divine grace we are mistaken. A "dispensation of grace" has been invented that simply is not found in the Scriptures.

Ephesians 2:8,9 could be interpreted to mean we do not have to behave righteously. But the next verse prevents such an interpretation.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

We have been created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Check any translation. They all say the same thing.

If we have been created in Christ Jesus for the purpose of doing good works, then the current teaching of a dispensation of grace is out of balance with the New Testament emphasis on godly living.

We have misunderstood God!

It is obvious that if we are not living in a righteous manner the grace of God has failed of its purpose.

God has provided a new covenant to enable us to live righteously. By being born again in Christ and having God's Holy Spirit we now are able to begin to keep God's commandments. The whole purpose of grace is to enable us to keep God's commandments.

God would never, never, never change His dealing with man such that man can live an unrighteous, unholy, disobedient life and still please God. How could we ever have believed such an outrage!

The concept that God has given us grace because we cannot keep His commandments is a farce. Of course we can keep God's commandments by the help Christ gives. What are we thinking of? Is our Father in Heaven some kind of monster He would command us to do something and then not enable us to do it?

The reasoning presented that God has given us hundreds of commandments, not because we can keep them but to show us our need of His forgiveness, is perverse. By this kind of twisted thinking we have made the exhortations of the Apostles irrelevant. No wonder the believers don't understand the New Testament. Most of the passages are irrelevant! They don't apply to us because we are "saved by grace"!

What father would command his child to do something impossible, not help him do it, and then tell him he never expected to be obeyed but wanted his child to seek his forgiveness and mercy? Such a view of the relationship of God to His children or any father to his children is not only completely unscriptural but immaterial, incompetent, and irrelevant—if not totally asinine. Don't you agree?

"Dad wants to show me how much better he is than I am so he gave me a bunch of stuff to do, not because He expects me to do it but to show me he loves me anyway."

I think we Christians need a reality check!

There you have it. We are off course. The sword of judgment hangs over the so- called "Christian" nations of today.

God is ready and willing for us to recognize our error and turn from our wicked ways. If we do He will forgive our sins and heal our land.