TWO VERSIONS OF THE SAME CROSS By Pastor Art Watkins of Coden Bible Church (Coden, Alabama) June 8, 2010 What would you think about a preacher who taught you that when you put your faith and trust in the blood of Christ his blood did not forgive your sins, but merely covered them up or hid them out of sight for a while? What would you think if he told you that even after you put your faith and trust in the death and shed blood of Christ you are not saved and do not have eternal life? What would you think if he told you that after you put your faith and trust in the blood of Christ you must do good works along with believing to be saved? In other words, faith alone in the blood of Christ cannot save you or keep you saved. What would you think if he told you that after you put your faith in the blood of Christ you can lose your salvation? What would you think if he told you that even after you put your faith in the death and shed blood of Christ you will have to wait 2000 years or more to be forgiven by it? To a Bible believer this is absolute heresy, but believe it or not this is what a group of so called “preachers” teach about the blood of Christ. They say this is what Peter preached when he preached the blood of Christ! They preach two different versions of the same cross. They say Paul preached one version of the cross of Christ and Peter preached another. They say when Paul preached the blood of Christ he told people the blood of Christ forgives sins, but when Peter preached the same blood of Christ he told people it did not forgive sins, but merely hid them or covered them up for a while. They say Paul preached once a person put their trust in the blood of Christ they were saved, but when Peter preached the same blood of Christ he told people they were not saved, but had to wait to be saved. They say Paul preached salvation by faith alone in the blood of Christ, but when Peter preached the same blood he told people that faith alone could not save them, but they had to do works along with believing to be saved. They say when Paul preached the blood of Christ he told people they had eternal security, but when Peter preached the same blood he told people they could lose their salvation. Think about this. These men say Peter and Paul preached the same death and shed blood of Christ, but preached two totally different and conflicting versions of it at the same time! According to them, Paul told people that the blood of Christ forgave their sins, but Peter told people the blood of Christ did not forgive their sins, but merely hid them out of sight for a while. Paul told people they were saved the moment they put their trust in the blood of Christ, but Peter told people they were not saved even after they put their faith in the blood of Christ. Paul told people they could be saved by faith alone in the blood of Christ, but Peter told people they could not be saved by faith alone in the blood, but they had to work along with believing to be saved. Paul told people that the blood of Christ secured their salvation eternally, but Peter told people that the blood of Christ did not secure their salvation and that they could lose their salvation. And to add insult to injury the men who preach this heresy all claim to be Bible believers! When you exam what these men teach the conclusion you come to is that according to them the blood of Christ preached by Peter is no different than the blood of bulls and goats offered under the law! Consider this: They say the blood of Christ preached by Peter did not forgive sins but merely hid and covered them. The same is true of the sins of those who sacrificed bulls and goats in the Old Testament. Their sins were hid and covered and not taken away by the blood of bulls and goats. They say no one was eternally saved upon believing in the blood of Christ preached by Peter. No one was eternally saved when they offered bulls and goats for their sins in the Old Testament. They say those who believed under Peter’s ministry had to continue to work after they believed in the blood of Christ. Those who offered the blood of bulls and goats for sin in the Old Testament had to continue to work after they offered the blood of bulls and goats. They say those who believed under Peter’s ministry could lose their salvation after they put their faith and trust in the blood of Christ. After a man offered the blood of bulls and goats he too had to continue to work till he died to be saved and if he didn’t he would be lost. To these men the blood of Christ preached by Peter is no different than the blood of bulls and goats! If what these men say is true Christ died in vain. Think about this scenario. Here is a Jew living in the days of the apostles who has offered animal sacrifices for his sins all of his life. Along comes Peter and says to him; “I have some good news for you”. The Jew says, what is it? Peter says Christ died and shed his blood for your sins. That gets the Jew’s attention because he is tired of offering animal sacrifices for his sins. But then Peter says to him that even though Christ died and shed his blood for your sins, his blood will not forgive your sins, but only hide and cover them a while, and after you believe in the blood of Christ you must continue to work to be saved and you can lose salvation after you believe in the blood of Christ. What do you suppose the Jew would say to Peter? I think he would say, NO THANKS, I ALREADY HAVE WHAT YOU ARE OFFERING ME IN THE BLOOD OF BULLS AND GOATS! Think about this scenario. Here is man living in the days of the apostles and along comes Paul and says to him: I have some good news for you. The man says, what is it? Paul says to him Christ died and shed his blood for your sins. You can be saved and forgiven of all your sins now by faith alone without works and God will secure your salvation for ever. The man says that is great news. A short time later Peter comes along and says to the same man I have some good news for you. The man says, what is it? Peter says to him Christ died and shed his blood for your sins. The man says that is great news, but then Peter proceeds to tell him that the blood of Christ will not forgive his sins, just hide and cover them, and that he will not be saved upon believing, but must work after he believes and that his salvation is not secure. The man hears this and says, wait a minute, Paul was here the other day and he said just the opposite of what you have told me. Who am I suppose to believe? One of you is either lying or confused. He would be right because God would not send two men to preach totally conflicting messages about the death and shed blood of his Son Jesus Christ. And he would never send a man to preach the same thing about the blood of Christ that Moses said about the blood of bulls and goats! This is another example how extreme that dispensationalism has become today. It minimizes the blood of Christ by making it equal to the blood of bulls and goats. The apostle Peter said the blood of Christ is precious in 1 Peter 1:19 and I don’t know about you, but when I hear men and woman minimize the blood of Christ like this it makes me angry. It should make you angry also. Those who preach this heresy are going to have hard time explaining themselves at the judgment seat of Christ when they stand before the one whose blood was shed for their sins. I know I will have many things to answer for at the judgment seat of Christ, but there is one thing I will not have to answer for; minimizing the precious blood of Christ.