630. A further consequence is that the present-day belief about imputation deprives a person of all power which results from having any free will in spiritual matters. He is not left even the tiny bit needed, if his clothes catch fire, to beat it out and protect his body; or, if his house catches fire, to use water to put it out and rescue his family. Yet the Word teaches from beginning to end that one should shun evils because they are the devil's work and come from the devil, and one should do good deeds because they are God's work and come from God; and one should do these things of oneself, under the Lord's working.
But the present-day concept of imputation rules out the power to act thus as fatal to faith and so to salvation, to avoid anything of one's own entering into the imputation and so into Christ's merit. The establishment of this doctrine has led to the spread of the satanic notion that a person is totally impotent in spiritual matters. This is like someone saying 'Walk', though you have no feet, not even one; 'Wash yourself', though both your hands have been cut off; or 'Do good, but sleep'; or 'Feed yourself' when you have no tongue. It is also like having a will given to one which is no will. Could one not say: 'I can do no more than Lot's wife who turned into a pillar of salt, or more than Dagon the god of the Philistines, when the Ark of God was brought into his shrine. I am afraid of having my head broken off like his, and having the palms of my hands thrown out on the threshold (1 Samuel 5:4). Nor can I do more than Baalzebub the god of Ekron 1
, who to judge by the meaning of his name can do nothing but drive away flies.' Such is the present belief in man's impotence in spiritual matters, as may be seen from the quotations on the subject of free will collected in 464 above.
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