Fake Grace: Jado's False Teaching

I recently heard an audio by a certain man calling himself pastor Jado (I don't know if it is his true name) from a movement called "zeal of the gospel" church. He made some disturbing comments in his audio and since couple of people were talking about it, I decided to respond to his pertinent points in a brief posts. 

1. Abandoning Sin?

Jado insists in his audio that people should take at heart that they cannot change their life of sin nor should they even try. He quotes partly the book of Jeremiah which states that a leopard cannot change its spots and he assumed therefore that people cannot change and abandon sin. But a correct reading of the book of Jeremiah doesn't imply that. See the full text and I will give a brief context of what Jeremiah was talking about.

Jeremiah 13:23,  "Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots? Then you who are trained to do evil will also be able to do good[?]" 

The prophet Jeremiah is making a point about those people in Israel who rebelled against God and showed unwillingness and stubbornness to change from their evil ways. Chapter 13 comes after a series of texts where similar point is raised in different ways (Jeremiah2:30; 6:29-30), here is another example 

Jeremiah 5:3  "LORD, don't your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they didn't flinch. You brought them to an end, but they refused to receive discipline. They made their faces harder than stone, and they refused to repent." 

Jeremiah even though a citizen of Israel was not like those who didn't want to repent. Nor was Daniel, nor was David or the many biblical example we have of people who repented of their sins. Jado is making a mistake to assume that what Jeremiah spoke about is how all people are behaving all the time. I hope Jado doesn't consider himself an unrepentant sinner who refused to repent. But that is the problem of reading the Old Testament verses out of context, people tend to make it says what it doesn't say.

The plain teaching of the New Testament is to encourage Believers to changes and to reject the evilness of sin and to practice good. Here are two examples from St. Paul,

Romans 12.9, "Your love must be real. Hate what is evil. Do only what is good"

Romans 12:21, "Don't let evil defeat you but defeat evil by doing good."

Here Paul clearly ask the Christian in Rome that after they have changed this mind (renewing their mind) in verse 2 of this chapter, they should now practice what is good and not what is evil. St. Paul does not believe the same thing as Jado believe, this is abundantly clear from these two verses above.

2. Practicing sin is normal?

Jado insisted in his audio that people should believe in doing sin and not in not doing sin. His rationale seemed to cling to his reading of Paul that speaks of the weakness of the carnal nature to do what is good in Roman 7 by partially quoting Paul who said that he did the things he didn't want to do. Jado sees in this a license to discourage any attempt in search for change. He believes that doing sins are normal and trying not to sin is what is the problem. It is astonishing that someone can come to such a conclusion particularly someone who calls himself a pastor. One can almost think the guy was joking until one realize that he is not, he really believe that there is no problem for someone who claim to believe in Jesus to continue in sin as long as sometime in his past he converted to the Christian faith.

But this is a foreign belief to what the New Testament teaches. Here is an example,

1Jn 2:1, "My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 

The whole purpose of John writing his epistle and training the Christian community in the first century was to make them able to ultimately live a life away from sin as they mature in the image of Christ, and not to feel comfortable in their sins. Clearly St. John did not believe the same as Jado believes. This is the second example we see where Jado belief is totally contradictory to the belief of the first century disciples of Jesus, first St. Paul and now St. John.

3. Embracing a life of sin?

Jado insists that people should embrace their life of sins and any attempt to confess a sin makes the person confessing its sin some kind of a rebel against Jado's 'god' and he believes to confess sins is a display of doctrinal error.  One wonder if he has even taken the time to think and reflect about what he believes. Let say a sin such as a crime should not be confessed as being evil? or should one not look for forgiveness of that sin through repentance? Does Jado believe that those who sinned by committing let says, Genocide or rape should also not stop doing them nor confess those sins? This is a totally a foreign belief from the Bible and I hope this is not what Jado really believe. 

The error of Jado is that he believes that nothing can be done to remove your ability to sin so he literally ask people not to try to stop their sinful acts and worse to avoid to repent of their sins. No wonders he mocks the whole concept of forgiveness of sins. But he is mistaken. The bible shows that the same blood of Jesus that was shade once and for all 2000 years ago continues even today to cleanse those who walk with God. It has a continuous action. See the verse below and be careful on the verb tense used,

"But if we (believers) walk in the light, as He (God) is in the light, we (believers) have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanse (present tense) us from all sin." -  1John1:7

The verse does not say that the blood "cleansed" us in the past tense but that the blood "cleanse" us in the present tense. It is not talking about a past action of the blood but a present action of continuous cleansing by the blood of Jesus the son of God. The verse in the present tense is clear, except for Jado.

An additional rebuttal for all that he said is found in 1Jn2:1-2 where it is clear that believers have always access to the cleansing blood of Christ just like the unbelievers. See the pronoun "our" that St. John use to includes himself in the sentence when he speaks of the benefit of the blood that cleanse our sins.

"And [Jesus] is the propitiation for OUR sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." - 1John2:2

"If WE confess OUR sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us OUR sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  - 1Jn 1:9 

In this verse St. John inform the Christian audience that Jesus' blood has the capacity to clean not only the sins of the world which means the unbelievers but also OUR sins. "Our" means the sins of the believers. St. John is putting himself in it after making the distinction between the sins of unbelievers and the sins of believers. And St. John clarified that the cleansing of sins follows the confession of sins. Hence we see that confession must be done before the cleansing with the 2000 years old blood of Jesus may do its work on us. The text is crystal clear. Which makes one wonder why does he ignore the teaching of the bible?

4. Don't Rebuke the Sinner?

Jado is against any rebuke of sins or any experience of bad conscience when someone sin. So people according to Jado's theology should not for example have a bad conscience when they rape a baby or commit genocide? I really hope this is not what he means, 'coz this would be totally Unbelievable! Jado said that no one should feel any bad conscience when they do sins and anyone trying to rebuke an evildoer is against his 'god'. Which makes one wonder who is his "god"? Certainly not the one from the Bible. 

The logical rebuttal of his insane claims are found in all the epistles of the bible. Let me choose 3 examples for the sake of space: 

A) Paul rebuked evildoers in 1Corinthians 5:1-5. 

Exampe1: Paul rebukes a Corinthian believer, 

"For I [Paul] verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him [sinful believer] that has so done this [evil] deed," - 1Co5:3

B) Peter rebuked Simon who were then a baptized Christian in Acts 8:22. 

Example 2. Peter rebukes Simon who had just believed under the ministry of Phillip, 

 "Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee."Acts 8: 22,

C) Jesus himself rebuked all the 7 churches in Revelation 2-3. 

The Lord Jesus rebuked believers in the Church of Laodiceans. 

"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent." - Revelation 3:19

Clearly Jado must believe that all the apostles and Jesus himself were wrong rebuking believers for their sins. What is clear, Jado contradicts the Lord Jesus and his apostles. Who should we imitate between Jado and the Lord Jesus and His disciples? The answer should be evident. We should follow Jesus and his disciples and not Jado's heretic beliefs!


5. Jado's internal contradiction

Finally, Jado shifts his argument by using the sayings in the last super by repeating Jesus words that the wine represent the blood that was poured for us. And Jado said that when it was being poured all sins (I think he meant all sins past, present and future) were being forgiven immediately. That is his understanding he repeats in different ways. It is clear he does not make a distinction between the provision of forgiveness by the shading of blood and the experience of forgiveness through the shading of the same blood. He thinks both are the same. That is his obvious mistake. 

Secondly, he falls in his own trap. If pouring the blood meant instant experience of forgiveness to all humanity, then why does he believe that unbelievers need to ask for forgiveness of their sin of unbelief? Were they not also forgiven when the blood was poured out for the ransom of many 2000 years ago? Of-course Jado cannot answer this. And more importantly if the blood provides instantly the forgiveness to all humanity sins immediately and not the provision of forgiveness to all, why would anyone go to hell according to his theology? 

He should be a Universalist and be against the book of Revelation of John that shows clearly that they are people lost in the lack of fire due to the judgement of their sins. He is simply inconsistent in his reasoning and wrong in his application of biblical truth. Last, why would Peter asked specifically to Simon to repent in order to receive forgiveness in Acts 8:22 if the blood had already cleansed him instantaneously from all his sins in Golgotha? Remember that Simon was not in the sin of unbelief, he was already believing in Jesus and was baptized by Philip the evangelist. So John 16 admonishing of the Holy Spirit convicting the world of sin doesn't apply to him. Simon's sin was about buying the gracious gift of the Spirit through laying of hands and not unbelief. Why? Jado can't possibly respond to this with coherence either.

Here again we see Jado's incapacity to hold to a coherent view on biblical doctrines or read the bible with consistency through its many applications! People who are regularly listening to him should be aware of this.