The most destructive doctrine within Christianity is not “hell”. It is man’s belief in “free will”. This is the conclusion of Martin Zender’s enlightening book entitled The Really Bad Thing about Free Will.
In his book, Martin stresses that the doctrine of “Man has free will to choose Salvation” is a major part of the deception that Satan has duped religious-minded souls with. It even denies the foundation of the evangel (good news) that Christ died for our sins.
I will here-in quote from an online article of why Martin wrote the book:
Hi, everybody.
The most destructive doctrine in the world is that of human free will. You may be surprised to hear me say that. You may have assumed eternal torment to be the worst. What could be worse than believing that our “God of Love” is going to eternally torture millions of people for not loving Him back? I agree that eternal torment is the most hideous doctrine. But the doctrine of the free will of man is the most destructive, because it is this doctrine that denies the foundation of the gospel, which is: Jesus Christ died for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3). Without a realization of this foundation, there is no eonian salvation.
In 1 Timothy 4:1, the apostle Paul speaks of “doctrines of demons.” Demons are the relative origin of the doctrines of both eternal torment and free will. What is the purpose of these doctrines? Why would Satan bring them forth? There must be a motive, and there is: Satan wants to disqualify as many people as possible from living with Christ for the eons. He does not want human beings ruling and reigning over him. If he can get people to deny Christ’s death for sins, then he will have succeeded in this mission.
The doctrine of free will denies Christ’s death for sins. Think about it. The first step in so-called evangelism today is to convict people concerning sin. The doctrine of free will starts with the premise that your sins still stand against you. Your sins are still keeping God from you, and you from God. This is a direct denial of the work of Christ. In spite of what John 1:29 says, Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary (according to modern-day “evangelists” did not remove your sins. This is the essence of the free will teaching: Your sins still count against you. It’s the heart of the doctrine. This is why people are forced to make a free will decision to accept Christ. It is your free will decision, not the sacrifice of Christ, which finally removes sin and paves the way to God.
Millions of people believe this teaching. Therefore, millions of people deny Christ’s death for sin and are therefore disqualified from believing the gospel. Millions of people have been taught to trust in their faith, rather than in the faith of Christ. If self-belief is one’s foundation, then it is a good bet that self-belief will continue as one’s abiding doctrine. Therefore, because of false evangelists and their false gospel, people continue to trust in themselves instead of in Christ. Of course I realize that this self-trust is whitewashed. It is hidden behind the righteous phrase, “Jesus saves,” but this is only whitewash. Because with the free will doctrine, Jesus does not save. If He does save, then why must I go to an altar and “get saved?” And what is the difference between trusting in oneself and trusting in Buddha? Or in Mohammad? Or in a rock, for that matter?
The Christian religion, with human free will as its premier doctrine, is humanism dressed in righteous-looking garb. It is a form of devoutness that denies the saving power of God.
I do not believe, therefore, that the doctrine of eternal torment is the killing doctrine. Let me qualify that. I don’t think it’s killing in that it disqualifies people from eonian life. I believe that Satan developed the doctrine of eternal torment to force people into the killing doctrine: free will. Free will is the killing doctrine because it denies the foundation of the gospel: the death of Christ for sin.
Free will is such an unscriptural teaching (listen to it without whitewash: “salvation by self; salvation by human will power”) that no one would stand in this corner unless they were painted into it. And it is the doctrine of eternal torment that does just that. Who wants to make God responsible for sending men, women and children into unending torments? This nightmare must somehow be made the human’s fault. Enough scripture can be twisted to make human free will do this duty, and so the twisting begins and people rush to relieve God of responsibility for man’s fate. The irresponsibility of God. Yikes! There’s a doctrine for you.
The teaching of human free will is the knee-jerk reaction of normal people to the horror of unending hellfire.
The only thing that can explain Calvinists, then, is this: they are not normal people. In fact, Calvinists are freaks of nature. Calvinists believe in eternal torment, yet they are somehow scripturally astute enough to deny free will. Strange. It is strange finding people without qualm (at least publicly without qualm) about making God responsible for damning people. According to Calvinists, God brings billions of people into the world, only to predestine most of them to eternal torment. What a doctrine! Normal human beings shy away from believing something so bizarre. But Calvinists are not normal human beings. As I said, they are freaks of nature. Good for them, though, because it is better to be a freak of nature than to believe in salvation by self.
“The Really Bad Thing About Free Will” may be the book God uses to convict people for the first time of Christ’s sufficiency against sin. This is not just ornamental teaching, it is essential doctrine. It’s not icing on the cake—it is the cake. The information presented in this short, scriptural, entertaining book could be the difference—to someone you care about—between eonian life and eonian death.
I could not be more serious. Why do you think I’ve dedicated my life to this? Why else teach the true evangel? Why did Paul teach it? He was not just bringing saints to maturity, but introducing people who had never heard of the gospel, to the gospel. Why would he risk his life for that? Why bother, if everyone gets eonian life in spite of what they believe? Why? Because the apostle Paul realized the importance of sound teaching. Sound teaching, to Paul, was not an adjunct to faith, but a vital part of it. Faith, to Paul, was real. That is, it was based on real information, not some wispy, intangible nothing. And the apostle Paul, achiever that he was (through the strength of Christ and the grace of God), wished to save as many people as possible from the second death. He knew that everyone would live for eternity with God, but he wanted to bring as many as possible into eonian life.
Some would say, “Martin. Stop and listen to yourself. You’re doing the very thing you accuse Christian preachers of doing. You’re saying that people have to believe the right thing in order to be saved.” Not at all. I’m saying that those whom God has predestined beforehand for salvation will believe the right thing via the correct gospel presented by a God-inspired evangelist.
Others would say, “But, Martin. Saving people is God’s job. We thought you believed in the sovereignty of God. God has predestined whomever He has predestined, and we can’t change that.” I know that is true and I know we believe that way, but it is wrong for us to sit around and act like God has not given humans the privilege of announcing His message. This practice of sitting around is known as fatalism. I am not a fatalist, and neither was the apostle Paul. Paul knew that only God could save, but He also knew that God used humans to effect His will. God made it Paul’s business to save the people He predestined to save. Paul did not know ahead of time who God had predestined. (How nice that would have been.) This is why he broadcast his evangel everywhere. Paul? A fatalist? Never! This is why he wrote the following:
“For everyone, whoever should be invoking the name of the Lord, shall be saved. How, then should they be invoking One in Whom they do not believe? Yet how should they be believing One of Whom they do not hear? Yet how should they be hearing apart from one heralding? Yet how should they be heralding if ever they should not be commissioned. According as it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those bringing an evangel of good!”
–Romans 10:13-16
This book that I have written contains an evangel of good news. Whoever will read this book/ receive this message/ & share it with others, will have beautiful feet indeed.
I believe that this is the most important book I have written, to date. Give it to someone who is ensnared in the trap of the Adversary. It could very well be the difference, to that person, between eonian life and eonian death.
– Martin
Note by Editor— This book is both funny and very deeply moving all at the same time…moving us into an understanding of truth that has been kept hidden from most of us for so long.
You can purchase his book on Amazon here.