Dec 2021 - This was a letter I wrote to the folks at my church when I resigned my membership in 2005. I really don't like the way I departed this congregation now. I said way too much in this letter. Basically they weren't preaching Christ to my satisfaction. All those other details listed in the letter below would have been covered had Christ been preached! And I should have left it at that, but I was still yet very young in my faith.      

    Hello,      

    As you may have noticed, Angie and I have not been regularly visiting Grace Baptist Chapel for a while now and I wanted to let you know that we do not have plans to visit again. I (including Angie) have serious disagreements with the doctrinal position of your church. Listed below are the teachings of GBC that I believe do serious damage to the Gospel message.      

1. It has been taught that God loves all men – even ones that He sends to hell.   
   
   This teaching profanes God's love for His elect and His hatred for those ordained to damnation (Jude 1:4). It is not taught in Scripture! Common grace is frequently taught. I don't deny that God provides for all men, but if rain and sunshine are measurements of God's love (as is taught at GBC), I'd have to conclude that the people with the most rain and sunshine are the most loved by God. 
   
   Psalms 92:5-7 O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep. {6} A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this. {7} When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:      
   
   God does not love all men. There are billions of men that God just wants to destroy forever, and He does. He causes men to prosper for the purpose of resurrecting them to everlasting shame and contempt. 
   
   Joshua 11:20 For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses.
   
   God actively hardened the hearts of the Gentiles. Why? It's not because the Gentiles were any more wicked than the Jews! It was so that God would keep His covenant with Israel. God had no desire whatsoever to give these gentiles any favor and He wanted to destroy them forever – so He hardened them.
    
2. It has been taught that God didn't elect people to eternal damnation. 
   
   Romans 9:22-23 What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering thevessels of wrath fitted to destruction: {23} And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, 
   
   Jude 1:4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
   
   These passages clearly teach that men are ordained to condemnation. God planned and decreed that certain men would be damned for eternity.
    
3. It has been taught that God desires the salvation of all men and even weeps for those who are not and will not be saved.
   
   Proverbs 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.      
   
   God is not crying "divine tears of frustration" over those that He sends to hell. He doesn't desire the salvation of all men, because if He did, all men would be saved! And we know that's not true. This teaching is purely Arminian, and attempts to make my Sovereign God an impotent deity unable to accomplish his heart's desire.
    
4. It has been taught that all men have a duty or a responsibility to be saved.
   
   God, not man, is responsible for the salvation of His people –and indeed He accomplished it (John 19:28) when Jesus came into this world (Mat 1:21) and went to the cross and declared it to be finished. Men are not obligated to experience salvation – this is a gift of God – a work of SUPREME and SOVEREIGN Grace.
    
5. It has been taught that God has two different wills – one that wants and desires some things that His "other will" has decreed not to happen.      
   
   In other words, some things in this world happen against His desire.  If that sounds confusing to you, it's because it is! My God always gets whatever His heart desires or "wants". His will of purpose is His will of pleasure and desire! Things are the way they are in this world because God decreed and wanted it to be so. He decreed that Adam and his posterity would fall into sin so that Christ would be glorified in His great work of salvation. To suggest that evil and sin are not a part of God's glorious plan because He didn't "want it" is very wrong. Did God want sin and evil to enter into this world? If not, then I have no security that it won't happen in heaven "against His will" either! God told Pharoah to "Let my people go." 
   
   Exodus 4:21-23 And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go. {22} And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: {23} And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.
   
   God caused Pharoah to sin. But does this make him the "author of sin?" (BTW, the phrase "author of sin" is not biblical terminology). Or in other words, does this make God evil? NO! God is not bound by any law, He can do whatever it is He wants! What law is God bound to that could make Him a sinner? For example, if God were to "steal" who would He steal from since He owns all things? What wrong *could* He possibly do? I haven't the foggiest idea.
   
   Psalms 115:3 But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
   
   Psalms 135:6 Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.
   
   Daniel 4:35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?      
   
   How many professing Christians are asking, "What doest thou?" Men are screaming "Thou wouldst not do it! That would make Him Author of Sin!!!"
   
   The God of the Bible is ABSOLUTELY Sovereign, and everything that occurs in this world is because it is his pleasure. 
   
   Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
   
   Isaiah 46:9-11 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, {10} Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure : {11} Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.
   
   Proverbs 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
   
   Isaiah 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil : I the LORD do all these things.
   
   Lamentations 3:37-38 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? {38} Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?
   
   Job 2:10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
   
   Ultimately, God's pleasure is found in Christ. God was pleased in putting His beloved Son to death.
   
   Isa 53:10, (KJV), Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him ; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
   
   Why did Christ die? Was it because the Roman soldiers nailed him to the cross? Was it because the Jewish people rejected him? Was it because of Pilate's judgment? Was it because of our sins? Of course all of these are true – but they are secondary causes. The primary reason is it pleased the Lord. Why does anything happen? Because it pleases the Lord and He is glorified in all things. If you cannot answer accordingly, then I pray, Lord willing, that this would be revealed to you.

    In conclusion…

    I thank each and every one of you for your generosity and companionship while we were with you at GBC. I don't think there are nicer people in the entire Saint Louis area than you guys. But nice doesn't cut it entirely with me. Based on the teachings at GBC, I would have to conclude at best that God is confused. If Angie and I are going to fellowship at GBC, then these teachings must be corporately rejected and the message of Free and Pristine Grace must be magnified.

    Sincere Regards,
   Brandan and Angela Kraft