Extremism is never a good course to truth and light. I have seen extremism on the doctrine of Redemptive Grace acting to destroy souls at both ends of the spectrum.
While it is true that the works alone, checklist position is one of arrogance and to that extent Anti-Christ, the other extreme is in line with the false, vain and foolish doctrines, which destroy accountability and seek to remove the necessary concepts of growth and consequences, thus as a destructive doctrine of Satan, it is also decidedly Anti-Christ.
Redemptive Grace in Context
In my years in the Chaplaincy, I have discussed the issues and concepts of grace with minsters and pastors and congregants from many faith groups. There were some who were pure “Grace Alone” believers whose doctrine was that God had already pre-determined who should be saved and who would not, thus whatever choices a person made were irrelevant to their eternal end state. The chosen simply could never sin enough to be denied heaven, and the unchosen could never be good enough to merit heaven.
Thankfully most of my colleagues believed that for grace to become effective in the lives of others, they had to do at least something….like confess Christ, or at least read the special words of the salvation prayer, attended an alter call, raise their hands of confession of Christ, in a worship service, etc. In effect once that tiny act (or work) was accomplished then that choice determined the eternal end state, removing from the confessor any future accountability for anything they did after that choice and small act which “saved” them.
These common Protestant beliefs are merely variations of the “eat, drink and be merry” heresy that has existed since the dawn of time. They are in fact destructive to the concept of agency, and decidedly anti-growth. They are also unsupported by any contextual study of the scriptures, including the Pauline epistles.
For example, the oft quoted verses form Paul’s letters taken out of context and ignoring two main points. First, the focus of Paul’s letters was to put down the law centric, false doctrines being promulgated by the Judahizers within the Christian church. Second, taken as a whole, Paul’s letters actually refute the “grace alone” or “grace by confession” beliefs.
Paul’s letters were written to BELIEVERS…. they were sent to those who had already professed a faith in Christ. In other words, the target of his letters where those who had done an alter call, confessed Christ and were professing to be believers in Him. Yet to those who were then already saved by the grace, Paul still taught them that they must strive to obey the commandments, and that a failure to do so would keep these saved by grace believers in Christ from entering God’s kingdom. If being saved in the Christian sense, entails something other than being in God’s kingdom, then it is in fact meaningless.[i]
[i] See: Ephesian 5:1-5, Colossians 1:21-23, Philippians 3:18-19, Romans 8:13, among others.