According to the ICC, to be a genuine Christian you must be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And being a true disciple means that you are willing to submit yourself to the radical standards required by Christ at your conversion. In the language of the ICC, this is known as being “soldout”.

For this reason, the International Christian Church movement is also sometimes known as the SoldOut Discipling Movement (or “SoldOut Movement”, for short).

To justify this belief, the Discipleship study in First Principles makes the following argument:

1. Jesus calls His own disciples to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18-20). Hence, it is Jesus’ desire for His followers to become “disciples”.
2. The term “disciple” occurs over 270 times throughout the New Testament, whereas “Christian” appear only 3 times.
3. Moreover, the term “Christian” was only coined 7 years after the church began, therefore it should NOT take precedence over the more precise term to describe Christ’s followers, namely “disciple”. Hence, to be a Christian, you need to be a disciple in order to be saved.
4. Since Jesus came to make disciples and commands baptism, only disciples that are baptised are saved.

When you keep reading through the study, the ICC argues that the bar for a disciple of Jesus is indeed set pretty high – based on Jesus’ own words! For instance:

• According to Luke 9:23-26, a disciple must deny themselves and pick up their cross daily. This means that they must not give into their mood swings, but actively deny themselves every single day in order to truly follow Jesus.
• According to Luke 14:25-33, the person who wants to follow Jesus is directed by Jesus himself to count the cost before following him as it sacrificially involves carrying their own cross and giving up everything for the sake of Christ.

Given that Jesus’ standards for His followers are so high, the ICC finds it intolerable for anyone who bear the name of “Christian” to fall short of what Christ has prescribed for His followers. This is also one of the reasons why the ICC do not consider mainstream churches as truly Christian because they all fail to teach the necessity of becoming a Christ disciple for one’s entering into Christianity.

So, is becoming “soldout for Jesus” really a pre-requisite for salvation?

I will now proceed to give a biblical response to the ICC’s “discipleship-salvation” doctrine as described above.

In its essence, the ICC’s radical discipleship doctrine is actually not that complicated: Jesus only saves people who are willing to give up their lives for him. And only these, after undergoing baptism, should rightly be called “disciples” and “Christians”.

A number of problems immediately come to mind. I can easily think of seven –

1. There is no OT precedence

If the God of the New Testament is indeed the same God as the Old, then why would He hold such vastly different requirements towards the people He wants to graciously save?

This might be a good question to ask our friends in the ICC because we clearly do not see this type of preconditional salvation in the pages of the OT.

In the OT, when the LORD saved Israel from the bondage of slavery in Egypt, He did not wait until Israel pledged radical allegiance, or promised to give up everything for the LORD before He rescued them. Instead, Israel was saved simply by listening and following carefully God’s instructions given to Moses.

In other words, it was their faith in the LORD that saved them.

Even after the Law of Moses was given to Israel under the Mosaic covenant, there is no law that required someone to swear a radical oath in order to be included in the faith community of Israel. In fact, the majority were born into the community and given circumcision (males only) long before they can even speak or make a pledge.

The closest thing to a radical pledge of dedication to God in the OT is probably the Nazarite vow (Numbers 6:1-21), but even that is optional.

2. It undermines the clear teachings on salvation in Paul’s writings

Following on from my previous point, the Apostle Paul helpfully gives us an insight into how individual people of the OT were actually saved.

In Romans 4:1-3, Paul makes a stunning observation about the righteousness of the OT forefather Abraham:

What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? ² If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. ³ What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Romans 4:1-3 (NIV)

According to Paul, at what point was Abraham considered “righteous” (therefore, saved) by God? It was at the moment when he simply believed God. Note, at this point, Abraham was not yet circumcised:

⁹ Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. ¹⁰ Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before!

Romans 4:9-10 (NIV)

In other words, Abraham was saved even before he had lifted a finger to do anything God commanded him, including circumcision.

Furthermore, contrary to the ICC’s teachings, the Apostle Paul says in Romans 4:20-25 that our Christian salvation is secured very much like how Abraham secured his – ie. by faith alone.

²⁰ Yet he [Abraham] did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. ²² This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” ²³ The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, ²⁴ but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵ He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Romans 4:20-25 (NIV)

The implications of Romans chapter 4 is enormous. Not only does it rule out the ICC’s “soldout” theology, it also undermines the belief that you need to be baptised to gain salvation, which I will write about in the future.

3. It undermines other teachings and stories found in the Gospels

If becoming a “radical disciple” is what saves you, then there would be very little hope for the sinners found in the Gospel stories. Yet, Jesus surprises us by forgiving the sins of such people who simply put their faith in Him.

The paralysed man who came down the roof is one example (Mark 2:1-12). The unbaptised thief on the cross is another example (Luke 23:42-43).

In Jesus’ parable about the two men praying in the temple (Luke 18:9-14), it was the sinful tax collector who humbly asked God for mercy who “went home justified before God” (v14), rather than the Pharisee whose life was filled with religious activities.

In addition, it is also worth noting the specific purpose behind the writing of John’s Gospel. John says it was “written that you [the reader] may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31 NIV)

Yet nowhere in John’s Gospel does it mention the need for radical discipleship in addition to believing in Jesus’ name in order to “have life”. But on the contrary:

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 (NIV)

4. It gives grounding for boasting about your salvation

If your eternal salvation is directly tied up with your willingness to be “soldout for Jesus”, it gives you ample reasons for boasting about it.

It wasn’t accidental that the Pharisee in the parable mentioned above boasted before the tax collector. If your performance is what determines your eternal destiny, then there is reason and grounding to claim that you’ve had a hand in your own salvation.

However, the Bible is clear that there is no room for boasting since we are saved by grace alone, by faith alone, and NOT by works.

⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)

Verse 8 give hints that even our faith itself is a gift of God, rather than something “from ourselves”, mustered up by our own strength and ability.

5. It ignores the problem of human total depravity

As argued in one of my previous articles, “Why the ICC’s view of sin is too weak“, the Bible shows us that our human wills have been corrupted by sin in such a way that it is actually impossible for us to want to be “soldout for Jesus” in the first place. We are spiritually dead by nature (Ephesians 2:1) and dead people cannot save themselves! In Christian Reformed theology, this view is commonly known as “Total Depravity” (or “Total Inability”).

That’s why the consistent teaching throughout the Bible is that God is (and has to be) the one who chooses individuals for salvation, not the other way around!

Check out these verses that speak of our natural inability to submit to God:

⁷ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 8:7-8 (NIV)

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.

John 6:44 (NIV)

Therefore, our natural fallen state is yet another reason to reject any submission-before-salvation theology.

6. Your certainty of salvation becomes bound to your own performance

If your salvation is dependent on your willingness to daily carry out the expectations of a disciple, then you will certainly have issues with your assurance of salvation in Jesus. You will constantly live in fear and work yourself to death in, say, meeting evangelism and contribution quotas, just so that you could live up to the name of being a “soldout disciple” of Jesus.

So I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody told me that the ICC is mostly comprised of people who are burnt out, depressed or have other types of mental health issues hidden under a veneer of extroverted cheerfulness. Sadly, I have indeed heard of actual stories about ICC and ICOC suicides.

How different this is to Jesus’ promise of a “light burden” for the Christian life:

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Matthew 11:28-29 (NIV)

How different this is to Jesus’ promise to set His disciples free:

³¹ To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:31-32 (NIV)

7. It makes it easier for leaders to misuse their power over you

Following on from the previous point, if your salvation is tied up with your performance, it can easily be abused by church leadership to feed into your fear by coercing you to doing things against your will – all in the name of helping you to deny yourself!

Take for example, one of (Boston ICC evangelist) Mike Patterson’s argument why the ICC leadership has the right to expect its members to meet the financial targets set by the church:

Let me paraphrase the above: If you feel compelled to give an amount that the church wants you to, you aren’t fully soldout to Christ yet, ie. your salvation status is under question.

Conclusion

As clearly demonstrated above, the ICC’s soldout theology is biblically problematic on many fronts. Not only does it fly in the face of Scripture, on a practical level it makes the Christian life more like slavery than freedom. Even worse, it can (and has!) also be used to justify the ICC’s high level control of individuals within the church.

In my next article, I will write about how to properly understand the discipleship teachings of Jesus found in places like Luke 9:23-26 and 14:25-33.

So stay tuned! 🙂 Thanks for reading this long post.