In The Grace Awakening, his magnum opus, Dr. Charles R. (Chuck) Swindoll presents himself as fanning the flame of “the torch of freedom” as originally held by protestant Reformers like Martin Luther. In this he convinces his followers that by trusting him and his teaching in The Grace Awakening that they are in line with the historic Reformation teachings of grace and faith alone. Swindoll wrote:

Achievement must accompany sincere faith … We continue to hear that “different gospel” and it is a lie. It is heresy. It is antithetical to the true message that lit the spark to the Reformation: Sola Fide – faith alone (The Grace Awakening, p.86).

When the sixteenth-century European Reformers brandished the torch of freedom and stood against the religious legalists of their era, grace was the battle cry…a walk of faith without fear of eternal damnation (The Grace Awakening, p. xiv).

Dr. Swindoll is right, the “spark that lit the reformation,” was Sola Fide or faith alone. The Reformers, however, did not explain their terms as does Dr. Swindoll. You see, his understanding of grace insists, that “regardless of how you choose to live, you can’t live so bad that God says to you, ‘you’re no longer mine’” (Shedding Light On Our Dark Side, tape sld 1A). Swindoll’s preconception regarding the ultimate salvation of even the most profligate obligates him to eliminate the Reformation (and biblical) marriage of works to genuine faith.

Chuck Swindoll aligns himself with the Reformers and leaves the naive reader with the false notion that his views on grace and faith are the identical to those of the Reformers. Contrary to Swindoll, however, Luther insisted that works or “human achievement,” as Swindoll says, go arm in arm with authentic, saving faith. On saving faith Luther said:

“Faith must of course be sincere. It must be a faith that performs good works through love. If faith lacks love it is not true faith. Thus the Apostle bars the way of hypocrites to the kingdom of Christ on all sides…Idle faith is not justifying faith. In this terse manner Paul presents the whole life of a Christian. Inwardly it consists in faith towards God, outwardly in love towards our fellow-men” (Luther, Commentary On Galatians).

In his bookFaith Alone Dr. R.C. Sproul wrote: “The Reformers saw saving faith as necessarily, inevitably, and immediately yielding the fruit of works. Martin Luther insisted that the faith that justifies is a fides viva, a vital and living faith that yields the fruit of works.” In opposition to this Dr. Swindoll insists it is heresy and a different gospel to believe that works must accompany saving faith. And this he does as if he were representing the Reformation!

Plainly, Chuck Swindoll leads the uninformed reader to believe that The Grace Awakening is a book recovering the lost truths of the Reformation from the insidious hands of contemporary legalists who have perverted them. In truth, however, Luther himself tenaciously fought against the understanding of grace and faith presented in Swindoll’s book.

Like those who reinvent history to suit their own ends, Dr. Charles R. (Chuck) Swindoll has rewritten Reformation history. Does Swindoll insist that “the faith that justifies is a vital and living faith that yields the fruit of works” as did Luther? Does Swindoll insist that “whoever doesn’t do good works is without faith,” as did the Reformers? No he does not, rather, Chuck Swindoll teaches the opposite, namely, that there is no external proof of salvation or spirituality and that it is heresy to maintain that works must accompany faith. And this he does under the banner of restoring Reformation doctrine! Is this not dishonest? How is this anything other than historical revisionism?