  Jesus exhorts His disciples to " remain in Him"  repeatedly in John 15.  He says that He is the true vine,  and that the Christian is to remain attached to Him and be fruitful. nbsp;
 This is taken to mean that we should stay connected to God,  through prayer and Bible study,  and this is where we draw the power to bear fruit in the world. nbsp;  Powerless Christians got that way by not spending time in prayer with God,  and trusting in themselves and their own power.
nbsp;  Preachers draw many applications from this interpretation,  and much of evangelical piety is built on it.  Those preachers then need to perform an amazing set of exegetical gymnastics to get around verse six.  & nbsp;
If anyone does not abide in Me,  he is thrown away as a branch and dries up;  and they gather them,  and cast them into the fire and they are burned" nbsp;  Continuing the argument from the first five verses,
 Jesus is saying that if we're not spending enough time praying and meditating,  we are in danger of going to hell.  This is a false gospel and heresy. nbsp;  So,  it is explained that being cut off and cast into the fire doesn't mean hell,
 it just means trials and tribulations for the sake of purification.  But we know that the Bible means one thing and one thing only when it talks about the danger of being taken away and thrown into the fire. nbsp;  We all know what& nbsp; happens when branches are thrown into fires.
nbsp;  Pruning and purification do take place,  but Jesus says they happen while attached to the vine.  The problem is the pietistic interpretation of verses 1- 5. nbsp;
 We are to remain in Jesus in the same way we got into Him in the first place-  by grace expressing itself through faith ( Gal 3: 1- 3,  Eph 2:
8) nbsp;  This means continuing to hold our confession,  continuing to meet with the saints in worship,  and& nbsp;
enduring persecution and suffering for the sake of the Gospel. nbsp;  Those who turn away from these things and deny their confession without repentance will & nbsp; be thrown into the fire of hell to be burned up. nbsp;
 Those who& nbsp; have been called out of the world into the& nbsp; Church and who remain in faith will& nbsp;
endure to the end and produce much fruit.  And as always,  it seems like a nit- picking until you consider the importance of these ideas and their consequences. nbsp;  Religion empowered by spiritual piousness does not just end with frustrated and doubting souls,
 but with monstrous sins of the flesh ( Gal 5: 16- 24) nbsp;  Ideas always have consequences.
nbsp;  And here's the test-  what sort of fruit has this mystical pietism produced in lives in the last 150 years it's been en vogue? nbsp;  What sort of fruit has it produced in the Church?
