[P-Marlowe]

That said, I'd challenge any preacher to preach 15,000 sermons and not say something heterodox at any point in time. This doesn't make him some sort of heretic - it just means he screwed up on this one.

The analogy chosen by Smith was obviously a bad one. But the conclusions drawn from that analogy by the author are patently dishonest.

The fact is that if you come to Christ you are a winner. Do you deny that? You have been chosen by Christ. If you don't come to Christ, you are a loser. Do you deny that? That is the conclusion to be drawn.

[jude24]

The fact is that if you come to Christ you are a winner. Do you deny that? You have been chosen by Christ.

I absolutely deny that. I came to Christ a loser, and remain a loser. I am only a winner insofar as Christ, through his grace, made it possible for me to cooperate with his grace.

If you don't come to Christ, you are a loser. Do you deny that?

Those that reject Christ are no more "losers" than those who do. This is Pelagianism - not the phony Pelagian spectre that some paranoid Calvinists see lurking behind every Wesleyan, Pentacostal, or Catholic, but the real deal.