Radical Truth #2: Jesus Commands That We Give Our Excess Away to the Truly Needy

As I indicated in the first "Radical Truth " blog, there are two commands by Jesus that form this radical doctrine, and I’ve only covered one--Matthew 6:19-21:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven….

The other command is in Luke 12:33. In the NIV it is very plain:

Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.

These verses are paired in giving us God's will regarding money and assets: note the "thief" and “moth” illustration in both. So here is our combined doctrine: In Matthew 6, we were told not to accumulate wealth assets. Now, if we have been accumulating assets, the Luke verse tells us to what to do with them; we are to sell them—and give the money to the poor. This doctrine will radically change how you handle your finances—if you’re interested in obeying every command of Jesus, and really WANT to have treasure in heaven.

But when I mention this doctrine to church folks, they get quiet and mildly uncomfortable, evidently not excited about building treasure in heaven. Overall, based on dollars given, versus income, it seems the plain fact about America is this: There are a lot of middle class people who call themselves Christian who really don’t care about giving serious money to the poor. (They may be thinking domestic poor, but I’m referring to the worldwide poor, those who die tragically early, without clean water or enough to eat, or in refugee camps, or suffering from easily preventable disease). Most peoples' giving will go to their church, so lots of it gets spent boosting the church facility and the programs and salaries. But little tithing goes for the worldwide poor, per se.

Does the images of starving folk bother church people?  Does anybody in a Christian group say, “The Holy Spirit is definitely beating me up about something in my daily prayers—how many of these poor people worldwide dying every day from malnutrition or sickness could have been, or could be, my brothers or sisters? It just blows my mind that I could actually save their lives but I’m wasting my money on the unnecessaries instead. Let’s get together and discuss fasting on occasion and living frugally and pool the savings and give it to them. We could save lives!” Music to our Lord’s ears! But rare.  Very rare.

American “Christians,” wake up! Consider again Luke 12:16-21, covered in Part 1 of this study, about what happens to a man whose sin was "he lays up treasure for himself:"

“The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. 17 And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 18 So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ 21 “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

Are we that rich fool? Could God be angry at us--maybe even eternally angry--because we waste money?  We consume it, we stock it up, and are not thinking much about helping the poor. Read Luke 16:19-25:

“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. 20 But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, 21 desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell[a] from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.

The rich man is in hades, flames and excruciating pain and all, and don’t you think Jesus wants to tell us what one of his major sins was that got him there? Of course Jesus wants us to know! Are you going to say, “Well, we don’t know--because Jesus doesn’t say." On such an important issue, paradise vs hades, is God going to be silent? That doesn't make sense. No, the ONLY conclusion is, the rich man is in hades because he had no compassion for the suffering poor man, the only other person in the story. The problem is, he knew the man was there, “at his gate.” But he walked right by him whenever he left home, and whenever he returned. But he didn’t help him. Well, are we churchgoers in America a step above this today? Maybe you’ll say, “None of these poor folks are at my door.” But they’re on your TV, they’re on the internet; you may even get calls from charities on the phone or in your mail. That means they are your "gate." Do you walk by too?  Will you end up, surprised as this man was, at the same horrible final destination?

Jesus makes another related radical statement in Matthew 19:23:

Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

He even stresses the point by saying it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. The disciples were shocked at hearing that; they assumed (as we tend to do) that getting wealth is proof that God loves you. Jesus says completely the opposite. Jesus is really saying wealth will almost certainly distract you, obsess you, wrap your time up in material possessions, and tear you away from God so much that it's more likely you won’t make it to heaven. Think about that. That really makes gathering riches like gathering venomous snakes; here you are, making wealth as a precious goal, when in fact it will hurt you. (I’m not saying a high income is a curse. I’m saying plowing it into personal expenditures and excessive savings is a curse). Would you work hard and grasp something if you knew it would almost wipe out your chance at heaven? You’d think, “Nooo way.” But we do that very thing when we desire wealth. Now of course you might say, throughout this paper, “No problem; I’m not rich, in fact I have credit card debt, so I don't have a problem with this verse.” Well, in the Big Picture, almost all Americans are rich. We are the richest society, by far, in all of world history—in fact, our poorest 5% are richer than India’s richest 5% even now, to just give one perspective. So, you who are reading this—even if you’re middle class, even just below middle class, in America—you’re rich by world and historic standards. If you have credit card debt, it simply means you not only spent what God has lavishly given you, but you overspent and have not saved for short term emergencies. (There is no problem with saving a reasonable amount for short term emergencies).  The big problem with our relative wealth is, we tend to be sinfully callous about the horrible lives that many people live.

Many Christians who don't give rationalize by saying those people got there because they're lazy, or they haven't got proper goals for their lives. But how far do you want to take that argument?  Will you let them suffer malnutrition because we think they'll just waste it?  Really?  If you're rationalizing that their corrupt governments will prevent gifts of food from going to the poor people, so "I won't give," that's mostly a lie:  It's a proven fact that  most governments will allow safe transport of gifts to the proper destination--unless they are coldly practicing genocide (which doesn't happen often).  It may have been a bad farm year, it may be that government's ideas about how to run the economy were wrong, it may be that water is compromised for some reason. But should we let the people suffer from someone else's incompetency?  Maybe you decide not to give to a Communist country or a Muslim country thinking that's patriotic to the U.S.  These are enemies; letting them die, that'll teach them a lesson!  That sounds like revenge.  But which does Jesus require--revenge, or love?  Let's not cop out, or rationalize our way out of this sacrifice for the Lord.  That's what He did; He gave to the people who were disabled, people who had no hope, the low end of the income scale--since nobody else cared.

But when you don't give from your excesses,  you are deceived into thinking a deadly thought--that you’re already fine with God, and you rationalize that more giving won't get you any more 'good with God.'  But in reality you’ve drifted away from His commandment.   You become complacent, you drift away from needing God.  You could get to a dangerous place--no longer a branch feeding off the Vine (per John 15). And what happens to non-abiding branches? What happens to lukewarm people? They go to the fire or are vomited out of the body. Remember, Jesus said in Matthew 7:14:

“...narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” 

When you really meditate on these verses, how the few get to heaven, and how it's even harder for the rich to get to heaven, you get the radical idea that the odds are stacked against Americans going to heaven. Our relative wealth falls under the severe warning of Matthew 19:23 above.   So if few people make it to heaven, even fewer rich people make it, could a large number of us be self-deceived into thinking we’re going to heaven when we aren’t? Consider His warning in Matthew 7:21-23:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

And what is "the will of My Father?"  Love, mercy, justice, and--When you consider America--giving. The truly worldwide poor are your sisters, your brothers! They need it more than you do!

It takes a lot of faith to give away excess income, and also to liquidate excess assets and give away that money too.  But that's what He wants.  May God help us to do His will

Let Us Give Thanks

In 1863, President Lincoln set Thanksgiving as an Official Day for the Nation.  This speech was written by Secretary of State William Seward:

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity… no human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

But he wasn’t the first president to call for a day of thanksgiving to God. Here is George Washington’s speech in 1789:

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanks-giving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness." Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness…for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us. And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions…to render our national government a blessing to all the People, by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Of course, there are many great verses thanking God in His Word. Here are a few:

• Psalm 95:2-3
Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.

1 Corinthians 1:4-5
I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way--in all your speaking and in all your knowledge--
• Ephesians 1:15-16
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
• 1 Timothy 4:4-5
For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
• 1 Chronicles 16:34
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
• Psalm 7:17
I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.
• Psalm 28:7
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.
• Psalm 100:4
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
• Isaiah 12:4
In that day you will say: "Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted.
• Jeremiah 33:11
the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD, saying, "Give thanks to the LORD Almighty, for the LORD is good; his love endures forever." For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before,' says the LORD.
• Colossians 3:17
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
• 1 Thessalonians 5:18
give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

A Radical Truth: Jesus Taught That We Are Not to Accumulate Wealth (Part 1)

Jesus taught us a strange and radical doctrine: that we are not to accumulate wealth. He made two commands that together form this doctrine. The doctrine is further supported in Acts and in the Pauline epistles. The first command I will cover here in Part I. It is found in Matthew 6:19-20:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Since the Greek for “treasures” means “concentration of wealth,” Jesus is clearly commanding us not to accumulate wealth assets on earth. This command is radical—and seldom preached. Dr. William MacDonald, late president of Emmaus Bible College, author of 84 published books, had this to say in his Believers Bible Commentary about these two verses:

“…contains some of the most revolutionary teachings of our Lord—and some of the most neglected. In verses 19-21 Jesus contravenes all human advice to provide for a financially secure future … This teaching forces us to decide whether Jesus meant what He said. If He did, then we face the question, “What are we going to do with our earthly treasures?” If He didn‘t (mean what He said), then we face the question, “What are we going to do with our Bible?””

Most Christians don’t even think about the real meaning of the Matthew verses; they are either reading their Bibles without asking the Holy Spirit for interpretation; or their pastors, when covering this Scripture, have distorted the teaching to make it more palatable--such as emphasizing our “attitude” about our possessions. The pastor simply only cares that we don't get obsessed with accumulating more wealth, or obsessed with protecting what we have. So they often tell us that our sin here is to “treasure in our heart” our possessions. Unfortunately, that severely changes the verse, detracting from its clear meaning of not accumulating assets; they "define" it to “not coveting,” a much more vague concept--and one easily dismissible by many nominal Christians--so, people conclude, "I'm not sinning if I'm not coveting."  Thus, they say we can forget the radical demand of the verse.  We get into a complacent mood (which we usually are). But the verse should be taken literally; it is simply a command not to lay up, or “store.” To preach that we need to look first at our heart to determine whether our possessions are our “treasure” is the exact opposite of what the verse says: as Jesus says in verse 21: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Jesus knows (better than we do) that if our treasures are on earth, then the heart’s desire focuses on protecting it, and is avaricious as well.

For further proof, let’s go to Luke 12:16-20. Here is a man who simply wants to be a saver, an investor, then retire—normal godly traits, we assume. If we didn’t read verse 20 and following, we would assert that he is a model of wise behavior:

"The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' 18"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." ' 20"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

This man DIES, and we can read clearly the reason--he accumulates. Jesus' judgment is contained in v.20: "Who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" No other motivation is given for God's reaction. People assume he's complacent; well, in American middle class, who isn't?  Maybe some people assume his sin was to eat, drink, and be merry.  Not so stated.  He has prepared for himself  this wealth.  Hmmm. God evidently does not see the virtue of “saving” as we see it (not a surprise, actually; see Isaiah 55:8). What was the sin of the rich man, that he was called a “fool?” Was it that he forgot to ask God’s advice on what to do with his riches? Was it his intent on laziness? His pride? Well, Jesus answers that question in the next verse. Did Jesus say, “So is he who forgets to seek counsel from God?” Or, “ so is he who is proud?” No; Jesus says in verse 21:

 “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

This is so clear as to be unassailable.  Yet preachers everywhere twist the clear meaning into something smoother, more palatable--less radical. Let me emphasize this: His sin that made him a fool and paid with his life--was laying up treasure, accumulating wealth assets for himself and family--the same sin as quoted in Matthew 6 above. The verses point out a radical and  definite command from Jesus to us.  Will we obey that command, on faith?  Meditate on what you're reading here. Let’s call this concept Jesus’ command to Non-Accumulate. Yes, this is a financial life-changing doctrine. I suspect that pastors generally don’t believe that non-accumulation is a genuine command. They say, “Jesus cannot be teaching us to be so imprudent. What if I lose my job? If I haven’t saved some wealth, what could happen to me and my family? They say, Jesus must be using allegory here; or, He doesn’t mean this for everyone at all times. So, since it is not a real command, I can ignore it.” Well, there are two answers to this train of thought. The first answer is: If it’s a command, it’s a command to obey, no questions asked. Our job is to obey it, not explain it away because it might leave us feeling insecure. Let's not forget--God loves us.  And He knows--and can manipulate--the future better than us. We can’t always know why. We should have faith in a loving God as His children that He will sort out the repercussions of not saving to our best spiritual interest. The second answer is: Where is your faith in God’s power? Jesus knows our concern here and answers it only a few verses later—in Matthew 6:26 and 31-32:

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?…So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

In other words, trust in God, not in yourself (your savings). Look, we all need to see God at work more, to know that He is real. What better way to experience this than seeing God rescue us, as when we obey His command, and we get into a financial tough spot? If He doesn’t rescue in a tight spot, maybe He is telling us: Hey, how did you get in that spot?  If we got there by overspending,  maybe we need to get less worldly in the use of our money and time. A second possibility may be that He wants to teach us not to buy an item yet—that would teach us patience, or maybe we would use such item to indulge in some sin, or idolize it, pulling us farther away from Him. In any of these, we get away from getting closer to Him and His will if we just reduce some savings to pay for the item.  We should leave ourselves open to God speaking to us—which He can only do if we don’t just fall back on our savings or credit card, our own security, for rescue. Families with kids living with them should get their children involved too. First, you teach them giving--'til it hurts,' as they say. Then, say you're in a tight financial spot.  Lost your job, say (hopefully through no fault of your own).  If you and your kids actually plead with God and then see God rescuing you, or if your family sacrifices enough to do away with worldly desires and spend less and do a new budget, you—and the kids—are more likely, to see God's love for you in raining blessings and rescue down.  From that personal touch from Him, you can, as a family, grow to being “sold out” for the Lord. Isn’t that where you want your family to be? What would really sell the kids—and do good for humanity—would be to use your extra cash to give to the needy (to be discussed in second blog) rather than add to savings. By even giving away your savings or extra cash above necessities, you test Him (Malachi 3:10). He will be happy to show that He is your security, not your reserve savings. We need to make sure that we are not insecure in Him. According to Psalm 37:25, you are not vulnerable to poverty if you are in the center of God’s will. You can’t be in that wonderful place by trusting in yourself rather than God.

Letter to Our Government on Marriage

I have read a most powerful letter from a church to our top politicians. Here it is below, slightly adapted.

From OUR STATEMENT ON MARRIAGE, Oceanside United Reformed Church, Carlsbad, CA
To the Government of the USA
August 4, 2015

The church, as the primary manifestation of the kingdom of God, is the place from which Almighty God speaks to not only his peculiar people, but to all peoples everywhere—including civil governments. It is not the calling of the institutional church to legislate as civil representatives, interpret legislation as civil judges, or apply legislation as civil executives. That’s your job. But it is our calling to be the prophetic voice of God in the world, following the examples of prophets and apostles of old.[3] We are “the pillar and foundation of the truth”[4] concerning God and his relationship to the world.

In response to the Supreme Court of the United States’ 5–4 decision to declare same-sex “marriage” as a right in all fifty states (Obergefell v. Hodges, 2015), the leadership of the Oceanside United Reformed Church is compelled to speak the truth of the Word of God in love.

A Plea
We call upon you, leaders of our government to repent of approving same-sex “marriage” and do all in your power to repeal it.
We appeal to you to take up the Word of God, which describes your duties and responsibilities. We have a deep honor for your persons and positions of office.[6] Into such high offices God himself has instituted you over this nation as his servants for good and as punishers of wrongdoers.[7] Because your task is so weighty, God commands us to offer for you constant “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings.”[8] Our prayers for you are in the same vein as Tertullian (155–240) once wrote of Christian prayer for the Roman Emperor, whom persecuted Christians:

Looking up to Him, we Christians—with hands extended, because they are harmless, with head bare because we are not ashamed, without a prayer leader because we pray from the heart—constantly beseech Him on behalf of all emperors. We ask for them long life, undisturbed power, security at home, brave armies, a faithful Senate, an upright people, a peaceful world, and everything for which a man or Caesar prays.[9]

We pray the words of Jesus for you: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”[10] And our prayer for our entire nation is Jesus’ as well, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”[11]

What God Commands

Why are we calling on you to repent and to repeal same-sex “marriage?” The Lord Jesus Christ teaches us in his Word “from the beginning” of creation God is the author of marriage, having created humanity and having “made them male and female.”[12] Our Lord affirms, therefore, that from beginning to end, the Bible has a clear and consistent teaching about marriage: marriage is a faithful lifelong union of one man and one woman.

We read in the beginning: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”[13] Having created the human race as male and female, God commanded this male and this female to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”[14] Because it was “not good that the man should be alone,” God said, “I will make him a helper fit for him.”[15] And in giving this one woman to this one man, he brought them together into a faithful and lifelong union: “a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”[16]

Jesus re-affirmed this creational structure of marriage, saying, “‘from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”[17]

Paul also spoke of such marriage between man and woman, husband and wife, appealing to the original creation as well as saying it was significant of Jesus Christ’s relationship to his people: “Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”[18]

The Holy Scriptures nowhere recognize with Divine approval any other form of marriage other than that between one man and one woman. In fact, Jesus not only re-affirms the Old Testament’s teaching on marriage but also its teaching on sexual immorality, including homosexuality. In his own words,

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.[19]

Homosexual activity, like all sexual immorality, is a violation of the moral will of God.[20] Even more, though, homosexuality is an overturning of God’s created order by humans who have rejected God and put themselves in his place. Therefore it is a sign of God’s wrath being poured out upon a society:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.[21]

Therefore we plead with you to take heed, to acknowledge Obergefell v. Hodges as grievous sin, and to do everything in your power to repeal it. Because marriage is an institution of God and because you are God’s servants over our nation, you have an interest in marriage and a delegated authority from God to protect its sanctity.

What God Promises
But God not only thunders his Law to us all in his Word, he also sweetly whispers the Gospel or good news of Jesus Christ to us sinners. Homosexuality is not only a sin that must be repented of, but like all sin, one from which, by God’s grace, sinners can be rescued.[22]

As Romans 1 above makes clear, homosexuality is merely the symptom of a much larger problem: our sins have separated us from our Creator.[23] In particular, our sin is idolatry, which is “worship[ing] and serv[ing] the creature rather than the Creator.”[24] And what creature-idol do we as Americans worship? Self. In our self-worship we are lost and in desperate need of Jesus Christ.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is a God

“merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty [i.e., unrepentant], visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”[25]

This “God so loved the world” of sinners, which you and we are, “that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”[26]

Therefore it does matter who you are, God invites all to hear his Word, to repent of sin, to be forgiven, and to live alongside other sinners saved by grace who are being transformed more and more to be like Jesus Christ. God “is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance;” God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”[27] This is the greatest act of love we can show you and our fellow human beings: proclaiming that Jesus saves sinners. We say this as fellow-sinners, who like the “Prodigal Son,” were once “dead,” but are now “alive;” who once were “lost,” but have been “found.”[28] We say as those who have found freedom from the sin of self and true and lasting freedom in the gospel of Jesus Christ, whose service is perfect freedom.

A Protest
We also respectfully write in protest. The Oceanside United Reformed Church, in common with the United Reformed Churches in North America, as well as Christian churches in all times and in all places, affirms that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God to humanity. They contain all things necessary for the salvation of sinners; they are our final authority and unchangeable standard for Christian doctrine and living. Concerning marriage, they unambiguously proclaim that marriage is a faithful lifelong union of one man and one woman.

Therefore, we deny and protest that human beings, whether individuals, entire populations, or civil magistrates, have the ability or the authorization to re-define marriage in any way at odds with the revealed will of God. Marriage is pre-political. Marriage is not a social construct. Marriage is a creation ordinance—it is a part of the fabric of the world God has made. Regardless of new social and political sensibilities, there is simply no such thing as same-sex “marriage.” To say so is hubris—an arrogance that considers oneself wiser than God in reinventing an institution the one true God created and revealed to humanity and arrogance toward all of previous human history. No matter how much authority you may have, you do not have the right to declare an ordinance of God. As Christians we abhor the casual disregard for the revealed will of the Creator of all things whom gave marriage between one man and one woman. Our highest Court may have had its say for now, but there is a still higher court and a greater Judge before whom we all must stand one day. And in that court the Judge and his Law does not rely on any ideological fads or emerging cultural consensus for its legitimacy.

Therefore, when any government of any nation, including the one we love, oversteps its rightful authority, “we must obey God rather than men.”[29] We have counted the cost of following Jesus Christ. Those who have lobbied for this day to come have largely won the national debate by successfully equating in the public mind opposition to same sex-marriage with the terrible poison of racism, so that to stand for God’s truth is to be labeled a “bigot” and “extremist.” We know that we may be accused of “hate speech.” We do not hate anyone. Our Lord commands “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Like our Lord, who “suffered outside the gate,” we are willing to “go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured” because of our commitment to his truth.[30] We will say in the spirit of Polycarp (80–155) who under threat of burning at the stake said, “You threaten me with fire which burns for an hour, and after a little is extinguished, but are ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly.”[31] Amen.


I recommend sending such a letter, modified by sender, to your representative or to those in power in Congress. But you may dismiss me as naïve, and the letter as a waste of time. To warn the unsaved like this may only have the result of putting you on their extremist list, you may say. But I am reminded of the words of Ezekiel 33:2-6, 11 below. The church is the watchman in today’s secular world. Our job is to warn. If they ignore us, they’re judged in their sin. If they repent, praise the Lord. If we do not warn, when they die in this sin, a punishment is also on us for not warning them. Let us avoid such lack of testimony. If we’re on their Bad Boy list, so what? All Christians will be on it eventually. The distinction is being for the Lord early in the game, not late. I like to show up early.

2 “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: ‘When I (the Lord) bring the sword upon a land… 3 when he (the watchman) sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’
11 Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’

Notes to the above letter you should include:
[3] E.g., 2 Samuel 12; Isa. 13–27; Mark 6; Acts 4–7
[4] 1 Timothy 3:15
[6] Exodus 20:12
[7] Romans 13:1–4
[8] 1 Timothy 2:1
[9] Apology, ch. 30
[10] Luke 23:34
[11] Matthew 6:10
[12] Matthew 19:4–7
[13] Genesis 1:27
[14] Genesis 1:28
[15] Genesis 2:18
[16] Genesis 2:24
[17] Mark 10:6–9
[18] Ephesians 5:24–25
[19] Matt. 5:17–19
[20] Genesis 19; Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:26–32; 1 Corinthians 6:9–10; 1 Timothy 1:10
[21] Romans 1:18–32
[22] 1 Corinthians 6:9–10
[23] Isaiah 59:2
[24] Romans 1:25
[25] Exodus 34:6–7
[26] John 3:16
[27] 2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:4
[28] Luke 15:32
[29] Acts 5:29
[30] Hebrews 13:12–13

Acknowledgements: Daniel Hyde, pastor and theologian
Todd Friel, Evangelist and journalist

Flaws in the "Once Saved, Always Saved" Argument (part 3 of 3)

This is our wrap-up on this flawed doctrine that has pervaded the world. We’ll continue trying to take apart “once saved always saved” (or OSAS) proof texts. The first 14 flaws are in my first two parts.  Please continue to read and pray.

15. Romans 4:6-8: just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered; 8 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.”

OSAS adherents maintain that the non-imputation (or non-charging) of sin is automatic and continuous, so we don’t have to worry about sins any more. Yes, God imputes righteousness at initial salvation apart from works, but we must persist in godliness.  To prove that, we turn once again to Paul, who only two chapters later, spends a lot of time debunking the OSAS perversion. In Romans 6:6-13, he insists that the purpose of salvation is that “the body of sin might be done away with.” He asserts that we have “been freed from sin.” And that doesn’t mean freed from hell, it means freed from the proactivity of sin. Through the Spirit that He gives you, if you listen to Him, you can “present yourselves to God…and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” and not to “present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin.” Avoiding sin is one of the essences of worship! We should be continually presenting ourselves to God for holiness, and that job is on us. And, unlike what OSAS espouses, God’s purpose was to free us from sinning, not giving us a tool for not worrying about our sin.

16. Romans 8:35, 38-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

OSAS adherents say nothing can separate us from the love of God, so His love is unconditional. Well, these are great verses, that nothing outside of us can keep us from God. But the verses say nothing about how WE can forcibly remove ourselves from God. Also, I didn’t notice “persistence in sinning” on the list that can’t separate us. Read Isaiah 59:2:

But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.

Will sins eternally separate us from God? Yes. In fact, Scripture has several lists of certain sins that are hell-bound, if we don’t repent. Revelation 21:8, for instance:

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

The issue we’re discussing is whether being born again once means we can forget about sin re-separating us from God. Their “proof” text above does not prove one way or another, since it fails to mention our giving way to sin, which CAN separate us from God. So it isn’t a proof text for that doctrine.

17. Colossians 1:21-22 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight…

OSAS adherents report that God is doing all the reconciling through Jesus to present us holy, blameless, and above reproach. Well, they forget the next verse completing the thought, verse 23:

…IF indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard.

There’s that important “if” that says we must continue in the faith, not allowing ourselves to be moved away from the hope of the gospel. This can be connected to another verse that should be considered to get the context, II Peter 3:14:

Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.

Certainly if no effort is required on our part to be without spot and blameless, as OSASers claim earlier, why are we urged to “be diligent” to become without spot and blameless? It just seems that over and over, Jesus has done His part to give it, and we are to do our part to keep it. Consider Luke 13:24:

Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

The Greek word for “strive,” agonizomai, is the word from which we get “agonize.” Have you agonized to maintain your faith and behavior, to keep it pure? Now compare that to Matthew 7:14:

Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

OSAS is so easy a method for salvation, many will think they "find" heaven.  But the fact is, as Jesus asserts, FEW will find heaven. Now let’s conclude this item with one more verse : Colossians 1:24—which is even more controversial:

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church

Now let me say, first, that this is not saying that Jesus’ sufferings lacked in providing us atonement to His Father for our past sins. But a little study on the Greek for “fill up” (antanapleroo) was interesting. The word suggests doing what we need to do “in our turn,” or doing it “corresponding to” another. Face it, to many unbelievers, we are Jesus to them—and our actions hopefully give such testimony. Many will hate that, so we may be persecuted. How we handle persecution is a testimony too. Doing our part of sacrifice is necessary to “fill” the Gospel to them, since many of them do not read or hear His Word. So this is not about atoning for sin. Here’s the meaning: Jesus was afflicted by His enemies. Now we, His body, will do our part in correspondence—suffering at the hands of His enemies. If, then, suffering is a necessary part of the gospel, and if Jesus did His part, then we must do our part so that nothing is lacking in the presentation of the gospel today, as there was nothing lacking when He was on the earth. Let us not allow the mistaken belief in “eternal security” to lead us into spiritual complacency or shrinking away from taking a stand and suffering as a result.

Let’s turn now to another segment of discussion. There are other favorite phrases OSAS adherents say, that are not based on a particular Scripture but are worth commenting on. One is: “eternal life is eternal. If you could lose it, it isn’t eternal life.” To that I argue, “eternal life will always remain eternal, but the persons who possesses it can change.” After all, eternal life existed before you ever “got on board.” And it will continue to exist if you happen to “get off the track.” So eternal life can’t change, but your possession of it can change.

OSAS adherents also like to say, “Scripture promises 'eternal salvation;' so I’m eternally secure.” But the only place that the phrase “eternal salvation” is used in Scripture is Hebrews 5:9, where it says:

And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.

There it is again, we must obey His commandments for eternal salvation.

Another favorite OSAS argument is “once a son, always a son; a child cannot be unborn.” Thus they argue that once you’re a child of God (a phrase used in Gal. 3:26), you will always be a child of God. But this is “reasoning from the natural to the spiritual” again, which is dangerous, as we proved before. My response is, did you know that an unsaved person (which is how we all start out once we become responsible for our sin) is a son of the devil? That’s proven in Matthew 13:38 and John 8:44. If then, “once a son, always a son,” then we’re stuck being a child of the devil forever! That’s how their logic follows, is it not? But, praise God, we can change eternal parentage—and, sadly, we can change it back.

OSAS believers also have a specific belief about the “seal of the Holy Spirit;” that it can’t be broken. But look at II Timothy 2:19 (ESV):

But God's firm foundation stands (this speaks of the church), bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”

If the seal can’t be broken, why is there a warning to “depart from iniquity” attached to it? Because if we ignore the warning, and resume a wicked life, we have broken the seal, and are no longer saved, that’s why. Why attach a warning when there is no danger?

Most OSASers, whether they know it or not, are Calvinists, and believe that our “perseverance” to the end (the letter "P" in Calvin's "TULIP" myth) is solely up to God, so it’s a guaranteed deal that once we’ve expressed faith, we’ll make it. But think with me a minute: If perseverance is solely up to God, no one would ever fall away--because Scripture says God doesn’t want any to perish. As II Peter 3:9 says:

The Lord is not…. willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

But as we’ve already read (see my previous blog), many do fall away (I Tim. 4:1). Plus, many wander from the faith, I Timothy 6:10:

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

And check Matthew 24:10:

At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other.

And read carefully I Corinthians 8:10-11, where a weaker brother (a saved person) has his faith destroyed by someone doing something that is offensive to his conscience:

For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? 11 And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?

The word “perish” there is the same Greek word that we quoted in II Peter 3:9; it has eternal ramifications. As all these verses are saying, many people, for various reasons, do not persevere to the end, to their ultimate grief. So, again, Scripture is not what Mr. Calvin says.

Many OSASers are Calvinists in another way: They are “elected” by God, which to them means that even before they were born, God selected them to be saved. His irresistible grace, through His Spirit, wooed only His elected people into the fold. And since there was nothing they did by works to get in, there’s nothing they can do, even by “bad works,” to get out. Now the huge question is: Is Mr. Calvin’s definition of the Scriptural term “election” correct? The reason I’m questioning this is, it forces us to consider something really bad: what about the people that God doesn’t elect? According to this doctrine, supposedly His Spirit only woos the elect, there is nothing the “non-elect” can do to get in (since every person is totally depraved, we can only recognize salvation by the wooing of His Spirit). You have to conclude that, according to Calvinism, some people (the “non-elected”) are therefore guaranteed for hell! But doesn't that make God capricious and callous?  Sorry, but I’d rather believe II Peter 3:9. I conclude that since a capricious God results from Calvin's definition of election, it must be wrong—but a lot of people are taking too much confidence in his definition of the word “elected.” They should consider the words in II Peter 1:5-10:

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble

Note that our effort for godly character makes our “election sure.” Again, this not a God-guarantee; it requires diligence, as this Scripture says, to make your calling sure. And note that perseverance is a character trait that we need to develop. Yep, takes work and yieldedness to the Holy Spirit.

If we love God, and want to see Him in heaven, we have to have holiness. Obviously the right attitude for holiness is hating evil. But in order to really hate evil enough to do something about it, it is necessary to have the fear of God. (It is possible to love God and to fear Him--these ideas are not opposites.) Some, however, who call themselves Christians do not have fear of God. Not having such fear, they feel free to practice sin and, by their activity, effectively deny God. But God, many times in Scripture, tells us that we actually need to fear Him (see my blog on it; the idea is Scriptural). It's also true that a love of God is not inhibited by a fear of God. If we love God, we won’t sin thoughtlessly. Instead, we will, in advance of a questionable activity, coldly study the devastating effects of what would happen if we perform a particular sin; what it does to our relationships, including our relationship to God. If we have coveted our time together with Him, and experienced the good feelings the Spirit gives us, and the reward of doing His will, we will want to keep that no matter what. We also want to think about how killing the sin-desire defeats Satan, God's enemy and our enemy--who arrogantly assumes he can beat us every time. Then we proactively avoid anything in our lives that might stimulate us toward that sin. If your sin is sexual, you would be willing to cut off some premium cable channels, a lot of movies, certain old friends, block the computer, possibly quit a job for another, not attend certain places to eat, go to the beach hardly at all. Extreme, right? But you haven’t come close to lopping off a limb (per Matthew 5:29-30). How much do you hate sin? We need to learn, over time, to hate sin. Look at the devastating effects of adultery in Proverbs 7:21-23:

With her enticing speech she caused him to yield; with her flattering lips she seduced him. 22 Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks, 23 Till an arrow struck his liver. As a bird hastens to the snare, He did not know it would cost his life.

If we read (and memorize) that verse enough til’ we really believe it, till it really sinks in, (“cost his life” could be eternal life), we will train our mind to hate the sin even more. If we see how it ruins the lives of those around us, we learn to hate the sin more yet. We vow over and over after such examples never to participate in it; we daily dedicate our bodies to the Lord. We discipline our thought life, too; why make our mind a toilet for God to look at? By hating evil we show God we are loyal and want to be pure like Him; we want to hate sin like Him; we just want to be like Him. Remember what Hebrews 12:14 says:

Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.

We do want to see the Lord, right?

Speaking of seeing the Lord, you know how He describes Himself? We all like to think it would be how He is a God of love. Well, as He shows Moses Himself in Exodus 34:6-7, He describes Himself thusly:

And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation

That last phrase makes Him look like the God of Grudges, doesn’t it? (He repeats the threat in Exodus 20:5). Is that what He wants us to remember Him by? Well, yes, and by explanation, I just use one word—“holy.” That’s what God is, along with loving us. His big issue in His loving heart is, how does He keep people from sinning (and ruining their lives)? Here’s an answer He came up with: He knows that everybody wants to protect their children from life’s hard knocks; what better fear motivator to right living than to threaten people that if you sin, God will carry out the punishment you caused on your children (who will follow you into sinning the same way), and your children’s children. That’s what the verse is saying.

Now people, if you don’t like seeing God this way, then you haven’t been hearing what this paper is trying to say. Yes, God is love. I don’t have to give you any verses on that; you hear them many Sundays. But you probably don’t hear that God hates some people, do you? So it says in Psalm 11:5:

The LORD tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates.

None of the phrase “hates the sin and loves the sinner” here. Unless you repent, God not only hates your sin, but He has to carry out judgment on you. What I’m trying to say is, if we don’t get a balanced view of God, we’ll develop a fatal case of complacency. Read this last set of verses below (where complacency about sin is taken as lukewarmness.) from Revelation 3:14-19:

These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: 15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.

May God sink this deep in our hearts. We need to be zealous and hate sin, repenting from it—not just once, but regularly through our lives. For our eternity’s sake!

Acknowledgment: Dan Corner, Conditional Security of the Believer

A Little Late for Halloween...A True Story

I would like to tell you a story, non-fiction, proven to be true.  This is word-for-word from Tom and Nita Horn’s great book, Forbidden Gates. 

As a young preacher, Dr. David Yonggi Cho had gone into a small Korean community to pioneer a church.  Soon he discovered, as is common throughout much of Korea, a temple dedicated to the city’s “guardian god” atop the highest local mountain.  When the priests of the shrine learned that he was planning to start a missions outreach, they came to him infuriated, demanding that he leave the village.  When he refused, they vowed to return and put to death him and any converts he won in the meantime.

A few days later, the priests were back—this time with a mob.  The head priest, making sure the crowd was watching, called out, “Cho!  Do you really believe that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that He can still work miracles?” 

Cho replied, “Yes, I do.” 

“Then we have a challenge,” the priest yelled.  “Down in the village is a woman who has been bedridden for seven years.  She and her child are dying now of disease.  If Jesus can heal this woman in the next thirty days, we will go away and you can have your church.  But if she is not healed, you must abandon your work or we will return and kill you and your followers.” 

Cho explained how in the United States, most Americans would never respond to such a date, but that in those days and in that culture, his failure to do so would have been (in his opinion) to imply that his God was inferior to the temple deity, and would have closed the community’s willingness to consider the gospel message.

As a result, Cho accepted the contest, and the following day he traveled with his mother-in-law to the village where he found the dying woman.  He suggested to the infirmed lady that if she would pray the sinner’s prayer and accept Jesus as her Savior, the Lord might choose to heal her.  Instead, he found the woman to be very angry with any god (including Cho’s God) who would allow her to suffer the way that she had.  After several unsuccessful visits to convince her otherwise, Cho decided prayer alone would be his best alternative for her and her child. 

Over the next few weeks, he prayed earnestly for a miracle.  He made regular visits to the village and sent messengers to report back any change.  To his disappointment, the woman’s condition only seemed to worsen. 

As the weeks passed and the deadline loomed, Cho grew very concerned.  Finally, on the evening of the thirtieth day, he entered his prayer room and reminded God that unless a miracle occurred, people from the temple of the guardian deity would arrive within hours to kill him and his followers.  Cho said he prayed throughout that night and into the next morning “with the most passion ever.”

Then, at 2 AM, he experienced a powerful vision.

He thought he saw a shadow by the front door, and a strange sound spread along the wall. Fixing his gaze on the opening, he felt primal fear, black and mindless, roll over him. 

His intuition screamed.  Something dreadful was coming his way.

Another thump, and the front door to his home began slowly opening. 

Gooseflesh crawled over his arms as “eerie Oriental music” swept in through the entrance, barely discernable at first, then growing in intensity. 

Against his better judgment, he turned his body toward the door. 

He held his breath, looked harder, squinted. 

The shadow slowed, became defined, an enormous silhouette of something alive creeping stealthily toward him. 

Remaining very still, a moment passed, then it emerged from the darkness: huge, snakelike, an agathodemon from ancient times bearing the body of a serpent and the head of a man.  Swaying to the melodious rhythm, the horrendous archfiend appeared wicked and menacing as it slunk along the opening into the room where Cho was.  It made eye contact with him, and in heavy modulation that sounded as if each gurgling syllable started somewhere deep underground passed through boiling magma on its way to his mouth, said, “Cho, if you don’t leave this town, you are a dead man.  I have been ruling this area all of these years, and who are you to come here and disturb my nest?”

With that, the being lunged across the room lightning fast, landing on top of Cho and wrapping its body around him like prey, contracting its muscles to quickly constrict the air from his lungs.  A baleful laughter, malignant and terrible, tittered, from the monster’s lips as from pebbled sockets its zenithal eyes glared mockingly down at him. 

Grotesque and engaged, the thing opened its mouth wider, exposing a hideous, forked tongue inside a nightmarish cavity lined with jagged molars and angled razor fangs.  A phlegmy gurgle more dragonlike than reptilian disgorged a sulfurous stench that distilled through the room, filling the air all around them.   

A chill radiated through Cho as seconds passed and the undulating fiend’s hide, crusty and wart-covered, tightened around him like a garrote.  He could feel his ribs bending toward the breaking point as the sheer force of the brutal creature’s strength sent his own tongue curling to the roof of his mouth in pain.  His body began reacting to the lack of blood flow, his hands and feet started going numb, and his thoughts raced:  Jesus!  I’m dying!

But at that, something caught his attention.  The creature’s eyes had seemed to dart wildly about the very moment the name of Jesus passed through his mind.  He thought it again—Jesus—and this time he was sure.  The serpent had cringed, and its grip had weakened at the very moment he  had imagined that name. 

With all the strength he could muster, Cho gasped for a breath of air and opened his mouth in a whisper:  “Jesus.”  The effect was immediate and dramatic.  The sound of the name of Jesus discharged from his lips as tangibly as if a two-edged sword had been thrown into the heart of the being. 

He spoke the name again, louder this time, and the demon jerked back, its expression filling with terror, its grip unwinding from his waist. Slipping from the coil, Cho quickly jumped to his feet and shouted “JESUS…JESUS….JESUS!”

Now the creature reeled, first one way then the other, flailing about as if punch drunk, wailing an otherworldly moan; then abruptly it fell to the floor.  Before it could gather its strength and raise up to attack him again, Cho lifted his leg and crushed the humanlike head beneath his foot.  Studying it to make sure it wasn’t moving, he picked up the front part of the carcass and dragged it toward the entry to toss it outside.  As he moved to the opening and pushed the seasoned door fully out of the way, he noticed a large crowd of villagers gathering in front of his home.  Cautiously, he surveyed his surroundings, then lifted the agathodemon’s face above him and exclaimed, “This is the god you have been serving all of these years, but now you must turn and serve the true and living God!”

With that, Cho awoke to find the serpent-man visitation had been a compelling vision or dream.  It was 4 AM, time for early morning  prayer at his tent church.  With the memory of the threats made against him thirty days earlier still fresh in his mind, he rushed out the door and up the path to meet his tiny congregation.  He knew the priests from the guardian temple would not be long in coming, and no sooner had he arrived than a Korean layman started shouting, “Pastor!  Come quickly!”  Glancing out the tent door, he saw over the hill in the rising dawn what appeared to be the entire city marching up the valley walls.     

Cho’s palms were sweating and his heart was racing as he stepped outside and watched the throng approach.  Jesus, he thought, What should we do?  Run?  Hide?  Then he noticed something curious.  The people looked happy, as if they were rejoicing about something.  A moment of silence passed as he considered them, and he thought, It can’t be!  But it was.  Leading the crowd, baby in arms, was the dying woman from the village.  She ran up to him and said, “Oh, Brother Cho, thank you so much for coming, and praying for me last night.   The Lord heard your prayer and I am healed!”

Cho stared at her in amazement.  “I did not come to your house and pray for you last night,” he replied.

“Oh, yes,” the woman insisted, “You came at two o’clock this morning and stood outside my window.  You said loudly, ‘Woman!  Be healed in the name of Jesus Christ!’  And I arose and found that I was healed, and my baby is healed!”  Then Cho remembered that it had been 2 AM when he had seen the vision and the agathodemon had been destroyed. 

With very few exceptions, the entire community converted to Christianity within 48 hours. 

To misquote many ads, Do Not Try This At Home without being saved and Holy Spirit-prepared. 

Acknowledgement:  Forbidden Gates, Tom and Nita Horn, 2010. 

The Flaws in the Once Saved, Always Saved Argument (Part 2 of 3)

Last week's blog covered the first 9 of the “once saved, always saved” doctrine’s favorite Scriptures. We found flaws in their interpretation. We also gave a little of the doctrine’s meaning and history. Today we continue to examine their “proof” Scriptures.

10. I Corinthians 1:8: (Jesus) will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

OSAS adherents maintain that God’s confirming us to the end, and our blamelessness, are without conditions. So, they say, once saved, always saved. My response is, you must consider contexts of Scripture (remember #5 last week). What about Paul’s words in Colossians 1:22-23, which defines blameless?

…to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 23 IF  indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved  away from the hope of the gospel

Seems that being blameless has a condition attached to it, “IF you continue in the faith….not moved away.” There’s the word “IF” again (see last week). Unfortunately, some people didn’t hold fast to the faith; they grew discouraged, or tests (such as persecution) overwhelmed them. And they took the easy way out, abandoning the faith.

As to the idea of "continuing in" the faith: I Timothy 6:12 says,

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

“Laying hold” on eternal life is again an aggressive action that you have to do to keep it. It’s a behavior, not just belief in the head; and look how it also involves “fight the good fight.”

Did you know the true Gospel includes "belief + holding fast" in many Scriptures? In I Corinthians 15:1-2, we find:

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, IF you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

Believing “in vain,” or futilely, to no advantage, can only mean one thing—arriving at no belief at all. It means some Corinthians believed, and he's warning them, hold fast and don't get to where you don’t believe. Saved, then unsaved.

Along these lines, consider the parable of the sower. In Luke 8:6:

Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.

Now a simple question is simply, “Did the seed remain dead, or did it come to life?” Obviously it came to life (It “sprang up;” dead things don’t do that). Then the question is, “Did it lose this life? The answer is obviously yes; “it withered away.” You have to agree that it had a life; it was short, but it had life—then lost it. I should also mention, you wither only when you are cut off from the Vine (John 15:6). They were alive in the faith until trials quickly came. Then they apparently left faith—and lost their life in Him—and withered. You must hold on during tribulations to keep salvation. So continuing salvation is conditional. That’s what all these verses are saying.

While we’re on the sower, consider Jesus’ explanation of the seed landing on rocky ground (Luke 8:13):

13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away

The Greek word “receive” is in many Scriptures used for people as a litmus for being saved—if you don’t “receive” His word, you’re unsaved, if you do, you’re saved (see John 3:11, 12:48). And it says “they believe for awhile.” The problem is, some after that are unable to endure to the end. They lose their salvation (i.e., "fall away"); this means ensuing spiritual death (Matthew 10:22 and 24:13, to cite just a couple of examples).

11. I Corinthians 11:29-32: For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world

OSAS adherents say, since God will always discipline His children to bring them back (and would even kill them before they go “beyond the pale” if necessary), that will guarantee our salvation. But does this say that God’s discipline always brings someone back? No, it doesn’t. Some people are too stiff-necked. Consider Jeremiah 32:33:

They turned their backs to me and not their faces; though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline.

Now if you argue again that those are Old Testament verses and not relevant to today, let me just ask you New Testament believers: Do any of you have kids that sadly didn’t respond to discipline? Do any of you have a child that, despite a mountain of prayers, is unsaved? Then really, the same story is true of New and Old; some people don’t respond to discipline. Let’s not make these verses say what they don’t say.

12. Hebrews 6:4-6: For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

OSAS adherents say to us, “If you truly think that people can lose their salvation, you’d have to accept that it seems this is also saying, a person can never get salvation back once they walked away. You can't be certain it's saying that; do you truly believe God is this way? Doesn’t that sound like a God who is too unforgiving, for that argument to be true?" Then the OSASers would say, “we have an argument for these verses that expresses God in a kinder light—we don’t believe this person was ever saved—he was close, but never saved. Being so close, and turning away, means he will never be saved—since he missed Christ at the best opportunity.” To that weak argument I respond by taking Scripture again in context. First, remember my comments above on the prodigal son; he got his salvation back. Also, check out the interesting case of Peter’s upcoming denial of Christ that Jesus foretold. In Luke 22:32, Jesus has informed him that he will be tested by Satan, and says to him (KJV):

But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

This is a strange sentence, that Jesus would pray that his faith wouldn’t fail, then says “when you are converted”—suggesting a future need for Peter to be saved (again).  Since Peter was saved before his denial, this can only mean he lost that salvation when he denied Christ.  So evidently his faith did fail--and then he got it back. The word “converted” is a genuine salvation Greek word, used as such in James 5:20:

Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

So what we conclude about Jesus' statement is this: Jesus is urging him to hold onto his faith. But then he didn’t want to just tell him flat out that he will fail; but Jesus knows of his denial and failure—and Jesus knows that Peter will re-commit his life to Christ, getting converted again, so he told him in an obtuse way that Peter didn’t catch on to at the time he heard it. How else could you interpret this, with the words “when you are converted” to a person clearly already saved? Jesus is saying, Peter will lose his salvation, then be re-converted.

(Before we go on, I need to explain a rabbit trail: Jesus said he would pray that Peter’s faith wouldn’t fail. But Peter didn't fail, so Jesus’ prayer was not answered. How can that be, as He is the all-powerful God? Am I suggesting Jesus lacks almighty power in His prayer? No, the argument is answered another way. Consider II Peter 3:9:

The Lord is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

God’s fervent desire is that all would be saved. But the fact is, most people perish; so is God a failure? Does He lack power? Like Jesus, God’s desire doesn’t get answered like He wants. The answer is simple: God simply limits His power by granting us free will. It’s the same way with Jesus and Peter.

Let’s get back to our point. I believe Hebrews 6:4-5 says this person got saved. But we don’t have to conclude what OSASers want us to conclude. Does he lose his salvation forever? Does that make God unforgivably mean? How do we explain this phrase “it is impossible to renew them again to repentance” of Hebrews 6:6? In answer, this is a rare Scripture because it requires a history study to understand it. At that time, if a saved Jew, under heavy peer pressure, wanted to abandon the Christian faith and be a synagogue-attending Jew again, the synagogue would make him confess publicly that Christ was a criminal—thus, he would be confessing that Christ was operating under Satan. Attributing to Satan the clear work of the Holy Spirit, especially for those who were a living witness of His works, was probably an unforgivable sin (Matthew 12:31-32). Proof of this idea is in the dark words of Hebrews 10:29. Look at the phraseology of what evil they have done in such a confession of apostasy:

Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

Thank God, such phrases don’t get said about most those who become unsaved. Most people have opportunity for repentance and re-obtaining salvation. So, this Hebrews example was a special narrow case for Jews during that time, not universally the case.

13. I Thessalonians 5:23-24: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.
14. Hebrews 10:14: For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

OSAS adherents read from I Thessalonians, “sanctify you completely,” “preserved blameless,” and “will do it,” and figure that these are jobs up to God only. But the word “may” creeps in, “may your whole spirit…be…blameless” It’s almost like the whole statement is Paul pronouncing a blessing, giving wishes on them rather than a doctrinal statement. And “may” is not a certainty. It’s not “you can be assured that.” So the verse is not “God only” since He is a God of certainty, not a God of “may”-be. The believer's free will makes it less certain, leading to "may." From Hebrews, you also must consider the phrase “those who are being sanctified;” it’s not as strong as “those whom He sanctifies,” which OSASers want. It leaves the door open for the believer’s action. As it so happens, folks…I have a Scriptural list of things they (or we) should do for sanctification. It just “happens” to be in the verses immediately prior to #13 above, I Thessalonians 5:11-22:

Therefore comfort each other and edify one another… recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love... Be at peace among yourselves…warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. 15 See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies. 21 Test all things; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.

I counted 19 verbs for us to do for sanctification! Yes, works for us to do! While we're on the subject, let us also remember that Ephesians 2:8 and 9, supposedly all God’s grace—goes along with verse 10, things we should do.  Take a look:

For by grace you have been saved through faith… 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works (takes effort on our part), which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (takes effort on our part)

Further proof on how we can’t lay back and shift all this effort to God is found when we look at many Scriptures, especially by Paul, on how the saints should be ready to do battle with Satan and his minions. We’re not just talking about losing a few crowns in heaven, or losing fellowship with God. No, that’s not a powerful enough motivator. We’re talking about battling to preserve our place in heaven itself—versus hell. In Philippians 2:25 and II Timothy 2:3,4 the saints are soldiers. In Acts 20:24 and I Corinthians 9:24, saints are called runners in a marathon. In Matthew 20:1ff, we’re workers in a vineyard. In Ephesians 6:12, we’re wrestlers against the forces of darkness. In Acts 4:29, we’re slaves of God. All verses listed have to do with keeping our eternity on the line. And here’s one to memorize from Hebrews 12:3-4:

For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. 4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. 

This says, we must endure suffering because Jesus suffered. But let’s not have a committed sin that we do be the cause of our suffering. Let us resist sin to bloodshed if necessary, so that if we suffer, it is because we cleaved to the noble cause of standing up with Christ. We cannot get discouraged, saying, “Well, Jesus was God and had no “real” temptation, so how can I try to do it?” Let us remember, He was fully Man too. Let us never forget the extremes of pain that He knew was coming, and how He sweat drops of blood in Gethsemane—which physicians tell us is only possible in supreme agony. How can we, in the face of that Example, in the face of many Scriptures telling us to fight sin with all we have, continue to believe that sanctification is all up to God! Such a belief, spread for deception, will erode people’s desire (and this is for eternity!) to work at eradicating sin. Do you see the verbs in Hebrews here? “Resisted…striving.” Clear meaning there. Don’t go blind reading too many common-taters telling you to ignore what’s clearly in print.

Lastly, in this section, consider another idea: What does Paul say about the possibility of losing his own salvation? Does that seem hard to believe? He was such a giant in the faith: How can anybody have perfect assurance if Paul didn’t? Well, read I Corinthians 9:27:

But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

The word “disqualified” comes from the Greek “adokimos,” which is properly translated, per Vine’s Dictionary, as “rejected; not standing the test.” The test is salvation. The same Greek word appears in Romans 1:28; I’ve emphasized the word that translates adokimos:

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.

What we get is, since men rejected God, God had to reject them, finally "gave them over." Man is then reprobate, and worthy of hell. Paul uses the same word about himself, as a motivator for him to stand up against the devil. He is disciplining his body (actually, the Greek word says he is beating, or buffeting his body), to bring it into servitude.  We're not advocating flagellating here; Paul is actively suppressing its desires so as to be more open to the Spirit’s desires. He does this because he doesn’t want to become rejected by God. So, folks, if Paul is striving for holiness like this, if he fears God this way, if he wants to abide in Christ every day, shouldn’t we? Of course we should. He knows what he might lose if he doesn’t. Do we?

Another insightful verse section on Paul’s lack of presumption about God is Philippians 3:10-14:

…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain (doesn’t sound very self-assured) to the resurrection from the dead.12 Not that I have already attained (again! Is this guy worried?), or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended (where’s the “we’ve got it already” that OSASers claim?); but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Despite my so-called humor, you hopefully get my point. Now I ask you, what would we give to become a spiritual giant like Paul? (Or would we decline that opportunity?) But look at the watchfulness and uncertainty he displays here: I suspect his striving, his humility, his lack of presumption, lack of assurance, his fear of God, actually made him more appropriate for His work. Or, if we don’t have those attributes worthy in God’s sight, how can we expect to do great things for Him?

NEXT WEEK: Conclusive Remarks on This Important Matter

Acknowledgement: Dan Corner, “Conditional Security of the Believer