Bible Beats

The Bible is nothing if it is not provocative.  It describes not only the human condition, both cause and remedy, but it also tells of the time before the human race, and the universe after the race ends.  The Bible also reveals information about other supernatural beings, and their interactions with humans throughout time.  In fact, some things the Bible reveals about the unseen world seem so fantastic and dreadfully fearful that many down through history have chosen to interpret much of the Bible metaphorically, or otherwise spiritualize certain scriptures in order to fit them comfortably within the viewfinder of empiricism. Over the years Chuck Missler, of Koinonia House, has displayed no such temerity.

Several years ago Missler was the only other Bible student that this writer knew of who also came to the conclusion that the toes of Daniel’s Image comprised of both iron and miry clay signified the disharmony between two separate species.  Where one new spices will mingle itself with the “seed of men” at the end of the last worldly kingdom indicates the tribulation period will witness a return of the Nephilim from Genesis, chapter six (Dan 2:43).  Again, the sons of God will take wives of the daughters of men, and superhuman monstrosities will result; neither fully human, nor angelic. The Lord said that one effect of this would be: “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken” (Lk 21:26).¹

Alternately, and of late, Missler appears to have adopted a seemingly more liberal biblical interpretation on another subject brought into controversy.  It is this: that the prospect of finding oneself consigned to Outer Darkness is not the dreadful condition previously associated with it.  The reasoning Missler uses is to disqualify Outer Darkness as a description of hell, but this alone will not significantly recast it as more palatable, or make it any more desirable than hell itself.

If any think that Outer Darkness is anything but complete and final estrangement from Christ, the light of the world, for eternity; they have stopped paying attention where attention should be paid. The scriptures are clear, speak for themselves, and require no preconceived ideas about hell to conclude that Outer Darkness is eternity without God. In the Bible Jesus is portrayed as the antithesis to darkness and those who dwell therein:  “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Mat 4:16).   The shadows of darkness are where we find evil deeds, death, and alienation from God.  In contrast, Jesus is the light who can reconcile man to God and grant them eternal life with Him (Col 1:21; Joh 17:3), and those who have Him have light: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Mat 5:16).

The Term Outer Darkness is found only in book of Matthew where Christ used it three times.  In each of these instances there is no compelling scriptural support to interpret it as anything other than complete and final separation from God.   The scriptures need only be examined in their turn.

The first verse is found in Matthew, chapter eight:

And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Mat 8:11-12; emphasis added)

The rightful children of the Messianic Kingdom are the Jews.  Though God always has his remnant, the history of Israel is one of idolatrous hypocrisy were most of the Jews reject God to worship other gods and idols.  They rejected the King who came in the name of His Father, who was foretold to them by Moses and the prophets, and Christ said they will accept another who will come in his own name during the tribulation: “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive” (Joh 5:43).   At that time, the spiritual condition in Jerusalem is compared to that of Sodom (Rev 11:8), and fully two-thirds of the children of the kingdom will be cut off just prior the Christ’s return to Jerusalem to set up the Messianic Kingdom (Zec 13:8-9).  This verse in Matthew is taken from the incident of the centurion’s request for Christ to heal his servant, and Christ marveled at the Gentile’s faith, and prophesied salvation to the Gentiles.

The second verse is found in Matthew, chapter twenty-two:

And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. (Mat 22:11-14; emphasis added).

The Gospel of the Grace of God is gone out over the world and it calls men to repentance to receive the gift of salvation though Jesus Christ.  Many have been called, but many also reject the offer.  Nevertheless, we who are chosen by the Father and are delivered into Christ’s hand (Joh 10:27-29) will attend the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven as the Lamb of God’s bride, the Church (Rev 19:7; 21:9).  We are to be clothed in white robes signifying blood-washed purity (Rev 19:8); and none other attire except that which Christ only can provide for His Church will be permitted there. Here it is shown that mere professors of Christ who do not know Him are not part of the true Church who will spend eternity with Him.  Further, note that the man who is bound and cast out of the heavenly scene does not even remain as a friend of the Bridegroom.²

As the phrase weeping and gnashing of teeth is always associated with Outer Darkness, and is used only one other time where it does not accompany the term, it would be profitable to examine it where it is used to see if it carries any other meaning except that which supports the interpretation that Outer Darkness is complete separation from God.  Here it is used in Matthew, chapter twenty-four:

But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Mat 24:48-51; emphasis added)

This weeping and gnashing of teeth is to be found in Outer Darkness.  It is the anguish of those whose punishment is the portion of the hypocrites.  These are part of those whom God will eventually send Antichrist against to cut them off (along with a hypocritical nation; Isa 10: 6, 12-25).  There destiny is an outer darkness as compared to the light of the world reigning in the Kingdom and later in the Regeneration (Mat 19:28; 2Pet 3:9; Rev 21:1) where His brightness precludes any requirement for other illumination; including the sun: “And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev 22:5).

The evil servant here spoken of is an apostate.  He is the last person described by Christ in His Olivet Discourse where He explains the signs of times at end of this age. This servant characterizes the great falling away, or the Apostasy (2Th 2:3).  He is a false prophet who smites the saints by introducing damnable doctrines of demons (1Tim 4:1-2) into their congregations (this includes psychology as psychoheresy), and makes merchandise of them by marketing these heresies in the churches.  There are many of them today, and many are notorious.  Do not be fooled into thinking that their sin is only of gluttony and drunkenness.   The “drunkenness” here referred to is the same cited in Revelation where the mother of all harlots (prostitutes) is shown to John, and her sins given:  “And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration” (Rev 17:6; emphasis added).  The Greek word for drunken here is used metaphorically for one who sheds blood or murders profusely.

Today’s evil servants suck the blood out of the saints in tithes and offerings, and in programs and other merchandise.  They threaten those with cursing from the law who cannot be cursed after that Christ was made a curse for us (Gal 3:13), and they compel the Gentiles to live as did the Jews (Mal 3; Gal 2; Heb 7).  Never once are they teaching the whole counsel of God; that no man is justified by the law (Gal 3:11), and that any who are of the works of the law are under the curse, as he must continue in all things of the law to do them (Gal 3:10).  These things cannot be done in practice as the old priesthood is done away with in Christ, our High Priest, and could never be completed in principal under that Levitical Priesthood, which atonements pointed towards completion in Christ.  These evil servants will join the hordes of hell after the rapture of the church in killing all who refuse to take the mark of the beast, or worship his image; drunken with their blood.

The third verse is found in Matthew, chapter twenty-four:

His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.³ And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Mat 25:26-30; emphasis added)

Those who are Christ’s are not classified as the wicked, as this servant is, after that they are justified through Him.⁴  The parable of the Wheat and Tares further clarifies the hopeless state of Outer Darkness; the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.  “So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. (Mat 13:49-50; emphasis added). Here we are told that the wicked are to be cut off from the just, their actual punishment in the Lake of Fire is specified (Rev 20:15), and their eternal misery is exemplified (”weeping” increased to “wailing” for emphasis, as it is in connection with Mat 13:42).  It is true, as Koinonia House asserts, that Outer Darkness is not a description of hell, but it is not, as they suggest, just another place “within the Father’s House” where the light doesn’t shine.⁵  Remember what was said at the beginning of the Lord’s ministry on earth: “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Mat 4:16; emphasis added). The Outer Darkness, and its comparative phrase “great light” are used analogously to emphasize the complete presence or complete absence of God in Christ (Isa 9:2); especially as it pertains to the next life for those who either accept or reject Him in this life. In the three times Jesus uses the term he did so to show complete separation from God, and that the type of persons who are going to experience that separation are categorized as the wicked, and are defined by their behavior.  Outer Darkness is representative of the condemnation.  If any cannot see that, they must by needs sake move closer to the light.

Notes:

^1. The powers that are shaken are the supernatural beings which inhabit the heavens and who will dislodge themselves and be dislodged from their first estate during the tribulation period (e.g.  Rom 8:38; Eph 3:10; 6:12; Col 1:16; 2:15; 1Pet 3:22; Rev 12:10). 

^2. Some argue that the man in this parable was not cast from the presence of the Lord for eternity for they reason he was already in the kingdom. Firstly, it should be noted that none of this has taken place yet. Secondly, it should be pointed out that this is merely a scene upon which is painted an illustration.  To see the faultiness of such reasoning one need only apply it to another such scene: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Mat 7:21-23). Could it not also be argued that the ones speaking to the Lord were in the kingdom? Certainly, but not wisely.  For then would there be workers of iniquity there whom our Lord was ignorant of.

^3. Him that “hath not” hath not Christ.  The idea here is that Christ cannot remain dead in a born-again believer anymore than He could remain dead in the tomb.  A person who sets Christ aside is one among the trees that bear no fruit, and are hewed down and cast into to the fire (Mat 7:19).  “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid (Mat5:14; emphasis added) .

^4. The term “wicked” is applied once in the context of a Christian in reference to a Corinthian Church member by the Apostle Paul, but the inference is there made that the person in question needed examination as to whether he be in the faith or outside it, and so liable to judgment as one in the world (1Cor 5:13).

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (Exo 20:7)

The third commandment is not a prohibition against cursing.  To take the name of the Lord is to declare that one is committed to serving the Lord God.  Today, this is done by making an affirmation the one is a Christian.  It means that one has not blasphemed the power of the Holy Ghost who reveals Christ unto men, but has instead fallen at the feet of the Son of God.  This is the Christ who has redeemed man by His blood, and this message of salvation is made known to men by the preaching of the gospel in the power of the Spirit.  We take on the name of the Lord when we identify ourselves as His.  Afterwards, a person is guilty of taking the Lord’s name in vain when his actions run counter to God’s commands and instructions, or when his speech is against the word of God.

The early church became notable for large numbers taking the name of the Lord in vain, and God did not hold them guiltless.  Many were using the communion as an opportunity to engage in public exhibitions of drunken and glutinous behavior.  For that cause, God allowed them to become feeble, and infirm, and even for some to die (1Cor 11:30).  Unfortunately, examples are not so hard to come by as to require going that far back into the Church’s past.

In the early nineteen eighties, I heard a preacher on the radio who challenged his audience to examine the Bible not as a text of dry history, but to put flesh and blood on it.  The preacher was phenomenally talented and he made listening to the book of Ezekiel over the radio absolute theater.  I’m sure now he wasn’t the first to be able to do that, but he was the first I’d heard do it.

One thing you were immediately  impressed with about that preacher was he had faith; the kind of faith anyone in the Church would want.  It was strong, firm, certain, and unwavering.   The following Sunday, I found myself setting on gymnasium bleachers in a church building in Glendale, California, where this man preached.  He could mix raw meat with gun powder to deliver a charge that would send you into the next week with the power to stand toe to toe with death and stare it in the eye until it backed down.   I attended Faith Center for a few years being taught by Dr. Gene Scott until one day, he waivered.

Dr. Scott had a television ministry that spanned the globe.  He was one of the first preachers to make the switch from local television stations to satellite broadcasting.  He broadcasted twenty-four hours, seven days a week, and was so famous that satellite dish installers programmed equipment by using his broadcast as an index point from which to locate all the other satellites in the sky.  He was a public exhibition.  Then he did it.  On the day that it happened his words were going out to the entire world; even on short wave radio.  It must have at first appeared to be a small statement.  In fact, for a man who was in front of a television camera and live microphone as often as he was, it might have been easy for some to dismiss it as an off-hand remark. It was not.

I was standing when I heard it, and then I had to sit down.  Dr. Scott said that he didn’t have a problem if God had created man by using the process of evolution.  It was over.  A paragon of faith, an extremely talented man, a loud voice for the Lord; had called God a liar.  I left the church.  It seems that it wasn’t long after that Scott’s programming began to consist mostly of scantily clad women and prancing horses (he owned several, of the horses). Certainly, evil communications corrupt good manners (1Cor 15:33).  To an onlooker, it might have appeared that Dr. Scott was sinking into dissolution.   He had taken the Lord’s name in vain, and God did not hold him guiltless, but he was merciful.

Some years later, Dr. Scott was diagnosed with prostate cancer.  He admitted publically that it was his cancer that forced him to go back to the book, to the Bible.  While he was in that book, God must have revealed to him what he had done.  Dr. Scott not only repented, he recanted.  In a series where he preached from the book of Romans, in top form; God enabled Dr. Scott to spend several weeks demolishing any idea other than the one that Darwinian evolution was pure, godless heresy. He had wasted so many years, and was having the rest cut short, but God was merciful and had allowed him his finest moment.  Still, it appears that Dr. Scott’s name is to be associated with heresy until Jesus comes.  After he passed away, his wife took his pulpit and claimed his title as Pastor Scott.  Mrs. Scott also claims to be a natural linguist and to be familiar with twenty languages, yet cannot find, either in Greek or English, the Apostle Paul’s first epistle to Timothy.  What is left of Dr. Scott’s ministry survives today as a sorry edifice to a man who had so much potential, but took the Lord’s name in vain.

There is division taking place in Christendom.  The character of it is the difference between those who enter at the straight gate and are keeping the narrow way that leads to life, and those who are on Boardway and are filling their nets with both the simple, and the ones that have rejected the gate.  The ones casting those nets are false teachers who have perfected a false gospel to lull those on Broadway into believing they are on the right road.  They are also using the simple in their midst to make merchandise of them (2Pet 2:3), and to use them as Christian trappings for their trap.  They speak great swelling words, and seek the admiration of great personalities.

These vain persons are themselves fooled, and follow after those clouds without water; those wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever (Jude 1:13). The followers defend the false teachers.  These are the thorns that the false prophets gather (Mat 7:16).  When squeezed they do not bring forth sweetness, but they are bitter and caustic, and by them we also know that their tree is corrupt (Mat 7:18).  We who are in the faith and know this must act.  This we must do to those trees and those thorns: mark them.  That is the only way they can be avoided.

When it comes to pointing out false teachers and exposing their false doctrines, we do not have a choice in the matter.  The word of God implores us to this duty:

Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.  (Rom 16:17)

The word translated here for “mark” is a verb, it is an action word, and actually means not only to regard and consider, but to take aim at.

Indeed, this is a strong action, and it  may provoke the thorns and the thistles, but which of you upon seeing a brother or a sister being served poison would not warn them?  This is what they are doing to the harmless and young Christians in their nets; they are deceiving them.  These are the simple for whom the imploration is given to expose the false teachers:

For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple (Rom 16:18).

We must by contending for the faith also reach into the nets of the false teachers and pull out the simple, having compassion. “And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” (Jud 1:23).  These spotted garments are worn by those who have been glutinous in feeding on sweet empty calories of false doctrine, and our hope is to see them traded for white robes. Take aim!

There are authors of Christian books who promote heresies.  They compromise doctrine, introduce heathen practices, and often weave their seductions into innovative works of fiction.  How can you know that a book is really written from a Christian viewpoint?  There are at least three qualifications that readers can put on their rubric to assess books by, and there is also a short list of authors to avoid that a reader can have handy when they go shopping in Christian book stores.  For your copy see “Dangers In Christian Book Stores,” by David Cloud.

 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. (Rom 16:17)

While many a home owner has posted this notice to ward off unwelcome intruders, this warning comes from the Bible.  Here it is spoken by the Apostle Paul to the Philippians. “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision” (Php 3:2).  According to Albert Barnes (1798-1870), these dogs are evil workers and are of the concision.  The word Paul uses for the Judaizing teachers is a contemptuous replacement for the word circumcision. The word “concision” means to mutilation, and Paul is here referencing those Jews who would come behind him and teach that circumcision was still a requirement for salvation.  They were mutilating doctrine (and no doubt a few simple souls).

Today, it means virtually the same thing; false teachers who require faith plus some other show in the flesh to merit salvation.  The show, of course, is what they are putting on, and they are successful in “beguiling unstable souls” to perform in them.  They are also classed as “evil workers,” and they are the same sort Paul describes in 1Corinthians, where they are refered to as deceitful:

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works (2Cor 11: 13-15).

They are marvelously deceptive, and because of them the way of truth is evil spoken of.  The thing to remember is that they are dogs, and Paul’s injunction to aviod thier snares is to learn about what the Apostles taught in doctrine and by their lives, and to identify others who do likwise for examples:

Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.  (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:  Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) (Php 3: 17-19).

He also returns to the subject of the dogs, and declare they are actually enemies of Christ.  He says in another place that they too should be marked, or identified, in order to warn others who could be cut by them. “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them” (Rom 16:17)

How is it that these can impersonate Christian pastors and teachers?  Is is possible that they were once saved, but they got carried away with fame and fortune and are no longer Christians?  No.  These are false teachers.  A groomed dog will always be a dog just as a washed pig will always be a pig.  Peter speaks of these false teachers, and there adherents, who escape the pollutants of the world for a while through knowledge of religion and instruction to the extent that they abandon for a time some vices, but who were not saved and become entangled again. “But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire” (2Pet 2:22).

When a person is in Christ they are not just washed on the outside, they are made into a new creature. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2Co 5:17).  And we who are in Christ are to mark those who teach things separate from doctrine and contrary to it, who cause others to stumble, and to mark them for a warning.

There is a popular adage which is used as antidote to fear that goes ‘you only die once.’  The solace one is intended to take from this is that once it’s over , it’s over, and nothing can hurt you anymore.  Armed with this liberating perspective, individuals are supposed to be able to accomplish great feats, but they usually are only being goaded into taking unnecessary risks, or being pressured to engage in dangerous activities for as little a reward as merely thrills and chills.  Alas, if this reaches any of you going over Niagara in a barrel, I am sorry to report that it’s not true: you die twice.   If you’re in that barrel, but not yet at the falls, then please read this.  Fast.If you die without Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you will die in your sins.  They and their penalties will be attached to you, and you will be judged by them.  Because the wages of sin are death, you will be found guilty and sentenced to death.  The scene is described in the Bible like this:

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Rev 20:11-15; emphasis added)

As you can see, this second death is the big one, and it by far the most painfully excruciating, and it hurts forever (Rev 14:9-11).  There is another way to take the second death whereby you escape this horrible torment.  Christ Jesus put it this way:

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. (Mat 16: 24-25)

The Apostle Paul explains it:

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Gal 2: 20).

Either way it can be said that you will die twice. Now get out of that barrel, and put your hand in the hand of the one who walked on water:

But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God. (Mat 14:24-33)

A homeless man living in his truck knelt in front of a cross at Crystal Cathedral church and shot himself in the head, committing suicide.  He reportedly was spiritual, and was known to have attended a Bible study. Not much else is was known about this man at press time, but tragically he is not the first to have committed suicide at this church.  In 2004, the church’s composer shot himself in the church basement.  It is reported that he had been suffering with some sort of mental illness.  These tragedies naturally raise the question of whether a Christian can commit suicide.

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. (2Pe 2:1; emphasis added)

What does it mean to deny Christ?  What some commonly hold to be the act of denying Christ is a refutation in words, or a declaration clearly against Him, as the criterion for assessing denial of the Savior.  This misunderstanding often comes from this section of verse: “and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost, ” from 1Corrinthians 12:3.   To say people can’t lie, however, or that people don’t lie about God, is obviously not true; and anyone capable of reading scripture will not long be under this misconception.  This scripture, then, does not mean a person can’t physically say the words; it means that for a person to acknowledge Jesus as their Lord is only made possible by the Holy Spirit.  How, then, does one deny Christ?  The epistle of Paul to Titus adds this detail:

They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. (Tit 1:16; emphasis added)

We have false teachers among us today who deny Christ by their abominable works which they cleaverly disguise as good deeds.  Be not fooled.

And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.  (Dan 2:44)

There is a phenomenal movement taking place within Christendom.  It has spread across denominational lines, and is comprised of many different churches. There are several names for what some of their religious philosophies are, and some terms to describe each of them by their activities. Not all of their new ideas are actually new, and some are sprung from positions that are the products of centuries old debates. Many commentators have analyzed and classified them, and complete categorizations of their various parts, while they are interesting and have made a valuable contribution, do not want for more elaboration here.  Those who have proven astute in their power of scrutiny and reliable in their dedication are trusted to continue in their work.  The most general classification to gather the lot of them is used here as a departure point so that a primary doctrinal flaw which characterizes most of them may herein be treated.

They are emerging, and they are diverging, and they are missional, and they are self-help, and they are prosperity; they preach new reformation, new community, renewed mission, positivism, and personal wealth. In all, they are doing every sort of thing that resembles less and less biblical Christianity with each passing day.  All of them, though, despite the differing frays and braids and tassels of tastes, have one dastardly common denominator: they are the Raiders of the Messianic Kingdom.

(part 1) - see parts: (2) (3) (4)

 The Legend of Jesus

It will help the effort of describing them to illustrate by means of example, and by virtue of commensurate qualifications, progress, and popularity, part of the assignment goes to pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback church.  For the same reasons, another part will be supplied by Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek.

It is important to recognize that, while the phenomenal growth and power that these usurpers have achieved in the twenty-first century may never have been equaled, the Raiders of the Messianic Kingdom have been with us since the first century. We can recognize them by their propagation of two fundamental errors, the same ones that underline Warren’s ministry. Firstly, he is fixed on the idea that Christians are to do the things that Christ did.  Secondly, he confuses the gospel message Jesus preached with the gospel that the Church is to preach.  In essence, Warren mistakenly assigns to the Church of Jesus Christ the role of Christ when the Church has its own role.  In an anthropomorphic analogy, he fails to distinguish between the head of the church and its body (Col 1:18) as he interposes Christ’s accomplishments onto the Church’s duties.

The confusion of assigning the wrong tasks and duties to be performed by church members as Christian obligations is derived from the popular misconception of focusing on what Jesus did in his earthly ministry, and seeking to have those things which He did emulated by others as an evidence of Christianity.  At length, a rubric of behavior is adopted on a scale of works and is used to determine the level of Christian obedience, and to enforce a legalism of works, or “deeds, not creeds,” as Warren coined it.¹

The line of thinking under girding this pastoral method goes that Jesus came to set an example for us to follow.  The short theology finally distillated from the approach materialized a few years ago in a primer meant to evoke in ones mind a proper Christian response, or appropriate choice of action, when faced with a challenging life circumstance; by consulting, as it were a Delphi or other such oracle, the provocative question of What Would Jesus Do?  If plumbing the depth of this theological teaching proved too difficult for a moments notice, and more at Warren’s contention that preaching sermons affects no spiritual growth as people “forget ninety-five percent of what they hear within seventy-two hours” anyway,² then the whole of the teaching was reduced to only initials that can be worn on a bracelet for ready reference.

Now, looking back at the ministry of Jesus is not without its significance, but the record of His life in the flesh was not preserved for us to provide a map of the footsteps we are to follow in order to become Christians, or to remain Christians. This chorographical exegesis has produced a whole new category of churches whose members actually refer to themselves as Christ Followers.  While a general reluctance of young faithful to wear the Christian label due to the disgraces done under its banner, and a misunderstanding of how to achieve a contemporary outreach, can be recognized, if not appreciated; by and large this new class is different in that they associate with Christianity only in that they follow the Legend of Jesus.

Notes:

1. Michelle Boorstein, “Megachurch Pastor Warren Calls for a Second Reformation,” Washington Post, February 5, 2008.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/05/AR2008020502467.html

2. Rick Warren, interview aired by Todd Friel, The Way of the Master Radio, rebroadcast on YouTube May 2008.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVth6gtHBNk

And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger: (2Ki 17:10-11)

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? (Num 23:19)

If there were selected only a few books out of the scriptures that Satan despised the most, the top position on the list might be held by the first book in the Bible. The reason for that is a simple one. We hold, by definition, that God is the author and finisher of the drama in which we find ourselves. If there be any mischief found in the account He gives for placing us here on the stage then neither the construction of the theater itself, the creation of life that populates it, or the ensuing drama are attributable to His authorship, nor is it under His control. In essence, if the creation account of man can be undermined then if follows that the rest of the Bible is also false in terms of being the word of God. By that estimation, the Bible is reduced to only one in a large group of biblion comprising a mosaic of allegories, here and there interspersed with embellished historical accounts, with the design to relay some morals or other virtuous conduct as ideals sprung from the imagination of men. No small victory for an antagonist whose main role is that of disputer, and from his first interaction with the human race has disputed God’s claims.

The galaxies are as jewels in the velvet expanse of the universe without end. From nebula to terra firma, wherever we can find it, we are without the ability to describe the wondrous displays, and to explain their existence is beyond our capacity to understand. Create all this in any fashion by any means and the being who does so is indisputably supreme, but pick a fixed place amidst all this splendor that is nevertheless lifeless and create life in it, life that can comprehend, and by the miraculous way described in the Bible; and it is the Lord God, and none other.

Hence, we see the reason of the animus the Devil has for the first book in the Bible. It is based on the fact that the clear interpretation of the creation of man establishes the Lord as nothing less than God, and so Satan has waged war on this scripture from the beginning. As a consequence, there have been many casualties in what has become a war of attrition.

Many in Christendom find themselves in the unenviable position of proclaiming a faith in God, and by extension the reliability of His claims, and at the same time accepting a human explanation for the genesis of man that is contradictory to the account of creation that God has given to us. They express the opinion that they have no problem with the idea of God creating mankind by a means of evolution. This is a process whereby God would have started with a simple and nonhuman life-form that over several million years, and subjected to the laws of chance and the capricious and unintelligent forces of nature, eventually evolved into a full grown man. Aside from the fact that this interpretation violates every other known attribute of the Creator, the scriptures simply do not allow for that option. The Genesis account of creation is completely at odds with the theory of evolution, and any attempt to harmoniously hold the two views not only represents a contradiction, but a compromise of the faith at a foundational level.

The creation account of man is given in overview in the first chapter of The First Book of Moses, called Genesis. Here is contained what is commonly referred to as the six days of creation; days that are disputed as to their actual real time length, and from which dispute some postulate enough time for man to have formed gradually over millions of years. Particularly, it is the sixth day wherein God created both the land animals and man that enough time must be found for the theoretical process of evolution to have occurred, and worked out its transition between the two groups.

Animals: Not in Mankind’s Ancestry

At the outset, the verses in question cannot square with a mutating process used even for the creation of the animals. Notice in this verse that: “And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” (Gen 1:25). The phrase “after his kind,” or a derivative of same, occurs not only three times, as it dose here, but in all it is used five times in the verses detailing God’s creation of all the land animals (Gen. 1:24, 25). This does not, however, only back the problem up. The same qualifications are given for the fowl, and the sea animals created only the day before; thus eliminating them from man’s ancestry too (Gen. 1:20-23).

Here we have it expressly stated that no partially developed adaptations or intermediate forms were in the ancestry of the animals, after which they finally appeared as recognizable for Adam to name (Gen. 2:19, 20), or recognizable as Adam himself, but that they appeared in continuum from their genesis after their, fully formed, kind.

Finally, there is the process given in detail by which God created all the animals, and there can be no reasonable alternative to a genesis of final products:

And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof (Gen 2:19).

While the fowl were formed out the ground the day before God formed the land animals and man, the immediacy of the acts conforms to a reasonable interpretation of two successive days as we would be familiar with them. This is made clear by the fact that only one day passed between the creative acts, and the rapid succession of events is here further emphasized in the way that the verse containing all three acts is structured (Gen 2:19). This rapid succession in verse construction is typical throughout the creation account. This construction is not implemented so as to brush over infinitesimal, finite complexities which were being left out only for modern man to assembly by his theories.

The verses in the creation account are purposely given in their matter-of-fact, straight forward record, as directed by the God of the universe; benevolently explaining to us how we got here, and revealing who it is we are to seek out for aid in our condition.

Man: Created in the Image of God

In creating man, God provides us with an account of the preliminary conditions upon which he was to be created that deny anything but an immediate man. Additionally, the two subsequent conditions would have made it impossible for nothing less than an intelligent, capable, and resourceful human being to appear at once in order to survive and to carry out the first commandments God gave him. Indeed, it is implied that Adam was created far more intelligent than contemporary man, the naming of the animals probably not the assignment of mere domestic pet names, and his superior state is further attested to by a lifetime, though cut short by the introduction of sin on his genes, that still exceeded nine hundred years (Gen. 5:5).

This sort of this information is not derived by an exhaustive search across ancient manuscripts, the perusal of which is obtained only by appointments granted under strictly supervised use-conditions at prestigious libraries. The portion that is pertinent here is found in one verse in the Bible:

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth (Gen 1:26).

The conditions upon which the first man was to be created were basically threefold. Man was to be created in the image of God, to have dominion over the whole earth, and to have dominion over all the animals. The last two subsequent conditions entail something he could never have been expected to do competing with the animals as a precursor to a tadpole. For man to meet the subsequent conditions of his creation, which make up, in part, the first commands God issues to him (Gen 1:28), man began life in a preeminent state. Man was not merely made after his own kind, nor was he made after a single-celled organism from primordial soup. He was made in the image of God; about whom, the author must heuristically hope, religious men know enough to know He is not an amoeba.

Evolving Inanimate Objects: A Standard the Theory Cannot Meet

The foregoing verse presenting the creation of man as man is not an anomaly. There are no less than eight verses in the first two chapters of Genesis that demand immediate man in order to be intelligible to the text (i.e. Gen. 1:26, 27; 2:3, 7, 8, 15, 16), and if only one of them should be chosen for memories sake it would have to be this one:

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Gen 2:7).

At one time, and in one instance, man was fully formed up to his nostrils before he had any life in him at all–no living cells struggling for survival, no grotesque mutating and mindless devouring as protoplasm. God completely formed him out to the dust of the ground and then breathed into him the breath of life, and by miraculous means man became a living soul; not an intermediate soul, not half a soul, but a living human soul in its entirety starting life in the image of God. The scriptures give us an unmistakable assurance of a straight forward and literal account of creation for fowl, animals, and man; and they may even provide us with something more.

Anticipating A Lie: A Rare Entrance Given unto Us

There are reasons to suppose that the creation account of mankind contains within it details which elaborate further on the actual time period encompassed, but these are not contrivances resulting from wresting the length of a day. In examining the scriptures, however, these extraordinary details are often overlooked because the subject is different, but it is the treatment of the subject that is what is actually important. God knew what devices and stratagems the enemy would employ to undermine our perception of God’s credibility in order to deceive us and make us weak in the faith. Perhaps for this very reason, God does a very special thing.

Of all the verses demonstrating that man was immediately created by God in a space of time that would easily be accounted for in what we understand to be a day, the last five verses in chapter two that are the most astounding. They comprise the account of the creation of the first woman. Here, we are made privy to God’s expediency. We are given a rare entrance into the theater of operation to look down through the dome of time onto the operating table to witness God creating human beings. In short order, Adam is anesthetized, operated on, and healed back up; and with no time for evolving intermediate forms, or even for convalescence, God brings to a conscious and alert Adam a fully formed Eve (Gen. 2:21-25). Then, Adam immediately applies his intellectual God-given abilities to naming and classifying the new creature: “And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Gen 2:23).

The account of the creation of Eve stands out for us because it is rare. It is rare because no other account of creation, not for the stars or the planets or even Adam, is given to us in such intimate and time sensitive detail in its entirety (the forming of Adam might be argued as to the length of time). Therefore, we may reason that its purpose is, in part, to emphasize immediate man. Another reason may also exist for this account of God creating life: to spell death. At once, we see the theory of evolution demolished thousands or years before it began. The first woman could not have been created for Adam if he was to have evolved, for she would have been required beforehand in incremental states for his development. That is not the way it happened. Adam was created on the sixth day, named all the animals, and after a few hours went home to meet his wife.

The Theory: Of Relativity

Although there is some study involved in correctly positioning oneself on the subject, it should be a reflexive instinct for intelligent, religious man to refer back to the scriptures on any challenge. Nothing should be more invigorating, but other forces are at work. Some are willing to doubt God’s account of creating man so that they may appear more rational in the eyes of other men. They make their escape from the fantastic, and hard to be believed, supernatural version by ascribing to the day of man’s creation an indeterminate amount of time; enough time wherein the proposed workings of an utterly absurd theory could be masked and made palatable.

Such efforts at accommodation are made because religious man desires to be tolerated in the world community of lab coats and textbook publishers. They reason that the creation happened way back in the distant past, and old days in the Bible may not have been typical days as we can know them in more contemporary times.

Yet, in the larger scheme of generally accepted weights and measures, the time when Jesus walked the earth is contemporarily relative to standards that are easily transferable forwards, and backwards. We only need pay attention to more of the implications to be found in Christ’s discourses.

The Sign of Jonah: The Interpretation of Days

To a different doubting crowd of skeptics, Christ offered his works as a credential of proof for the claims that He made about him self: “But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me” (Joh 5:36). Then, to the harshest critics, and the most unbelieving, Jesus offered an incontrovertible sign to validate His claim of Messiah:

But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Mat 12:39-40).

While several arguments have been put forth to explain away the resurrection (the swoon theory where Jesus revived after his crucifixion, the disciples stole the body, etc.), no one has ever seriously disputed whether the three-day period that Jesus was in the tomb should be interpreted as three months, three years, or three decades.

Even after the resurrection, it was not charged that the period of days be reduced to a smaller increment of measure; the record is too extant, the evidence is too complete. By the way, the same is true for the resurrection itself; people don’t reject the record because they have examined it and found it to be wanting in evidence. When tried under the evidentiary rules of law, the corroborating testimony examined, and the character changes in the lives of the disciples considered, there is overwhelming proof of the resurrection. However, the focus of our examination at present is on the three days. The purpose is for establishing the length of time and its relativity.

As there are doubters of the creation account, there are also those who doubt that a man could have survived inside the belly of a whale for the period of time that Jonah did (Jo. 1:17). We now have it on Christ’s authority that Jonah did just that, and from the record we know he went on from there to preach in Nineveh; taking another three days to walk the city’s 60 mile circumference atop its wall. We also have something else on Christ’s authority in the sign of Jonah; that three days given in time’s distant past are in fact days as we know them today, and we are to take them literally despite the fact that seemingly impossible events transpire within them that can only be ascribed to miracles.

The Components of Days: The Interpretation of Ages

Often the bane of truth can be characterized by only the propensity of carelessness to give rise to misinterpretations, and the proclivity of ignorance to recline and entertain them. There is an argument afoot, really a weak assertion, that the six days in the creation week should be interpreted as ages.

While it is true that there are revealed in the Bible ages which are referred to as days, those “days” are specially designated by titles, or names, such as “the day of the salvation,” “the day of Christ,” and “the day of the Lord” (2 Co 6:2, 2 Th 2:2; Phi 1:6, Joe 2:1-11; 2Th 1:4-10), etc. These ages are also made conspicuous by their absence of enumeration, but this is not the case with the six days. Each of these creation days are successively numbered as days one through six, and they are further identified as twenty-four hour days by an emphasis placed on their several components. For every day in question the specification is added they contain both a morning and an evening, as in: “And the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (Gen 1:31 b).

Biblical ages do contain many years, but none so many as could support the theory, and none available for the period in question. The day of salvation is just over two thousand years and is still running. The day of the Lord is future and will last a thousand years, but there is no age in the past, identified as a day or otherwise, that pertains to man which has run even a million years, much less the indeterminate millions necessary, that can be loaned to a theory for mankind’s gradual development.

This evidence is obtained from just slightly more than casual observation, and there is more to be mined by further investigation, such as in the parsing of Hebrew verbs, and the clear implication that the Sabbath day in the Decalogue is at length the same as God’s seventh day wherein he rested from his creative work (Ex 20:9-11, Gen 2:2-3). As can be seen, the reality of the intention to express literal days in the creation account is very straight forward. It requires only a little looking into.

Compromise: The Motives of Disbelief

Ignorance is one of the reasons religious men have retreated on the creation. It is a problem that is relatively easy to remedy. There is another motive that is more difficult to address; the desire of courting world opinion. It stems from our fallen and unregenerate state, and plagues us after we are saved because of our dual natures; the spiritual man and the old man of the flesh warring against each other (Rom. 7:23-25). When our old nature wins out, we naturally seek the good opinion of other natural men, and natural men are unregenerate sinners in rebellion against God and his word. They are the faithless.

The sublime explanation for faithlessness came in a discourse preceded by these words from Jesus: “But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved” (Joh 5:34). He had appealed to John the Baptist’s testimony that he was the Messiah, and that those listening could be saved by receiving Him as such. They were the Jewish religious leaders who actually sought to kill him because he had healed a man on the Sabbath, and thus diminished their ceremonial observances by which they gained esteem in each other’s eyes. Shortly thereafter, Jesus berated them for their unbelief, and identified the reason for it, by asking them:

How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? (Joh 5:44).

These men sought the acceptance of others of their rank whereby they could also earn accolades from them. The original language of the text is stronger yet, and affirms that, in the natural, men seek glory from men.

Theistic Evolution: The Fruits of Disbelief

While it is true that the lies of evolution are still published in textbooks and used in state schools where students are forced to regurgitate their errors, these facts do not warrant losing faith. Most of the world does not believe in God or His works, nor will they accept the salvation God offers by faith. If religious man thinks that by conceding the creation account he will garner respect amongst naturalists and other assorted atheists, he is sadly mistaken. Although the Bible-believing Christians, who confess the whole word of God, are dismissed as deluded fools clinging to myths; the religious man who concedes to atheists the creation account in the Bible is afterwards ranked even lower. There are two reasons for this.

Firstly, it is obvious that religious man has desperately contrived a third theory of survival of the fittest even more incredulous then theirs: superintended blind chance. The second reason these religious men are to be grievously pitied is for the implications of the resulting compromise arising from their incredible theory of Theistic Evolution.

These are men who at once admit that the genesis of man, as God would tell it, is too incredible to be believed; and still they would trust the same God. They would trust Him to send His son to be born in the flesh so that He could die on a cross for the sins of the whole world to save all those who would simply believe it, repent, and put their faith in His finished work. They trust the same God to forgive them of all their sins, and to resurrect them from the dead to live like the angels in a place called Heaven, for eternity. Ironically, they have faith enough for all of these acts despite the fact that they are instantaneous at the moment of their transaction.

Even at first glance, it must be conceded that all of this appears more difficult to perform then the mere making of a man. After all, what does religious man believe by these things but the virgin birth (Christ born in the flesh), the power of substitutionary atonement (the death of Christ on the cross), the conquering of Death itself (the resurrection of Christ), and by profession of spiritual faith religious man says of eternity, and of his own death and resurrection:

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you (Rom 8:11).

By this confession, they are not saying that they believe in a God who needs a lot of time to make a man, but one who created time itself and inhabits eternity. While they may not realize it, the naturalists grasp the implications of both their confession of faith in God, and the contradiction in their embrace of the theory of evolution.

To the naturalists, these religious men are even more hopeless than the Bible-believing Christians because they remain deluded with admittedly less myth to go on, and in the face of a discredited source of information that encompasses everything else they profess to believe.

One Bite Takes the Whole Fruit: A God of Grotesque Cruelty, Or the God of the Bible

The atheist’s point must be well taken. After it has been proved to religious man that God’s word at the foundation was scientifically demonstrated to be false, and thus He was not to be believed, compromising religious man still professes belief in other biblical claims requiring at least as much miraculous power in order to be performed. In this, religious man finds himself in similar straits as many a religious man before him:

Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me (Joh 12:42-44).

Because those in power had influence over the controlling narrative issued from a seat of authority, and they demanded respect, many would not make full confession of what they believed. They longed for the ruler’s acceptance, a place in their prestigious circle, and they dreaded their rejection. The same is true today. This passage of scripture ends with a critical verse of Christ’s words with at least two applications. The one applicable here is, if you believe in God, you must believe in Jesus, and if you believe in Jesus, you must believe God. It is not an option within theology, and there is only one option without it.

The theory of evolution cannot be taken piecemeal. Anyone embracing that narrative should realize that they must support all its implications. By the terms of the naturalists’ explanation, most of mankind, the vast majority of our lineage, would have no capacity for acknowledging God, or placing saving faith in Him. This ability for abstract thought would only appear late in mankind’s evolutionary development where he could, in turn, invent God and write His narrative for Him. That is the only other option there is to an immediate man in God’s creation account. It is futile to try to ignore the fact that dismissing God is the raison de’tre for the theory of evolution, and any attempt to find a half of it to cling to which would allow for a god does not align with anything we can know about Him.

There is a grotesque cruelty necessary in the theory of evolution. It requires a condition of constantly matriculating through billions of perishing monstrosities that would have persisted over several million years. This would have arbitrarily damned the greater part of God’s creation, selectively discarding by sheer chance of force, mistakes deemed unfit by earth, wind, and fire, the transitional swathe of humanity in the blind. Here is presented the antithesis of God’s narrative, and the exact opposite of God’s character. Starting from the first family on earth we have clear intimation, and then evidence by practice, that God had provided a means by which fallen mankind could approach Him (through shed blood) even before they were cast out of the garden (Gen 3:21), and the infamous first murder takes place when Adam’s first born deviates from the sacrificial communion in his rebellion against God (Gen 4:3-8). This is what we know, and we know that God is not capricious, but merciful; that he takes no pleasure in the death of him that dies (Eze 18:32), or even in the death of the wicked (Eze 33:11), nor is God willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and place saving faith in Him (2 Pet 3:8).

One may be persuaded by Arminianism, or Calvinism, or some other “ism,” but supreme is theism; and the word of God sets a prerequisite condition of His relationship with mankind, which He declares to exist from his genesis, that he at least possess a will. If it be free, or no, mankind’s will is his capacity to be cognizant, and conscious of the fact of whether he believes in God or not. We know that God is just: He says in another place that He sets before men life and death, blessing and cursing, and he admonishes us to choose that life which comes from believing in Him and walking in His statutes (Deu 30:19). It is true that some of God’s characteristics are mercy, justice, and compassion. Indeed, God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son so that whosoever would believe in him should not be damned, but have everlasting life (Jh 3:16).

None of these attributes of God, however, would alone sustain His claims, about creation or otherwise, unless He is also truthful and reliable. Fortunately for us He is, for:

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? (Num 23:19).

God has spoken. He formed man from the dust of the ground, not the cells of simple life forms, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. We can believe it because it is the only explanation reasonable to the text; the Bible both proclaims it and supports it. We can believe it because God said so, and God can be relied upon to do what He says He will do, and to tell the truth about it.

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: (2Pe 2:9)

The view that a person can lose their salvation is a heresy invented by the Catholic Church, expressed by excommunication; and its design was for the purpose of wielding great power by means of subjugation of the masses. The Reformation addressed and corrected many of the errors taught as dogmas under the Church of Rome, but the heresy of fleeting salvation was not singularly dealt with in detail to the extent that it would be kept from resurfacing in Protestant thought. Granted, there are a few scriptures in the New Testament that, taken by themselves, can be confused with an affirmation of the error once dispensed with. These scriptures suffer from common, and simple, misunderstandings of the text; and can be easily addressed.

The first passage used to support fleeting salvation is from Paul’s epistle to the Hebrews. As the name conspicuously reveals, it was written to Jewish believers about many things pertaining uniquely to them, among other things. One of the topics was Jewish professing Christians who had never been born again, and did not really receive Jesus Christ as Messiah:

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. (Heb 6:4-6).

The falling away spoken of here is to apostatize, and by so doing they were practically crucifying the Lord anew, and were as bad as their brethren who did. Some may protest, however, that the alliance here spoken of is too strong for any but the formally converted. Nay, but we have for reference one Simon Magus, a devout and religious man who also renounced his former practice and believed and was even baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. He was also a partaker of the Holy Ghost in that he “continued” with Phillip in his ministry wherein he witnessed “the miracles and signs which were done” that included the casting out of unclean spirits and the healing of those who were lame or had the palsy, and he tasted of the heavenly gift as his whole city experienced “great joy” at these things (Acts 8: 5-13).

Certainly Simon could not want for the way of truth to be more brightly illuminated to him, but thus enlightened he still had an unconverted heart. For though he continued for a time, his unregenerate spirit gave him away; he sought to buy the gift of God with money, and then Peter assessed him in no uncertain terms. Peter informed Simon that he was actually still in the bond of iniquity, in gall and bitterness, had no portion of the grace of God, and had better repent and pray for forgiveness or else he was to be damned, having the same chance of entering heaven as his money did (Acts 8: 19-23).

The second scripture that is used to support fleeting salvation is found in the second epistle of Peter: “Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness” (2Pe 3:17). The idea of the passage (the chapter, and the epistle) is steadfastness in the faith and adherence to the word, or sound doctrine, as spoken by the prophets and the apostles; in the face of apostasy (i.e., scoffers, v. 4; and the willingly ignorant, v. 5). The misrepresentation and misapplication of the scriptures was in earnest at the time, as Peter notes in this chapter regarding the abuse Paul’s epistles were undergoing, and he encourages them to endure:

And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. (2Pe 3:15-16).

The Gnostics and others were putting the scriptures on the rack and torturing them out of shape, and perverting there meaning. The same easy scholarship and shameless didactical misadventures spawn the same misinterpretations and confusions that abound today. It is demonstrated in Peter’s second epistle that Peter also said some things that are hard to be understood, but not impossible. In this case of incorrectly equating losing steadfastness with the loss of salvation, the proof verse is simply taken out of context; so much so, that the entire chapter of seventeen more verses has been, for the sake of study, redacted.

Are there people who leave the faith? By the droves! Former church members turn up as animal rights activists, environmentalists, and other assorted practicing pagans. The question, however, is not whether they were in a church, or small group, or other religious organization. The question is: where they in the faith? Obviously, the answer is no. How, wonder the simple and offended and doctrinally confused saints, could this be. Fortunately, John had to answer this question many years ago, and his answer still holds today:

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. (1Jn 2:18-19).

When John wrote his answer to the saints, they were being reviled and hurt by those who had left their fellowship and started other sects. They were preaching a new holiness supposedly obtained by becoming sinless, and they were expressing open hatred for the saints they had separated from(1Jh 2:9-11). John wrote to them that to reaffirm the right fellowship on which they could depend (1Jn 1:3), and so their joy would be rekindled (1Jh. 1:4). He countered the false brethren’s claim by reminding the saints that: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1Jo 1:8). We will always be sinners in need of our savior, and our foremost assurance that we are secure in our salvation comes from Him.

We have it on the authority of Christ Jesus that eternal salvation is the only kind of salvation He gives, and it is both non-transferable, and non-forfeitable:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (Jn 10:27-28).

A saint cannot be unborn. Nicodemus understood as much when he stumbled at the prospect of being born again; he understood it in the natural only, and that such a reversal entailed retrograding to a state before birth, an impossibility (Jn 3:4). It is a natural law that cannot be violated, and the same is true in the spiritual law of the second, or spiritual birth. To ensure it, the new birth is transacted by the impartation of the Holy Spirit as an earnest deposit in the redeemed possession:

That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. (Eph 1:12-14).

The seal is indelible, permanent. The permanency of God’s seal is also attested to by the irrevocable anti-seal of Antichrist; that he will use to seal the damned unto the day of perdition:

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (Rev 13:16-17).

Those who receive the anti-seal will be receiving the brand of Hell, and:

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. (Rev 14:10-11).

The time of Antichrist is fast approaching. The Lord is coming for his saints soon. As far back as the first century church, Paul had to exhort the saints by the coming of our Lord, and our gathering together unto him, that they be not shaken in their understanding, or troubled in their spirit either by public instruction or by any of the forged epistles that were circulating containing errors (2 Th 2:1-2). Today, the field is many times more overgrown with the wild tares of apostasy. Indeed, we are witnessing the apostasy, but they are going out from us to prove they were not all of us. No one is losing their salvation. Always search the scriptures to see whether a thing be so (Acts 17:11); and be not afraid, but do exploits in His name.