Lordship Salvation

I had never heard of the term lordship salvation until a couple months ago, when a blogger wrote a post disagreeing with Way of the Master Radio. Todd and Ray, the hosts, told a caller struggling with pornography that even though he believed in Jesus they couldn’t guarantee he was saved. They said that one of the signs of being a Christian is hating sin and growing in holiness. The blogger was frustrated with Way of the Master supporting the idea of lordship salvation. He remarked that the hosts totally mishandled the caller; his view is that all who say they believe in Jesus are guaranteed a spot in heaven.

Those who dislike lordship salvation say that all that is required to become a Christian is to make some sort of profession of faith in Jesus, without submitting to Jesus as Lord or turning from sin. They agree that repentance is required for salvation, but redefine repentance as a change of mind about who Jesus is. Technically, if someone professes a belief in Jesus at one point in his or her life, that person can go on to become an atheist, Muslim, Buddhist, or murderer and still end up in heaven.

Those who agree with lordship salvation say that repentance is defined as turning from sin. Repentance is a gift from God (Acts 11:18, 2 Timothy 2:25), and isn’t something you do to earn salvation. If a guy is sorry for having an affair on his wife, and apologizes and commits to never doing it again (repents), would anyone say that he earned her forgiveness?

Those who have repented will produce the fruit of repentance (Matthew 3:8), and will prove their repentance by their deeds (Acts 26:20), because they are changed on the inside by God (2 Corinthians 5:17), and are slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:18), rather than sin. If someone says he or she is a Christian, but later becomes an atheist, he or she doesn’t lose salvation. Rather, the individual was never really saved.

The book of 1 John provides several tests to tell whether someone is a Christian. Among the indicators of true believers are love for brothers (1 John 3:14) and obedience to God’s commandments (1 John 2:3-4). In other words, while Christians certainly sin and even have significant struggles with it from time to time, they don’t live a lifestyle of sin.

This discussion isn’t just an interesting debate. This is very important. The Bible commands us to examine ourselves to see if we’re in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). What standard do we examine ourselves with? What are the ramifications if we’re not in the faith?

When we share our faith, our job isn’t to make getting saved more of a one-step process, or to get as many people saved as possible. (Jesus made it clear in several instances that following Him would cost us something.) Our job is to tell the truth contained in the Bible, and to not give people a false sense of security about their eternity.

Phil Johnson of the Pyromaniac Blog preached an interesting sermon on this topic. To listen, right click on it, click on “Save Target As,” save it, and then open it with your audio player.
http://www.thegracelifepulpit.org/audio/GL-064-000-PJ.mp3

Is Homosexuality a Sin?

In a previous post, Jeremy and I were discussing whether homosexuality is a sin. He challenged me to discuss this with him on his blog. Unfortunately, because my comment didn’t meet his specifications, he deleted it.

He’s free to do as he pleases on his blog. However, I’d like to point out that repeatedly stating one’s qualifications and gloating about one’s inability to lose an argument isn’t the same as actually winning an argument. I’ve read his comments and some of his posts, and I’m still not clear what his argument is. So I thought I would cite the verses that most clearly call homosexuality a sin, and let everyone decide for themselves.

On Jeremy’s blog, he says that even Romans 1 doesn’t refer to homosexuality. Romans 1:26–27 (NIV) says, “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”

You may or may not agree with the Bible’s stance, but I think anyone who is honest with themselves has to admit that Paul (the writer) is quite obviously referencing homosexuality. He refers to it as shameful lust, indecent acts with other men, and perversion.

Another verse clearly calls homosexuality a sin. The Bible says, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9–10). That passage includes a long list of sinners, and I’m on it, and so is everyone else. I’m curious if those who believe that homosexuality isn’t a sin believe that there are other items on the list in 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 (stealing, greed, etc.) that are also not sinful.

A lot of “Christians” will say that homosexuality isn’t a sin, and they go through some pretty fancy footwork to reach that conclusion, but it usually involves starting out with the premise that the Bible isn’t necessarily true, and it’s not the final authority for our advanced civilization of 2007 (i.e. we’ve moved beyond those backward hillbillies). (I’m not going to go into too much defense of the Bible as I’ve done that in previous posts; you can check out Answers in Genesis  for evidence that the Bible is a supernatural book written by God Himself.)

Another argument is that the Bible is outdated, and that homosexuality was simply not accepted way back when, but that it should be now. However, if homosexuals in Paul’s (the person who wrote 1 Corinthians) day were going to hell, why are homosexuals in our day no longer going to hell? Has God changed His mind? Is He going to take the people He mistakenly sent to hell back out of hell, because our society no longer considers it a sin, or are they out of luck?

I have good news for anyone who finds themselves on that list, including homosexuals. Jesus who is God in the flesh lived a sinless life, and was crucified for guilty sinners, and then rose from the dead. I deserve to go to hell, because I’ve broken God’s holy law, but Jesus took my place. In my case, justice has been served and I’m free to go to heaven. While I’m morally imperfect (to be more precise I’m desperately wicked, see Jeremiah 17:9, Romans 3:10-12, 23), I’m legally perfect, because Jesus took my punishment. Jesus’ sacrifice is a gift that can only be accepted by repenting (turning away from all of ours sins, including lying, lust, drunkenness and homosexuality), and trusting Jesus to save us. Almighty God has commanded everyone, no matter what their sin, to repent and trust Jesus. The consequences of disobedience are eternal.

My Jehovah’s Witness Video on Youtube

I had an idea to make a video on the Windows Movie Maker program about Jehovah’s Witnesses. It’s my first effort at making a video, and I think the idea was good to start out with, but I may have come up a little bit short on the execution. While the content of the video is true (and hopefully not boring), the quality of the video may be lacking, due to a severe lack of talent and experience.

I’ve tried through several posts to get a Jehovah’s Witness to have a discussion with me, but they’ve all turned out to be drive-by commenters. The questions I’m trying to find the answer to are:
1. If Jehovah is God, and Jesus is a god, how many gods do you believe there are?
2. Are you born again?

Every Drunk’s Favorite Bible Story

While Colorado’s law saying that people can no longer smoke indoors in a public place may have taken away private property rights (which American soldiers have died to protect), it has provided ideal situations for witnessing. By state law, people have to come out in front of the bars on Main Street (where we regularly witness) to smoke, affording us the opportunity to start a spiritual conversation with them. The majority of people who are there are there to get drunk, meet someone to sleep with, or commit another sin of some sort. It can be a tough crowd.

Those who are there to get drunk and are the cream of the Main Street Bible scholar crop are quick to point out that Jesus turned water into wine (John 2). Obviously, they say, Jesus is OK with people getting drunk. I would guess we’ve heard this theory an average of about twice per week.

But the Bible says that “…drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). People who are there to drink will often get pretty ticked off when I point out a verse like this to them.

In the past, I’ve been hesitant to discuss drunkenness with these people because they do sometimes flip out. But I think it’s important to remember that if people get mad, it’s a sign that the Holy Spirit is convicting them of their sin. Jesus said the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:18). Why else would these individuals care what some random guy like me thinks unless their conscience backs up what I’m telling them?

Gay Christians?

I went to the gay pride parade in Pueblo, Colorado, to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to anyone who would listen. There weren’t too many in attendance, and the 10 or 12 Christians I was with ran out of people to talk to within a couple of hours, but I noticed some interesting things.

I had a few conversations where people had little or no religious convictions and seemed to respond humbly to the gospel. A few times, after I struck up a conversation and then moved to spiritual topics, they would just walk away. But the conversations that were most frustrating and sad were the ones with people who claimed to be Christians.

I talked to a couple of teenagers standing near a family; I later found out it was the family of one of the teens. The teens and the family all claimed to be Christians who attend church every week. When I tried to explain the gospel to them, I found they didn’t have a very good understanding of it. As I talked to the father, the teens walked away before I was able to explain the gospel. After I said goodbye to the family, I walked toward the teens and started talking to them again. That’s when the mom interjected: “I don’t want you to make my son feel bad about being gay.” She told her son that he didn’t have to talk to me if he didn’t want to, but they were nice and let me finish explaining what Jesus did for us.

Later, I had a confusing conversation with a guy named Rob. He attended church, understood the gospel very well, and gave me a very good explanation of repentance. The odd part was that he kept joking that he was going to hell. I asked him if he was born again, and he said that he wasn’t interested in what modern Christianity has become. I quoted John 3:3 and tried to explain the whole born-again process, and left him saying that it didn’t matter what he thinks or what I think about born-again people. He needs to figure out what Jesus meant by born again, and make sure he is truly born again.

Matthew, who also claimed to be a Christian, was very talkative and honest about his experiences. He was also very self-righteous, and thought that he hadn’t sinned in a long time. He was a less conventional Christian than most. He believed that everyone was going to heaven—no matter what. I listened to him explain his ideas for quite a while, and then he, too, admitted he wasn’t born again. He didn’t have a Bible at home, so I gave him the gospel of John. I pointed John 3 out to him, and encouraged him to understand what Jesus meant by being born again.

There was also a church with a booth at the event. One of the other people I went with talked to the lesbian pastor. She believed that all people must do for salvation is ask Jesus into your heart. This church (apparently made up mostly of lesbians) later went up on stage and did a flag waving/tambourine routine accompanied by praise music.

I felt like I was mostly there to correct what some pastor has taught or is teaching to these people. Still, I believe I fell short in not telling those who claim the name of Jesus yet readily admit to being homosexual, and who could not be humbled by any of the other nine commandments to repent of their homosexuality. I was more concerned with not making a scene or offending them than I was with the truth.
 
I think that whatever we’ve been doing as American Christians to let people living a lifestyle of blatant sin (whether it’s homosexual sin, heterosexual sin, or anything else) to go on believing that they’re Christians and they’re OK with God must come to an end. Our silly, trite, modern gospel messages are giving people a false sense of security, and they have to stop. We’ve reduced the idea of God saving us down to praying a quick prayer (but really, really meaning it) and encouraging them to never question their salvation (which is very unbiblical advice; see 2 Corinthians 13:5).

Jehovah’s Witnesses: Lost in translation

The Jehovah’s Witnesses use the New World Translation of the Bible. According to Macgregor Ministries, it has been severely mistranslated to mold it to fit the views of their organization. There were no Hebrew or Greek scholars involved in the translation; they refuse to release the names of anyone who was involved.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses also use the Kingdom Interlinear Translation, which has an original Greek manuscript printed next to the English translation. It uses the Westcott & Hort Greek New Testament manuscript, which is believed by Christians to be acceptable. The preface of the Kingdom Interlinear Translation says, “We offer no paraphrase of the Scriptures” and “nearly as possible word for word, the exact statement of the original” (Page 9, 1985 ed.). So the question is: Is it really translated word for word?

One belief of Jehovah’s Witnesses is that only God should be worshiped—and I wholeheartedly agree (1st and 2nd Commandments). However, I disagree with their belief that Jesus isn’t God and shouldn’t be worshiped.

In Revelation 7:11, we read that the angels, elders, and four creatures worshiped God, as you can see in the Kingdom Interlinear Translation.

But, in Matthew 14:33, the same Greek word used for worship in Revelation 7:11 is translated as “obeisance.”

It’s clear that the Watchtower didn’t translate word for word as they stated. The same Greek word (προσεκύνησαν) is translated into different words, based solely on whom the object of the worship is. All Jehovah’s Witnesses interested in finding the truth should switch to a reliable Bible translation.

There are many other glaring issues with the New World Translation; you can learn more about this from Macgregor Ministries. Most of this information comes from that site.

Were the Messianic Prophecies Rigged?

In 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in caves in Israel. Scrolls from several different books were found, including the Hebrew Bible. The Dead Sea Scrolls included a complete copy of the book of Isaiah dated to 125 B.C. Before this discovery, the earliest copies of the Hebrew Bible were from the 900s A.D., so the Dead Sea Scrolls were about 1,000 years older than any existing copy. The scrolls gave scholars a chance to see if there were any copying errors that crept in over that millennium. It turns out that the copies we were 95 percent accurate. The 5 percent error comes mainly from misspelled words, and did not affect the content of the book.

What is particularly amazing about the book of Isaiah is that it has a lot of prophecies about the Messiah, which were originally written 700 years before Jesus. And now, we have copies of the original that predate Jesus’ life by about 125 years. You can get copies of the Dead Sea Scrolls and read them for yourself (written in Hebrew, but I’ve heard that Israeli school children can read them).

These verses about Jesus (written 700 years before He was born) were found in both the Dead Sea Scrolls and previously discovered manuscripts:

• Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14; Immanuel means God with us).
• For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).
• I gave My back to those who struck Me, And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting (Isaiah 50:6).

Isaiah 53 gives a crystal clear gospel message; you should read it for yourself. Some of the more specific prophecies are:

• The LORD has laid on Him all of our iniquities (53:6).
• He was led like a lamb to the slaughter (53:7).
• He was buried with the rich (53:9).

I’m curious what people who follow the Jewish faith think about this. Certainly a lot of them have studied the Scriptures and seen this, and these are very specific prophecies.

Satanism, Masonry and Mormonism

I happened across a website with some free, short, online books. One in particular is by a guy with an amazing story. The book is probably about 10 pages long, and it details the similarities between Mormonism and the Mormon temple ceremony and the occult. I hope you enjoy it, and I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Mormonism’s Temple of Doom by William Schnoebelen.

Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Polytheism

I questioned whether Jehovah’s Witnesses are polytheists in a previous post, and the more I’ve thought about it, the more pivotal I believe that question is. Their version of Isaiah 9:6 is pretty much the same as any accepted translation. It says that Jesus is a mighty God; I believe they will acknowledge that Jesus is a mighty God, but not God Almighty. They believe that Jehovah is God Almighty, and Jesus is a different, but nevertheless mighty God. So, apparently, they believe in two gods, making them polytheists.

There are a lot of verses that say there is only one God, so they have a huge problem here right? I believe that as they go door to door, they are often asked about John 1:1. Their standard reply (I’ve personally heard JWs say this more than once) to the objection of inserting an “a” into the verse is that a lot of translations say, “The word is a god.” (I’ve looked through about 20 different translations, some of which may or may not be any good, and I’ve never seen it translated that way.) But if there is only one God, the mistranslation seems to be a side issue. If they believed there’s only one God, even their translation of John 1:1 would be good enough to show that Jesus is that God.

The next time I get a chance to talk to a Jehovah’s Witness, I’m going to ask him or her about their polytheism. It seems like a fairly simple way to shake the person’s understanding and confidence in their religion and begin to open their eyes to the truth.