Acts 15:1-2 and 24, “And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. ...Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:”
Our churches in America are in bog trouble nowadays. The Devil has successfully crept in hundreds of counterfeit Bible revisions, which attack the deity of Jesus, diminish His prominence, remove the Godhead, corrupt the meaning of repentance and how to be saved, and are secularizing the Holy Bible, turning it into a spiritual book instead of a theological book. The Antichrist when he comes will be a spiritual man, honoring “the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not...” (Daniel 11:38b). I believe “fathers” here refers to the Jewish patriarchs, and the God of Israel. Thus, the coming Man of Sin (Antichrist, or “in place of Christ”) will likely be a Jew. He will worship New Age religion.
Because of all the corrupt Bible versions being published by the Devil, God's simple plan of salvation has been corrupted. Calvinism (a perversion of God's grace) has crept into most churches today, presenting getting saved as a lifelong process instead of a new birth. It is tragic that pastors and churches everywhere still support Bob Jones University, when they have gone full blown Calvinist in their doctrine. Calvinism is not the Gospel of free grace!!!
A Christian SHOULD Live For Christ;
But If He MUST, That Would Be Works;
And If He WILL, That Is Calvinism!
HOW TO GO TO HEAVENWe can’t earn salvation; we are saved by God’s grace when we have faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. All you have to do is believe you are a sinner, that Christ died for your sins, and ask His forgiveness. Then turn from your sins—that’s called repentance. Jesus Christ knows you and loves you. What matters to Him is the attitude of your heart, your honesty. We suggest praying the following prayer to accept Christ as your Savior:"Dear God, I know I’m a sinner, and I ask for your forgiveness. I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son. I believe that He died for my sin and that you raised Him to life. I want to trust Him as my Savior and follow Him as Lord, from this day forward. Guide my life and help me to do your will. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen." [emphasis added]
What you have just read is another gospel, not what the Bible teaches. Nowhere in the inspired Scriptures (if you have a trustworthy King James Bible) are we taught to “turn from your sins” to be saved. This is a work! Turning away from sinning is in fact, keeping the law. What saith the Scripture? Romans 3:19-20, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” The only purpose of God's Old Testament law in salvation is to give mankind THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN.
Please let me WARN YOU that the Roman's Road is a false plan of salvation if you leave out the Gospel, which according to 1st Corinthians 15:1-4 is Christ's DEATH on the cross for our sins, His BURIAL and bodily RESURRECTION from the dead three days later. Tragically, many versions of the Roman's Road tract that I have read DON'T even mention the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is an incomplete Gospel. It is not enough to believe that Christ died for your sins on the cross, you MUST also believe that Jesus raised up from the dead (1st Corinthians 15:14-17; 1st Thessalonians 4:14). I am not against using the “The Roman's Road,” but you need to understand that it is not the Gospel unless you include Christ's death on the cross, His burial and bodily resurrection three days later. This is “the Gospel” by which we are saved if we believe it. I thank God for the wonderful book of Romans, but remember, God specifically gave us the Gospel of John to be saved.
I have counseled over the decades with umpteen confused people, who said that for many years they refused to come to Christ to be saved, because they were falsely misled by some wicked preacher to think that God wouldn't save them, unless they were first willing to forsake their sinful bad habits. Dear friend, that is not God's free, easy and simple gift of eternal life. God is freely offering you a gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life, based solely upon Christ's sacrifice upon the cross, by the blood that He shed for your sins and mine (1st Peter 1:18-19). God requires NOTHING from you to be saved except that you BELIEVE (put your hope, confidence, trust) in His only begotten Son, Jesus. John 20:31, “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”
Pastor Steven Furtick in Charlotte, North Carolina, is very popular today around the country. Unfortunately, Pastor Furtick is a false prophet, preaching another gospel of having a relationship with Christ, inviting Jesus into your life, following Christ as “Lord” of your life, turn from your sins, count the cost and pay the price, live a lifestyle of repentance, run the race, confess Christ publicly, get water baptized, et cetera. These popular Satanic lies have infected nearly every church today, which are nowhere found in the inspired Word of God. These wicked false preachers completely ignore the plain teachings of the inspired Holy Scripture.
God specifically authored the Gospel of John to show humanity how to get to Heaven. In the book of John we find the word “believe” mentioned 88 times, but there is no mention of repenting, confessing, surrendering, following, having a relationship or anything else to be saved, except to BELIEVE ON HIM. John 6:28-29, “Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”
Where did all these preachers go astray? Where did they get all this garbage that we hear today, that to be saved you must:
- walk an aisle
- pray a prayer
- join a church, denomination or convention
- turn from your sins
- repent “of your sins”
- be willing to turn away from sin
- feel sorrow for your sins
- forsake a lifestyle of sinning
- be baptized in water
- speak in “tongues”
- turn over a new leaf
- ask Christ into your heart
- invite Jesus into your life
- surrender your entire personality to Christ
- surrender all
- live a holy life
- live a changed life
- give control of your life over to Christ
- faithfully run the race
- count the cost and pay the price
- live a lifestyle of repentance from sins
- turn away from the old life
- follow Jesus no matter what the cost
- make Jesus the “Lord” (Master) of your life
- be sorry for your sin
- confess Christ publicly
- keep the Sabbath Day
- keep God's Ten Commandments
- get rid of bad habits and vices
- ask Jesus into your heart
- have a religious experience
- feel hatred for sin
NONE of these things are required to get to Heaven. Yet, I can hardly listen to a sermon, or visit a church website, or watch a YouTube video, or hear a Bible college chapel service, or read a religious tract, without seeing these unbiblical additions to God's simple plan of salvation, which is by faith alone in the Gospel (Good News) of Jesus Christ crucified, buried and risen the third day (1st Corinthians 15:1-6).
It saddens my heart to hear preachers obscuring, confusing and corrupting the Gospel with all sorts of embellishments. The Bible says in 2nd Corinthians 4:3-4, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” The Devil doesn't want lost sinners to get saved. Satan wants people to burn in the Lake of Fire with him. So the Devil blinds men's minds! How does he do this? Satan hinders people from getting saved by obscuring and hiding the Gospel of free grace.
Dear friend, there is only one Gospel, and it is plainly proclaimed by the Apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians 15:1-4:
1st Corinthians 15:1-4, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”
In all my eight years of Bible college, I exclusively used the Roman's method to lead people to Christ, but I came to realize decades later that this religious tract can be dangerous! My big $64,000 question is: Why use the book of Romans to lead someone to Christ, when God specifically authored the Gospel of John to do that? “The Roman's Road” is popular method of presenting the Gospel, using only Scripture passages from Romans.
Please let me WARN YOU that the Roman's Road is a false plan of salvation if you leave out the Gospel, which according to 1st Corinthians 15:1-4 is Christ's DEATH on the cross for our sins, His BURIAL and bodily RESURRECTION from the dead three days later. Tragically, many versions of the Roman's Road tract that I have read DON'T even mention the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is an incomplete Gospel. It is not enough to believe that Christ died for your sins on the cross, you MUST also believe that Jesus raised up from the dead (1st Corinthians 15:14-17; 1st Thessalonians 4:14). I am not against using the “The Roman's Road,” but you need to understand that it is not the Gospel unless you include Christ's death on the cross, His burial and bodily resurrection three days later. This is “the Gospel” by which we are saved if we believe it. I thank God for the wonderful book of Romans, but remember, God specifically gave us the Gospel of John to be saved.
One of my biggest complaints against The Roman's Road method is that 100% of the time it ends with requiring a lost sinner to pray a sinner's prayer, which can easily confuse some people, as it did me for several years. I couldn't settle the assurance of my salvation, because I kept wondering if I left something out of my prayer at the time I was saved. I knew that Jesus is the Christ, who died on the cross for my sins, was buried and raised up physically three days later. But I overlooked all that simplicity, and focused on the prayer instead, because that is what every preacher had unbiblically told me to do... pray! Dear reader, I abandoned the sinner's prayer many, many years ago. In fact, Biblically, you DON'T need to pray any kind of prayer to be saved, you simply must BELIEVE ON HIM. John 6:47, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”
Oh, why oh why, do so many preachers feel compelled to complicate God's simple plan of salvation for mankind? YOU are a sinner dear friend. YOU deserve to burn in Hell, fire and damnation forever as punishment for your sins against a holy God. That mighty not set right with you, or make any sense, but that is only because you are not as holy and righteous as God, so you probably think going to Hell forever is unfair. But I assure you that it is what you and I deserve friend, as punishment for all of our own sins.
In the blessed Gospel of John we read in John chapter 3 that we are all sinners. We read in chapters 19 and 20 about Jesus' crucifixtion, burial and resurrection on Sunday. We read throughout the Gospel of John that the simple way to be saved is to BELIEVE ON HIM. John 6:40, “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” There is no requirement to pray a prayer, nor to surrender control of your life over to God, nor to follow Christ as “Lord” no matter what the cost, nor to forsake a lifestyle of sinning to be saved.
When Adam sinned, it made sense to his new carnal nature to DO SOMETHING to atone (to hide, cover) for his sins. So Adam sewed together some fig leaves, to cover his nakedness and shame. God rejected Adam's fig-leaf religion, and instead killed an innocent animal (which pictured the sinless innocent Lamb of God who was slain for our sins). So you see dear reader, you cannot cover up your sins with religion! You cannot impress God with following Christ, or having a relationship with Christ, or forsaking your sinful ways, in order to get to Heaven.
Listen it is utterly IMPOSSIBLE for any human being to turn away from your sins!!! Do you understand that? You may have once been as wicked as The Iceman (Richard Kuklinski, 1935-2006) serial killer in New Jersey, but found the Lord (Richard didn't). You may have started attending church, helping old ladies across the street, preaching about Jesus everywhere you went, doing many wonderful good works, and becoming the epitome of a good person! Yet, you would still split Hell wide open the second that your spirit and soul departed from your physical body (Hebrews 9:27; Luke 16:19-31). Isaiah 64:6 warns that man's best righteousness is “filthy rags” to God!
The ONLY thing that has, can or ever will appease the wrath of God (which is what the Bible word “propitiation” means in Romans 3:25, 1st John 2:2 and 1st John 4:10) is the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, to those who BELIEVE ON HIM. 1st John2:2, “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” John 3:36, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, God's wrath rests upon you. Be afraid, BE VERY AFRAID if that is you!!! Hebrews 10:31, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Galatians 1:6-7, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.”
I contend that I am RIGHT, because I have the inspired King James Bible on my side (1st Corinthians 15:1-4). What verses can all those ungodly infidel preachers quote to support their damnable heresies? All they can do is quote obscure passages of Scripture, wresting them out of context to support their false doctrinal assertions, while completely ignoring clear passages of Scripture (i.e., the Gospel of John, and the Epistle of Galatians). Romans 3:4, “God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.” I am ready to be judged, because what I am preaching agrees with the Gospel of John (God's Gospel tract); but what Marty Herron and these other devils are preaching is NOT even in the ballpark of what the Holy Bible teaches. They have been warned, but they refuse to repent.
Here is another $64,000 question for you: How wrong on the Gospel can a person be and still be saved? In Acts 15:1 a religious group came to Jerusalem preaching that you cannot be saved without keeping the law of Moses, specifically being circumcized (for men). Were they saved? No! Acts 15:24 confirms this!
In the Epistle of Galatians a similar religious group had infiltrated the churches of Galatia, infecting them with the idea that faith in Christ must include keeping the law of Moses. Were they saved? No, not the one's who failed to heed Paul's Gospel (1st Corinthians 15:1-4). The Apostle Paul sternly rebuked them for believing “another gospel” in Galatians 1:6-9, calling them “bewitched” in Galatians 3:1-3, telling them they had “fallen from grace” in Galatians 5:4 and that they would “reap” what they had wickedly sown in Galatians 6:7.
Many ignorant preachers praise Martin Luther (1483-1546) as a born-again believer, but Mr. Luther preached the heresy of Sacramental Salvation his entire life! Luther plainly preached that no one can get to Heaven without being Water Baptized and partaking of Holy Communion. Was Martin Luther saved? No way!
Evangelist Charles G. Finney openly denied the imputed righteousness of God to the sinner. Was Charles Finney saved? No way!
How wrong can a person be on the Gospel and still be saved? I contend that the moment even the slightest bit of trust is taken away from Christ alone, and placed upon something else, that person has never been saved at all. You cannot get to Heaven by partial faith in Christ, plus turning away from sinful ways. I have heard stupid preachers galore, attempt to justify their wicked heresy, by claiming that you cannot turn TO Christ without also turning AWAY from something. That is true in a sense, but not in the sense that they use it. It is true that a person must turn AWAY from unbelief in order TO trust Christ as Savior. But it is not true that a person must turn away from their own selfish life, turn away from willful sinning, turn away from maintaining control over one's own lifestyle. As you can see clearly, this form of errant thinking by false teachers can be utilized to JUSTIFY ANYTHING!!!
In Genesis 15:6 (cf. Romans 4:4-7) we read that Abraham was justified in God's sight by faith alone, and not be repenting of his sinful deeds, “And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” Salvation has ALWAYS been by simple faith alone in Christ. Acts 10:43, “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” No one was ever saved by works (i.e., keeping Moses' law) in the Old Testament. Kindly said, Peter S. Ruckman is a false teacher in this important doctrinal matter (as is William P. Grady up in Michigan, and Robert Breaker down in Florida). Heretics abound nowadays!!! Many preachers love and admire Pastor Peter Ruckman, as do I, but I will NEVER admire any man enough to overlook his heresies! My foremost loyalty is to God!!!
Dear reader, in closing, you simply cannot lead a lost sinner to Christ with a corrupt gospel. If you think that a person cannot continue living in willful sin and be saved, then you are woefully mistaken and not saved yourself. Repent of your false repentance and trust only in the finished redemptive work of Jesus Christ. CEASE from your own works, and REST only in Christ alone (Hebrews 4:10-11). That is the ONLY way to get to Heaven!!!
It is not a coincidence that over 95% of preachers today are preaching another gospel, because the Devil intentionally hides the Gospel to prevent sinners from coming to the light of THE TRUTH of the Gospel, lest they should be gloriously saved by faith alone without works (2nd Corinthians 4:3-4). So our job as believers is to keep the Gospel simple and uncluttered.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.