There is a fad that has spread all over the English-speaking world.
It goes like this: "If you disagree with me,
you're a blank-o-phobe.
You're a hater."
They instantly know the other person's thoughts, motives, everything.
That's quite a judgment call, isn't it?
The church seems to have copied the world
and made its own version of this: "If you disagree with me,
you're not saved!"
What's wrong with this picture?
Hi, I'm David Daniels from Chick Publications.
I guess only in the 21st century do people think
they have "evolved" to the point that they can totally know
someone else's motivations.
It's amazing!
They don't need to actually listen, pay attention, or even think.
All they have to do is find someone they disagree with,
and poof!
Instantly they think they know the other person's motives.
And it's usually hate, of course.
But the "hater" is always whoever disagrees with him or her
It's never the person who is judging them.
But who's the real hater?
In this world, we expect that kind of behavior.
Unsaved people are subject to the WFD, The Big Three:
the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
But Christians are not supposed to copy the world.
Romans 12:2 says "And be not conformed to this world:
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable,
and perfect, will of God."
That said, I'd like to answer some of the issues
that people use to try to claim that we at Chick Publications
"are not saved" and "are sending people to hell."
Ready?
Let's get started.
1.
They say "You're not saved, because you believe in
'Lordship salvation.'"
I hear that term thrown around almost as much as I hear
"blank-o-phobe."
What is "Lordship salvation"?
2.
They say, "You say you have to make Jesus your Lord
before you can be saved."
"Make Jesus your Lord?"
What does that mean?
Jesus is the Lord.
Nobody can make Him anything.
Jesus is the Lord!
Even if nobody thought so.
He's still the Lord.
So what do they mean by this empty term?
Remember: it's empty, because no one has taken the time
to clearly define what it means.
It's just a way of calling people names at this point.
3.
They respond, "Well, you're teaching
'works salvation,' because you say people
have to repent to be saved."
I didn't say that.
Jesus said that.
Luke 24:47 "And that repentance and remission of sins
should be preached in his name among all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem."
That's what Jesus said, after His resurrection.
And Paul agreed, in Acts 17:30: "And the times of this ignorance
God winked at; but now commandeth
all men every where to repent:"
"All" means all.
Other apostles and elders in Jerusalem also agreed,
in Acts 11:18: "When they heard these things,
they held their peace, and glorified God, saying,
Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life."
Repentance is mentioned before faith,
so whatever repentance is, it's something that happens
before believing the gospel.
Jesus started this sequence in Mark 1:15
"... The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand:
repent ye, and believe the gospel."
He spoke this principle again of repentance before belief,
in the days before He was betrayed,
in Matthew 21:32: "For John came unto you
in the way of righteousness, and ye [the priests and elders]
... repented not afterward, that ye might believe him."
Repent that ye might believe.
Paul in Acts 20:21, to the elders in Ephesus,
said he had been
"Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks,
repentance toward God, and faith toward
our Lord Jesus Christ."
Repentance toward God before faith toward the Lord Jesus?
I'm just reading the scriptures.
Paul in Hebrews 6:1 writes of "not laying again the foundation
of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,"
I didn't write this.
God inspired Paul to say that "repentance from dead works"
comes before "faith toward God."
And he called this "the foundation."
This makes a lot of sense.
If I'm focused on my dead works, good or bad,
I can't focus on placing faith in God much less believing on
the Lord Jesus Christ.
I must turn my attention from my sin to turn toward Christ.
When I change direction, or even change where I'm looking,
I both turn in the direction that I want to go,
And turn away from the direction I don't want to go.
No one comes to the Lord Jesus without turning to Him.
It doesn't work that way.
4.
Then they respond, "But you believe that you must
stop doing sins in order to be saved."
Now I think we are getting closer to what these people really
accuse us of doing.
I have heard that there are people who claim that everyone must
go over all their sins with God and confess and abandon them,
one by one, before God will save them.
We don't believe that at all.
Coming to Christ happens in a moment of time
between man and God.
It's an event, not a process.
You either believe on Him or you do not.
Salvation is by faith, period.
Faith is not a work.
Repentance comes even before placing faith in Christ.
So repentance, commanded by God as I showed you,
isn't a work, either.
People have misunderstood the meaning of "repent."
They have added all sorts of things that may or may not happen
when they go to trust in Jesus Christ and His shed blood.
As I said in a previous vlog, entitled "That Tricky Word 'Repent,"
there are three types of repentance, but one basic root meaning.
Type #1: God repents by turning from
how He said He would respond, based upon the reaction of man.
Again, the root of repentance is turning.
God says, in Jeremiah 18:7-10: 7 "At what instant I shall speak
concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom,
to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced,
turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil
that I thought to do unto them.
9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation,
and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice,
then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them."
God repents by turning from
what He said He would do, based upon the reaction of man.
Type #2: The unsaved repent by recognizing their sinful state
and while they are still soiled by sin, they turn from that sin to Christ.
And, having turned to Christ (in the same motion,
turning from sin and turning to Christ),
they then place faith in Christ and His shed blood
to pay for their sins.
Type #3: When the saved repent, that is a privilege no one else on earth
is allowed to have.
Only the saved get to confess their sin to their loving, heavenly Father
who adopted them as His child.
Only the saved can deal with each sin. by admitting and turning from them
and asking God for forgiveness and help, one sin at a time.
That's it.
Repentance isn't a work.
It comes before faith, because it is the turning
of a sin-filled person to place faith in Christ.
Forsaking individual sins is what we do after we're saved.
That's repentance type #3.
Forsaking sins before we're saved cannot save us.
If reforming ourselves could save us, we would not need
to place faith in Christ's shed blood.
It's either one or the other.
God says that we're saved by repentance and faith,
not works.
It is so easy to name-call.
It is harder to take the time to think things through.
The world is like that.
We know that.
But we are supposed to be different from the world.
Please be very careful about who you call
"saved" and "unsaved."
The Lord is the real Judge, and He always judges justly.
1 Corinthians 4:5 tells us: "Therefore judge nothing
before the time, until the Lord come,
who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness,
and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts:
and then shall every man have praise of God."
So what do you think, Brothers and Sisters?
And please, let's think about these things
and listen to one another before we judge people as unsaved.
Oh, and feel free to comment.
I'll respond as much as I'm able.
God bless you, and have a wonderful day.