Troubles with a Testimony

I get to teach in Word of Life for the Junior Highers tomorrow night, and the topic is: being prepared with your salvation testimony. We find that the Apostle Paul used his personal testimony a couple of times when presenting an argument, a defense, for his faith. He used it as a witnessing tool.

So, as I'm preparing to teach the kids, let me ask you: Would you be prepared to give a good presentation of your personal testimony to someone that is interested? Well, we probably should be.

But my thought for the day is the trouble that having a prepared testimony could be. The problem comes if there is a false conversion. That is, if there is someone that has never had their life changed, has never been born again, does not have the Holy Spirit indwelling him, and if he is taught how to prepare a testimony, then all that is being done is that he is encouraged and strengthened in his trust in his false conversion.

Look at it this way. When you want to help someone know that their saved, what's the first question you ask them? "Mister, Mister, I want to know if I'm saved or not." "Well, Johnny, you need to be able to go back to a time or place, when you put your faith in Jesus...." Is that the right answer? I don't think so.

Is that not teaching the questioner to trust in an event that happened in their life? "If you can't go back to a time or a place..." teaches the trust to be put in the events of that time and place. The correct answer is, "Well, Johnny, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved." The trust needs to be in the event of 2000 years ago, not just a little while ago. Let's be sure that, while it's good to have a prepared testimony, we don't end up teaching people to trust in the wrong thing. The publican that prayed, "God, be merciful to me a sinner," does not look back at that moment in time, but rather looks at the God that is merciful to him, the sinner.

Just a thought...

Thesis 04/36: Salvation

DOCTRINES OF FAITH
Doctrine 4 / 36: Salvation

The term "salvation" often carries different connotations. In a general sense, when somebody receives salvation, he is simply being saved or delivered from some danger or situation in which he finds himself. When speaking of the salvation of a man's soul, the predicament in which he finds himself is the predicament which his sins have caused. His sins cause him to be under the wrath of God. God would be just and right to immediately damn the soul that sins without any hesitation. However, for no reason other than the grace, mercy, longsuffering and love of God, man has been afforded the opportunity for salvation: Jesus Christ. "By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8).

God's holiness demands satisfaction for offenses made against Him. When man sins, he is offending God. Man's wicked mind thinks that he is able to do something in his own power. He is so proud as to think that he could make things right with God. This mindset is what causes all the different religions in the world. When man tries to do something to appease God, he is failing to see the infinite holiness which is God. The satisfaction to God for offences against Him is either the eternal death in hell of a man's soul, or, the only alternative, the substitutional sacrifice of His only begotten Son Jesus. Jesus' death on the cross was satisfaction of God's wrath on man. However, this atonement is only applied to those that receive the gift by faith. It is by grace through faith.

Salvation is not a process but an event. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24). Jesus said that a person that believes on Him is passed from death unto life. He did not say that he may pass from death unto life, or that he is in the process of getting close to passing unto life. Jesus said he is passed. Jesus also speaks of a person being born again. In His dialogue with Nicodemus in John 3, Jesus says that a person must have a second birth, a regeneration as it is called in other places. He said that people are "born of the Spirit." He does not say that they will be born of the Spirit, but that they already are born of the Spirit. After a person is saved, after that event, there is a process which is called progressive sanctification. Although sanctification in God's eyes happens at the time of salvation, there is also a growing in holiness as a Christian grows in his walk with the Lord. But there will have been a point in that man's life when he passed from death unto life, and the Holy Spirit came and sealed him (Ephesians 1:13).

The sealing of the Holy Ghost has two main concepts that go with it. First of all, when a man is born of the Spirit he is said to be baptized into the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-13). The man becomes a real part of Jesus Christ's body on earth. He has been redeemed by God, so that he is no longer his own, instead he is to follow the head of the body, Jesus.

The second concept that goes along with the sealing of the Holy Ghost is the eternal security of the believer. Jesus said that He puts His sheep in His hand, and that the Father holds them in His hand (John 10:28-29). There is nothing that could ever separate God's sheep from His hands or from His love. God performs a spiritual circumcision, an operation, on a person when they pass from death unto life. It is "the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ" (Colossians 2:11). Circumcision is not a reversible procedure. When a man responds with faith to the Spirit's reproof, He is then regenerated, given new life, born into a new family. It is impossible for that son to be unborn. It is impossible for that son to take away the spiritual life which he was unable to give himself. The salvation of the believer is kept by the power of God. A man was not saved by his own actions, nor does he keep his salvation by his own actions.

A word of caution should be said on the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer. It is clear in the Scripture that a person that is saved can and will never lose their salvation. However, there is also a sad truth in the Bible and is readily experienced today of many people who believe that they are saved, yet they are horribly deceived. 1 John 5:13 tells the Christian that they can know for sure that they are saved. That way to know is not a simple way. The way to know if a person is saved is whether or not they are walking in the light (1 John 1:7), obeying God's commandments (1 John 2:4), loving the brethren (1 John 2:9-10). These things are not the cause of the person's salvation; these things could never appease the wrath of God that was on them. But these things are the result of the Holy Spirit of God living inside them. These things are the fruit of a genuine repentance. It is a fearful thing to assure somebody that they are saved when there is no evidence of a true conversion or regeneration. Salvation has no causation in works, yet it will yield works. That is the reason for the charge of Paul to, work out your own salvation (Philippians 2:12).

"He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him."

Better Promises

As I was reading through Hebrews 8 this morning, I think I learned something. Now, maybe I'm just slow and everybody else really already got this, but I'm just getting it now.

In Hebrews 8, it says that this New Covenant which we find ourselves living under, is a better covenant. The author of Hebrews, aka Paul, is reviewing what he has written so far in the book. He tells how the Priest is better, how the Sanctuary is better (being a heavenly one, not earthly), and he just says it's a better covenant. And then he adds, "established upon better promises."

Now, I can take this two ways, and I think the latter is closer to the truth. But first, this new covenant was established upon better promises could mean that the actual Promises were better under the new testament. That is, if in the Old Testament there was no such thing as eternal security, then the Promise of eternal security is a better promise.

Secondly, though, and I believe more in tune, I think the rewards of the promise is better. The Old Testament made with Moses was not a conditional promise to have everlasting life, but rather physical, temporal blessings. For example, Honor thy father and mother, that thy days may be long upon the land. Whereas in the New Testament, He tells us of an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven.

I guess my hangup was with the question, "Well, how were people saved under the Old Testament?" The answer, from what I can tell, is not found in the Old Testament. The Mosaic Covenant did not save people. I think the salvation of saints before Christ came outside of that covenant... by God's grace given to those that had a faith that manifested itself by its works.

Just a thought...

My Kids' Salvation - Continued

On Friday's post I mentioned my great concern for the salvation of my children. I gave a few thoughts on what I as a father need to do to help bring my children to faith in Jesus Christ. Over the weekend, I realized that I was taking some principles and applying them to the situation, yet I failed to mention a passage in the Bible that specifically deals with the topic of my post.

(Pro 23:13) Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
(Pro 23:14) Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

The Bible tells us that by "beating" (Bible word, not mine) our child with a rod, we will deliver his soul from hell. Now, I believe that to be a principle, not a promise, since lost men have corrected their children with the rod, and their children have followed in their footsteps. But, still, the principle is that if you correct your children, with a rod - causing physical pain - it will help to deliver their soul from hell.

How come? Well, it teaches that sin has judgment. It teaches that a good Father will not let His children do things that in the end will hurt them even worse.

Anyway, my thoughts are still on the same subject, so I wanted to add this to the conversation.

Just a thought...



Andy Hinds

My Kids' Salvation

I hope you all enjoy or are challenged by reading my lunch-time thoughts, and I do hope that what I write can be edifying to the saints. This is my 100th post on this blog, and honestly, I have never written on a topic about which I am more concerned than today's: The salvation of my children. Paul wrote in Romans 9:3, "For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren..." He is referring to the people of Israel. Truthfully, I don't think I could honestly say that about anybody in this world. I don't think that I would be willing to exchange my eternal salvation just to let somebody else get in... The only exceptions to that might be for my wife and children. I praise God that I will never be in a place that I would have to make that decision.

How do you bring your kids to Christ?

I start my post with this: There is one example in all of the Bible where a person made a sinner's prayer and was justified. That is the story of the publican (as opposed to the Pharisee) that begged God to be merciful to him a sinner. The next verse says that he want home justified. Other than that, salvation is always an issue of believing, and not of saying some prayer.

Because salvation does not come as the result of a prayer but rather from believing, and believing is described as being "...faith which worketh by love." (Galatians 5:6), because that is true, I don't want to lead my kids in a prayer and then say, "If you really mean that, you are now saved, and since you are saved, you can never lose that. Congratulations. Let's go get baptized." Honestly, I could do that with my three year old. He would agree with everything, and would repeat the prayer after me. But, I don't think Joe has the moral capacity to understand what sin really is and that he needs a Savior. I don't believe that God is holding him responsible for his sinful nature at this point in time in his life. When the law comes, sin will revive in his life, and he will die (Romans 7:9).

So, what do I do as a father that loves his children? I admit up front that I am lacking in definitive answers here. If I perfectly knew the right answer without doubt, then I would not struggle with this issue, I would just do whatever it was. But since I don't, I am going to share my random thoughts with you all here.

1) Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17. I believe that we need to have the word of God given to our kids - when we lie down, stand up, walk in the way, sit in our house, etc. The word of God must established as the true authority in our lives.

2) For the word of God to be recognized as the true authority in our lives, then we have to live by it. If I teach my kids they need to obey their parents because the Bible says so, but then I am not kind one to another, and my kids realize that, then they will learn from me that God's word isn't really that authoritative. They will grow up as a Christian by name only, and never believe from the heart unto righteousness.

3) The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Ray Comfort wrote a great book on this subject, How to Bring Your Children To Christ and Keep Them There. I read that book a while ago, and as I am writing this, I realize that I want to read it again. Part of that book teaches that we need to make our children understand the law of God and that when they violate that law, they are offending the very God that brought them life. Again, this demands holy living on the part of us parents, or else the children will not believe it to be true. But we unfortunately need to say to our kids sometimes, "Joseph, that was wrong. You did bad." (And after the modern day self-ego-building philosophers stop having their hissy fit, we as Christians need to remember not to be deceived by the philosophies and vain deceit of the world.) God has set the standard. It is NOT ok to ignore it, and it’s not OK to let our kids ignore it.

4) We need to pray. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. We need to pray for the influences in the lives of our children - their friends, teachers, neighbors, etc. I can remember friends in my life that were not positive Christian influences on me... And some of my old friends could be saying the same thing referring to me.

5) We need to teach them Jesus and His cross. It is only through faith in the blood of Christ that a person can be saved. It is by faith that we have access into the grace wherein we stand. After that we believe we are sealed with the Holy Ghost (Rom 5:2 & Eph 1:13). We need to teach our kids that they are not good enough to do anything to merit their own salvation! They need to understand their weakness (we use the law to show them their sin and exceeding sinfulness), and learn to fully trust in Jesus for forgiveness. When we demonstrate how to trust God in all areas of our lives, it becomes easier for our children to see it. Like it has been said, if we are willing to trust God with our eternal souls, we ought to be able to trust Him with whatever we're facing today.

What else? What am I missing? I have never been so concerned about a subject before. Would you be willing to wish yourself accursed from Christ for your children? Would you give up your eternal salvation for your son or daughter? I thank God that I will never have to make that decision, HOWEVER, what will I be willing to give up in this life for the eternal salvation of my children? What if it means I have to stop watching movies? Stop listening to certain music? Go to church more faithfully? Hold better times of family devotions? Have some standards that will cause us as a family to be mocked? Am I willing to cause this discomfort to myself if it will help nurture faith in my children? I would contemplate the idea of giving up my eternal salvation for them - I love them that much - but will I give up temporal pleasures?

Just a thought... or two...

Andy Hinds