LETTER TO A DEAR BROTHER ON TINA TURNER AND THE END OF THOSE WHO FOLLOW BUDDHISM
My dear Brother John, Thank you for your recent letter and the questions you have asked concerning Tina Turner and the Salvation of those who follow the Buddhist path. I am not surprised that you being a newly converted Christian asked me such a question. But do not the words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ settle that question once and for all, dear Brother? For He bluntly said,
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but BY ME!” [John 14:6]
And His disciples after Him reiterated the same truth by asserting, “Neither is there salvation in ANY OTHER: for THERE IS NONE OTHER NAME UNDER HEAVEN given among men, whereby we must be saved.” [Acts 4:12]
I understand that there are a lot of folks on Social-media who are praising Tina Turner and all the good that she has done etc, saying that “she is in a better place now” blah blah. And as far as I know, only one prominent Christian writer, Ray Comfort spelled out the facts on Twitter, saying – “The Queen of rock ‘n’ roll passed into eternity today. All the money that Tina Turner possessed, all her fame, all her awards, and accolades now mean nothing. The only thing that matters, is “Were her sins forgiven?”
Oh, brother that sure stirred a hornet’s nest amongst the ungodly, with people bashing this man right, left and center . . . you know why? It’s because he was coming against their idol, and in exposing HER he was exposing THEIR OWN GODLESS LIFESTYLE AND THEIR INEVITABLE END, if you will. It happens every time you speak out exposing the wrath of God that awaits those who know not Christ, celebrity or not.
Our Lord stated that in no uncertain terms, “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!” [John 3:36]
So, what of Tina Turner and her faith? WHAT did she believe and practice? While Tina Turner is heralded as a Rhythm n Blues and Rock icon, her Buddhist faith was the soul that drove her eventful life and career.
She often credited the Buddhist religion with helping her find the strength to leave her abusive relationship with her husband Ike Turner in 1976. In the years since, Turner was known to recite Buddhist chants daily, even chanting on national television on Larry King’s CNN show in 1997, a practice she continued until her death on Wednesday, at 83, in her home in Küsnacht, near Zurich, Switzerland, where she had kept her own Buddhist shrine.
Here’s what she said concerning her Buddhist faith, “Chanting helped me to go within myself and open deep sources of happiness and wisdom in my own heart and mind,” she revealed. “Soon, I realized that I already had within me everything I needed to change my circumstances and create a truly happy life. We all have that, and I want everyone to know it. I’ve met people from all over the world, from many cultures and faiths, and I believe that all religious traditions share the same basic aspirations at their core—to experience everlasting joy by aligning with the positive forces of the universe. We may describe this ultimate reality as Jehovah, God, Allah, Jesus, Hashem, Tao, Brahma, the Creator, the Mystic Law, the Universe, the Force, Buddha nature, Christ consciousness, or any number of other expressions.”
Read that again, John, she said that she “already had within me everything I needed to change my circumstances and create a truly happy life.” Oh, how different from the apostle who said, “For I know that in me [that is, in my flesh,] dwelleth no good thing!” [Rom 7:18]
Any ‘Christian’ who knows Tina’s lifestyle and beliefs and thinks that “she is in a better place now” needs to be Born-again! And for those who argue that such ungodly sinners could have repented on their death-beds, A.W. Pink’s words are appropriate –“What insanity is it that persuades multitudes to defer the effort to repent till their deathbeds? Do they imagine that when they are so weak that they can no longer turn their bodies they will have strength to turn their souls from sin? Far sooner could they turn themselves back to perfect physical health.”
Coming back to Tina Turner, she was deluded into thinking that all religions “share the same basic aspirations at their core—to experience everlasting joy by aligning with the positive forces of the universe” She is dead wrong!
As we have said in many of our posts, there are basically only TWO RELIGIONS in the world. One says, “IF YOU WILL do such and such, God will graciously bestow His blessing upon you.” The thousand and one varieties of this religion differ only on what the “such and such” is that you must be willing to do. One variety says bathe in a sacred river, another bids you to sit and chant mantras for hours on end, while another beckons you to kiss the sacred rock located in the holy city, still another says be baptized or some similar rite, and in distinctly evangelical circles this religion emphasizes, “IF YOU WILL OPEN YOUR HEART, THEN GOD WILL etc . . .”
Now the second religion is the message of the Bible. It is the gospel of FREE GRACE. It does not look to God for the PROVISION and then turn to man for the POWER, but it boldly proclaims that the same sovereign grace that planned salvation for helpless sinners also furnishes them with the ability to desire and receive it. This second religion not only starts at a different place, it works on a different principle, and moves toward a different goal. In short, it is a totally different religion.
The religion based on free will which include Hinduism, Buddhism, Mohammedanism, and Roman Catholicism [i.e., Arminianism in general – If you will …], and that based of free grace [i.e., Calvinism — God makes us willing …] are two very distinct and opposite religions that differ on every theological point at which they meet.
But since your question concerns Tina Turner and her Buddhist faith, let us briefly examine the religion she followed.
Buddhism teaches that man has to work in order to find salvation from suffering. He does this by following the ‘Noble Truths’: Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Awareness, Right Meditation.
This is just the proud error that man has believed since the beginning: self-salvation. The Buddhist does not believe that he is a sinner and needs to be saved from the guilt, punishment and pollution of sin. Buddhists do not have a correct view of sin: the transgression of the holy law of God. Buddhists have no understanding of original sin: that all people are born totally depraved because they sinned ‘in Adam’. They believe that man is basically good and can achieve ‘enlightenment’ by his own efforts. However, all the supposed good works man does are eloquently described in Scripture as ‘dung’ [Phil. 3:8] and ‘filthy rags’ [Isaiah 64:9].
The Christian on the other hand does not want to be found in his own righteousness, but to be found in Christ. Paul [who was a Pharisee before his conversion] says this: ‘But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and I do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith’ [Phil 3:7-9]. When God saves a person, all glory must go to Him. No sinner can boast in God’s presence that he attained salvation in any sense by his own efforts. Any sinner who believes that salvation is by works is lost, no matter how sincere and outwardly nice he is. That includes all Buddhists.
PEACE IS TO BE FOUND IN CHRIST ALONE:
Peace comes not from relentlessly chanting Buddhist chants or Rosaries, but from having one’s sins forgiven in the blood of Jesus Christ. When a sinner knows, really knows, that he has eternal life, trusting that Jesus Christ bore the curse and guilt of his sins, he has peace. How can a Buddhist have peace? He never knows if he has done enough to achieve salvation. He can never tell if on his death he will cease to exist [which is the ultimate goal of Buddhism!], come back as a worse or better form of life, or awake in hell. What a torment that is!
The child of God however knows peace: ‘I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for Thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety’ [Ps. 4:8]; ‘Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them'[Ps. 119:165]. Christ is called the ‘Prince of Peace’ [Isa. 9:6]; and ‘the chastisement of our peace was upon Him’ [Isa. 53:5], meaning that the punishment which brought peace to sinners was upon Him. Only by satisfying God’s justice on the cross could Christ make peace for sinners with God. However, to the wicked ‘there is no peace’ [Isa. 57:21] because they ‘have not known the way of peace’ [Rom. 3:17].
To His followers Christ says, ‘Peace I give unto you’ [John 14:27]. Many of the Epistles start with the greeting of peace [Rom. 1:7 etc.]. The fruit of the Spirit is peace [Gal. 5:22]. Christ’s work brings peace: ‘Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’ [Rom. 5:1]. ‘For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us'[Eph. 2:14]. He ‘made peace through the blood of his cross’ [Col. 1:20]. All who reject the peace-making Atonement of Christ on the cross are lost, including all Buddhists.
I trust that answers your query briefly. And in closing let me add that all who have abandoned the Faith of their fathers, [I am speaking here specifically of Hollywood and Contemporary music and sports celebrities] for a faith or a god other than the one the Bible proclaims are LOST, PERIOD!
“O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake Thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters!” [Jer 17:13]
with much Love thy Brother for whom Christ died Brother Mike
“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” Mortimer J. Adler
“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” Mark Twain
“. . . Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.”Ecclesiastes 12:12b
“. . . Give attendance to reading. . . .” I Timothy 4:13a
Have you started to read a good Reformed book yet? If not, find one and get started! If you have, keep at it! As we pointed out in our initial article, we want to encourage our Standard Bearer readers to become greater readers, that is, to read more books and to read better books.
In this article encouraging you to read, we want to explore the “WHY” of good reading. That is, why should you as a Reformed Christian want to become a greater reader? Or, to put it another way, what are the reasons for reading solid Reformed/Christian books? We believe there are many reasons that may be given; we will highlight a few of them in this article.
First of all, we begin with the most important reason, the THEOLOGICAL reason (where all good Calvinists should begin!): We should read good books because GOD wants us to! Why do we say this, and how do we know this? We have several points in mind under this reason. First, God wants/expects/calls us to read as His people because He gave us the greatest book to read—His Holy Word, the Scriptures!
When God chose to communicate to us, His covenant friends, He chose to do so in WORDS. It is true that these words were initially given ORALLY (and in some cases VISUALLY—cf. the visions of Ezekiel and John), that is, out of God’s mouth through the mouths of His spokesmen (prophets, apostles, etc.). But in the end God committed these spoken words to writing and had them placed in His Book, the Bible (cf.Ex. 24:7; I Sam. 10:25; Neh. 8; Luke 3:4, 20:42; II Tim. 3:15, 16; II Pet. 1:20, 21; Rev. 1:11), or scripture (Mark 12:10, 24; Rom. 1:2, 15:4).
And therefore, this holy Book God charges His people to READ (cf. Neh. 8; Is. 34:16). That means that we must first and foremost be readers of this Book! Not just any book under the sun, but the Bible must be the first book we turn to! Every Christian must be devoted to reading the word of God, like the Bereans of old searching the Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11). This is chiefly what Paul meant when he instructed Timothy to “give attendance to reading” (I Tim. 4:13). And what was true for that young pastor is to be true of every member of God’s covenant. God wills that we be readers because He gave us this marvellous Book of His words!
Second, and closely related to this, is the truth that this chief and fundamental book God gave us to read centers in His Son, Jesus Christ. The most important Word God gave us to read was His Son, the living and abiding Word of God (John 1:1, 14; Heb. 1:1, 2; I Pet. 1:23). Everywhere we go in the Scriptures we must read “Jesus Christ” the “Word of God.” That is true not only in the New Testament portion of the Bible, but also in the Old Testament (cf. Ps. 40:7; Luke 24:27; John 5:39). This is why the Scriptures are able to make us “wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (II Tim. 3:15). This is why they are “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” so that we may be complete and mature Christians (II Tim. 3:16). But only if this word be read! So read, people of God! Read the Bible chiefly and diligently! Set yourself to do so faithfully in this new year! Let SOLA SCRIPTURA be the motto we live by in 2015! Indeed, God wants us and calls us to be readers, because He gave us this holy Book, centered in His Son, our Savior.
There are more reasons why we should be and become better readers. And we may confidently say that the other reasons we will now list are all rooted in that first one. The fact that God gave us His Book to read is the principle that governs all our other reasons for reading. This will become plain as we proceed.
So then, why should we read? In the second place, because reading is vital to the growth of our faith and walk in godliness. God in His sacred Book calls us to spiritual growth. II Peter 3:18, e.g., states, “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (cf. also Eph. 4:15; I Pet. 2:2; Jude 20). Earlier in that same epistle Peter wrote that we should be “giving all diligence” to “add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness” (I Pet. 1:5, 6). And how are we going to do this? By reading! By reading (and hearing!) the Scriptures, of course (cf. I Pet. 2:2). But also by reading other sound Reformed/Christian books that teach us and encourage us to spiritual growth.
So then, are you tired of not being as strong in your faith as you should be and could be? Are you frustrated by the fact that your walk with God is not as close as it ought to be? Do you struggle with being spiritually mature and wise in handling trials and temptations in your life? Then READ. Yes, again, read the BIBLE, so that your faith becomes more grounded in Jesus Christ and your walk is brought closer to the Lord! But also read the books that your fellow believers have written to help you grow in faith and godliness! They stand with you and support you in this calling to grow. They have wisdom and experience to share with you as we walk the common path of the Christian in this world. Our fellow Reformed Christians have written books because of their own struggles and hardships. Let us read them to benefit from them; to enhance our own spiritual life; to become stronger in faith and more holy in life! This too is why we must read!
In the third place, we should read good Reformed/Christian books because it is important to defend our faith and abide in the truth of God’s word. We are talking about the area of APOLOGETICS, the defense of the Reformed-Christian faith and walk. In this present world there are always threats to our faith and life. The devil and his hosts walk about as a roaring lion seeking to devour us with lies and deception (I Pet. 5:8). The world of unbelief with its “lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” seeks to lead us astray from the Father (I John 2:16).
False prophets and teachers in the church “bring in damnable heresies” and “pernicious ways,” trying to overthrow “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3; I John 4:1ff.; II Pet. 2:1ff.). And, yes, our own sinful nature is still inclined to and tempted by all these lies and errors and ungodliness. We are Christian soldiers, called to be on the defensive against all these spiritual dangers (Eph. 6:10ff.). We are exhorted to resist doctrinal lies and remain steadfast in the faith (I Pet. 5:9). We are admonished to abide in godliness and stay obedient to our Savior, suffering accordingly (I Pet. 3, 4).
And how shall we be able to do this? By READING! Yes, again, by reading the Scriptures (Eph. 6:17). But also by reading good Reformed books that lead us and help us in the battle for the truth and for godliness! By reading we stay abreast of dangerous trends in the church and in the world. By reading we are informed of and warned about wolves in sheep’s clothing. By reading we are encouraged by the courageous stands of our fellow believers in other times and places. By reading we are urged to be faithful when the majority fall away into error and lawlessness. Yes, we must read for this reason too! Do you see the need for reading, especially now in these last days? Will you become a greater reader with this in mind too? We pray that you will, for the honor of Christ and His word, and for the safety of your own soul.
Finally, we have a very practical reason for reading good Reformed/Christian books. That is that by reading such books we set a good example for our children and young people. This too is so important, especially in the world in which we now find ourselves. As we mentioned in our opening article, we and our children are exposed to so many temptations and hindrances to good reading.
We are in constant competition with TV, video games, the Internet, iPods, etc. But when our children and young people see us as adults taking time to read, to read the Bible and to read books that make us grow in our faith and walk, we provide a great example and encouragement for them to do the same. Then we are better able to gain their respect when we tell them to read good books. And, of course, at the same time, when we have on our shelves and on our tables (and in our hands!) good Reformed/Christian books that we are reading, we provide them with the very materials we want them to read too! And THAT is a win-win situation!
Whatever truth I contend for is usually the truth which God has been showing me all along progressively, either from His Word or from my own personal experience as a preacher. For instance, I was sovereignly taught by the Lord concerning Election and Predestination long before I ever picked up any book by Calvin or A.W. Pink! Even though in my initial years I sat amongst ‘Arminians’, I always knew in my heart that I had not chosen Him, but that HE had chosen me! [John 15:16] Come now, how could I have chosen Him, when I was a hardcore Satanist who took pleasure in burning Bibles and campaigning for Satan for all those years I spent in the Occult!
So, when a few years following my Regeneration I finally ran into some Calvinists/Monergists or whatever you want to call them, it was like finding your family after many years of separation! I knew I had found the fold where I belonged! It mattered little what language they spoke or what color they were; what mattered most was that God had ALREADY revealed to them, what he was now revealing to me!
And that is – that Salvation is “not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy!” and the very reason I had come to believe in the Gospel was not because I had carefully weighed the pros and cons and made a ‘decision’ to ‘accept’ Christ, but only because, I was “chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, so that I should be holy and without blame before Him . . . in love He had predestinated me unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory, not of my supposed ‘free-will’ or decision, but of His sovereign grace, wherein He had made me accepted in the beloved!”
When God first revealed to me the truth of His election and predestination, man I was blown! I just flipped out! To think that God had passed by so many of my good and moral religious relatives and friends, (not to mention the drunkards, drug-addicts and blasphemers who were my bosom buddies) and had chosen ME just blew my mind. I could weep with David, “Who am I, O Lord GOD that Thou hast brought me hitherto?!” [2Sam 7:18]
And ever since, Election and Predestination have been my cause for rejoicing. Here are some technical or doctrinal reasons as to why –
ELECTION ENSURES THAT THE PURPOSE OF GOD WILL STAND – “For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth; it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.” (Rom. 9:11-12)
ELECTION ENSURES THAT MY SALVATION DEPENDS NOT ON ME BUT GOD’S MERCY: “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but OF GOD that showeth mercy” (Rom. 9:16).
ELECTION PRODUCES IN ME HUMILITY, MAINTAINING THE CREATOR-CREATURE DISTINCTION: “Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth He yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” (Rom. 9:19-21)
ELECTION GUARANTEES MY GOOD IN THIS LIFE AND MY GLORIFICATION IN THE NEXT:
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” (Rom. 8:28-30).
“But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning CHOSEN you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto He called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thes. 2:13-14).
ELECTION ENSURES MY BLAMELESS JUSTIFICATION: “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth!” (Rom. 8:33).
ELECTION GUARANTEES THAT MY GOD WILL BE WORSHIPPED : “God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed Thy prophets, and digged down Thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant ACCORDING TO THE ELECTION OF GRACE.” (Rom. 11:2-5).
“In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, BEING PREDESTINATED according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will: That we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ” (Eph. 1:11-12).
ELECTION ESTABLISHES GRACE: “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.” (Rom. 11:6).
ELECTION OBTAINS THE SALVATION I SEEK: “What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for ;but THE ELECTION HATH OBTAINED IT, and the rest were blinded (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.” (Rom. 11:7-8).
“But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning CHOSEN YOU TO SALVATION through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thes. 2:13).
It is worth noting that God’s Election here is specifically to SALVATION, and not just for ‘service’ as some haters of election propose!
ELECTION MAKES THE GIFTS AND CALLING OF GOD IRREVOCABLE: “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, (i.e., irrevocable).” (Rom. 11:28-29). A man may at times be sorry that he chose to marry a certain woman or adopted a certain child from an orphanage, etc. But the great God never feels sorry or regrets having chosen someone for Salvation. What’s more He knew full well what they would turn out to be and how they would behave long before He chose them. (Isaiah 48:8,9)
ELECTION EXPRESSES ITSELF WITH THE FATHER’S LOVE TOWARD ME IN ADOPTION: “According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. . . ” (Eph. 1:4-5).
ELECTION COINCIDES WITH THE SANCTIFYING WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied” (1 Pet. 1:1-2).
“But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thes. 2:13).
ELECTION PROVIDES THE GROUND FOR MY PERSEVERANCE IN GOSPEL MINISTRY: “Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the Word of God among them.” (Acts 18:9-11).
“Therefore, I endure all things FOR THE ELECT’S SAKES, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:10).
There are many more reasons as to WHY the truth of Election is sweet music to my ears – the main one being I happen to be one of them. Come now, it stands to reason that only God’s elect can rejoice in the truth of Sovereign Election, just as only the ‘redeemed’ can rejoice in the truth of Redemption.
I do not expect the non-elect or the reprobate to either understand it, receive it or rejoice in it. They can only stop their ears to it, cavil against it and persecute those who preach it. In other words they can only behold it, wonder about it and perish! As it is written “BEHOLD, ye despisers, and WONDER, and PERISH: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in NO WISE BELIEVE, though A MAN DECLARE IT UNTO YOU”. [Act 13:41]
As John Kay said long ago, “Men are greatly deceived in religion. They think thus that there is no mystery in religion; whereas, TRUE RELIGION IS THE VERY MYSTERY OF GOD. “The mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” (Rev. 10:7) “It is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom.” (Matt. 13:11; Luke 8:10)
For my part, I bless God that it was early in my religion laid on my mind to pray; to pray in reading the Scriptures; to pray in everything; for I became gradually persuaded that there was a secret, a mystery, “a deep couching beneath”; something hidden; something the non-elect were never to know; something hidden from the eyes of all naturally living; something “sealed”; something running under ground, as it were, in religion. And O the deeps! for who hath known the mind of the Lord? “Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun (of righteousness); because, though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea, farther, though a (supernaturally) wise man think to know it, yet shall not he be able to find it,” (Eccl. 8:17) by thinking merely, reading, hearing, or speculation. It is “not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.” [Zech 4:6]
There are basically only two religions in the world. One says, “IF YOU WILL do such and such, God will graciously bestow His blessing upon you.” The thousand and one varieties of this religion differ only on what the “such and such” is that you must be willing to do. One variety says bathe in a sacred river, another bids you kiss the sacred rock located in the holy city, still another says be baptized or some similar rite, and in distinctly evangelical circles this religion emphasizes, “IF YOU WILL OPEN YOUR HEART, THEN GOD . . .”
Notice carefully the three key words IF YOU WILL. (1) God’s forgiveness is possible IF ….. (2) God’s forgiveness is possible if YOU… (3) God’s forgiveness is possible if you WILL. . . .
The ultimate success or failure of this religion is determined solely by the will of man. Everything depends on an “if,” and on “you,” and on “your willingness” to do your part. Redemption is always CONDITIONAL since it depends on man’s cooperation for success. The great work of salvation is not actually accomplished until God can find someone who is willing to “cooperate with Him.” Our forefathers called this “if you will” system the “religion of works.” It was also called “Arminianism” and “semi-Pelagianism” since these were the men who originally caused division in the church by introducing this error of free will. Regardless of the name attached to it by friend or foe, the distinguishing marks are always the same — the IF, the YOU, and YOUR WILL are the decisive factors that make the plan of salvation work.
This religion offers a wonderful plan of salvation that is able to do mighty things if YOU WILL ONLY LET IT. The God of this free will religion can only desire and offer to save sinners. He is helpless to secure, by His own power, what He longs to do. The goal of redemption cannot be reached unless man, of his own free will, chooses to permit God to accomplish His purposes.
The false religion of free will, or works, is based upon several unbiblical doctrines. The most basic of these is THE UNIVERSAL AND INDISCRIMINATE REDEMPTIVE LOVE OF GOD. God is said to love all men in the same way and to the same degree. He loved Judas the same as Peter, Esau like Jacob, and the goats as much as the sheep. Since His love is universal then the greatest gift of His love, Jesus Christ His Son, must have been given to provide a universal atonement, meaning for every individual without exception, in His death. The objects of the Son’s atonement must be equal to the objects of the Father’s love, so both must include every man. If the Father loves all men equally, and the Son redeemed every man without exception, it follows that the Holy Spirit must convict every man or else the Trinity is not working together toward the same end in the task of redeeming lost men.
It should be amply clear that this religion of works, or free will, based on a universal love and universal atonement, makes God’s whole scheme of redemption depend on man for its success. God’s love will prevail IF MAN will let it. Christ’s atonement will actually redeem only IF MAN will let it. The Holy Spirit will apply redemption’s purchased benefits IF MAN will allow Him. No wonder C. H. Spurgeon, that great soul winner, called free will “utter nonsense,” and universal atonement a “monstrous doctrine akin to blasphemy.”
Now the second religion is the message of the Bible. It is the gospel of FREE GRACE. It does not look to God for the PROVISION and then turn to man for the POWER, but it boldly proclaims that the same sovereign grace that planned salvation for helpless sinners also furnishes them with the ability to desire and receive it. This second religion not only starts at a different place, it works on a different principle, and moves toward a different goal. In short, it is a totally different religion. The religion based on free will (Arminianism – If you will …), and that based of free grace (Calvinism — God makes us willing …) are two very distinct and opposite religions that differ on every theological point at which they meet.
Any individual who piously says, “It is really not important, it is merely a question of EMPHASIS,” is either deliberately dishonest or completely ignorant of Bible doctrine in church history. The Synod of Dort and the Council of Trent clarified forever the vital importance of the issue once and for all time. I challenge any man to read Dr. J. I. Packer’s introduction to the DEATH OF DEATH IN THE DEATH OF CHRIST by John Owen, and then talk about emphasis. Packer clearly shows that free will and free grace are totally different religions, and furthermore, that they are irreconcilable enemies.
WHO WEARS THE CROWN?
As you can see, the real battle ground is the nature of man, and the prize to be won is the Crown of Credit for making redemption’s plan actually work. Is free grace, given sovereignly by the Father, the decisive factor that causes the elect to believe in the first place, or is man’s will, exercised sovereignly by the individual, the decisive factor that causes God to choose these whom He “foresees” are willing to believe? Who wins the right to wear the crown of glory, God or man? And by what power was that right won — free will or free grace?
The basic difference between these two opposing religions can also be summed up by asking another question, a question vitally related to the first one. Instead of asking how any man can perish, and being told that, “the man would not do his part which was to simply believe,” we now ask, “Why are SOME men saved?” How is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’s work able to succeed in some cases but not in others? The religion of free will humbly (?) answers that “MAN MADE IT ALL POSSIBLE BY BEING WILLING TO OPEN HIS HEART AND GIVE GOD A CHANCE!” It does not matter if we are speaking of those who perish or those who are saved, we always come back to that IF YOU WILL.
Actually, the gospel based on free will can never be more than a gospel of mere POSSIBILITY. It is a plan of redemption that cannot truly redeem by its own power, but can only effect real salvation when it finds someone who make themselves willing to do “their part.” It is not a question of whether a man must, or does, become willing before he can be saved, we all believe that, but WHO AND WHAT POWER makes the sinner willing? Does man, of himself, choose to become willing, or does God, by His sovereign power, make His elect willing “in the day of His power” (Ps. 110:3)? It seems both logical and judicially necessary to crown with glory the individual who made the plan of salvation actually work, and the free willer does not hesitate to reach for the crown and place it on the head of the sovereign and free will of man.
Some folks may feel we are laboring this point to an extreme, but actually this is the heart of the matter. Who really deserves all the glory for man’s salvation? It cannot be both God and man, nor can it be, as many would imply, half and half. Either God saves sinners by “making them willing in the day of His power,” or they save themselves by making themselves willing in the “day of their free will decision.”
And Romans 9:16 settles the matter once and for all – “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy!”
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” [Jn 1:29]
John the Baptist commands a beholding of the sin-taking-away Lamb. What do we see in this beholding? How exactly does Jesus take away our sin?
Here are six things Jesus does with sin:
HE CONDEMNS IT.
Jesus puts a curse on sin. He marks its forehead.
“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” [Romans 8:3]
Jesus says to sin in no uncertain terms, “Sin, you’re going to die.”
HE CARRIES IT.
Like the true and better scapegoat, Jesus becomes our sin-bearer.
“Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” [1Peter 2:24]
“For He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
HE CANCELS IT.
He closes out the account. (Even better, He opens a new one, where we’re always in the black, having been credited with His perfect righteousness.)
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil (or is not resentful).” [1Cor 13:4,5]
That word resentful is more directly “to count up wrongdoing,” which is why some translations of this text say that “Love keeps no record of wrongs.”
“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross.” [Colossians 2:13,14]
HE CRUCIFIES IT.
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” [1Peter 3:18]
At the cross, Jesus dies and takes our sin with Him. Only the sin stays dead.
HE CASTS IT AWAY.
Jesus takes the corpse and chucks it into the void.
“He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” [Micah 7:19]
“As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.” [Psalm 103:12]
HE CHOOSES TO UN-REMEMBER IT.
Jesus is omniscient. He is not forgetful. But He wills to un-remember our sin.
“And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord : for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord : for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” [Jer 31:34]
“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” [Hebrews 8:12]
“And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” [Hebrews 10:17]
Astonishing. We bring our sin to Him, repentant and in faithful confession, and He unconditionally forgives and forgets them.
THIS is how Jesus forgives sin: He condemns it, carries it, cancels it, kills it, casts it, and clean forgets it. If we’ll confess it.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” [1John 1:9]
FALSE TEACHERS WHO DENY THE EXISTENCE OF A SINFUL NATURE IN MAN
Compiled by Michael Jeshurun
This morning I happen to click on a Youtube video titled, “Democrats Don’t Have a Sinful Nature” a ‘Christian’ teaching video by Michael Pearl of “No Greater Joy Ministries” Tennessee. His wife Debi and Michael have written many books on Child-training which are quite popular amongst unwary Christians.
This short write-up however is not concerning his views on ‘child-training’ but his attack on the ‘the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.’ [Jude 1:3]. As I listened through this Youtube, it quickly became clear that it had very little to do with Democrats, but was a vicious attack on the theology and doctrine which we hold so dearly – The Doctrines of Grace.
For the uninitiated we must first define who a ‘Pelagian’ is and what Pelagianism teaches – Pelagianism is a Christian theological position that holds that the original sin did not taint human nature and that humans by divine grace have free will to achieve human perfection. Pelagius (c. 355 – c. 420 AD), an ascetic and philosopher from the British Isles, taught that God could not command believers to do the impossible, and therefore it must be possible to satisfy all divine commandments. He also taught that it was unjust to punish one person for the sins of another; therefore, infants are born blameless. Pelagius accepted no excuse for sinful behaviour and taught that all Christians, regardless of their station in life, should live unimpeachable, sinless lives.
In this video I mentioned above, Pearl starts off by saying, “There’s no such thing as a sinful nature, not anywhere in the universe, nor will there ever be such an entity, as a sinful nature does not exist. In fact, it’s an impossibility!”
Michael Pearl does not believe in the imputation of Adam’s sin to all human beings. (He does not believe in the Total Depravity of Man.) He is a proponent of the false teaching of ‘The age of Accountability’. He writes, “When a descendant of Adam reaches a level of moral understanding (sometime in his youth) he becomes fully, personally accountable to God and has sin imputed to him, resulting in the peril of eternal damnation.” Pearl adds, “When man reaches his state of moral accountability, and, by virtue of his personal transgression, becomes blameworthy, his only hope is a work of grace by God alone, etc.”
This seems like a minor quibble, but it is profound. And from there on Pearl goes on to attack Augustine, Calvin and especially Martin Luther and his take on ‘The Bondage of the Human Will’ and Calvinists in general.
Whatever else Michael Pearl may believe and teach, his denial of the existence of a sinful nature in man and his ‘Bondage of the Will’ and Total Depravity is enough to throw this man’s teaching in the TRASH where it belongs!
We cannot do better here than quote that faithful servant of God A.W. Pink –
“They (the Pelagians/Arminians) deny the Total Depravity of Man, for they insist that he possesses a free will and can accept Christ and be saved by a decision of his own; thus directly repudiating God’s word, as found in John 1:13; 6;44; 8:36; Rom 9:16, and other passages. And where any teacher or preacher is unsound on these BASIC TRUTHS, no confidence must be placed on him on any other subject. IF HE IS ALL WRONG AT THE FOUNDATIONS, HIS SUPERSTRUCTURE IS BOUND TO BE FAULTY!”
Pastor Henry Mahan said in one of his sermons – “Sin and death came upon all men.” Is that what the Word teaches? Then, it is so! That is doctrine! That is original sin, and that is what man has to straighten out OR HE WILL BE MESSED UP ALL THE WAY THROUGH IN HIS DOCTRINE. What happened in the Fall, determines what happened on the Cross. What happened on the Cross, determines what happens in a sinner when God saves him. What happens in a sinner when God saves him, determines where a man is going to spend eternity”.
“If you have never felt the weight of original sin, do not call yourselves Christians. I am verily persuaded that original sin is the greatest burden of a true convert; this ever grieves the regenerate soul, the sanctified soul. The indwelling sin in the heart is the burden of a converted person; it is the burden of the true Christian. He continually cries out, “Oh, who will deliver me from this body of death,” this indwelling corruption of my heart? This is that which disturbs a poor soul most. And therefore, if you never felt this inward corruption, if you never saw that God might justly curse you for it, indeed, my dear friends, you may speak peace to your hearts, but I fear, nay, I know, there is no peace”. – George Whitfield
Incidentally, Pearl teaches the false doctrine of ‘Sinless perfection’. Just Google – “Michael Pearl sinless perfection’ and do your own research. Pearl’s heresy of ‘sinless perfectionism’ is perhaps why he is comfortable preaching in Assemblies of God congregations and at times holds seminars for them.
Continuing with quotes from trusted theologians on the doctrine of Total Depravity here is another one from William G. T. Shedd from his ‘Theological Essays’ –
“Though written many decades ago, the following quotation is an admirable expression of the continuing concern of Reformed thinkers for the doctrine of total depravity.
If the church and the ministry of the present day need any one thing more than another, it is profound views of sin; and if the current theology of the day is lacking in any one thing, it is in that thorough-going, that truly philosophic, and, at the same time, truly edifying theory of sin, which runs like a strong muscular cord through all the soundest theology of the church. (William G. T. Shedd, Theological Essays)
John Gerstner expresses the same perennial Reformed interest epigrammatically when he says to the contemporary world,
One cannot think of God’s holy ways without thinking of our unholy ones. We cannot think of ourselves without thinking of our sin. Sin is the most important conviction any man can have. It is a bad theology which thinks man good. Any good theology must start with man as bad. (John Baillie, Our Knowledge of God (London: Oxford Press, 1939), p. 32.)
Gerstner and Shedd make remarkable assertions: “a good theology must start with man as bad”; the church needs a “truly edifying theory of sin.” Can any good thing come out of a consideration of sin? Reformed theology, going back through classical theology to the Scriptures, answers earnestly, “yes.” To be saved is to be saved from sin. If sin means Total Depravity, and if Total Depravity means hell, then salvation can really mean amazing grace.” – Thomas Gregory
Let us close by saying that the study of the doctrine of “Original Sin” and the ‘Sinful nature’ inherent in Adam’s progeny is the proper foundation to be laid in the study of God’s Word, and as A.W. Pink stated above, “where any teacher or preacher is unsound on these BASIC TRUTHS, no confidence must be placed on him on any other subject. IF HE IS ALL WRONG AT THE FOUNDATIONS, HIS SUPERSTRUCTURE IS BOUND TO BE FAULTY!”
WHY DOES FAITH NOT COME TO ALL WHO HEAR GOD’S WORD?
Michael Jeshurun
“So then Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God”! [Romans 10:17]
All men have some kind of faith or they could not possibly live here on earth. Even an insignificant act as sitting on a chair requires faith! You decide to sit on it because you have the faith that the chair will hold you. When your friend offers you a drink you drink because you have the faith that it is safe, and so on. But the faith which saves a man is something different altogether! It is called the ‘Faith of God’s elect’! [Titus 1:1] And the Apostle says that “All men have not (this) faith”! [2Thes 3:2].
The Bible speaks of this faith as something which belongs to Christ, for it speaks of “the faith of Christ” “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the FAITH OF JESUS CHRIST, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the FAITH OF CHRIST, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified”! [Gal 2:16]
This saving faith is God’s property and is given as a gift to His chosen ones! And Jesus is spoken of as the AUTHOR and the FINISHER of this faith! [Heb 12:2] “Now faith “cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”. [Rom 10:17] Notice that faith ‘cometh’ from somewhere. It is not an inherent product of fallen nature! So WHERE does it come from? It comes from above! “A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from Heaven”! [John 3:27] And again, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from ABOVE, and cometh down from the Father of lights”! [James 1:17]
But here is the question to ask – “If faith ‘cometh’ by hearing the word of God, why does it not come to ALL who hear it”? [Rom 10:17]
Because all refuse to believe, is the usual answer given! But that is only one side of the truth! Yes ALL refuse to believe, but the fact remains that some do! In what way are these who believe different from those who do not? The answer is found in Paul’s rhetorical question – “For WHO maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not RECEIVE? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it”? [1Cor 4:7]
The reason why faith does not come to the majority is because, to the majority the Word of God comes in WORD ONLY! It is not accompanied by power, and the Holy Spirit and much assurance! Hear what the Apostle wrote to the Thessalonians – “Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. For our gospel came not unto you in WORD ONLY, but also in POWER, and in the HOLY GHOST, and in much ASSURANCE“! [1Thes 1:4,5]
How did the apostle know that the Thessalonian Christians were ‘elected’ by God to salvation? Why, by this- that when he initially preached to them, the word of God came not just as a dead word from the Bible, but the Word was accompanied by power, the Holy Ghost and much assurance!
Now this is the way it is through all the ages! To God’s chosen it is GIVEN to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God by the gift of faith, but to the rest IT IS NOT GIVEN! [Matt 13:11]
God is absolutely sovereign and does not owe fallen man ANYTHING! He can give to one what He withholds from many and none can say unto Him “what doest Thou”?! So He has mercy on whom He will and whom He will He hardens! [Rom 9:18]
So ultimately, saving faith, repentance and perseverance which are all required for salvation are the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast! Salvation is “not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God who showeth MERCY! [Rom 9:16]!
Easter has little to do with real Christianity. Does that surprise you? It should not. For example, Easter was not popular with the Puritans or the Pilgrim settlers in America. Neither Puritans or Pilgrims had use for ceremonies associated with religious festivals invented in either pagan history, or reinvented by Roman Catholicism. In actuality, here in the America’s only after the bloodshed Civil War did Easter “begin again” to be accepted. As Walsh states in his “Holy Time and Sacred Space in Puritan New England” (Walsh, American Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Spring, 1980), pp. 79-95) “The New England [Pilgrims] like Reformed Protestants everywhere, rejected traditional Roman Catholic and Anglican beliefs and practices that organized time around consecrated churches, railed-off altars, holy shrines, miraculous wells, and that supposed the flow of time to be an irregular succession of holy days and sacred seasons. The Reformers argued, what was intended as a crutch for others had become a cast for Christians who willingly accepted the obligation of constant worship. They for whom all days are holy can have no holidays.” (See, for example, The Sermons of John Calvin Upon the Fifth Book of Moses called Deuteronomie, trans. Arthur Golding (London: H. Middleton, 1583).
The Post Reformation pastors and theologians of the day, following the Reformers, abolished Easter, among other things. In June 1647, England Parliament, headed by the Puritans at Westminster, passed legislation abolishing Christmas and other holidays: “Forasmuch as the feast of the nativity of Christ, Easter, Whitsuntide, and other festivals, commonly called holy-days, have been heretofore superstitiously used and observed; be it ordained, that the said feasts, and all other festivals, commonly called holy-days, be no longer observed as festivals; any law, statute, custom, constitution, or canon, to the contrary in anywise not withstanding.” (Daniel Neal, The History of the Puritans (London, 1837; rpt. Minneapolis: Klock , p. 45).The Puritans “proposed a stricter observance of Sundays, the Lord’s Day, along with banning the immoral celebration of Christmas — as well as Easter, Whitsun and saints’ days.” (Patino, Marta, The Puritan Ban on Christmas). The reason the puritans denied the celebration of any holy days was a biblical foundation to deny the “dressing up” of any other day than what God had specifically prescribed in Lord’s Day worship. “Holy days’ have no such prescription — there is no Scriptural command, approved example, or good and necessary inference, which warrants tying specific acts of redemption to ‘holy’ days of our own choosing.” (Chris Coldwell, The Religious Observance of Christmas and ‘Holy Days’ in American Presbyterianism) (I would encourage the reader to read the entire article that Coldwell has at that link which covers not only Easter, but other holidays.)In “The Quest for Purity: Dynamics of Puritan Movements” by Walter E. a Van Beek, he states, “Because Easter invariably fell on a Sunday, this was a problem for Puritan preachers who were consistent with their repudiation of of the traditional calendar. The usual solution was to preach a sermon that had no direct connection with Easter.” (Page 77.) How would a congregation today take a non-Easter sermon on Easter Sunday? What would your reaction be, reader?
Rightly so, the Westminster Confession states in the appendix entitled, “An Appendix, Touching Days and Places for Public Worship,” the following, “The key clause of interest to this study is, “Festival days, vulgarly called Holy-days, having no warrant in the word of God, are not to be continued.” Later Presbyterian theology followed suit. While people “say” they adhere to the Confession, they dip hardboiled eggs into food coloring, and buy Easter Baskets for their children. Robert Dabney states in abolishing Easter, “The objections are: first, that this countenances “will-worship,” or the intrusion of man’s inventions into God’s service; second, it is an implied insult to Paul’s inspiration, assuming that he made a practical blunder, which the church synods, wiser than his inspiration, had to mend by a human expedient; and third, we have here a practical confession that, after all, the average New Testament Christian does need a stated holy day, and therefore the ground of the Sabbath command is perpetual and moral.” (Robert Lewis Dabney “The Christian Sabbath: Its Nature, Design and Proper Observance”, Discussions: Theological and Evangelical (Richmond: Whittet and Shepperson, 1890) 1. 524-525. See also, “The Sabbath of the State,” 2.600.)
What do we find when entering into Roman Catholicism’s “borrowing” of paganism? John Gill states, “Popish festivals were observed very early, long before the Pope of some arrived to the height of his ambition. The feast of Easter was kept in the second century, as the controversy between Anicetus and Polycarp, and between Victor and the Asiatic churches, shews.” (John Gill, Sermon 57: A Dissertation on the Rise and Progress of Popery, page 17; Ages Ultimate Library, 2004). We find their continued alliance with breaking the regulative principle, and the replacement of true worship, with worshipping that which is unholy. They institute unscriptural burdens such as Lent, fast days, sacred rites that control their kingdom with superstitions and false religion guised in the cloak of “authority” and hide the truth from people to damn them for all eternity. One such deception is their introduction of the “Christian festival of Easter.” Look around and you will see the world-wide acceptance of the chocolate bunny and hardboiled egg. It is harmless, right?
What does one find when looking at the celebration of Easter? The term “Easter” is certainly not Christian, and is of Chalcedonian origin. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the people at Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use today. That name, as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar – the devil or Satan.[1]
Worship of the devil in this way was introduced to the English people through the Druids who worshipped the devil through nature.
Take a moment and note that Romanism or Druidism for that matter, would not openly say “they are worshipping the devil.” Of course they would deny it. However, the Scripture is exceedingly clear that any doctrine not brought to men through the Triune Godhead, and the Savior Jesus Christ, is a doctrine of demons and therefore, a worshipping of the devil. This certainly applies not only to the contemporary church when it introduces destructive heresies, or twists Paul’s words to their own destruction, as Peters states, but also applies to false religious ideas that pull people away from the one true Savior and only God Jesus Christ. One cannot introduce false religion without partaking of demonic influences and devil worship in that light.
As a result of Druidic worship, and influences that have penetrated into Romanism, contemporary Christendom of almost every flavor still has those influences lingering today in their worship, and their Sunday morning bulletins around the time of Easter. The Druids would worship in lighting a fire in the center circle and each worshipper putting in a “bit of oat-cake in a shepherd’s bonnet; they all sit down, and draw blindfold a piece from the bonnet. One piece has been previously blackened, and whoever gets that piece has to jump through the fire in the centre of the circle, and pay a forfeit. This is, in fact, a part of the ancient worship of Baal, and the person on whom the lot fell was previously burnt as a sacrifice.” Scripture deems this “walking through the fire” or “fire sacrifice.” God condemns the practice of making children walk through the fire in Leviticus 18:21, “You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.”
Easter, then, traces back through Astarte was also worshipped in ancient times, and that from the name Astarte, whose name in Nineveh was Ishtar, the religious workings during the month of March and April, as now practiced in most of Christendom, are called by the name of Easter. In ancient times the pagans called this time of the year Easter-monath.
Even Socrates, the ancient philosopher, describes the different ways in which Easter was observed in different countries in his time during the fifth century. He states, “Thus much already laid down may seem a sufficient treatise to prove that the celebration of the feast of Easter began everywhere more of custom than by any commandment either of Christ or any Apostle.” (Hist. Ecclesiast.) Even Socrates, the philosopher of the 5th Century (not the pagan 5th century BC philosopher) knew Easter was not a Christian doctrine.
Socrates Scholasticus (aka Socrates of Constantinople) said, “Neither the apostles, therefore, nor the Gospels, have anywhere imposed the ‘yoke of servitude’ on those who have embraced the truth; but have left Easter and every other feast to be honored by the gratitude of the recipients of grace. Wherefore, inasmuch as men love festivals, because they afford them cessation from labor: each individual in every place, according to his own pleasure, has by a prevalent custom celebrated the memory of the saving passion. The Saviour and his apostles have enjoined us by no law to keep this feast: nor do the Gospels and apostles threaten us with any penalty, punishment, or curse for the neglect of it, as the Mosaic law does the Jews. It is merely for the sake of historical accuracy, and for the reproach of the Jews, because they polluted themselves with blood on their very feasts, that it is recorded in the Gospels that our Saviour suffered in the days of ‘unleavened bread.’ The aim of the apostles was not to appoint festival days, but to teach a righteous life and piety. And it seems to me that just as many other customs have been established in individual localities according to usage. So also the feast of Easter came to be observed in each place according to the individual peculiarities of the peoples inasmuch as none of the apostles legislated on the matter. And that the observance originated not by legislation, but as a custom the facts themselves indicate” (Schaff, P. (1997). The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Second Series Vol. II. Socrates, Sozomenus: Church Histories. (130).)
Where did people begin worshipping “gods” on Easter? Hislop explains, “The forty days’ of fasting during the Romanist Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of forty days, “in the spring of the year,” is still observed by the Yezidis or Pagan Devil-worshippers of Koordistan, who have inherited it from their early masters, the Babylonians. It was held in spring by the Pagan Mexicans, for thus we read in Humboldt, where he gives account of Mexican observances: “Three days after the vernal equinox…began a solemn fast of forty days in honor of the sun.” Such a Lent of forty days was observed in Egypt which was held expressly in commemoration of Adonis or Osiris, the great mediatorial god. At the same time, the rape of Proserpine seems to have been commemorated, and in a similar manner; for Julius Firmicus informs us that, for “forty nights” the “wailing for Proserpine” continued; and from Arnobius we learn that the fast which the Pagans observed, called “Castus” or the “sacred” fast, was, by the Christians in his time, believed to have been primarily in imitation of the long fast of Ceres, when for many days she determinedly refused to eat on account of her “excess of sorrow,” that is, on account of the loss of her daughter Proserpine, when carried away by Pluto, the god of hell. As the stories of Bacchus, or Adonis and Proserpine, though originally distinct, were made to join on and fit in to one another, so that Bacchus was called Liber, and his wife Ariadne, Libera (which was one of the names of Proserpine), it is highly probable that the forty days’ fast of Lent was made in later times to have reference to both.
Among the Pagans this Lent seems to have been an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz, which was celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing, and which, in many countries, was considerably later than the Christian festival, being observed in Palestine and Assyria in June, therefore called the “month of Tammuz”; in Egypt, about the middle of May, and in Britain, sometime in April. To conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated, and, by a complicated but skilful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get Paganism and Christianity–now far sunk in idolatry–in this as in so many other things, to shake hands. The instrument in accomplishing this amalgamation was the abbot Dionysius the Little, to whom also we owe it, as modern chronologers have demonstrated, that the date of the Christian era, or of the birth of Christ Himself, was moved FOUR YEARS from the true time.
Whether this was done through ignorance or design may be matter of question; but there seems to be no doubt of the fact, that the birth of the Lord Jesus was made full four years later than the truth. This change of the calendar in regard to Easter was attended with momentous consequences. It brought into the Church the grossest corruption and the rankest superstition in connection with the abstinence of Lent. Let anyone only read the atrocities that were commemorated during the “sacred fast” or Pagan Lent, as described by Arnobius and Clemens Alexandrinus, and surely he must blush for the Christianity of those who, with the full knowledge of all these abominations, “went down to Egypt for help” to stir up the languid devotion of the degenerate Church, and who could find no more excellent way to “revive” it, than by borrowing from so polluted a source; the absurdities and abominations connected with which the early Christian writers had held up to scorn. That Christians should ever think of introducing the Pagan abstinence of Lent was a sign of evil; it showed how low they had sunk, and it was also a cause of evil; it inevitably led to deeper degradation. Originally, even in Rome, Lent, with the preceding revelries of the Carnival, was entirely unknown; and even when fasting before the Christian Pasch was held to be necessary, it was by slow steps that, in this respect, it came to conform with the ritual of Paganism. What may have been the period of fasting in the Roman Church before sitting of the Nicene Council does not very clearly appear, but for a considerable period after that Council, we have distinct evidence that it did not exceed three weeks.”
So we have the history of “Easter” and its popular observances today confirm the testimony of history as to its Babylonian character, such as the hot-crossed buns that are so tasty.
The hot cross buns of Good Friday, and the dyed eggs of Easter Sunday, figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do now. The “buns” were used in the worship of the queen of heaven, the goddess Easter, as early as the days of Cecrops, the founder of Athens–that is, 1500 years before the Christian era. Jeremiah 7:18 states, “The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger.” Jeremiah uses the word “bun” which is where the concept was derived. The Hebrew word was pronounced Khavan, which in Greek became sometimes Kapan-os. The Hebrew shows how Khvan, pronounced as one syllable, would pass into the Latin panis, “bread,” and the second how, in like manner, Khvon would become Bon or Bun. The hot cross buns are not now offered, but eaten, on the festival of Astarte; but this leaves no doubt as to where the original idea came from.
What about the Ishtar Eggs? Where do we get bunnies and eggs in baskets and egg hunts during a Christian holy-day? The origin of the Paschal eggs is just as pagan. The ancient Druids bore an egg, as the sacred emblem of their order. Hislop says, “In the Dionysiaca, or mysteries of Bacchus, as celebrated in Athens, one part of the nocturnal ceremony consisted in the consecration of an egg. The Hindo fables celebrate their mundane egg as of a golden color. The people of Japan make their sacred egg to have been brazen. In China, at this hour, dyed or painted eggs are used on sacred festivals, even as in this country. In ancient times eggs were used in the religious rites of the Egyptians and the Greeks, and were hung up for mystic purposes in their temples. From Egypt these sacred eggs can be distinctly traced to the banks of the Euphrates. The classic poets are full of the fable of the mystic egg of the Babylonians.” Hyginus, the poet states, “An egg of wondrous size is said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates. The fishes rolled it to the bank, where the doves having settled upon it, and hatched it, out came Venus, who afterwards was called the Syrian Goddess”–that is, Astarte, or Easter. So the Easter Egg became one of the symbols of Astarte, and its occult meaning had reference to the ark during the time of the flood, in which the whole human race were shut up, as the chick is enclosed in the egg before it is hatched.
The egg, then, became used as a symbol for the whole world as Noah and his family, after the destruction was the “whole world” floating on the waters of the flood. Hislop states, “The coming of the egg from heaven evidently refers to the preparation of the ark by express appointment of God; and the same thing seems clearly implied in the Egyptian story of the mundane egg which was said to have come out of the mouth of the great god. The doves resting on the egg need no explanation. This, then, was the meaning of the mystic egg in one aspect. As, however, everything that was good or beneficial to mankind was represented in the Chaldean mysteries, as in some way connected with the Babylonian goddess, so the greatest blessing to the human race, which the ark contained in its bosom, was held to be Astarte, who was the great civiliser and benefactor of the world. Though the deified queen, whom Astarte represented, had no actual existence till some centuries after the flood, yet through the doctrine of metempsychosis, which was firmly established in Babylon, it was easy for her worshippers to be made to believe that, in a previous incarnation, she had lived in the Antediluvian world, and passed in safety through the waters of the flood. Now the Romish Church adopted this mystic egg of Astarte, and consecrated it as a symbol of Christ’s resurrection. A form of prayer was even appointed to be used in connection with it, Pope Paul V teaching his superstitious votaries thus to pray at Easter this specific prayer, “Bless, O Lord, we beseech thee, this thy creature of eggs, that it may become a wholesome sustenance unto thy servants, eating it in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Scottish Guardian, April, 1844).
That Semiramis, under the name of Astarte, was worshipped not only as an incarnation of the Spirit of God, but as the mother of mankind, we have very clear and satisfactory evidence. There is no doubt that “the Syrian goddess” was Astarte (LAYARD’S Nineveh and its Remains). Now, the Assyrian goddess, or Astarte, is akin to simply worshipping the devil. Astarte is not Jesus Christ, is not the Triune Godhead, is not biblical, but everything that God prohibits. The bunny with its fertility connotations and the ancient pagan festivals that used rabbits as symbols of fertility in Babylonian times or the use of eggs, or the use of candy (which derived from the use of pomegranates and oranges that were also used in ancient times of pagan rituals) is identified as devil worship by any thinking Christian. It is no wonder that the use of the symbol of the dove itself as a Christian symbol did not come from the idea of the Spirit resting as a dove upon Christ during His baptism, but as a representative of the Mother of the gods, in whom that Spirit was said to be incarnate, was celebrated as the originator of some of the useful arts and sciences. And we find very readily in Greek mythology that the character attributed to the Minerva, whose name Athena as a synonym for Beltis, the well known name of the Assyrian goddess. Athena, the Minerva of Athens, is universally known as the “goddess of wisdom,” the inventress of arts and sciences.
We have Rome borrowing pagan rituals to change the date of Christ’s entrance into the world by 4 years to compensate amalgamating the celebration of devil worship with Christianity; the adoption of Ishtar, or Astarte, Easter, as a Papist degradation of worship; the violation of the regulative principle in deeming a day to be worshipped as such, the entrance of eggs from Druidic worship, or pomegranates and oranges that turned into chocolate bunnies and Ishtar eggs for a candy basket to give on Easter Sunday, and the Babylonian influences of pagan rituals through every aspect of Easter and we find you, reader, going out this week to apply this all to little Johnny and little Debbie because everyone else is doing it at church.
If you want to be a Papist, then call yourself a Papist, or a Druid, or a Grecian worshipper of the devil. Don’t call yourself Christian by upholding a blatantly obvious demonic holy-day that God abhors. When you partake of such wicked schemes, God’s anger is aroused, and He states in Deuteronomy 32:17, “They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known.” When you give your child their Easter basket, recall God’s words, and heed the Psalmist in Psalm 106:37, “They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons.” Know that you serve the same blasphemies that Romanism has brought into Christendom, and that the Scriptures rightly warns the covenant people of God that they should abstain from such things and be separate.
1 Timothy 4:1 states, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.” When you worship using the devil’s teachings, you give heed to demonic influences and introduce them to your children. You might say, “Hey, come on. It’s just a chocolate bunny, some jelly beans and a few hardboiled eggs right?” No. It is a giving of your mind, heart and family over to the trinkets of the devil and the worship of his holy-day that has been resurrected and founded on demonic influences and teachings – it is devil worship. If you celebrate Easter, you spit in the face of Jesus Christ who is to be worshipped not on one day in the year on “Resurrection Sunday”, but all the days of all your life – for He is the Redeemer of the Covenant people of God every day. One should not desire to carry parts of the package of Romanism following papist theological ideas with Lent, Good Friday, Palm Sunday, Easter, etc. The Romanist Holy Week is the culmination of events marking the final days of Jesus before Easter Sunday. These are the days:
Palm Sunday – The Sunday before Easter Sunday recalling Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem a week before dying on the cross.
Holy Monday – Jesus’ cleansing of the temple and turning over the tables of the money changers to purify the house of worship.
Holy Tuesday – Jesus’ talk with his disciples on the Mount of Olives about the soon to come destruction of Jerusalem.
Holy Wednesday – The day Judas decided to betray Jesus in exchange for 30 pieces of silver.
Maundy Thursday – The Last Supper of Jesus and his time in the garden with his disciples who would not stay awake before his arrest.
Good Friday – The day Jesus died on the cross.
Holy Saturday – The final day of Lent and the Holy Week.
Easter Sunday – The resurrection of Jesus.
However, we have been delivered through the Scriptures from following such man-made things.
There is a great difference between the works of the devil and the works of the Triune God. The devil deceives by subtle manipulation (Hey, Easter is not all bad; or – redeem it for God!), and the Triune Godhead commands nothing more than perfect obedience to His will and Word (Thou Shalt not worship any other gods, nor shall you worship God according to the commandments of men). The devil wants you to worship Jesus Christ in the manner that demonic teachings lay out Easter. God commands you to worship Him as His Word dictates. Deuteronomy 4:2 states, “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.” The devil is the father of lies and wants you to believe the lie that Easter is a Christian holiday, like Lent and Christmas. But our true Father is in heaven who commands us today, as Acts 17:30-31 states, “to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead,” who is Jesus Christ. You should talk about that day and wonder, Christian, if you will stand when He appears. There is safety in appearing in the righteousness of Christ on the Day of Judgment. But there is no safety in any degree of comprises for the sake of a few jelly beans.
POST SCRIPT
I do not want Christians to be leery of buying a bag of jelly beans or eating a Cadbury Egg. It is not that jelly beans or chocolate bunnies are evil in and of themselves. Buy some jelly beans during the 4th of July and have at them. Make some chocolate bunnies and eat them up during January or September. But do not associate yourself or your family with the Romanist amalgamation of pagan rituals during the March-April time of Lent, Good Friday, Palm Sunday and Easter. Those associations are in direct violation of God’s commands, and those associations overrule your plea to Christian Liberty because God is very clear about His worship. As Revelation 19:10 states, “Worship God.”
[1] See Alexander Hislop’s work, “The Two Babylons” which outlines the history behind these pagan origins in great depth.
It is so sad to watch people start their Christian testimony with the words – “I was searching for the truth. I was seeking for God in all the wrong places and then one day . . blah blah.”
Fact is no fallen child of Adam ‘SEEKS FOR GOD OR THE TRUTH”! Period! God is his sworn enemy and the ‘truth’ is something which he was born hating! So why would he seek for either?!
There is NONE there is none that seeketh after God! [Rom 3:11]
But here is the amazing thing – “Blessed is the man whom THOU CHOOSEST, and CAUSEST to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts”! [Psa 65:4]
Watch carefully, that God not only ‘CHOOSES’ but ‘CAUSES’ the one chosen ‘TO APPROACH’ Him. In other words, or in the words of our Lord “DRAGS HIM’ to Himself!
“No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me DRAW him”! [John 6:44] The word ‘DRAW’ in the Greek literally means to DRAG! Its first occurrence is here in John 6:44. Here it is the power of God overcoming the enmity of the carnal mind. It occurs again in John 18:10 – “Then Simon Peter having a sword DREW it, and smote the high priest’s servant.”
Here the term signifies that Peter laid FIRM HOLD of his sword and PULLED IT OUT of its sheath. It is found again in John 21:6, 11, “Simon Peter went up and DREW the net to land full of great fishes.” Here it signifies the putting forth of strength so as to DRAG AN INANIMATE AND HEAVY OBJECT. It is used (in a slightly different form) in James 2:6, “Do not rich men oppress you and DRAW YOU before the judgment seats?” Here it has reference to the IMPELLING OF UNWILLING subjects.
Hence from its usage in the New Testament we are therefore obliged to understand that fallen man if he is to ‘come to God’ at all, he MUST BE DRAWN OR DRAGGED BY THE POWER OF OMNIPOTENCE! In raising the sinner from spiritual death to eternal life God employs the same power which He put forth in raising Christ from the dead! [Eph 2:4-6]
This is why when the apostles exclaimed – “WHO then can be saved”? The Lord replied – “With MEN IT IS IMPOSSIBLE, but not with God: for WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE”! [Mark 10:27] Hallelujah!
But it is a known fact that God the Father does not draw EVERYONE to Christ! WHY?!
BECAUSE HE DOES NOT LOVE EVERYONE!
The love of the father is a DISCRIMINATIVE love! It CHOOSES whom to love and whom to hate. “Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated”! [Rom 9:13]
In the same line He chooses on whom He will have mercy and whom He will harden! [Rom 9:18]
If God was dealing with a bunch of ‘INNOCENT’ men and women this would seem unjust! But God is dealing with a fallen bunch of God haters who are His enemies (Rom 5:10), and if there is anything He owes them it is HELL!
So out of this ‘Hell-Deserving’ bunch or ‘lump’ He chooses to display His UNCONDITIONAL MERCY on some and the rest He ordains to eternal damnation which they rightly deserve!
These are the facts! You’ve got to put it in your pipe and smoke it whether you like it or not!
If the Father was choosing everyone and drawing everyone as some suppose, then, scriptures like these make no sense – “Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts”! [Psa 65:4]
Notice that these few whom the Father loves, He not only ‘CHOOSES’, but ‘CAUSES’ to approach unto Him!
Fallen man is so depraved that just ‘choosing him’ is not going to save him!! God must ‘CAUSE’ him to approach! In other words, the Father must not only choose or elect those whom He loves, but He must DRAW them to Christ!
And He does not draw ALL, because He has not chosen ALL. And He has not chosen ALL, because He has not loved ALL!
I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, “Wherein hast Thou loved us”? Was not Esau Jacob’s BROTHER? saith the LORD: YET I LOVED JACOB, AND I HATED ESAU, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness”! [Malachi 1:2,3]
HOW do I know that God loves ME and that I am one of His elect?
Why, I look around me and see so many of my own family who are morally better off than me, who are either lost in unbelief or in a false religion, and that God has loved me and DRAWN ME to Himself and taught me truths which ‘angels desire to look into’ [1Pet 1:12], by this I KNOW I am one of His elect!
“The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: THEREFORE with loving kindness have I DRAWN THEE”! [Jer 31:3] Hallelujah!
1. Are all men both saint and sinner free agents? If so, is not the sinner as free as the saint?
2. If a sinner cannot come to Christ of his own free will, is he a free agent?
3. If all sinners possess will and power to come to Christ, why did Christ say (John 6:44), “No man can come unto Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him?”
4. Has any man the power to refuse to come to Christ when the Father draws him?
5. Are those characters free agents that shall do wickedly and none of them shall understand? (Dan. 12:10)
6. Were those free agents that Peter said (H Peter 2:12), were made to be taken and destroyed, and should utterly perish?
7. Were those free agents who were before of old ordained to this condemnation? (Jude 4.)
8. Are those free agents that Jesus says (John 5:25), shall hear, and they that hear shall live?
9. Are those free agents of whom God says (Heb. 8:10-11), “I will be to them a God and they shall be to Me a people; and they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying know the Lord?”
10. Could not a free agent believe, notwithstanding Jesus said, (Acts 13:41), “I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you?”
11. Would not the doctrine of free agency make man the cause of his own salvation?
12. Can man be a free agent and God be a sovereign?
13. Is any one free that is a servant?
14. Are not all men the servants of sin until they are made free by the Son?
(John 8:34-36.)
15. Is the sinner free to wig, free to choose, free to love, free to become a Christian, or, free to let it all alone?
16. If we are saved by our free will, is it not a fact that the only difference between the saved and the lost is that the saved made a better use of their will?
17. Has one the power over his will to incline it to good or to evil?
18. How many different effects can arise from the same cause?
19. Are we made free from sin before we become servants of God, or do we have to serve Him in order to be made free from sin?
20. Do we have to obey God in order to become a child of God?
21. Does a child have to obey its parents in order to become a child of its parents?
22. If God only wills to save those that are willing to be saved, is not God’s will dependent upon man’s will?
23. Does God work all things after the counsel of His own will (Ephe- 1:1 1), or does He work some things after the will of the sinner?
24. Is the unchangeable God (Mal. 3:6), changed by the will of the sinner?
25. Does salvation or damnation depend upon the use that a man makes of his will?
26. Does a sinner have the will to do God’s will prior to being born again? If so, is his will changed in the spiritual birth?
27. Has man the power to resist God and the devil at the same time?
28. If man’s will is controlled by the influence of another, is it free?
29. Does God begin the work of grace in the sinner independently, or is the sinners
will first consulted?
30. Is the wig and act of the sinner changed before God works in him to will and to do of his good pleasure? (Phn. 2:13)
31. Does Christ have to get the consent of the sinner before He can save him?
HOW ARE SINNERS SAVED?
32. Does the sinner have to accept Christ in order to be saved, and reject Him to be lost? If so, is not Christ limited in the work of salvation to what the sinner sees fit to do?
33. Is belief a condition of salvation, or is it an evidence of salvation?
34. Do we have to believe in order to be saved or is the believer already in possession of eternal life?
35. Did Paul tell the truth when he said sinners are saved by grace and not of works (Ephe. 2:8-9)? If so, why do men preach otherwise?
36. If Christ saves sinners by grace (Ephe. 2:8), did He not know from eternity whom He would save by grace?
37. If sinners are saved by grace alone (Ephe. 2:8), why such ado about sending missionaries to save the heathens?
38. Does Christ save sinners or do sinners save themselves, or is salvation a partnership work?
39. If sinners are saved otherwise than by grace alone, Will some one please cite the chapter and verse which says so?
40. If God purposed to save all men and changes not, will not all be saved? If not, why not?
41. If God works all things after the counsel of His own will (Ephe. 1: I 1), was it His will to save those that will not be saved?
42. If Christ came to save sinners and did not do it (I Tim. 1:15), is not Christ a failure?
43. If Christ is a failure, upon what does the Christian’s hope depend?
44. If grace is favor bestowed upon an unworthy object, does not grace stop where worthiness begins?
45. If the salvation of sinners depends upon their acts, is it not their bad acts, as there are none that doeth good? (Rom. 3:12)
46. Can a sinner dead in sin act in a spiritual capacity previous to being quickened by the Spirit? (Ephe. 2:1)
47. When a sinner is quickened by the spirit, is he not in possession of eternal life?
48. Is there any intermediate space between life and death?
49. Do we have to act in order to live, or does life always precede action?
50. Did Christ come to seek and to save sinners (Luke 19:10), or to save those that seek Him?
51. If sinners have to seek God in order to be saved, and none seek Him (Rom. 3:1 1), will any be saved?
52. Does not the saving of sinners come before the calling, and does not God do both, and are we either saved or called according to our works? (II Tim. 1:9)
53. If God saves sinners according to His own purpose (H Tim. 1:9), is not the plan of salvation as old as God’s purpose?
54. If Christ came to save sinners (I Tim. 1:15), and finished the work (John 19:30), what is left for the preachers and sinners to do in the work of salvation?
55. Were the different gifts for the salvation of sinners, or for the edifying of the body of Christ? (Ephe. 4:11-12)
56. Could there be an effect without a cause?
57. Is the first cause of salvation the work of God (Phil. 1:6), or the work of the sinner?
58. Do good works produce the Spirit, or does the Spirit produce good works?
59. If Christ only made salvation possible and the sinner makes it sure by his acts, which deserves the more praise?
60. If belief a condition of salvation, is it not a cause of salvation?
61. Is belief a voluntary act of the creature, or do we believe according to the working of God’s mighty power? (Ephe. 1: 1 9)
62. Does not the word convert mean to change?
63. If you do not believe a thing, do you not have to be converted before you can believe it? If so, does not conversion come before belief?
64. Is the work of man in any sense the cause of the work of the Spirit in the heart?
65. If God is certain, can the destiny of any man be uncertain?
66. Is the proclamation of the gospel the means of salvation? If so, can sinners be saved unless the means are used?
67. Can we use the means without works? If not, is salvation by grace and not of works? (Ephe. 2:9)
68. If means must be used in order to salvation, are not the means the cause of salvation?
69. Can anything be the means of doing a thing it does not do?
70. Does a means of doing a thing always accomplish the end when used? If not, does it not cease to be a means?
71. If the preaching of the gospel is the means of salvation, why is it foolishness and a stumbling block to the unbeliever?
72. Does the preaching of the gospel save those that it is foolishness to , or those it is power and wisdom to?
73. Will a sinner accept a proposition while it is foolishness to him?
74. If it took Christ and what He did to save sinners, will a proclamation of that fact reach their case?
75. If sinners are sent to hell for rejecting the gospel, would it not have been better for sinners if the gospel had not been preached?
76. If Christ could not damn sinners without giving them a chance for heaven, is it not a pity that He ever gave them a chance?
77. Would not a chance system damn more souls than it would save?
78. If God gives every body a chance for heaven, does He not call every body?
79. Are not the called justified and glorified? (Rom. 8:30)
80. Are we not sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Christ Jesus before we are called? (Jude 1)
81. Can Christ be an equal Saviour of all the race of man and a special Saviour of part of the race? (I Tim. 4: 1 0)
82. Can we know Christ except by revelation? (Matt. 11:27)
83. Can flesh and blood reveal Christ to a sinner? (Matt. 16:17)
84. Is not the Spiritual birth called in the Bible a creation? (Ephe. 2:10)
85. Can man create or can he assist the Lord in the least in creation?
86. Does not God work as independently in salvation as in creation?
87. Is the reward reckoned of grace to him that worketh, or to him that worketh not? (Rom. 4:4)
88. Is it work or faith that is counted for righteousness? (Rom. 4:5)
89. Is it in man that walketh to direct his steps? (Jer. 10:23)
90. Will not a sinner go the way the strongest influence is brought to bear on his mind?
91. If the Lord desires the salvation of all men and the devil the damnation of all; will not the one get them that can bring the strongest influence to bear upon their mind?
92. Can we confess with the mouth before we believe with the heart? (Rom. 10:10)
93. Can we believe on Christ before the heart is changed? If so, and all believers are saved, what is the necessity of the change of heart?
94. Is belief the cause of salvation, or is salvation the cause of belief? (John 5:24)
95. If there was grace given us in Christ before the world began (11 Tim. 1:9), was not our salvation purposed of God before the world began?
96. If we work for a thing, is it a gift, or do we make it a debt? (Rom. 4:4)
97. Did God either purpose or try to save those that go to hell?
98. Did God ever try to do anything?
99. Is not our nature such that if we had the power, we would save all men?
100. Is not our nature such that if we had the power, we would deliver the millions of suffering humanity that are in the world; and has not God the power and does not do it?
101. Would parents see their children put to death in the cruel ways God’s children have been if they had the power to prevent it, and yet is not God’s love greater than ours?
102. Is not the plan of salvation perfect?
103. If God’s work is perfect (Deut- 32:14), can we add anything to it?
104. Is anything perfect that is performed by man?
105. If God works all things after the counsel of His will (Ephe. 1:11), and it is His will that all men be saved, will any be lost?
106. Do we obtain salvation by our obedience, or by the appointment of God?
(I Thes. 5:9)
107. If God chose His people unto salvation from the beginning (Thes. 2:13), what do they have to do with the choice?
108. Does a goat have to believe on Christ in order to become a sheep, or do they believe not because they are not sheep? (John 10:26)
109. Is not Christ under obligation to the Father to give eternal life to as many as the Father gave Him? (John 17:2)
110. Is Christ under obligation to sinners to save them?
111. Can sinners by their obedience bring Christ under obligation to save them?
112. Are the Scriptures the truth if they are not fulfilled?
113. Would the Scriptures have been fulfilled if the son of perdition had not been lost? (John 17:12)
114. Is it possible for all men to be saved and the Scriptures be the truth, if some had to be lost in order to the fulfillment of the Scriptures?
115. If God knows all things (I John 3:20), does He not know who will be saved and who lost?
116. Can anything be different from the way God knew it would be?
117. If Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not (John 6:64), did He not know from the beginning who they were that would believe?
118. If the Lord can do everything (Job 42:2), can He not save a sinner without help?
119. Is Christ our Saviour before He saves us?
120. Do we have to believe on Christ before He will save us? If so, do we have to believe He is our Saviour?
121. If we believe that Christ is our Saviour when He is not, do we not believe a lie?
122. Does not every one that denies eternal life being the gift of God make God a liar?
123. Is a person required to obey anything before being born in order to be born?
124. Is there not a begetting and a travail before we are born of God?
125. Does the thing begotten have anything to do with the begetting, the travail or the birth? If so, what?
126. Does a natural work produce a spiritual birth? If not, does the natural man have anything to perform in order to the spiritual birth?
127. Did Christ ever command a sinner to be born again?
128. Does it take an external work to change the heart from natural to spiritual?
129. Can a birth be conditional upon the part of the thing to be born?
130. Is obedience required before or after the birth?
131. If the gifts and calling of God are without repentance (Rom. 11:29). do we have to repent in order to receive them?
132. If Christ gives repentance (Acts 5:31). what do we have to do in order to receive the gift?
133. Was Christ exalted a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sin to any but Israel? (Acts 5:31)
134. Is repentance the act of the creature or the gift of God? (Acts 5:31)
135. If whatsoever is not of faith is sin (Rom. 14:23). and we pray for the salvation of all men without faith to believe all will be saved, do we not commit sin?
136. Does godly sorrow ever fail to work repentance unto salvation? (1 Cor. 7:10)
137. Are the Arminians as confident as Paul was that when a good work is begun in you it will be performed until the day of Jesus Christ? (Phil. 1:6)
138. If the object in making Christ to be sin for us was to make us the righteousness of God in Him (II Cor. 5:21), are we not as certain to be made the righteousness of God as Christ was made to be sin for us?
139. Is faith the act of the creature, or the fruit of the spirit? (Gal. 5:22)
140. If faith is the fruit of the spirit, can it be a condition to be complied with in order to receive the spirit?
141. Is not Christ the author and finisher of our faith? (Heb. 12:2)
142. Have all men faith? (11 Thes. 3:2)
143. Can we please God without faith? (Heb. 11:6)
144. Does the preached word profit any except those that have faith? (Heb. 4:2)
145. If temperance is the fruit of the spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), do those that have the spirit need temperance societies?
146. If belief comes by the will or choice of man, why does he ever believe that which he had rather not believe?
147. If belief is the cause of election, and all believers are in possession of eternal life (John 5:24),
what are we elected to?
148. Are we elected according to our works, or according to God’s foreknowledge?
149. If man by his works procure his own election, is it not of works instead of an election of grace? (Rom. 11:5)
150. If the choice before the foundation of the world (Ephe. 1:4), embraced only the twelve apostles, why did Paul include himself in the number chosen?
151. Did God ever purpose in time to do anything, or is all He does according to His eternal purpose? (Ephe. 3:1 1)
152. If God is in one mind (Job 23:13), did He not have a mind in eternity to do everything that He does in time?
APOSTASY
153. If what God doeth shall be forever (Eccle. 3:14), did He convert those who apostatize?
154. If it is not the will of the Father that one of these little ones should perish (Matt.18:14), will the Father’s will be done?
155. If the Lord Knew before He converted a sinner that he would fall from grace and go to hell, why did He convert him?
156. Does the dog turning to his vomit and the sow to her wallowing prove apostasy?
157. Were the children of God ever known by the appellation of dog or sow?
158. How can a child cease to be the child of its parents?
159. Can a child be born and then be unborn?
160. Will all Israel be saved (Rom. 11:26), if a part of Israel apostatize and are lost?
161. Can we fall away and be renewed again? (Heb. 6:4-6)
162. If God can cease to love a saint on earth, can He not do the same in heaven?
163. If one saint can apostatize and be lost, would not all be lost if heaven was not secured to them by their works.
164. If the Christian lives because Christ lives (John 14:19), will the life of the Christian cease while Christ lives?
165. Did Jesus tell the truth when He said, “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish?” (John 10:28)
166. If the preachers say that they can and do perish whom Jesus says shall never perish, which shall we believe? Jesus or the preachers?
167. If the Lord made all things for Himself (Prov. 16:4), will not all things answer the purpose for which He made them?
168. Did God ever do any thing in vain?
169. If God from the foundation of the world prepared a kingdom in heaven for all of the blessed of the Father (Matt. 25:34), and one falls to get there, who will inhabit it?
170. Will any enter in except those for whom the kingdom was prepared from the foundation of the world? (Matt. 25; 34-46)
171. Why were the names of some persons written in the book of life from the foundation of the world and others were not? (Rev. 17:8)
172. Why was one of Abraham’s sons born after the flesh and another by promise? (Gal. 4:22-23)
173. If the Lord’s portion is His people (Deut. 32:9), will He get His portion and will He take any more?
174. Does not God bless, choose, and cause men to approach unto Him? (Psa. 65:4)
175. Does belief come by the will or choice of man, or through the force of evidence?
176. If divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness (II Pet. 1:3), does anything pertaining to Life and godliness depend upon man?
177. If salvation depends upon the volition of human will, how can the idiot be saved?
178. If man is excused or saved on account of ignorance, why send missionaries to enlighten the heathen?
179. Does the Son quicken whom He will (John 5:2 1), or,, who will let Him?
180. Does a sinner have to mourn in order to be blessed, or is the mourner already blessed? (Matt. 5:4)
181. If Jesus saves His people according to the testimony of the angel (Matt. 1:21), are they not His before He saves them?
182. Were they not given to Christ by the Father (John 10:29), before they were saved or redeemed?
183. If Jews and Gentiles are all under sin (Rom. 3:9), are not infants born under sin, or are they neither Jews nor Gentiles when they are born?
184. If the gospel was preached to every creature (Col. 1:23), to the extent of the command, why spend more than one hundred million dollars annually to accomplish that end?
185. Will not a true witness testify to the truth without money and without price?
186. When the gospel was preached to the poor (Matt. 11:5), was it not done without money?
187. If money is the motive for preaching, is not the preaching apt to be done in a way to please the most people?
188. If we seek to please men, are we the servants of Christ? (Gal. 1:10)
189. Does not the world believe what the Arminian preachers preach?
190. Did the world believe what the apostles preached?
191. If the Arminians preach the truth and the unconverted believe it, why do they want them converted?
192. If convert means to change and sinners believe the truth and you convert them, will they believe the truth then?
193. Cannot the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots just as easily as those can do good who are accustomed to do evil? (Jer. 13:23)
194. Is a work acceptable with God except it be “righteous work”?
195. Can any perform a righteous work except they be born of God? (I John 2:29)
196. Does a sinner have to accept spiritual life in order to live spiritually?
197. Did Adam have to accept natural life in order to live naturally?
198. Does a sinner have to bear good fruit in order to be made alive spiritually?
199. If a tree begins to bear fruit, is it an evidence that it will be alive or is it evident that it is already alive?
200. Do we have to hunger and thirst after righteousness in order to become righteous?
201. Does a person hunger and thirst after that which nourishes a life that he does not live, or that which nourishes the life that he does live?
202. Do we not have to live a spiritual life before we can hunger and thirst after spiritual things?
203. Does the seed sown prepare the ground, or does the seed have to fall into good ground in order to bring forth fruit? (Matt. 13:23)
204. Is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit a sovereign? If so, how can the sinner be a co- willer or coworker in the work of regeneration?
205. If the carnal mind is enmity against God (Rom. 8:7), are not the works of the carnally minded the same?
206. Can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit (Matt. 7:18), or must the tree first be made good?
207. If a corrupt tree can bring forth both evil and good fruit without being changed, how can we know a tree by its fruit? (Matt. 7:16)
208. Is heaven assured to man in consequence of the work of man or the work of Christ?
209. If Christ has done all that He can do and sinners are not saved, is Christ the Saviour of sinners?
210. Does a sinner’s salvation depend upon his obedience to either law or gospel?
211. Will a sinner come to Christ while he is destitute of the love of God?
(John 5:40-42)
212. Is not every one that loveth born of God? (I John 4:7)
213. Is not God’s love everlasting (Jer. 31:3), and is not His power equal to His love?
214. If it is God’s will to save all men, is not His love and power equal to His will?
215. Did not God love us when we did not love Him? (I John 4:10)
216. Did not God love us when we were dead in sins, and did He not quicken us because of that love? (Ephe. 2:4-5)
217. Is not God’s love to us the cause of our love to Him (I John 4:19)? If so, will He not cause every one to love Him that He loves?
218. If we love God because He first loved us, will the effect cease as long as the cause exists?
219. If whosoever is born of God cannot sin (I John 3:9), how can they apostatize and be finally lost; or can one apostatize without sinning?
ELECTION AND THE ATONEMENT
220. Did not Jesus love us before He washed us from our sins in His own blood? (Rev.1:5)
221. Is not redemption the fruit of God’s love? (Isa. 63:9)
222. Does not the word atone mean “at one”?
223. Is not He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified all of one? (Heb. 2:11)
224. Will any be lost that are with Christ?
225. If God loved His people as He loved Christ, and He loved Christ before the foundation of the world (John 17:23-24), did He not love His people before the foundation of the world?
226. If God loved sinners when they were dead in sins, will His love ever cease toward those who refuse to repent and obey the gospel?
227. If the goodness of God leadeth to repentance (Rom. 2:4), will not His goodness lead all to repentance that are embraced in His eternal love?
228. If God changes not (Mal. 3:6), did He not love every object in eternity that He loves now or ever will love?
229. Are we by the blood of Christ redeemed to God (Rev- 5:9), or just part of the way?
230. If all men are redeemed to God, how can any of them get away from Him if they are kept by His power? (I Pet. 1:5)
231. If Christ died for all men and all men are not saved, did not Christ die in vain?
232. If Christ died for all men and rose for their justification, are not all justified?
233. If the justified are lost, who will be saved?
234. Will not all be saved that are justified? (Rom. 5:9)
235. Did Christ give Himself for the world or for the church? (Ephe. 5:25)
236. Did Christ give Himself for the church to give it a chance for heaven, or that it should be holy? (Ephe. 5:27)
237. Did not Christ love the church before He gave Himself for it? (Ephe. 5:25)
238. Are not some persons greater sinners than others? If so, is not the greater sinner forgiven the most (Luke 7:41-47)? If so, is not the atonement personal?
239. If Christ did not know every man and every act of man, how could He atone for the sins of those who lived a thousand years after His death?
240. Was the atonement made for man before he believed, or is it made for him after he believes?
241. Did Christ die for the godly, or for the ungodly? (Rom. 5:6)
242. Did not Christ redeem His people from all iniquity? (Titus 2:14)
243. If Christ has redeemed all men from all iniquity, for what does God send a man to hell?
244. Is a sinner sent to hell for the same sins for which Christ died?
245. Did Christ atone for all of the sins of all men and then say there were some sins which should not be forgiven unto men? (Matt. 12:31)
246. Do not all have forgiveness of sins who have redemption through the blood of Christ? (Ephe- 1:7)
247. Will God punish man after all his sins are forgiven?
248. Did Christ lay down His life for the goats, or the sheep? (John 10:15)
249. Did Christ die for those that were in hell at the time He died and give them a chance for heaven?
250. Why are not all Universalists who believe that Christ died alike for all men?
251. Does the Bible positively teach that all men will not be saved (Matt. 25:46)? If so, does it teach the possibility of all being saved?
252. If the Lord redeemed His people (Luke 1:68), were they not His before He redeemed them?
253. If we become righteous by obedience to a law, is there such a thing as imputed righteousness.
254. Does not God impute righteousness without works? (Rom. 4:6)
255. Can sinners satisfy justice by their obedience?
256. Are sinners made righteous by their obedience, or by the obedience of Christ? (Rom. 5:19)
257. If a man was redeemed and placed back as he was before he sinned, is he a sinner?
258. Was the world that God loved (John 3:16), and the world that wondered after the beast (Rev. 13:3), the same world?
259. Did not all wonder after the beast whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world? (Rev. 17:8)
260. Does the whole world that lieth in wickedness include those that are of God? (I John 5:19)?
261. Were those that Christ said should weep and lament included in the world which he said should rejoice? (John 16:20)
262. Did not Christ say, “I pray for them, I pray not for the world?” (John 17:9)
263. If Christ prayed for His people and did not pray for the world, were they included with the world under consideration?
264. Were not all of the component parts of man taken from the dust of the earth?
265. When man became a living soul, was he a mortal or an immortal soul?
266. When man transgressed the Law of God, did he die in whole or only in part?
267. If man only died in part in the transgression, would the Bible be the truth when it says there is no soundness in him? (Isa. 1:5-6)
268. Is man in possession of a divine principle prior to the new birth? If so, can he be a natural man?
269. Did not Paul say the first man was of the earth earthy? (I Cor. 15:47)
270. Is not the damnation of sinners just?
271. Are we damned for unbelief?
272. Is unbelief sin?
273. Is unbelief a violation of law? If so, what law?
274. Is unbelief an act, a condition, or the effect of a principle?
275. Is man damned for an act, or a principle?
276. Did not God put the principle in man which he had before the violation of the law?
277. Did the violation of the law put a new principle in man?
278. Does the act of man change his principle, or does he act from principle?
279. Is not predestination a Bible truth?
280. Is not predestination a purpose previous to the performance of an act?
281. Does not every sane person purpose previous to acting? If so, is not every sane person a predestinarian?
282. Is not God a predestinarian? (Gen. 1:26)
283. Does not God save sinners according to predestination? (II Tim. 1:9)
284. Is not the same man resurrected that sinned in Adam, that was redeemed by Christ, born of corruptible seed, born of incorruptible seed and dies corporally.
michaeljeshurun.wordpress.com 