Friday, September 30, 2022

God's Simple Plan Of Salvation

2nd Corinthians 11:1-4, Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

Since the beginning of human civilization, the Devil has tried to tempt humans to disobey God. The Devil's name is Satan, who fell from his lofty position as one of God's archangels in Heaven. In Ezekiel 28:11-17 we find what is called in theology, “
Double Fulfillment.” That is, this passage of Scripture has two parallel applications. Although Ezekiel 28:11-17 is speaking about the king of Tyrus, it also describes Lucifer and his fall from glory. We see another example of Double Fulfillment in Hebrews chapter 7, which speaks of Melchisedec. This passage is also clearly about the precious Lord Jesus Christ, who is without beginning or end, the King of Righteousness (Hebrews 7:1-4).

Lucifer became Satan, a malicious spirit being who labors night and day to kill, steal and destroy. As such, the Devil desires for for and everyone else to go to Hell forever. Satan's greatest weapon is to con people into living the Christian life without ever being born-again. Sadly, it is rare nowadays to hear preachers even use the term “born-again.” What saith the Scripture? John 3:3, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

So how do you get born again? What does that even mean? Well, the Bible says that when Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, death passed upon all men. Romans 5:12, “
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Every human being born into this world since Adam, has been born with an inherent sinful nature. It is a part of who we are as humans. Children do not need to be taught how to lie, cheat and do wrong; they need to be trained up to tell the truth, be honest and to always do what is right.

Because of our sins, there is a penalty, which according to the Bible is death. Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.Carefully notice the contrast in Romans 6:23, between the deadly wages of sin that we deserve, versus the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. No one needs to go to Hell forever. God desires for all men, even the worst of criminals, to repent of their unbelief and come to Jesus Christ in faith to be saved (2nd Peter 3:6).

Also, please understand that there is a difference between being spiritually dead versus the second death in the Lake of Fire. Every human being is born spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-2). But only Christ-rejecters are case into the everlasting Lake of Fire (Hell). Those sinners who never trust Christ as their Savior will perish in their unregenerated state. They were born spiritually dead into this world, and they will die spiritually dead. That is why everyone must be “born again,” it is not optional if you want to enter into the Kingdom of God.

You would be shocked friend, if in the Baptist church that you hopefully attend, you start asking the people around you if they know for certain they're going to Heaven. Ask them why they know. You will be shocked, as I was, to learn that at least half of them haven't a clue. I'm not kidding. I know a good elderly man, who has been an usher in a local Baptist church in Pensacola for the past five years, but when I witnessed to him, he told me that water baptism is necessary to go to Heaven. That is his pastor's fault for not feeding his congregation.

In that dear man's church, the pastor is always telling everyone that they must have “a relationship with Christ to get to Heaven. What does that even mean? Judas had a relationship with Jesus, but John 6:70 says Judas had a devil in him. Judas died in his sins because of unbelief, and is sadly burning in Hell forever. The unsaved wicked Pharisees also had a relationship with Jesus, but perished in their sin of unbelief. I am so thankful that I know I am a born-again child of God. If you don't know that friend, you can and should KNOW beyond any shadow of a doubt (1st John 5:13).

Salvation is solely based on what Christ has already DONE for you through Calvary's cross, and the blood which He sprinkled on the Mercy Seat in Heaven (Hebrews 9:12, 22-24; 12:24). So many churchgoers have been lied to, misled by their heathen pastor to think that they are saved by partial faith in Christ, PLUS something else (repenting of sin, following Christ as Lord, living the Christian life, et cetera). I tell you that there is no plus anything in God's simple plan of redemption. You simply CEASE from your own false religious dead works (i.e., trusting in Roman Catholicism, good works, Mother Mary, the Pope, Mormonism, Hara Krishna, religion, sacraments, et cetera), and come to God as a needy guilty sinner, completely RESTING in the finished redemptive work of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 4:10-11). That is what repentance is, a change of mind, turning from your UNBELIEF to BELIEF in Jesus as the Christ, the only begotten Son of God. When the Roman jailer asked Paul and Silas the $64,000 question: “What must I do to be saved?,” the answer was a simple: “BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST” (Acts 16:30-31).

It is important that you understand what you are being saved from. That is why I took the time to explain these things to you friend. It is not enough to merely believe the Good News of Jesus Christ crucified, buried and risen to get to Heaven; you absolutely must realize and admit to yourself and God that YOU ARE A GUILTY SINNER:
Romans 3:18-20, “There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
God made two great divisions to His inspired Word: Old Testament and New Testaments (or respectively, LAW and CHRIST). Galatians 3:24-26, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. God's Old Testament law (which is summed up in the Ten Commandments) was intended by God to be used as a measuring-stick, by which when compared humans fall short of being sinless and perfect. Thus, realizing our shortcomings to perfectly keep God's law, we then realize our need for the blessed Savior, Jesus. That is what Galatians 3:24-26 is teaching.

This should make it obvious to you then, dear reader, why it is so wrong for any preacher to falsely teach that you must turn away from your sinful ways to be saved. Evangelist Ken Ham preaches this damnable heresy! Forsaking your sinful ways was never the intended purpose of God's law. Does God want you to turn away from a deliberate lifestyle of sinning? Yes, of course, but that has absolutely nothing to do with receiving His free gift of eternal life. You must keep living the Christian life (which is our SERVICE for Christ, or sanctification); completely separate from getting born-again (which is SALVATION in Christ, or justification. 

Pilgrim's Progress book author John Bunyan (1628-1688) well understood this very important distinction, as a free grace preacher of the saving Gospel:
“If you do not put a difference between justification wrought by the man Christ without and sanctification wrought by the Spirit of Christ within, you are not able to divide the Word aright; but contrariwise, you corrupt the Word of God, and cast stumbling blocks before the people.” —Evangelist John Bunyan
Also, Pastor M.R. DeHaan (1891-1965) had a very good understanding of this important distinction between sanctification and justification:
“There is a vast difference between coming to Jesus for salvation and coming after Jesus for service. Coming to Christ makes one a believer, while coming after Christ makes one a disciple. All believers are not disciples. To become a believer one accepts the invitation of the Gospel, to be a disciple one obeys the challenge to a life of dedicated service and separation. Salvation comes through the sacrifice of Christ; discipleship comes only by sacrifice of self and surrender to His call for devoted service. Salvation is free, but discipleship involves paying the price of a separated walk. Salvation can't be lost because it depends upon God's faithfulness, but discipleship can be lost because it depends upon our faithfulness.” Pastor M.R. DeHaan, Hebrews. Zondervan Publishing House, 1959 (p. 117)
I hope you can now see dear reader why it is so very, very, very important to always keep getting saved completely separate from changes in our behavior, serving Christ, following Him as “Lord of our life, turning away from our sinful ways, repenting of sin, running the Christian race faithfully, taking up our cross, giving up the old ways, surrendering all to Christ, counting the cost and paying the price, forsaking a lifestyle of sinning, living a lifestyle of repentance, et cetera, et cetera.

All of the preceding vain things have been wickedly added to the Gospel by today's corrupt neo-evangelical pastors, evangelists and Bible college professors. You may do all of these noble things and yet never have been saved at all. You don't get born-again by doing good works. You don't get born-again through the sacrament of water baptism. Sacraments” are totally unbiblical and you ought never give any attention to such nonsense. The Bible teaches water baptism as a public profession of one's faith, but it is a command for BELIEVERS only, not a sacrament of any church. Likewise, the Lord's Supper is a command from God only for BELIEVERS, a time to remember what Jesus has done for on through Calvary's cruel cross. Please do not ever think, refer or partake of any sacraments, because they are unbiblical. There is no spiritual grace or power bestowed upon the recipient of water baptism or the communion. Beware of formal religion that corrupts the truth of God's inspired Word.

I love this helpful quote from Pastor Harry A. Ironside (1876-1951), which shows that Dr. Ironside had a very sound understanding that our service, sanctification and discipleship as Christian believers, has absolutely nothing to do with receiving God's free gift of eternal life by faith alone in Jesus Christ:
“The Gospel is not a call to repentance, or to amendment of our ways, to make restitution for past sins, or to promise to do better in the future. These things are proper in their place, but they do not constitute the Gospel; for the Gospel is not good advice to be obeyed, it is good news to be believed. Do not make the mistake then of thinking that the Gospel is a call to duty or a call to reformation, a call to better your condition, to behave yourself in a more perfect way than you have been doing in the past …

Nor is the Gospel a demand that you give up the world, that you give up your sins, that you break off bad habits, and try to cultivate good ones. You may do all these things, and yet never believe the Gospel and consequently never be saved at all.”

SOURCE: Harry A. Ironside, from the sermon: What Is The Gospel?
One of my favorite authors is Michael P. Bowen. In his excellent defense of the Christian faith titled, 'I NEVER KNEW YOU,' Michael Bowen writes these wonderful words:
I am at eternal odds with the false, counterfeit messages of salvation-by-works that are taught from virtually every pulpit today, on every television channel, and on every Christian radio station; however, I am not at eternal odds with the individuals who preach these counterfeit messages. My heart literally goes out to all of them because they simply do not understand Christ’s plan of salvation. They have been lied to by a crafty enemy named Satan, whose sole aim is to take as many people with him to the lake of fire as he can possibly manage to steal away from God using a counterfeit plan of salvation that appears so real, so genuine, and so holy that few ever realize they have been deceived by it. Oh reader, so many of today’s professing Christians who think they are going to heaven when they die are not going to make it to heaven as they had assumed because they’ve been lied to by today’s error-filled gospel messages.

SOURCE: Michael Patrick Bowen, 'I NEVER KNEW YOU,' p. 17; © 2009, Xulonpress.com. Hard Copies Available
A tree without fruit is still a tree with roots. This is evidenced by the parable of the sower and the seed in Luke 8:12-15. Of the four groups, only the first group are unsaved, because the Devil removed the seed from their soul before it could sprout into new life. The second and third groups represent believers who never mature to bear fruit (leading others to Christ). They never matured into fruit-bearing Christians, because of their shallow roots; or because as with the third group, they become choked by the cares, riches and pleasures of this life. Ah, but the fourth group matured, having a good and honest heart the Bible says, keeping the Lord's Word, bearing much fruit unto Christ (cf., John 15:1-7). Just because the second and third groups didn't bear fruit, didn't mean they were not saved (as Ray Comfort errantly teaches).

I have shared these truths with you dear reader, to help solidify your understanding of what the Gospel is not. More people will miss Heaven someday simply because they trusted in TOO MUCH! Everything that is complicated about getting saved is God's part. The only thing that God demands of us to be born-again is to place our childlike faith in Jesus, His only begotten Son.

God's simple plan of salvation is so easy, free and plain to understand that even a small child can be saved. God needed to make His plan of salvation so simple, because the world is full of ignorant, unlearned and stupid people. I say that respectfully and with kindness, but it is THE TRUTH. There are a lot of not so bright humans on the planet. That doesn't make them better or worse than anyone else, it just means that God needed to make His plan of redemption for mankind utterly uncomplicated.

In 2nd Corinthians 11:3-4 the Bible even refers to the saving Gospel as “the simplicity that is in Christ.” We are saved by BELIEVING the Gospel. The “Gospel means GOOD NEWS!!! It is the Good News (or Glad Tidings) that God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, into the world, to die on a cross to pay our massive debt of sin. Jesus died on a cross! He was buried. And three days later Christ bodily resurrected by a miracle of God from the dead. These three things comprise THE GOSPEL: Jesus' death on the cross, burial and physical resurrection.
1st Corinthians 15:1-4, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”
There you have it, THE GOSPEL!!! I didn't see anything in there about turning away from sinful ways, did you? Nope! Oh, how men make everything complicated! God's simple plan of salvation is to just put your childlike faith (confidence, trust) in Jesus Christ. God knows that you and I have never seen Jesus, so it is okay to just believe on His name. John 1:12, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:” Just take God at His Word as recorded in the Holy Bible. Simply BELIEVE the record which God Has given us in His Word of Jesus Christ crucified, buried and risen for our justification. What an awesome God and Savior!!!

Repentance
(a helpful article)

Wrong Repentance No Salvation
(MP3 sermon, by Dr. Hank Lindstrom, 1940-2008)




Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Hell Is Full Of Good People

Matthew 7:21-23, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

Matthew 19:16-23, “ And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

Acts 10:1-2, “There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.”

Hell is full of good people! I have given you three Bible examples of good people who were not saved. That is, they had never been born-again!

Matthew 7:21-23 - 'Ye That Work Iniquity'

In Matthew 7:21-23 we read about a devout group of people who preached (prophesied in Jesus' name). They did many wonderful works in Jesus' name. These were decent and good people. They weren't criminals! They went about doing good deeds everywhere they went, and they did them all in Jesus' name, because they served Christ. But dear reader, you cannot get to Heaven by serving Christ! Satan's greatest weapon is to con people into living the Christian life without ever being born-again. Religion is oftentimes a deadly mask that blinds it's followers to THE TRUTH of the Gospel.

Matthew 19:16-23 - 'What Good Thing Shall I Do?'

And then in Matthew 19:16-23 we read about a rich young man, a ruler among the Jews, who greatly admired Jesus and came to ask Him something. The young man asked Jesus what he needed to do to have eternal life. That is a great question! In fact, it is the most important question that anyone could ever ask. The dear Savior discerned that the young man was trusting in his own self-righteousness, because he had greeted Jesus as: “Good Master.”

The young man asked Jesus in Matthew 19:16a, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? Sadly, this is how 95% of people think! They foolishly think that to get to Heaven they must live a good life. Jesus discerned that the young man was self-righteous, so He responded by using the Old Testament law the way it was intended to be used, as a measuring stick, to show that young man that he had fallen short of God's perfect standard. If any human being could live a 100% perfect and sinless life, they would never die! Romans 6:23b teaches that “the wages of sin is death.”

That is why Roman Catholics had to invent the false doctrine of The Assumption of Mary (which became official Catholic dogma in 1950), which falsely teaches that God assumed Mary (i.e., took Jesus' mother up into Heaven), because according to Catholics Mary never sinned. Catholics teach a heresy called The Immaculate Conception of Mary (i.e., she was virgin born too, Just like Jesus). Oh boy, what blasphemy against the Holy Bible. One heresy begets another heresy!!! Since Catholics teach that Mary was virgin born, they had to fabricate another false doctrine that says Mary never sinned, just like Jesus. And since she allegedly never sinned, she couldn't die either, because only sin brings death. I hope you can clearly see how Satanic the Roman and Russian Orthodox Catholic churches are! Roman Catholicism is headquartered in Vatican City, Rome. The Russian Orthodox Catholic church is headquartered in Moscow, Russia. There's not a dimes difference between these two cults!

Jesus was trying to show the rich young ruler that no amount of good works could erase his sins. The young man was very wealthy and covetous, making him a sinner, incapable of meriting eternal life. Jesus is the ONLY human being who has ever lived without sinning, and that is only because He had God almighty as His biological Father (John 3:16). God almighty came down to earth as a biological man. Deity became flesh, incarnate (John 1:1-3, 14; John 10:33; 1st Timothy 3:16). Colossians 2:8-9, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”

In the earthly flesh of the man Jesus, the Godhead dwelt in all their fullness. The Godhead is often referred to in Bible theology classes as the “Trinity.” Although I am not against using the word Trinity, I like the Word Godhead much better, since it is found in the Holy Bible. It is no coincidence that the word “Godhead” has been completely removed in nearly all of the Devil's modern Bible revisions, because the Devil doesn't want people to recognize Jesus as almighty God. In the inspired King James Bible you will find the word “Godhead” mentioned three times (Acts 17:29, Romans 1:20 and Colossians 2:9). But in all three passages, the modern Bible perversions totally obliterate the Godhead.

Take a look at a comparison between Colossians 2:9 in the trustworthy King James Bible, versus the corrupt English Standard Version (ESV), which is the official Bible version used by Bob Jones University (BJU) now for many years...
KING JAMES BIBLE (KJB) - Colossians 2:9, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”
ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION (ESV) - Colossians 2:9, “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,”
There is a BIG DIFFERENCE between the words “deity and Godhead.Deity refers to God, but Godhead refers to the triune aspect of God. Words convey meaning and are extremely important. Take a look at a comparison of Romans 1:20 between the inspired King James Bible, versus the corrupt English Standard Version (ESV)...
KING JAMES BIBLE (KJB) - Romans 1:20, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”

ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION (ESV) - Romans 1:20, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
The words “divine nature” are NOT the same as “Godhead.” Things that are different are not the same! Pastor Curtis Hutson (1934-1995) preaches one of my favorite sermons of the same title, called: “Things That Are Different Are Not The Same.” I cannot warn you enough dear reader about the danger of using the Devil's modern Bible revisions. They are all corrupt, translated from the corrupt 1881 Greek text of Brooke Westcott and Fenton Hort. Even the translations which claim to be based upon the Textus Receptus, from which the King James Bible was translated in 1611, are still corrupted by the influence of Westcott and Hort. For example: The ungodly translators of the English Standard Version (ESV) falsely claim that their work is accurately based upon the Textus Receptus, but if you compare it to all the rest of the Westcott and Hort versions, it is essentially the same. If you've seen one Westcott and Hort Bible, you've seen them all!!! That is because they all share the same corruptions! Which Bible Would Jesus Use? (take a look at Matthew 8:2, 1st Timothy 3:16 and Psalms 12:7).

Acts 10:1-2 - Cornelius, A Good Man But Lost

Cornelius had faith in God. He was an Italian centurion (military commander) over 100 solders. He fasted and prayed, giving alms (provisions) to the poor. Cornelius was a GOOD MAN who feared God. Yet he was not a born-again believer. God arranged for the Apostle Peter and Cornelius to meet. Thankfully, we read in Acts 10:42-43 that Cornelius got saved, and the friends who were with him. I like something that Pastor Curtis Hutson said:
“Just yesterday I heard a man say on the radio, or television, that a certain area was 'Gospel hardened.' And I thought to myself: 'You just don't understand. The area is not Gospel hardened, it is Gospel ignorant.'” —Dr. Curtis Hutson, sermon title: Things That Are Different Are Not The Same
Dear reader, Hell is full of unsaved GOOD PEOPLE, who died in their sins without Jesus Christ. if you want to go to Heaven, you need GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS, which is by faith alone in Jesus Christ. Romans 10:3-4, “For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” Philippians 3:9, “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:” I really love those two Bible verses!!!

THE CLEAR GOSPEL IN 4 MINUTES
(Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold)

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

How To Know You Have Eternal Life In Just A Few Minutes

1st Corinthians 15:1-6, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.”

A professed Christian man recently said to me that he doesn't know how to lead someone to Jesus Christ. That is his pastor's fault for not feeding his people. Jeremiah 3:15, “And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.” 
You know, a church congregation is NOT the pastor's flock, it is God's flock that has been entrusted to that pastor. Acts 20:28, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” Sadly, our churches (especially Baptist) today are filled with spiritually malnourished, sickly and starving saints. What a shame for a man who has been attending his local Baptist church for several years, not to know how to share his faith with someone. Shame on his deadbeat pastor!

Dear reader, it is so easy, quick, free and simple to be saved. That is, to be born-again! To be “saved simply means, that you have been rescued from the eternal prison sentence you were facing in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:12-15). All mankind are guilty before God (Romans 3:19-20). You and I are guilty sinners! We deserve to spend eternity burning in Hell. A lot of people have difficulty accepting that truth, but it is only because we cannot grasp the holiness, perfection and righteousness of our great God and Creator.

To get right to the point, God loves you so much dear friend that He chose to die on a cross to pay for your sins, rather than let you spend eternity separated from Him in the torments of Hell beneath. God came down to earth and took on the form of a man, Jesus (1st Timothy 3:16). God became flesh and walked among men, as the only begotten Son of God (John 1:1-3, 14). Christ DIED on a cross in your place and mine. Jesus paid a debt He did not owe, because we owed a debt we could not pay (2nd Corinthians 5:21). JESUS PAID IT ALL!!!

Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea carefully removed Jesus' lifeless body from the cross, embalmed Him according to Jewish custom, and then buried the dead Savior in a tomb in which no man had ever been paid to rest. Three glorious days later, by a miracle of God almighty, Jesus resurrected physically from the dead in His immortal glorified body. That is the Gospel (the GOOD NEWS):
  1. Jesus DIED on a cross to pay for our sins.
  2. Jesus was BURIED.
  3. Jesus bodily RESURRECTED three days later.
Anyone who comes to God as a needy guilty sinner, and accepts these FACTS as true, personally choosing to rely (trust) upon them for eternal life, is saved. Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” We are saved by BELIEVING this Good News!!! I believe it, do you?

You DON'T have to get water baptized to get to Heaven (the repentant thief on the cross didn't get water baptized in Luke 23:41-43). You don't have to confess Christ publicly to other people (the Apostle Peter publicly denied knowing Jesus in Luke 22:57; and the chief rulers who believed on Jesus did not confess Him in John 12:42-43). You don't have to forsake a lifestyle of sinning to get to Heaven. In 1st Corinthians 5:1-5 we read about a saved man who was living a lifestyle of fornication. The Bible says he later repented, but the Christian woman is never mentioned again. In 2nd Timothy 4:10, we read that the Christian Demas forsook the ministry, because he loved this present world. These were God's redeemed children living in sin, intentionally. Ananias and Sapphira chose to sin, and it cost them their lives!

Dear friend, you don't even have to give up your unbelief to get to Heaven:
Mark 9:23-26, “Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbeliefWhen Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.
This grieving father had his doubts in Jesus, but he so desperately wanted his son to be made well again, that he cast himself at Jesus' feet, doubts and all. Dear friend, even if you have 99% doubt that the Bible is actually true, if you'll put that 1% of faith in Jesus Christ alone as your only hope for eternal life and forgiveness of sins, God promises to save you! Jesus said if a man has faith as small as a seed of mustard seed, he can move mountains with God. Mustard seeds are among the tiniest seeds in the world, yet mustard plants grow upwards of 8 to 12 feet tall. Even the least bit of genuine faith in Jesus as the Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is enough to save the worst sinner upon the planet! John 20:31, “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”


You need HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS dear reader. Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Philippians 3:9, “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:” Simply place your childlike faith (confidence), oh guilty sinner, in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (who sacrificed His life on the cross to pay our debt of sin) and you will be immediately, irrevocably and eternally saved. You have God's promise of it! Titus 1:2, “
In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

You do NOT have to pray a prayer to be saved. You can simply BELIEVE in your soul on the Lord Jesus Christ. Simply by faith take God at His Word, as recorded in the inspired Holy Bible.

Salvation is not a reward for the righteous, it is a gift for the guilty!

Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith.

Turning away from sinful ways would be a work. Faith puts all of the merit where it belongs, on the object of our faith, Jesus and His work.

If to “repent” means to forsake our sinful ways TO BE SAVED, but Jesus already paid for our sins by dying on the cross, then what are we repenting from?

The true Gospel always points you to CHRIST; a false gospel always points to YOU.

Simply BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ, and the work is done, you are saved. There are only two types of religions in the world: DO and DONE! You either believe Jesus has already done it for you; or else you think you must do something to earn, merit and obtain it. What did Jesus say? John 6:28-29, “Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” Simply believe the Good News of Jesus Christ!

THE CLEAR GOSPEL IN 4 MINUTES
(Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold)

Saturday, September 17, 2022

Less Than 5% Of Pastors Today Accurately Preach The Gospel

Jeremiah 3:15, “And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.”

Jeremiah 10:21, “For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.”

Jeremiah 12:10, “Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.”

Jeremiah 23:1, “Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!  saith the LORDTherefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.”

Good pastors are a blessing from the Lord, a rare find in 2022. Sadly, over 95% of pastors are terribly incompetent theologically. If you go visit Pastor Keith Gomez' church website, he errantly teaches that you must “turn from your sin” to be saved. I triple-dog dare you to show me that junk in the inspired King James Bible? You cannot. Argue as someone may, preachers have always had a wicked tendency to ADD to God's Words. Proverbs 30:5-6, “
Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.  Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. Kindly said, Keith Gomez is a liar! Ironically, on their website's main webpage, the drop down menu reads: “The Bible Way To Heaven.” Again, you cannot show me even one verse that tells us to “repent of your sin” or “turn away from your sin” to be saved. Beware of men!!!

Another poisonous religious institution today is Bob Jones University (BJU). Read their college's Statement of Faith for yourself. According to BJU, to get to Heaven people must “be willing to repent and turn from their sin.” I dare you to show me that from the inspired King James Bible!!! You cannot. Hebrews 6:1 tells us us to repent from “dead works.” Acts 20:21 tells us to repent “toward God.” 2nd Timothy 2:25 tells us to repent to acknowledge “the truth.” But nowhere in the Bible are we ever told to repent of our sins. Jesus Christ came into the world to pay for our sins on the cross of Calvary (John 3:16); not demand that we forsake our sins as a prerequisite to receive God's free gift of eternal life by faith.

In the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, the prophet started out by saying that God gives us pastors as a blessing, so they can us with knowledge nd understanding. But several chapter later the prophet indicts the pastors, calling them “brutish” (lacking good sense). I cannot think of a better example of today's brutish pastors that the utter confusion caused by having literally HUINDREDS of English Bible revisions! It is insanity! Whereas the Communist country of Cuba admirably rejected a shipment of 17,000 New International Version (NIV) Bible revisions, the vast majority of America's foolish pastors use and promote them today. Go figure! Can you hear the Devil laughing?

Today's pastors are sinfully brutish, that is, they lack good sense. It was over this issue that I was forced out and banned from attending the shameful Harvest Baptist Church on Guam since 2014. I didn't attend church for several years because of Pastors' Marty Herron (senior pastor at Harvest from 1999 to 2018) and Gary Walton's (senior pastor at Harvest since 2018) hatred toward me, and their ungodly love of the modern Bible perversions, Lordship Salvation, misunderstood repentance and hellbound infidels like John MacArthur. I say that kindly, but truthfully on the authority of God's Word. Romans 3:4, “God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. If the truth I have been preaching for the past 20 years since 2002 is in agreement with God's Word, then my sayings (website preaching, videos and ministry) will be vindicated and defended by God.

Dear reader, if you think that our omnipotent God, who is not the author of confusion (1st Corinthians 14:33), actually gave us HUNDREDS of English Bible to choose from, then you have been woefully deceived by the Devil. I mean, does that sound like the way God does things, with chaotic confusion? It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. I think this picture does that saying justice...


In order to obtain a legal copyright from the U.S. Copyright Department, your new work MUST be creatively different and contain a substantial amount of unique content. In other words, whether it needs changing or not, your new Bible version must differ considerably from all existing Bibles. If you understand this, it makes sense why all of the existing Bibles contradict each other, as the preceding image so well illustrates. The only inspired words of God today are found in the King James Bible for English speaking people. All others are inferior and corrupt. Please throw away your modern Bible perversions!!!

It is because of the many new corrupt Bibles, that the Gospel has been corrupted as well. For example: Take a look at what the Easy-To-Read Version changes Mark 1:15 to read:
KING JAMES BIBLE (KJB) — Mark 1:15, “And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” [emphasis added]

EASY-TO-READ VERSION (ERV) — Mark 1:15, “He said, “The right time is now here. God’s kingdom is very near. Change your hearts and lives, and believe the Good News!” [emphasis added]
WICKEDNESS!!! That is wrong, wrong, wrong! Repentance is “a change of mind,” not “a change of heart and life.” You cannot show me anywhere in the Bible that says to “turn from sin” or “repent from sin” to be saved. Acts 20:21 speaks of “repentance toward God,” not from sin. We are saved by BELIEVING, not repenting. Yes, repentance is necessary for salvation, but to “repent” simply means to change your mind so that you will believe the Gospel. 
The Greek word for “repent” in Mark 1:15 in the King James Bible is metanoeo, which means, “to think differently.” This is the verb form of the word. The noun form is metanoia (“a change of mind”). Repentance is a simple change of mind. It DOESN'T mean to “change your hearts and lives,” which is what the corrupt ERV says!!! Do you see dear friend how changing the inspired incorruptible Word of God affects doctrine? It sure does.

When ungodly men change God's Word, they are dooming themselves and those who ignorantly follow them. 1st Peter 1:23 says that God's Word is incorruptible. That means even if wicked men change it on earth, God's Word is still safe and hasn't been changed in Heaven. Psalms 119:89, “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. You can corrupt the Word of God on earth, but that doesn't change it's power or purity in Heaven. Also, in Psalms 12:6-7 God promised that His inspired very pure Words (Psalms 119:140) will always be preserved upon the earth. Multitudes of ungodly men have tried to eradicate the world of the inspired Holy Bible, but utterly failed. It is not wise to work against God.

I plead with you dear reader to take Bible doctrine seriously. The sin of indifference (not caring one way or the other) has crept into over 95% of churches today, rendering them weak and ineffective for accomplishing the work of God. Take a look around your community. How many soulwinning churches do you see? I cannot name even one in Pensacola, Florida. We've got hundreds of churches here. Pastor Peter S. Ruckman's (1921-2016) old church still goes out soulwinning in public, but they are on the other side of Pensacola. I live on the westside. There are no soulwinning churches around me.

Sadly, the First Baptist Church of Pensacola has several hundred members, mostly older retired folks (Pensacola is a retirement location in the United States), but doesn't go soulwinning. That doesn't surprise me one bit, because they preach the Devil's lie of Lordship Salvation (which most of the Southern Baptist Convention's 45,000 member churches do). Pensacola is a relatively quiet city of about 50,000 residents. Many of the people here are receptive to the Gospel. Sadly, from what I have seen so far, most of these people have been victimized by corrupt churches, who preach a flawed plan of salvation.

Kindly said, the First Baptist Church of Pensacola preaches another gospel (Galatians 1:6-7). I attended their traditional service back in March of 2022, at which time I heard their senior pastor (who is a good man but I think lost), tell the church congregation to surrender control of their life to Christ to get to Heaven. Folks, that is NOT what Jesus taught in the Bible. Jesus simply said in John 11:25-26, “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” If you have been born-again friend, then you are alive in Jesus Christ because He is alive in you!!! Jesus didn't tell Martha to turn from her sins, did He? No, He did not. It sounds so spiritual when a preachers says to turn from your sins to be saved, but it is not what Jesus taught, because it is not Biblical at all.

Nor did Jesus tell Martha to surrender control of her life over to Him, did He? No, Jesus did not tell her that. So why do so many preachers lie to people, by requiring them to do a bunch of extra things to get to Heaven that God does not require? I think it is because our sinful human nature finds it nearly impossible to separate works from faith. This is why Adam, by nature, sewed together fig leaves in an attempt to atone (cover) their nakedness. God rejected Adam's fig-leaf religion, killing an innocent animal instead, which symbolized Christ being sacrificed on the cross, whose shed His blood washes away our sins by faith (1st Peter 1:18-19; 1st John 1:7; Revelation 1:5). What saith the Scripture? ...
Colossians 1:12-15, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:”
There can be no salvation without the precious blood of Jesus! Did you hear that John MacArthur? In case you don't know, Pastor MacArthur denies that Jesus' liquid blood is in Heaven, sprinkled on the heavenly Mercy Seat. According to the poisonous 'MacArthur Study Bible,' commenting on Hebrews 9:12-24, he errantly teaches that when the Bible mentions the word “blood” 12 times in Hebrews chapter nine, it really means Christ's “death.” Huh? Are you kidding me? Tell that to the Old Testament high priest, to whom God warned that He would kill, if that high priest so dared to enter into the Tabernacle's Holy Place without a lamb's blood.

Tell that to Moses, to whom the Lord said in Exodus 12:13, “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.” The death angel was not looking for the dead lamb in the backyard. No, the death angel was looking for THE BLOOD APPLIED to the home's door posts and lintel (the plate above the door that kept bricks from falling on your head - Exodus 12:22). The lamb's blood had to be applied to the proper place, which was to be sprinkled upon the Ark of the Covenant (Hebrews 12:24), in the presence of God (Hebrews 9:24) which resided between the two cherubims overlooking the ark, in which the inspired written Word of God was contained.

Perhaps you've seen the blockbuster 1981 movie, Indiana Jones And The Raiders Of The Lost Ark. I have. I love Harrison Ford's acting. In the movie, when the Germans open the Ark of the Covenant, death consumes all of them! That is very real friend. When the Philistines even dared to capture the Ark in the Old Testament, God cursed them (1st Samuel 5)! The moral of the true story is don't mess with the Holy Bible!!!

And in Numbers 15:35, God had a man killed for daring to even pick up sticks on the Sabbath Day. Why? Well, the Sabbath Day was a day of complete rest, which according to Hebrews 4:10-11 was representative of Jesus Christ in whom we completely rest for salvation. That is such a beautiful type which God in His wisdom made to help humans understand the Gospel. So when that sincere man collected sticks to make a fire on the Sabbath Day, it symbolized adding works to faith alone in Jesus. The point was well made to God's people, and to the world still today!!! Don't mess with the Gospel.


Pensacola Christian College Gets Repentance Wrong

Dear reader, I hope I have succeeded in showing you the grave danger of tampering with the inspired Holy Bible, and the Gospel of free grace. Yet, that is exactly what over 95% of preachers today are wickedly doing! When I attended Campus Church at Pensacola Christian College in 2021, my first couple weeks there I was sickened at a Wednesday evening Bible study, to hear Assistant Pastor Timothy Zacharias errantly tell a thousand people that “repentance is a change of mind which results in a change of behavior.” That is so WRONG! Repentance in Mark 1:15 is the Greek verb metanoeo, which means: “to think differently.” The noun form is metanoia, “a change of mind.” That is all it means, period. You change your mind to BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you are saved (Acts 16:30-31).

If you will simply come to God as a needy sinner (Romans 3:19-20), and BELIEVE the Gospel (Good News) as recorded in His inspired Word (1st Corinthians 15:1-4; John chapters 19-20), that Jesus is the Christ, the only begotten Son of God (John 20:31), Who died in your place for your sins upon the cross, and was buried, and then bodily resurrected three days later from the dead—you will be immediately, irrevocably and forever born-again by God's Holy Spirit (John 1:12-13). You have God's promise on it (Titus 1:2; 1st Corinthians 1:21; Romans 1:16).

I do believe that many of the people at PCC are saved, but because they are preaching a wrong understanding of repentance, it obscures the Gospel for others, so that they miss God's simple plan of salvation. Anytime that a preacher focuses on YOU instead of solely upon CHRIST, the Gospel is obscured and some people will miss the boat to Heaven. The true Gospel always points you to CHRIST; a false gospel always points to YOU. I contacted the senior pastor of Campus Church the very next day on Thursday, on July 22, 2021. I told him about the false teaching I had heard at his church. Sadly, Pastor Redlin 100% defended the heresy, which I came to learn is the official doctrine taught to all new church members in their corrupt Foundation's Class. Being wrong on doctrine is one thing, but to arrogantly defend it is another matter entirely. Shame on Pastors' Jeff Redlin and Timothy Zacharias for perverting the Word of God. Repentance does not lead to a change of behavior. The ONLY thing that you automatically get with salvation is the indwelling Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9; 1st John 3:24).

Salvation is not a reward for the righteous, it is a gift for the guilty!

Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith.

Turning away from sinful ways would be a work. Faith puts all of the merit where it belongs, on the object of our faith, Jesus and His work.

If to “repent” means to forsake our sinful ways TO BE SAVED, but Jesus already paid for our sins by dying on the cross, then what are we repenting from?

The true Gospel always points you to CHRIST; a false gospel always points to YOU.

We must stay true to the simplicity of the Gospel!! To agree with the Gospel of John, repentance regarding salvation can only mean a change of mind from unbelief to belief!!! We must earnestly contend for the faith (Jude 1:3).

It truly breaks my heart that in nearly every church I have attended, to some degree they are wrong on repentance, the Gospel and how to get to Heaven. And tragically, when I befriend such naïve pastors with THE TRUTH, they reject that truth and resent me for it, which makes them ungodly and utterly incompetent! I'm talking about Marty Herron, Gary Walton, Joe Hansen, Jared Baldwin, Jeff Redlin, Tim Zacharias, to name but a few false prophets. RIGHT DOCTRINE MATTERS!!!

Sadly, less than 5% of pastors today accurately preach the Gospel of free grace. One such godly preacher is Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold (MP3 sermons). Only Heaven knows how many tens of thousands of lost sinners have come to Jesus Christ because of this dear saint's ministry. I thank God for Pastor Yankee Arnold!!! Another free grace preacher is Pastor Max D. Younce. I thank God for this dear saintly man of God. Please visit his church website. And I thank God for Pastor Steven Anderson. I disagree with him on several of his doctrinal teachings, but he is accurate on the free grace Gospel, and the inspired King James Bible, so his ministry gets my full support. I love these faithful free grace Gospel preachers!

In SHARP contrast, please BEWARE of all of the following false prophets regarding how to get to Heaven: Joel Osteen, Ray Comfort, Kirk Cameron, Paul Washer, John MacArthur, Adrian Rogers, Charles Stanley, Chip Ingram, William Lane Craig, Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, The Pope (Catholic), Pat Robertson, Warren Jeffs (Mormon), Doug Batchelor (Seventh Day Adventist), Chuck Phelps, Marty Herron, Gary Walton, Steve Pettit, Keith Gomez, Charles G. Finney, Rick Warren, Beth Moore, Joyce Meyer, John Hagee, et cetera. In one way or another all of these religious leaders pervert God's simple plan of salvation.

Dear reader, I encourage you to read the Gospel of John. I prefer listening to it, so I can just close my eyes and focus on what is being read. If you'll just listen to Alexander Scourby read the Gospel of John, you will understand how simple it is to go to Heaven. John 6:47, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” You'll not find anything in the book of John about confessing, turning, giving, stopping, surrendering, following, running, persevering or anything else except to BELIEVE on Jesus Christ to get to Heaven. God intentionally made salvation very simple, easy and free, so that even a small child can be born-again by faith in Jesus.


Pastor John MacArthur's Deadly False Plan Of Salvation

It is not hard to be saved. John MacArthur is a Calvinist false prophet, who in chapter one of his heretical book titled "Hard To Believe, says the following:
"Too many people just want a Madison Avenue Jesus to make them well, make them happy, and make them prosperous. But Jesus Christ isn't a personal genie. He is the Savior. He died in agony to satisfy the wrath of a holy God and to forgive the sins of humankind. Faith in Him demands a willingness to make any sacrifice He asks. The hard truth about Christianity is that the cost is high, but the rewards are priceless: abundant and eternal life that comes only from faithfully following Christ. ...

It’s pretty simple. Anyone who wants to come after Jesus into the kingdom of God—anyone who wants to be a Christian—has to face three commands: 1) deny himself, 2) take up his cross daily, and 3) follow Him. These words are hard to believe. They’re not consumer-friendly or seeker-sensitive. Christianity Lite is nowhere to be found. But this is not an obscure passage, or something different from other teachings of Jesus. These are principles that He taught consistently and repeatedly throughout His ministry, over and over again in all different contexts." SOURCE
BLASPHEMY!!! Dr. John MacArthur is theological liar! He is totally ignoring the Gospel of John, which was authored by God specifically to show us how to get to Heaven. John 20:31, “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” If following Jesus Christ faithfully, and being willing to make any sacrifice that He demands, and taking up our cross daily is mandatorily required to get to Heaven, then prey tell me how can eternal life be a free gift from God? Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

I love what Pilgrim's Progress author, John Bunyan said (and this is my favorite quote):
“If you do not put a difference between justification wrought by the man Christ without and sanctification wrought by the Spirit of Christ within, you are not able to divide the Word aright; but contrariwise, you corrupt the Word of God, and cast stumbling blocks before the people.” —John Bunyan (1628-1688)
That is the big monkey-wrench in John MacArthur's theology, he fails to differentiate between SALVATION versus SERVICE!!! Pastor M.R. DeHaan (1891-1965) gets it 100% correct:
"There is a vast difference between coming to Jesus for salvation and coming after Jesus for service. Coming to Christ makes one a believer, while coming after Christ makes one a disciple. All believers are not disciples. To become a believer one accepts the invitation of the Gospel, to be a disciple one obeys the challenge to a life of dedicated service and separation. Salvation comes through the sacrifice of Christ; discipleship comes only by sacrifice of self and surrender to His call for devoted service. Salvation is free, but discipleship involves paying the price of a separated walk. Salvation can't be lost because it depends upon God's faithfulness, but discipleship can be lost because it depends upon our faithfulness." —Pastor M.R. DeHaan, Hebrews; Zondervan Publishing House, 1959 (p. 117)
What a beautiful and doctrinally sound quote. Bravo Dr. Martin Ralph DeHaan!!! I love Pastor DeHaan by the way, he is one of my favorite preachers, along with Pastor Harry A. Ironside (1876-1951). These men were both 100% free grace Gospel preachers! It sickens me that most preachers today have been deceive by the Devil, preaching a counterfeit plan of salvation that does not match up to what the Bible teaches.

The earlier quotes I shared with you, from chapter one of John MacArthur's heretical book, “Hard To Believe,” sounds impressive to the naïve unsaved religious person. It sounds reasonable to the unregenerate mind that something should be required of you to receive eternal life. MacArthur boldly asserts that eternal life comes at a high cost to YOU! But dear reader, eternal life came at a high cost to God and His only begotten Son, Jesus, who paid the ultimate price for our sins with His precious blood (1st Peter 1:18-19). It's bad enough that Mr. MacArthur falsely teaches eternal life will COST YOU EVERYHTING, but then he insults and blasphemes the Word of God even further by denying that we are saved by Jesus' physical liquid blood on the Mercy Seat in Heaven (Hebrews 9:12, 22-24; 12:24).

The deadly poison which Pastor MacArthur is preaching is called Calvinism. Evangelist Steve Pettit became the new incompetent president of Bob Jones University (BJU) since 2014. As you can see for yourself here (backup article), Dr. Pettit is a 100% hardcore Calvinist! According to Steve Pettit, you CANNOT merely say that “you've accepted Christ as your Savior, and then write down the date, place and time that you were saved inside your Bible's cover. No, Pettit asserts that you must faithfully run the Christian race for the rest of your life, until the end, and only at that time will you know for sure that you've made it to Heaven. Dr. Pettit foolishly teaches that your "REWARD" (that is exactly what he calls it) for faithfully running the Christian race will be "HEAVEN ITSELF" (those are his own words). Folks, that is a works-based counterfeit plan of salvation, which absolutely cannot produce the second birth.


You Can KNOW Right Now That Your Name Is Written In Heaven

THE TRUTH is that eternal life is a free gift, that you can accept right now, this instant, and KNOW 100% that you are a born-again child of God. And you CAN go out and live like the Devil for the rest of your life (1st Corinthians 3:15, 5:1-5), and still KNOW without any shadow of a doubt that you are saved and going to Heaven when your physical body dies someday. God authored the Epistle of 1st John so that YOU as an individual, can determine if you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you, which is the ONLY proof of salvation.

Some people make the honest mistake of relying upon emotional and external evidences to confirm that they are saved. Remember, the same apostle John who penned the Epistle of 1st John (that shows us how to know we are saved), also penned the Gospel of John (which shows us how to get saved). So we need to interpret 1st John in view of the Gospel of John. That is, we must NEVER conclude that the Epistle of 1st John is teaching works as evidence for salvation. Hellbound Mormons, Roman Catholics and Seventh-Day Adventists all do good works. Remember, the unsaved people in Matthew 7:21-23 did “many wonderful works.” So obviously anything that an unsaved person can do cannot be used as “proof” of being saved. 

The Epistle of 1st John is intended to help guide you individually to determine if you have God's Holy Spirit living inside you (1st John 3:24). You will know if you have God in you! If as believers we do not abide in the Scriptures, listen to sound Bible preaching, keep godly caring Christian friends, and attend a solid New Testament type of church, we will be a mess! I encourage you to read Pastor Jack Hyles' free helpful book: "Meet The Holy Spirit."

I can tell you assuredly upon the authority of the Scriptures dear friend, that if you have sincerely placed 100% of what little faith you may have in Jesus Christ alone—believing that He was crucified on a cross, buried and bodily resurrected the third day from the dead FOR YOU—you have been born-again. Christ died, that's history; Christ died and rose for me, that's salvation! 1st Thessalonians 4:14, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” I love that Bible verse! I learned it from Michael P. Bowen, in his wonderful book clarifying the simplicity of the Gospel: “I Never Knew You.” Michael credits his helpful book to his godly mother, and I thank God for godly mothers. One ounce of mother is worth one pound of clergy!!! Yes, it sure is. We need godly mama in this world!
“Lordship Salvation is the unsupportable and unbiblical belief that the performance of good works, the promise of good works, or the evidence of good works, must accompany faith in Christ to establish or provide evidence that such faith has resulted in eternal life.” —Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold ('Jesus versus John MacArthur') ...
Jesus Versus John MacArthur
(Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold)

God bless you dear reader. I love you unconditionally with God's love. I cannot thank you enough for reading my blog posts. I have prayed earnestly since 2006 for God to give me one thousand readers per day on my "Recent webpage," but it didn't happen. But as my Christian mother Barbara Stewart (1935-2001) always taught me: "God works in mysterious ways." He sure does! I never had thought about starting a blog until early in 2020. One of my good ministry friends, Curtis Smale (at only age 57, Curtis went to Heaven in January of 2022), asked me in 2020 what my plans were for my ministry when I die. I told him that I didn't have any plans. So he encouraged me to start a blog, which will perpetuate long after I am gone from the earth. Well by God's grace I started nine blogs! Praise the Lord!!!! Here they all are:
I am sharing these links with you in case you didn't know about my other blogs. As I said earlier, I have been praying for God to give me 1,000 readers per day, but it hasn't happened at my Jesus-is-Savior.com website's "Recent page." But thanks to my new blog at: Stewart1611, I receive about TWICE the readers there that I do at my Jesus-is-Savior website. Amen! I think the reason why is that Google's excellent blog service is mobile phone friendly, but my website is not. I admit that I am not a professional web designer. I am a hard working amateur with a passion and determination to serve the Lord Jesus Christ through the internet! That is all I am. I certainly don't claim to know what I am doing...lol.

I just got all my certificates working for all my websites, which means they are all now secure. That is likely why Google was lowering my webpage's ranking spot year-after-year since 2015. I actually had certificates for most of those years (provided for free by my hosting company. (You had to pay lots of money in the old days for certificates, which I couldn't afford). But I didn't know that my certificates weren't activated. I didn't know about it then, but I do now! So praise the Lord that all my websites are now secure (which is signified by a little lock symbol just before the address at the top of each webpage (including this one). I am thankful to Google for providing their free blog feature to people. That is so awesome!

I highly recommend Google's "Blogspot" to anybody who loves to write and has something to say. Better yet, all of your blogs automatically (by default) appear in the search engines, so the world can see your work. THANK YOU GOOGLE!!! I thank God that through my Christian friend, Curtis Smale, that he inspired me to start my own blog. I encourage you to read his prolific writings. I often told Curtis that God gifted him as a prolific writer. You will see what I mean if you read his writings, which are compelling.

There is a war on for your mind dear reader! The Devil comes only to kill, steal and destroy (John 10:9-10). Satan is a beautiful liar! There is MUCH debate and confusion in America's 350,000 churches over what it means to repent to be saved. But there is no controversy if you believe the Holy Bible! The Gospel of John is God's Gospel tract (John 20:31). Christ paid your dent of sin, and mine. All God requires to obtain eternal life is that you put your trust in His only begotten Son. John 6:40, “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” I don't see any requirement to turn away from a lifestyle of sin, do you? Bible repentance is NOT reformation (a changed life).

You need to know these theological terms:
  • Penance = to try to make a mend for sin (Judas returned the 30 pieces of silver)
  • Penitence = to be sorry for sin (Judas admitted he had betrayed innocent blood)
  • Reformation = to turn from sin (Judas was a changed man)
  • Repentance = a change of mind (Judas never repented of his unbelief in Christ)
Matthew 27:3 says “Judas repented himself,” but this is a completely different Greek word (metamellomaiin, meaning “to regret”) than is used regarding salvation (metanoia, which means a change of mind”). Judas didn't change his mind about who Jesus is, the Christ, he was simply regretful for what he had done to Jesus to betray Him. Many criminals regret what they did to land them into prison, but they haven't repented toward God (Acts 20:21). Bible repentance is a change of mind from denying THE TRUTHto the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will” (2nd Timothy 2:25-26).

Please don't misunderstand, I DO believe that repentance is necessary for salvation, but to repent doesn't mean what most people errantly think it means. I fully agree with Pastor Harry Ironside, who got repentance 100% correct:
“Which comes first, repentance or faith? In Scripture we read, 'Repent ye, and believe the gospel.' Yet we find true believers exhorted to 'repent, and do the first works.' So intimately are the two related that you cannot have one without the other. The man who believes God repents; the repentant soul puts his trust in the Lord when the Gospel is revealed to him. Theologians may wrangle over this, but the fact is, no man repents until the Holy Spirit produces repentance in his soul through the truth. No man believes the Gospel and rests in it for his own salvation until he has judged himself as a needy sinner before God. And this is repentance.” (Except Ye Repent, p. 16)
The only thing that we need to repent from to be saved is UNBELIEF. Do we have to realize our sinful condition to be saved? Of course, yes! But there is not one verse in the entire Bible which requires a person to forsake sin to be saved.

Nor does the Bible give anyone God's permission to commit sin just because they are saved (Romans 3:31). But if we do choose to sinfully live like the Devil as a child of God, then God's saving grace will abound. Romans 6:1, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” The day you were saved friend (if you are saved), you were forever divorced from the Old Testament law. Romans 7:4, “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Every born-again saint is now married to Jesus Christ!!! Amen. No amount of sin or rebellion as a believer could ever separate us from the saving grace of God (Romans 5:20). God's unlimited grace is greater than all of our sins!!!

Every time Jesus forgave someone and healed them, it was only AFTERWARDS that He said: “Go and sin no more.” John 5:14, "Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." Repentance simply means “a change of mind.” Believers change our mind every day about all kinds of things, including the sins in our life. Repenting of sin throughout one's Christian life is solely a matter of DISCIPLESHIP, not SALVATION. It is a matter of growing in the Lord's grace (1st Peter 2:2; 2nd Peter 3:18), as we yield to the Holy Spirit's leading in obedience to the Holy Scriptures (2nd Corinthians 10:5). As John Bunyan so wisely said, we must keep our SERVICE for God, completely separate from God's gift of SALVTION. That is, we must keep SANCTIFICATION entirely separate from JUSTIFICATION. To confuse these two WILL corrupt the Word of God, and cast stumbling blocks before the people!!!

It is tragic that it is becoming almost impossible to find a doctrinally sound church anymore. I have people asking me more and more to help them find a doctrinally sound church in their area, but I cannot find even one. I had a Christian lady today contact me from the tiny town of Merlin in Ontario, Canada. I couldn't find a doctrinally sound church for her to attend. By the way, there's nothing wrong with attending a non-denominational church, if they are preaching a free grace Gospel, and using only the inspired King James Bible. But good luck finding one!

Remember, there's no such thing as the “Baptist church” up in Heaven. There is only The Church. I prefer Baptist churches, which denominational name helps to identify the doctrinal and methodical distinctives of a particular religious group. And that's fine and okay. But just so you know, Heaven is denominational blind. Salvation is NOT found in any religious denomination or church; but rather, in the sacrificial Lamb of God, the dear Lord Jesus Christ.
“The greatest enemy you have is a church that doesn't teach the Bible!” —Pastor Max D. Younce, “#1 Salvation THROUGH The Blood
Jude 1:3 from inspired King James Bible