What the Bible Says

Posted on June 3, 2024 by admin

I was raised in a Christian community and was always taught that salvation is only through belief in Jesus.  In this blog, we argue that salvation is through the change of our soul so it becomes like God and we have a quite lengthy list of Biblical passages that support this conclusion (see the tab entitled “What the Bible Says about Salvation”).  For those of you who do not have the time to look up all those passages, we have compiled a list of seven passages which documents our conclusion.

  • Belief in God – Acts 10:34-35 – So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”
  • Repentance of our sins –  2 Corinthians 7:10 – For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
  • Conduct or holiness — Romans 2:6-12-  He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.  There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.  For God shows no partiality.
  • Persistence – Hebrews 6:4-6 – For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then fall away, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
  • Development of our abilities – Matthew 25:14-30 [This is the parable of the talents and Jesus concludes by saying]:  For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.  And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
  • Salvation is a process, not an event – Philippians 2:12 – Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,
  • Not being cowardly – Revelation 21:8 – But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.  [How many sermons have you heard about how being cowardly can send you to hell?]

Just remember there are 70 other verses that teach the same.  My question is:  If every word of the Bible is inspired by God, why did he place these verses in the Bible?

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Actions Matching Our Words

Posted on February 29, 2024 by admin

At the church I attend, we are studying the book of James on Wednesday night.  We are using a study guide by David Jeremiah and he asks:  “Why is it so important that our actions align with our words?”. [1]  He lists James 2:12 as a hint.  “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.” (James 2:12 ESV).  He also lists Matthew 7:15-23 where Jesus states that not everyone who calls him Lord will enter heaven but only those who do the will of God.

What Jesus and James are telling us is that it takes more than a verbal statement of belief in Jesus to go to heaven; it takes a change in our lives to match what Jesus taught.  Since we will be judged as to whether our actions match our words or not, it behooves us to make this change.  Is this what mainstream Christianity teaches?

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[1]   Dr. David Jeremiah.  James.  Grand Rapids, MI:  HarperChrisitian Resources, 2021, p.55.

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Knowing vs. Doing

Posted on January 29, 2024 by admin

A college president recently stated that “knowing is higher than doing” because we need to know how we are to act before we can act. [1]  I understand his point.

However, understanding how we are to act and then not acting is, in terms of results, the same as not knowing.  And we all know we do not always live up to our ideals.  “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (Romans 7:15 ESV)

It seems to me we must have both knowing and doing.  What is the purpose of knowing, of learning?  Is it not to change our doing, to change how we live our lives?

That is why the definition of the Greek word for belief includes more than just knowledge but also includes faithfulness, obedience, and a personal relationship. [2]

By their fruits we will know them (Matthew 7:16).  It is not just by someone’s knowledge that we know them.

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[1]  Larry P. Arnn.  “Hillsdale’s Mission and the Politics of Freedom”.  Imprimis, November 2023, p. 2.

[2[   Gerhard Kittle and Gerhard Friedrich, eds., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. 6, pp. 175ff.

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Doing What Is Right

Posted on January 4, 2024 by admin

I have been reading in Proverbs lately.  One does not expect lessons in theology from Proverbs but two verses highlight what we have been saying in this blog.

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.  (Proverbs 21:2-3 ESV)

On what basis does God judge us?  Verse 2 says God weighs our heart, and our heart is more than our belief system.  Our heart is what we are at our core, what our soul is like.

Sacrifices in the Old Testament were the God ordained requirement from the beginning of time for the remembrance and atonement of sins committed yet this passage (and many others) state that to do right and justice are more important.  Evidently our actions are more important than following some ritual.  Why?  Because God wants our entire soul changed and we change our soul when we take actions that at times will require a sacrifice of us, that will cost us financially, socially, politically.

“Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”  (Hebrews 13:16 ESV).

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D. L. Moody

Posted on December 19, 2023 by admin

Because I attended Moody Bible Institute, I was very interested when a few years ago a biography of D. L. Moody, the founder of MBI, was published.  Particularly I was interested in what Moody said about the topics we discuss in this blog—is salvation is just a matter of belief or is it the renovation of our entire soul.

Moody did acknowledge that a creed (a belief system) has its place but he also believed belief was, by itself, insufficient.  What God asks us to believe in is a person who is Jesus Christ. [1]  However, for Moody, belief in Jesus  is more than an acknowledgment that Jesus existed.  Moody stated: “I would not give much for all that can be done by sermons, if we do not preach Christ by our lives” [2]  Even the New York Times acknowledged this when in reporting on Moody’s New York city meetings stated that changed lives would be the legacy of Moody and his meetings. [3]

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.  (1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV).

Moody noted that in heaven, “Faith and hope will be past,” we will have no need of them because our faith and hope will become reality.  “But love will still reign” [4] because love is an action word, it is not just a belief.

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[1]   A Life D. L. Moody.  Kevin Belmonte.  Chicago:  Moody Publishers.  2014, p. 214.

[2]   Ibid., p. 216.

[3]   Ibid., p. 137.

[4]   Ibid., p. 217.

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Knowing God’s Will

Posted on December 2, 2023 by admin

A few blogs ago (July 9, 2023, The Best Teacher) we discussed how we know what to believe about Christianity given all the different denominational beliefs and the interpretations of the Bible.  The Holy Spirit, as we discussed, is the best guide but the Bible also tells us we have another guide.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.  (Romans 12:2 ESV).  Also see 1 Thessalonians 5:21 and 1 John 4:1.

To test is “the means by which the presence, quality, or genuineness of anything is determined”.  Paul tells us that by testing we can discern the will of God and know what is good, acceptable, and perfect. “The word [testing] used here dokimazoo is commonly applied to metals, to the operation of testing, or trying them by the severity of fire, etc. Hence, it also means to explore investigate, ascertain.” [1]

Our relationship with God is a cooperative venture.  While the Holy Spirit will guide us, it is up to us to test what we have been taught and what we learn about God’s will.  And that is what we have been doing in this blog.  Asking questions about our faith is one means of testing.

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[1]    Barnes’ Notes, Electronic Database Copyright © 1997, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc.  All rights reserved.

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Soul Damage

Posted on November 1, 2023 by admin

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”   (Luke 6:27-28 ESV)

Many might question why Jesus would instruct us to love our enemies instead of destroying them but Jesus must have had a valid reason for doing so.  Socrates gives us a reason.  He says in “Gorgias” that the one who commits evil is worse off than the one who is the recipient of that evil because doing evil damages our soul more than being on the receiving end of evil. [1]

So the choice each of us has to make is whether we will knowingly damage our soul for eternity in order to gain an advantage in this life or whether we will choose to renovate, to repair or make as new again, our eternal soul in the time we have left in this life.

“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36 ESV)

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[1]   Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns.  Collected Dialogues of Plato, The.  Princeton, New Jersey:  Princeton University Press, 1961, pp. 263, 291.

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Humility

Posted on October 19, 2023 by admin

In his first chapter, Fénelon (whom we have discussed in previous blogs) talks about the importance of humility in the Christian life. [1]  As Jesus said:

And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  (Matthew 18:2-4 ESV)

Why is humility so important that we will not enter haven without it?  It is because we are finite.  In this scientific and technological age, we think highly of ourselves and our accomplishments.  However, any observant person should recognize how much we do not know.  A nobleman in the court of the Anglo-Saxon king Edwin compared the human condition to the flight of a sparrow through the king’s hall in winter—from darkness to darkness. [2]  Unless we recognize that fact and develop a learning spirit, we will make bad decisions here on earth and will not do what it takes to gain heaven.

Even people before Jesus’ time knew this.  When the Oracle of Delphi stated Socrates was the wisest man alive, Socrates spent his time quizzing the wise men of Athens to determine if this was true.  His conclusion was the the only reason it was true was because Socrates knew how ignorant he was while the other wise men of Athens did not. [3] 

Many Christians seem to be like most of the wise men of Athens in their inability to recognize the implications of the fact that we are finite.  Otherwise, they would address how that impacts Christianity and I see very few that do.  In my book, The Renovation of Our Soul, and in this blog we attempt to start such a discussion.

“. . .what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  (Micah 6:8 ESV)

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[1]   Fénelon.  Let Go.  New Kensington, PA:  Whitaker House, 1973, p. 11.

[2]   Richard Fletcher, The Barbarian Conversion, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1997, p. 5.

[3]   Edith Hamilton  and Huntington Cairns.  Collected Dialogues of Plato. Princeton,  New Jersey:  Princeton University Press, 1961, pp. 7-9.

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Treatise of the Faith

Posted on September 11, 2023 by admin

What does Christianity teach that we must do to be saved and go to heaven when we die?  The doctrinal statement of the Free Will Baptist church states that repentance, faith, and believing in Christ are necessary. [1]

But the Free Will Baptist also state that salvation is not certain if one’s actions do not conform to God’s standard.  At the end of time, we will be judged on the basis of what we have done, either good or evil and this judgment determines whether we go to heaven or hell. [2]

Both statements (the Free Will Baptists call them Chapters) accurately quote the Bible but there is an apparent contradiction.  One Chapter says salvation is to be by faith in Jesus but other Chapter says the ultimate judgment of our eternal fate will be based on what we have done.  Other Christian denominations have similar statements.

This blog and my book, The Renovation of Our Soul, have long noted this contradiction within the Christian doctrine of salvation.  What is curious is that few are interested in discussing it.

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[1]   A Treatise of the Faith and Practices of the National Association of Free Will Baptists, Inc.  Nashville, TN:  The Executive Office NAFWB, Inc., 2016,  Chapter IX, Repentance, Chapter X – Faith.

[2]   Ibid., (Chapter XIII – Perseverance of the Saints, Chapter XXI – The Resurrection, and Chapter XXII – The Judgment and Retribution.

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Our Actions

Posted on August 7, 2023 by admin

I heard a sermon recently on the following passage in Revelation.

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.  And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.  And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.  (Revelation 20:11-13 ESV)

Twice this passage mentions we will be judged after we die based upon what we “had done”.  Nothing is said about our beliefs.  Yet the sermon mentioned nothing about the  importance of our actions in spite of the fact that that Jesus, when he was on earth, said the same.

In Matthew 16:27, Jesus says that when he comes back to earth, he will reward “each person according to what he has done”.  Perhaps the best-known passage is Matthew 25:31-46 where Jesus talks about the nations gathered before him for judgment.  And how will we be judged?  It is whether we gave the hungry food to eat, the thirsty something to drink, those needing a place to stay a room in our houses, clothing to those who needed it, and visited the sick and incarcerated.  In giving these examples, Jesus is very specific about what God requires of us and what determines whether we spend eternity with him or receive eternal punishment.

So why do we not teach and preach as Jesus did?

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