1st Corinthians 3:16-17, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”
People are afraid to deal with drug addicts as they can turn violent, and hurt you, or kill you. This is why
it is so dangerous if you are a mother, and you have a drug addict for a husband. You had better lay the
ultimatum down. “Get off, or get out! Period!” Because that guy is going to hurt you before it is over with. Or,
vice-versa. They become violent many, many times when they are caught, and they can’t have their drugs.
They will try every con-game in the world in order to get you to live with one foot in Hell, and the other foot
in the church. They will try to cut you off from your friends. When “the jig is finally up,” and they either have
to quit—and they usually don’t. They could, if they wanted to. They simply don’t have a desire to. What
happens? Many times they get violent.
If you have children, look out! They will take it out on them by hitting them, or abusing them. If you are a
wife with a drug addicted husband, tell him: “Get out now!” No wheels, no deals, no nothing, because you
have a good chance of getting yourself hurt. Let me say this. There are two people you can never trust: a drug
addict, whether it is marijuana, or the hard stuff, or an alcoholic. You can never trust either one of those two,
and you would be a fool if you do so!
The world around us today seems to have fallen into the “bottomless pit” of permissiveness, drugs,
pornography, and obscenity. They are all being allowed to run rampant in the name of freedom. While we do
not see literal smoke, these things have certainly polluted the world around us. There seemingly is no end to it.
None whatsoever. We are living in a day when people have hardened their hearts as to what is right and what
is wrong. As a result, drug addiction is running rampant. Marijuana is portrayed as the seemingly harmless
little old drug that won’t hurt anyone. It is just nice to take for relaxation. Many states have legalized it for
medical use, and some for recreational use. Many take it to their destruction.
I have said this for years. Marijuana is worse in one sense, than cocaine, crack, or heroin. You know what
heroin will do. Heroin will kill you if you take too much. Cocaine will do the same thing. Marijuana lies to
you and, after a period of time, it begins to burn out the cells of your brain. If you have seen as many as I’ve
seen down through the years, whether on the police department, or as a pastor, you know it has some typical
characteristics, such as paranoia and anger.
Everyone knows that cocaine, crack, and heroine is wrong. Marijuana users say, “I am not hurting anyone
by taking it.” Marijuana is the most lying drug there is on the market, and its characteristics are almost
universal. It causes users to become paranoid. They withdraw themselves from the people they love, because
they are always thinking somebody is out to get them, or turn them in. They withdraw themselves to the point
that the only people they associate with are people like themselves—drug addicts.
Another lie that marijuana tells is, it won’t hurt you. Smoking one marijuana cigarette is equivalent to 30
regular cigarettes. Think of the damage to your lungs that is causing! Marijuana also paralyzes the natural
filtering system of your throat, and all impurities erode the membranes of your throat and go straight into your
lungs. You are much more susceptible to cancer and other diseases, because you have immobilized that
filtering system that God has placed in your body, by smoking marijuana.
Marijuana makes a liar out of you, because, you have to hide it from your wife, your children, and your employer. Eventually, this little drug that doesn’t hurt anyone, will make you try to get your wife or husband
to withdraw from their friends who don’t smoke pot, because, you don’t feel comfortable around them.
Eventually, it will destroy you and your family! Nice little drug, isn’t it? —Dr. Max Younce, “Revelation: God's Final Word To Man,” pp. 207-208
Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
The following is a sermon preached in the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, by Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001) in the Sunday evening service on April 8, 1984.
I'm not attacking the Catholic church tonight. I'm not a Catholic. Maybe you noticed the sign out in front of our church that says, "First Baptist." I never think I'm being unkind if I have the same thing on the inside that we have on the outside. I want you to listen carefully. I'm going to state some facts about the Catholic church. They are facts; they are not railing accusations. They are facts, and any Catholic who is honest will tell you that what I'm going to say is true about the Catholic church. It is not a matter of my making false accusations; it's a matter of record.
I am also going to say some things about the Charismatics tonight. I'm more Catholic than I am Charismatic. I've got more respect for the Pope than I do the P.T.L. Club, and I mean that. However, my respect for the Pope is not really soaring! Don't get mad now. I want to help you. I'm simply saying that I'm going to give you some facts. I'm going to give some facts about the Charismatics, and if a Charismatic is honest, he will agree with the facts I'm going to give. There will be no accusations, no gossip and no slander; I will just give facts that any Charismatic would give.
Also, I'm going to say some things tonight about Protestantism. In fact, I may not miss anybody tonight. Everything I say will be factual. It will be the kind of thing with which even the people about whom I speak will agree. So I want you to listen. With the battle raging as it is about the King James Bible, I think that any pastor ought to alert his people.
When I was a boy, from the time I remember—I remember back when I was two and three years of age—until I went into the paratroopers in World War II when I was 18, my mother would read to me for 30 minutes every night from the Bible. Then she would hold it up and say, "This is the Word of God!" She did not say, The manuscripts from which we got this are the Word of God." My mom didn't even know what a manuscript was. She just knew she had a Book that was the Word of God. That's all she knew. So, she said, "This is the Word of God." I would look at it, and I would have to say three times, "Mama, the Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is the Word of God."
I have Mama's Bible—the same one she read—in my office. I've had it there for years. I don't know how old it is, but I suspect it is 55 or 60 years old. It is the same Bible she used to hold up. I was thumbing through it the other day. On the inside, it says on the title page, "King James Bible." That's what it says. You know it worked. It's amazing how well Mama did before she found out that it wasn't the Word of God.
I've been going to Baptist churches for 51 years. Every pastor I've ever had preached from the King James Bible. He always said to the crowd, "Open your Bibles and let's hear what the Lord says." These pastors were not unfortunate enough to have sat at the feet of those with lower education-- which calls itself "higher education."
It is amazing how well this nation did when we didn't know how ignorant we were. (Are you listening?) This is my fifth pastorate. I've seen miracles in my pastorates. I've preached over 41,000 times, and I've never yet preached a sermon that wasn't preached from the King James Bible. I really don't know what I've missed. To be quite frank with you, I've seen fellows who preach from other Bibles, and I somehow get the idea THEY are missing something. Dr. Evans, I've never seen a fellow really whoop it up about any other Bible. I've never heard a fellow say, "Blessed be God, let's look in the Book. Let's look in the Douay Version."
Did you ever go to mass and have the priest get up and say, Hallelujah for the Word of God!" Don't get mad at me! I'm telling the truth. If you don't believe it, go next Sunday and see. He will usually use that prayer book and not a Bible.
Follow me. I've taught you about the Textus Receptus, Westcott and Hort, those manuscripts from which came the Douay Version that the Catholics use and the American Standard Version, which is highly overrated. The Westcott and Hort manuscripts came from the Vatican manuscripts that were hidden in the Vatican for years-- from whence came the Catholic Bible.
The Textus Receptus manuscripts are those from which we have gotten the King James, and they have been the evangelistic manuscripts, if you please. I won't go into that. I'm a Textus Receptus man. I haven't got a bit of patience with Westcott and Hort. Not a bit! In fact, I really have a hard time not being bitter against my Greek professors in college who taught me from Westcott and Hort Greek manuscripts. It upsets me greatly.
This is the message. The question at hand is this: Where is the final authority for church building and for Christian living? There are four different final authorities in American Christendom. I'm not talking about Mormonism and those who have other books. I'm talking about Christendom. There are four basic final authorities.
1. SOME VIEW THE CHURCH AS THE FINAL AUTHORITY.
This is fact. Any honest Catholic priest will tell you that the Catholic position on the final authority is that the church has final authority. If you want to go a little farther than that, if the pope speaks ex cathedra, he is the final authority. Ask any Catholic or read any Catholic doctrine, and both will tell you that. I'm not trying to be critical. I'm telling you the truth. If a Catholic priest were standing here, he'd tell you the same thing.
Our Catholic friends believe that the church is the final authority. If the pope speaks ex cathedra, that's God speaking. I'm not being critical; I'm being factual. There is a second final authority.
2. SOME VIEW EXPERIENCE AS THE FINAL AUTHORITY.
In other words, "It happened to me, so it's true. I was there when it happened, and I ought to know. I had an experience. I saw Jesus. I saw a vision. I have a word of knowledge." This is the charismatic position. Ask them. They will say, "I have a message from God, so this is God talking. God gave me a message." (The foolish thing about that is, if that is true, you had better start writing more Bible.)
When this happens, people believe the final authority comes from experience. God has supposedly given someone a message. Someone talks in tongues, and somebody else interprets what God said. However, the truth is, all that God has ever said to man is right here in this Book. This is it. This is God's complete revelation to man!
By the way, that is the basis of the whole thing: What is the final authority? There has to be some place, ladies and gentlemen, where we can say, "This is it, and what this says is the final word." So, our Catholic friends say the church is the final authority. Our charismatic friends go beyond the Bible and say human experience is the final authority.
3. SOME VIEW HUMAN REASONING AS THE FINAL AUTHORITY.
That's what liberal people say. "Every man is searching for the truth, and every man gets a portion of it; so, nobody is wrong, and nobody is right. We are all searching, so it doesn't seem to me that God would make a Hell; therefore, there is no Hell. It doesn't make sense to me that God would let anybody go to Hell, so God wouldn't let anybody go to Hell. It doesn't make sense to me that God would regenerate anybody, so there is no such thing as regeneration." That's what most of our Protestant friends believe, and all the humanist crowd believes it. That's what the liberal believes. That's what 95% of all the people in the seminaries in America believe. That's what 95% of all the faculty and students in religious colleges in America believe—the final authority is the human mind or human reasoning.
The average Protestant church in Hammond believes that. "I don't see how there could be a place with golden streets. If I don't see how there could be, there isn't one." That is idolatry in its most pagan form. "My mind is my God. What I can't conceive of, I won't believe. What I can't understand, I won't accept. So, I'll trim the Bible down to fit what I can believe. I just can't believe there is a God of wrath, so there is no God of wrath."
All right, we have the first three answers to the question, What is the final authority?" The church is, according to our Catholic friends. Human experience is, according to our charismatic friends. Human reasoning is, according to our liberal and Protestant friends.
4. SOME VIEW THE BIBLE AS THE FINAL AUTHORITY.
Every church in America in Christendom who had services this morning had a preacher who stood up and preached what he believed. He either preached that he believed that the final authority is the church, or that the final authority is human experience, or that the final authority is human reasoning, or that the final authority is the Bible.
The only authority that we as independent Baptists believe is the Bible. There was a day when I could say Baptists, but the truth is, most of the Southern Baptist colleges and seminaries are staffed by professors who don't believe that the Bible is the final authority. I may as well say it all. There's not a single Southern Baptist college or seminary to which I'd recommend anybody to go any more. None! I went to a Southern Baptist college and seminary. Thirty-five years ago, I heard a professor in my seminary say that he didn't believe the resurrection. He said that the resurrection was a bunch of blindfolded spirits in a vacuum. He said it. I was there. Think what they are saying now!
Consequently, independent Baptists believe that the only final authority for practice and doctrine of the Christian and the church is the Bible. I cannot speak ex cathedra. I cannot speak and say, "This is truth." All I can say is, "The Bible is truth." You see, I can't say, "I'm going to speak now, and this is God speaking through me." I don't much like people to pray, Dear God, put the words in the mouth of our preacher." I think you can say, "Lead our preacher"; but if God puts the words in my mouth, we'd have more Bible.
See, I have no power in this church but the power of influence. Sometimes I wish I had more. Sometimes I wish I had power to make you ladies dress like I think you ought to dress. Sometimes I wish I had the power to make you adults have rules about your teenagers that I think you ought to have, but all I can do is influence you. I have no power. Officially, I have one vote in this church; that's all. I have no vote at deacon's meeting and one vote as a member of this church. The only power I have is my vote and the power of influence.
It was a good day for me when I decided that I was going to make my Final Authority the Word of God. I was taught in Southern Baptist schools to believe that the Southern Baptist program was it. One day I decided to just read my Bible and reorganize my church. I did. I decided to get the book of Acts and read it word for word to see what the New Testament church was all about. I cast aside all the tradition I had been taught, all the jargon I had been taught, all the catechisms to which I had been taught to swear allegiance, and I decided I was going to try to find out what kind of church the New Testament church really was.
Dr. Curtis Hutson gave the best compliment to First Baptist Church of Hammond that has ever been given in the SWORD OF THE LORD. He said that he was here for Pastors' School. He told how many conversions and baptisms we had the Sunday before. Then he said, "If God were writing the book of Acts today, He would write about the First Baptist Church of Hammond." That's the ultimate compliment.
You see, I decided that I was going to get my Bible down and decide what I thought the New Testament church was Scripturally; then, that's what I was going to have in my church. I believe with all of my soul that the First Baptist Church of Hammond is as near as is humanly possible to being what the church in Jerusalem was 2,000 years ago. Where did I get that? I got it from the Bible. Do you know why we are scattered abroad winning souls all over this area? It's because the church in Jerusalem was "scattered abroad," and they "went every where preaching the word." (Acts 8:4) Do you know why we go house to house, knocking on doors? We do it because it says in Acts 5:42, "And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." We do it because that's what they did in the Bible.
Somebody says, "Well, we have different kinds of churches. You have a soul-winning church, and we have a deeper-life church." In the first place, it's a lie. There's no life as deep as a soul-winning life. However, they say, "We just have different kinds of churches." No, we don't. WE have a church, and you don't! Brother, the Bible is our charter to exist. If the Bible is not your final authority in practice and doctrine, then you are not a church. You might have the word "church" on the outside, but you are not a church.
Since the Word of God is our Authority—hear me carefully—we simply must have it. That's a profound statement. We've got to have it! I mean, shall we have an authority we can't find? Would God tell us His Word is the Final Authority and leave us without His Word? We must have a copy or we may as well join our Catholic friends and let the church be the basis for truth. If we have no Word of God, and if the Bible is not the Word of God, then we have only three other alternatives. We've got to say the final authority will be the church, or human experience, or human reasoning.
I'm saying, if we have no Bible that is the Word of God, then we have no way to go to the Book for the final authority. If one word in this Bible is not true, we don't know which one it is; so, once again, the mind of man or experience or the church is going to have to decide which one is true and which one is not true. If we are going to believe that the Word of God is the final authority, we've got to have a copy of it.
Let me ask you a question. Would God call a man to preach His Word and not give it to him? God calls a man and says, "I'm calling you. Spend you life preaching the Gospel. Preach the Word!" So, wouldn't He give him a copy of His Word?
I've said this so often, and I'll say it again and again. I would step down from behind this pulpit tonight and never walk in it again to preach if I didn't have the Word of God in my hand. I would not waste your time nor take your money unless I could say to you, "You have the Word of God. I have it, and it is preached here." I'm an honest man. This is what I've said before, and I'll say it again. If I did not believe that the Book I hold in my hand tonight was God's Word, I'd find out where it was. I'd go there and get a copy, print some copies for you and give you a copy. I mean, brother, if we don't have the Word of God in our hands, we have no place to go except to the human mind, human experience or the collective human mind which is the church. God would not reach down and give a divine call to a man and say, "I call you to preach My Word, but there is no copy of it any more."
I don't like a statement of faith that says, "We believe the Bible is the Word of God in the original manuscripts." In the first place, there are no original manuscripts anywhere in the world tonight. None! If the Word of God was only the original manuscripts, there is no Word of God available for mankind today. If I did not believe the Bible I hold in my hand was the Word of God, and I believed there were some manuscripts, I'd get on an airplane, fly to where they were, break in the building if I had to, get the original manuscripts, make copies of them and give you a copy. I'm not going to stand here as an imposter preaching a Book that is not the Word of God and giving you instructions on how to live from a Book that is not the Word of God! I'm not going to do it! I'm just not going to do it!.
Would God tell His people to live by the Word and not give it to them? Let me say this. Of all the nations on the face of this earth, America is the center of world evangelization. America is the only hope for the world to have the Gospel. Do you think that God would not give His Word to America? The countries of this world look to America for missionaries. They look to America for preachers. Every great movement of God in the world today was founded by a ministry or movement that was propelled by American evangelization. The mission movement was founded basically, by Hudson Taylor. Now, wait a minute. Of all the nations on the face of this earth, it just seems to me that God would give the key nation the Word of God.
Check the history of Christianity in America, and see how well we've done without all these extra Bibles. Check the history of the church in America from 1950 back, before every little preacher had the misfortune to sit at the feet of a college theologian. Do you know what? We won't have people who are just theologians teaching Bible at Hyles-Anderson College. Every teacher of Bible at Hyles-Anderson College is a preacher. We won't hire a theologian. No way! You say, "Are you opposed to theologians?" No, I'm just leery and wary of them. I am wary of those who dare to sit in judgment on the Bible. Brother, it seems to me if there is any place in the world where you ought to have your faith in the Bible stabilized, it's a Christian college or Christian seminary. However, the truth is, that's where you get your faith shaken.
That's one reason why some things bother me. It bothers me when people say, "We believe that the Bible, in the original manuscripts, is the Word of God." If that's true, we have no Bible. Did you hear what I said? We have no Bible. One day they did, but WE don't.
Dr. Ed Hindson of Liberty Baptist College said concerning I John 5:7, "Thus, according to John's account here, 'there are three that bear record in heaven.' The rest of verse 7 and the first nine words of verse 8 are not in the original and are not to be considered as part of the Word of God." I'd like to ask Mr. Hindson a question: "When did you see the original?" How does he know they are not in the original? Look at me now. How does he know? The only way an honest man can say they are not in the original manuscripts is to have seen them, and they are not available. Now, he could say they are not in some of the manuscripts that are considered the most ancient. I personally think he was saying that they are not in the Westcott and Hort. I can't prove that.
Before I get too rough on him, look at your Scofield Bible in I John 5:7, the verse Dr. Hindson quoted. Folks, I have no axes to grind. I have nobody's feelings to hurt. I've just got to have the Word of God; that's all. I've got to have it! The Bible says the Word of God is what we are supposed to preach. The Bible says, "Preach the Word."
Now, look at your Scofield Bible—I John 5:7, "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one." Now look at that little "o" there in front of verse 7. Look in the center reference, and find the "o". Mr. Scofield says, "It is generally agreed that v. 7 has no real authority, and has been inserted."
I'd like to ask Mr. Scofield when he saw the original. He never saw it. Somebody who thought he was intellectual told that to somebody who thought he was intellectual who told somebody who thought he was intellectual. Listen, we don't want the intellectual community to think of us as being nincompoops, but I'd rather have a nincompoop with a revelation from God than to have an intellectual without a revelation from God.
We've got to have a final authority! If this Book is not true, then the church or human reasoning or human experience is the final authority. Listen! There are only two-- God and man. If God is not the final authority, man is the final authority. If we have no final authority in a book, then man has got to discern what God says; if man discerns what God says, then man becomes the final authority instead of God. So, Mr. Scofield had problems the day he came to this verse. How does he know? Pray tell me, what in the world he could have ever seen that would make him say that? He didn't see anything. He sat in somebody's Bible class and some Dr. Mess-'em-Up or Dr. McFuddle or Dr. Broad Stomach stood up and said, "Well, in the original manuscript..." which sounds scholarly; but nobody in our generation has seen them. Dr. So-and-So hasn't seen them, the professor in the seminary hasn't seen them and the college Bible professor hasn't seen them. Either what I hold in my hand is the Word of God, or we don't have any Word of God. I don't believe God would leave us without His Word. I don't believe that. I JUST DON'T BELIEVE IT!
We need a Bible that we can understand and a Bible that is God's Word. It looks like anybody would agree that if God gives us the command to preach the Word, He would give us the Word to preach. That's logical. If God wants to say to a nation, "You are the custodian of world evangelization for a generation or two or three or four," it looks like God would give that nation the Word of God.
What is it? I would say it ought to be the one that has worked. Which one has worked? The one I hold in my hand right now. I has worked! It will work!
I'd like to say the same to our friends in the charismatic movement. You say, "Why do you stress it?" I stress it because the charismatic crowd is trying to teach our crowd every day that they've got something we don't have. Tonight, before I walked into this pulpit, one of our fine ladies came and told me of one of our men who has been swept aside. One of our good faithful men has been swept aside by the charismatic crowd. As pastor of this church, it is my job to warn you of wolves who are dressed like sheep.
If we don't have a Bible that's the Word of God, we've got to go to human reasoning. If God says to a church, "Build your church on My Word," God's got to give us His Word. Listen, God wouldn't be God is He told us to do something we couldn't do. Everything that God has ever commanded us to do, He has given us the wherewithal to obey that commandment. God has never commanded man to do anything that was unreasonable or impossible for man to do. When God calls a man to preach and says, "Preach the Word," God would have to give him a Word to preach. If God says to a church, "Build your church on My Word," to be God, He's got to give that church the Word of God.
Our Methodists seminaries say, "It's not verbally inspired." There was a day when John Wesley started that movement. He said the Bible was inspired, and they had the fire back in those days!
The Presbyterian seminaries say, "The Bible is not the Word of God," but John Calvin believed it, and they had the fire! John Knox and others believed it!
I'm saying that we've either got to admit this is the Word of God or we have to flee to the church, or to human reasoning or human experience as being the final authority. If there is no Word of God today, we have no other recourse. If God has not given us His Word, we have to decide what is God's Word. That's human reasoning.
By the way, basing a doctrine on human experience is idolatry. Basing a doctrine on the church being the final authority is idolatry. The church is the idol. Letting the pope speak ex cathedra and saying that it is God Who is speaking is idolatry. You're making him as God.
Human reasoning says that what we can reason, we'll believe. That's idolatry. So the truth is, you've got one choice of two. Either this Bible is the Word of God or we have no other place to turn but to idolatry. Did you hear me? Either this is the Word of God, or there is no place to turn but idolatry. Our three choices are human reasoning, human experience or the church, and they are each a form of idolatry. They are all three the same because making the church the final authority is done so by human reasoning. That means Catholicism is humanism, and the charismatic movement is humanism. It is man saying, "I was there. I felt it. God spoke, and here's what He said." That's human reasoning. It's humanism. So either this is the Word of God, or there is nothing left but humanism.
I'll tell you this. To whatever degree this Book is not believed, that society has the exact proportionate belief in humanism because there are only two choices available: God and man. If God hasn't told us what to do, man has got to tell us what to do. When a country does not believe this Book, it is totally humanistic. When a country leans away from this Book, it leans toward humanism. When a country is divided about this Book, it is divided about humanism.
I just don't believe that God would say, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," (Mark 16:15) and not give us His Word to take with us. I just don't believe that God would say, "Train up a child in the way he should go," (Proverbs 22:6) and write the words of God "upon the door posts of thine house," (Deuteronomy 11:20) and "teach them your children," (Deuteronomy 11:19) unless there were a Word of God.
I don't think God would say, "Start a Bible college. Send out young men to proclaim the truth," unless God had given us the truth. I just don't believe that God would send young men to the mission fields without the Word of God. I don't think God would send Rick Martin halfway around the world to proclaim His Word without giving him a copy of it. I don't think God would send young men out from this church to build soul-winning churches without giving them His Word.
With all of my soul, I believe that the final authority for faith and practice for a church and for a life is the Word of God. I do not believe that I'm the final authority; nor the bishops or the cardinals-- nor are the Cubs or the White Sox!
Not long ago, then there was no pope, a fellow said, "I think Ernie Banks ought to be the next pope." "Why?" "Well, the Cardinals have had it long enough. It's time the Cubs got to have a pope!"
I'm not the final authority. "El papa" is not the final authority. He can wave his magic wand all he wants to. He can rustle his skirts all over the country. I'm simply saying, the Bible is the final authority, not man. I don't care what he is called, it is not man!
You say, "You're criticizing the pope." Whatever I've said about pope, I've said about me. FIRST I said, I'M NOT the final authority. THEN I said, "HE'S NOT the final authority." So our people have as much right to get mad as you Catholics do. Mr. Oral Roberts is not the final authority. The Bible is the final authority. I just don't believe God would leave us down here without a copy of His Word.
How can we know which is the real Bible? Well, you can scratch off the Revised Standard Version because the liberals put that one together. You can scratch off any Bible that came from Wescott and Hort because that comes from the Vatican manuscripts. I'd suggest you find the one that has worked.
Find the one that widows have read; find the one over which they've wept and prayed for their children. Find the one that dear mothers in the history of our country have read, loved and taught. Find the one for which faithful evangelists have given their lives and for which missionaries have circled the globe. Find the one that has caused people to leave home, family and friends to carry its message. Find it! Find the one Dwight Moody used. Find out which one Billy Sunday used. Find the one the great soul-winning churches in America use.
Find the one tested by time. Find the one that Adolph Hitler said he would destroy, but couldn't! Find the one about which Thomas Paine spoke when he said, "Within one generation, the Bible will not be printed anymore." However, as soon as he died, the same printing press on which he printed that garbage was used to print more Bibles. Find the one they can't destroy. Find the one that has stood the test of time. Find the one that liberals have tried to destroy, Hitlers have tried to burn, Mussolinis have tried to outlaw and Khrushchevs and Stalins have tried to burn! Find it! The Bible says, "My words shall not pass away." (Matthew 24:35) Find the one that has stood the test of time!
Don't find one that has a hippie on the outside of it and bunch of hippie jargon on the inside of it. Find the one that has stood the test of time! You say, "I don't understand those thees' and 'thous.'" "Thee" means "you." "Thou" means "you." "I" means "me." "We" means "us." You know it, and you know you know it! Not only that, but the Holy Spirit of God lives inside of you, and He's the author of this Book. If you can't understand a part of it, ask Him to teach you, and He will do it. He wrote it! We've got to have a Bible! We have got to have a Bible!
You say, "Boy, that's right. I'll tell you what, I believe it from cover to cover." Try OPENING the covers. "Boy, I believe every word of it." QUOTE a few of them! If we had Scripture quoting tonight, we've got Sunday school teachers here who know only, "Jesus wept," and if somebody said that verse before your turn came, you'd say, "He got mine." Read it! Memorize it! Study it! Love it! Teach it! Preach it! Live in it! It's the Word of God! You can depend on it.
Every jot and every tittle shall come to pass. Not one comma and not one punctuation mark shall pass away. Matthew 5:18, "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matthew 24:35, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." I checked those words, "pass away," a little bit; a synonym for that phrase would be, "My word will always be alive." There never will be a day when somebody says, "Beloved, we are gathered here in the presence of 'Gawd' and these witnesses to remember the word of 'Gawd' that died." We never will! It will always be there. It always will.
I can't believe that God would give us a great commission and tell us to teach it, preach it and spread it, and not give us the truth to teach and preach and spread.
It was good for our fathers; It was good for our fathers; It was good for our fathers; And it's good enough for me;
It was good for my mama; It was good for my mama; It was good for my mama; And it's good enough for me.
Let us pray.
Psalms 12:6-7, “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Acts 16:30-31, “And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
Repeatedly in the Scriptures we are taught simply to BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. There is no mention of “repenting of sins” or “turning away from past sinful ways” to be saved. These are manmade additions to the Gospel of free grace! When any man comes along preaching that you must trust Jesus as your Savior, but then he says “AND”—adding: surrendering to Christ as “Lord,“” turning from your sins, confessing Christ publicly, get water baptized, count the cost, run the race, pay the price, invite Jesus into your heart, invite Christ into your life, follow Jesus, make a commitment to Christ, or any other junk theology—he has been inspired by demons! There is only ONLY THING that determines salvation! We are saved BY FAITH alone, nothing else. Many preachers present a laundry list of requirements to be saved, but the Bible simply says to believe on the name of Jesus. You do have to know that you are a guilty sinner (Romans 3:19). You do have to know that Jesus is the Christ, the only begotten Son of God (John 20:31). You do need to know that Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sins, and that He was buried, and three days later Christ resurrected from the dead (1st Corinthians 15:1-4). But to be saved, you only need to do ONE THING, which is to “BELIEVE” the truth of the Gospel that I just shared with you.
“Many people are finding the broad way, because they listen to the wrong message. There is few that find the truth. And what's the difference between true Christianity, and all the religions of the world? If it's by Christ alone, it's GRACE. If you have anything to do with it, it's WORKS. And God says, 'For by Grace (Christ) are ye saved, and that not of yourselves (that would be works), it is the gift of God (not of works), lest any man should boast. So any person who depends upon themselves, can always lose their salvation. Check it out! Anybody who teaches you can lose it, it's because their salvation depends their works. That's them! That's works! If I depend upon Him, that's grace! I'm saved by grace, Christ. You don't earn it! You don't work for it. 'For by grace are ye saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.' Salvation is the gift of God!” —Pastor Ralph "Yankee" Arnold, a quote from the sermon titled: “The Damnable Doctrine Of The Devil”
Genesis 6:1-4, “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”
Pastor Curtis Hutson (1934-1995) preached a Wednesday night Bible study series in 1974 called: 'DEMONOLOGY.' It is an excellent series that I highly recommend. Albeit, I love and admire Brother Hutson, but as all preachers do, I disagree with him on a doctrinal point. In part 2B of the series, Dr. Hutson teaches that fallen angels (demons) had carnal knowledge (physical intimacy) with human women, and physical giants (monstrosities) were conceived, which he says were destroyed in the Flood of Noah's day. I do not believe this teaching.
The Scriptures plainly teach in 1st Corinthians 15:39-40, “All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.” Angels do not have reproductive organs. Why would they need them? I have never understood why Bible preachers conclude that angels had intimate relationships with humans. It is not sound doctrine in my humble opinion. The Bible is very clear that angels are not capable of having carnal knowledge with women. Matthew 22:30, “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” What would be the reason to give angels reproductive organs, if they are not able to use them? This one thought proves that angels did not have sex with humans.
Unfortunately, Pastor John F. MacArthur also teaches this strange doctrine...
Demonic Invasion as explained in Genesis 6 by John MacArthur
Genesis 6:4, “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” The Hebrew word for “giant” is nephil, which simply means, “a feller, that is, a bully or tyrant.” A feller is a person able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering upon others. We find confirmation of this meaning of “giants” (tyrants) in the next verse—Genesis 6:5-6, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.” Before the Flood, before courts and capital punishment existed, tyrants roamed the earth, committing all manner of thuggery and wickedness! This is what I believe to be the correct interpretation of “giants” in the Old Testament book of Genesis.
I concede that by the wording of Genesis 6:1-4, that it does seem (taken at face value) like compelling evidence that angels did have carnal knowledge with earthly women. However, carefully notice what the Bible says in Genesis 6:2b, “they took them wives of all which they chose.” This was not forced carnal knowledge by angels. The women freely chose to marry these men!Pastor Curtis Hutson (1934-1995) made this helpful statement: “A good rule to follow when interpreting the Bible is to never use an obscure passage to contradict a clear one.” Genesis 6:1-4 is an obscure passage. We don't know exactly what it means. Since the passage can (and has been) interpreted various different ways, we must search the Scriptures to find its true meaning. Matthew 22:30, “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” Mark 12:25, “For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.” I think this 100% settles the matter! The angels do not marry! The Bible says in Genesis 6:2 that the son of God took to themselves “wives.”
Here is further Scriptural evidence that the fallen angels did not marry women. Matthew 24:37-39, “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” I believe that the phrase in Genesis 6:2b, “they took them wives of all which they chose,” simply means that they were living in gross adultery, going from one failed marriage to another, having mistresses, and living in all manner if wickedness. That is exactly what Matthew 24:37-39 teaches it was like morally before the flood. Kindly said, I think Pastor MacArthur and Dr. Curtis Hutson are very wrong in this matter, who both teach that fallen celestial angels had sex with earthly women, and conceived literal physical giants.
Genesis 4-5 describes two lines of descendants from Adam—one through Cain and the other through Seth. In the Old Testament, God’s covenant people are sometimes referred to as God’s sons. Deuteronomy 14:1, “Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. for thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.” Jeremiah 3:19, “But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.” This explains why God forbade the Israelites from marrying pagan Canaanite women (Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3). So we learn that the “sons of God” not only refer to the angels, but also to God's children (as evidenced in Deuteronomy 14:1). God didn't want His children intermarrying with pagans. We know that only eight human souls entered into the ark, but that doesn't mean there were no saved people since Adam. Clearly there were many. Enoch (the man who walked with God) in Genesis 5:22 was one such child of God. Every saved person is a child of God. So the suggestion that there were no human “sons of God” prior to the flood is silly.
Furthermore, we read in Genesis 1:24, “And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.” God created man in His own image. Genesis 1:26, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Just like all of creation, humans reproduce after their own kind. That is why bestiality cannot result in conception! Likewise, angels could not have mated with humans, lest humans no longer reproduce after their own kind, in the image of God. 1st Corinthians 15:39-40 clearly teaches that celestial life is different than terrestrial (earthly) life. The idea that fallen angels mated with humans is a strange doctrine, bizarre, and falls within the realm of good science-fiction!
Dr. John MacArthur contends in the preceding video that earthly “sons of God” would not do such things (i.e., mate with humans). Pastor MacArthur uses this erroneous assertion to prove that angels mated with women. However, the Bible is filled with the sins of the saints (e.g., Judges 16:1). Who are the sons of God? Yes, the angels (Job 1:6), but also every saved person. 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:” As we see in the preceding passage of Scripture, the saints are also “the sons of God.” I believe that Christian men took to themselves unsaved wives in Genesis 6:1-4.
I think this is the only logical conclusion that we can draw, in lieu of the fact that the angels are not given in marriage, and that humans can only conceive after their own kind. If angels and humans mated, and freak giants were produced, then mankind could not have reproduced “after his own kind.” Although Goliath measured in at a staggering 9' 6" tall, he was still within the realm of human limits. Farmer Sultan Kösen was born in 1982 to a Kurd family in the southeastern Turkey city Mardin, he is the seventh tallest man in history, measuring in at 8' 2 7/8". There were no giants hundreds of feet tall in the Bible, as the fictitious book of Enoch says.
Throughout the Bible we see the bad things that followed when God's children yoked together with the Devil's children. We see this truth bared out when the Hebrews settled in the land of Canaan. Instead of killing the enemy as God has commanded, they let them live to pay taxes. Consequently, idolatry and intermarrying among God's children with the heathens resulted. God's way is always the best way! God's way is chastity and abstinence before marriage. God's way is a proper holy courtship. God's way is a legal marriage. God's way is one man and one woman in a marriage, together for life. God's way is the traditional family. The “new kind of family” being promoted by liberals, kooks and sodomites today is of the Devil. God's way is always the best and right way.
Another argument that John MacArthur makes, in support of his view that angels mated with humans, is that two angels ate a feast with Lot (Genesis 19:3). I'm getting hungry already! Yes, angels do eat. However, carefully notice that there is not even one recorded place in the Scripture, where a demon appeared in a human body. I am a solid old earth advocate. I don't think anybody can honestly study the Bible diligently and conclude a young earth. Yes, the human race is only 6,000 years old, but the earth itself is very old. What saith the Scriptures? Psalms 102:25, “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.” David penned those words around 1,000 BC. How old could the earth have been at that time? Also, notice that David specifically mentions “the foundation of the earth.” That verse speaks concerning the age of earth itself, and not human civilization. Pastor Curtis Hutson does a great job teaching an old earth view in his Wednesday night Bible study series from 1974 called: 'DEMONOLOGY.'
The serpent (Satan) was already present in the Garden of Eden. In the Genesis account of creation, no mention is made of the angels being created, nor of Lucifer's rebellion and fall from Heaven (Isaiah 14:12-15). It is logical to conclude that Lucifer and one-third of the angels in Heaven (Revelation 12:4), were cast down to the earth prior to the creation of mankind. All Biblical evidence supports the “Gap Principle” (it is not a theory). The young earth nonsense is a theory! I mean it gets insanely bizarre—the crazy things young earth advocates teach!
I couldn't stop laughing after reading a book by Henry Morris III titled: '5 Reasons To Believe In Recent Creation,' in which he bizarrely claims that Noah took baby dinosaurs aboard the ark, and God stunted their growth to keep them from growing! Ken Ham's disgraceful, decorated, cinderblock building called: 'The Ark Encounter,' is a circus in Kentucky, in which Ken even displays fire-breathing dragons aboard Noah's ark. How do these money-hungry fools dare call this Bible doctrine? They are religious conmen, whom sadly most churches embrace today. Sadly, in 2016 Pastor Clarence Sexton at the Temple Baptist Church in Powell, Tennessee, invited and honored this religious clown, letting Ken Ham speak to thousands of impressionable students at Crown College! Right doctrine matters folks.
I believe that the angels that were cast down with Lucifer, instantly became disembodiment spirits. This explains why demons never appear in their own body in the Bible. Demons always either possessed a human or an animal. When Jesus cast the demons out of the man at Gadarenes (Mark 5:1-13), the demons begged to be sent into a herd of 2,000 swine, and they immediately ran down the hill into the sea and commit hogicide. Sorry, that is a joke a heard a preacher say years ago! The pigs all drowned! That is what demons will do to people too! Many Americans today are possessed with demons, and those victims ensnared by the Devil are drowning in sin! The Devil is a beautiful liar! Watch out!
Demons in the Bible always appeared in someone else's body, whether human or beast, and never in their own physical body, as did the angels of the Lord. God's angels always appeared in their own physical body in the Bible, such as when the two angels visited Lot. This teaches us, furthermore, that demons did not mate physically with women. And even if demons did possess human men (i.e., an incubus) in Genesis 6:1-4, inspiring them to mate with women, the offspring would still be human in every sense, and not freak giants. When a demon lives inside a human body, that demon cannot in any way alter that person's body, except to cause them to do bodily harm to them self or others. Also, if demons possessed men in Genesis 6:1-4, why could they not also possess women (i.e., a succubus)? This sound logic disproves that theory as false.
I find nothing in the Holy Bible to teach that physical “giants” roamed the earth. The popular Hebrew word Nephilim simply means “a bully or tyranny.” For example: We read that of the 12 spies who went into Canaan, only Joshua and Caleb had the faith to do as God had commanded, to conquer the land! The other 10 spies had no faith:
Numbers 13:31-33, “But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”
Carefully notice that the 10 faithless spies exaggerated how bad it was. They said “ALL” the people we saw are of great stature! They cried out that they saw giants! The three sons of Anak were punks! They were the local motorcycle gang in town, bullies. Caleb went into the Promised Land, hunted them down, and killed all three of them! Amen and amen! I totally disagree that angels mated with humans, changing their DNA, so that giants were conceived. That is science fiction! Someone told me that some great preachers disagree with me. Well, “great” is a relative term, isn't it. I would rather be the man who obeys my great God and Savior, than to be called “a great man of God” for my preaching. Over one billion hellbound Catholics consider their ungodly Pope “a man of God.” So much for the term “man of God.” We're not supposed to compare ourselves amongst ourselves. Jesus told us in John 5:39a to “SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES.” I have given you many Scriptures on this matter. What saith the Scripture?
Someone suggested that the “sons of God” in Genesis 6:2 couldn't have meant Christians, because God did not save them from the worldwide flood. They are making an unreasonable assumption that no Christians lived and died before the flood! You need to understand dear reader that between the creation of Adam, and the flood of Noah's day, there were approximately 1,500 years. Many people got saved and died during that time period. Enoch is one such proof that Christians did exist before the flood. Enoch was a man whom the Bible says, “pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5).
I always encourage my web visitors to do their own homework, and form their own conclusions, but make sure that you have a Bible verse for all of your beliefs. Otherwise it is merely speculation, which we should always announce if we teach others. I have given you several helpful passages of Scripture, to refute the idea that fallen angels someone mated with human women. In consideration of the whole counsel of Scripture, I think it is abundantly clear that the only logical explanation is that Christian men were marrying unsaved women in Genesis 6:1-4. Their children were extremely popular with the people, being both Christian and worldly in their roots, which made them celebrities of the day. It was a time of tyrants and unimaginable evil the Bible says, which is why God decided to destroy the earth with a flood.
Proverbs 16:32, “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.”
One of the things that I teach my web visitors who ask for my spiritual help, is to memorize Bible passages that deal with their area of weakness. This is one of my favorite Bible verses! I am a passionate person. That is why I love music. When I take a liking to a woman, I fall in love right away. By God's grace, I am still praying and searching for a wife! Since I know that I am a passionate man, I need to be slow about responding to life's situations. My area of weakness is when I get caught off guard. If I know someone is a trouble maker, I will be on guard and careful.
For example: If I am driving along the road, and another abusive driver becomes angry, I could easily end up getting angry back at them. I literally had a crazed man on Guam last year swerve toward my vehicle in anger, trying to hit me. I did absolutely nothing to provoke him. I instinctively applied my brakes to distance myself from him, because his spirit was out of control. Where are the police when you really need them? I don't want to join an angry fool in his sin, immaturity and criminal behavior. What saith the Scripture? James 1:19-20, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” This is a very important Bible passage. Let's break it down. The Bible teaches that EVERY MAN should do these three things:
Listen attentively to everyone
Think before speaking
Make sure you have all the facts before you get upset
Put another way, if you don't know what you are talking about, keep your mouth shut! And if you do open your mouth, you had better be able to back-up what you are saying. Proverbs 18:13, “He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.” I tell people that God gave us TWO ears and ONE mouth for a reason—to teach us to LISTEN twice as much as we SPEAK! Some people talk too much. The wisest man who ever lived, Solomon, penned the Old Testament book of Proverbs, to give us instruction and wisdom (Proverbs 1:1-2).
In the book of Proverbs, Solomon mentions the word “mouth” 50 times! Solomon mentions the word “word” 47 times, and “words” 38 times. The word “speak” is mentioned 16 times. That's at least 151 references to the words that we speak. Did you know that the average person speaks 30,000 words each day! That is enough words in an average lifetime to fill a medium-sized library! What saith the Scripture? Matthew 12:36, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” One day in eternity we must all give account to God for the words that we speak, and don't speak.
Luke 14:34, “Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?” Snack food vendors know that salty snacks make people thirsty! So they put the chip machine next to the soda machine! As Christians our words should be seasoned with spiritual salt, to make people thirsty for the things of God! Colossians 4:6, “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” Proverbs 25:11, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” Our human experience is the sum total of all the things we see and hear. Acts 4:20, “For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
That is why I preach so hard against the apostate Harvest Baptist Church on Guam. The things that they teach and promote in Micronesia influence people. Right doctrine matters! God knows that I love the Harvest Baptist Church on Guam. I have written over 300 articles online (since 2014 when they drove me out for telling THE TRUTH), either directly or indirectly exposing the apostasy in their church. The Apostle Paul exhorted Titus to “rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;” (Titus 1:13). That is all I am faithfully doing. Harvest employs mostly graduates from Bob Jones University (BJU). The church evidently knows I am right, which is why they have trimmed their statement of faith drastically in recent years, yet they strongly support and bid Godspeed to BJU, which proves their complicity to a false gospel. They are straddling the fence! God calls that “lukewarm” (Revelation 3:15-16).
Sadly, BJU today preaches hardcore Lordship Salvation, which is another gospel. It is so tragic! Satan's two main tactics are infiltration and imitation. The Devil has infiltrated most Bible colleges today (whose graduates ruin churches), substituting the heresy of Lordship Salvation (aka, “turn from your sins” to be saved) in place of the free grace Gospel (which is simply to “believe” on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved). Harvest Baptist Church is a microcosm of Bob Jones University on the island of Guam, and they need to be exposed. We are commanded as saints to refute all works of darkness (Ephesians 5:11), which definitely includes any and all perversions of God's grace (Galatians 1:6-9; Jude 1:3). Acts 4:20, “For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” What Harvest promotes (or doesn't promote) as a local church affects people's eternal destiny!!! I love the truth!
Getting back to our main subject. Proverbs 16:32, “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001) used to say that the shallowest victory in the world is victory over another. All we need to defeat someone else is an inferior opponent! That is why the Bible says to control one's self is better than he that is mighty. Anyone with a superior military can conquer an inferior enemy! But to conquer one's self is the hardest battle you'll ever fight in life.
The Bible tells us how to rule our spirit in 2nd Corinthians 10:3-6, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.” That is not mind-control, it is yielding to the indwelling Holy Spirit, allowing Jesus to live the Christian life through us by faith (Galatians 2:20).
The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. We live in an angry world, and always have (Ephesians 2:2; 1st John 5:19). We see violence and hatred all around us, which is what the 'Black Lives Matter' movement is all about, in my humble opinion. Those fools want to defund the police? Granted, there is a lot of authoritarian abuse in our country. Many cops abuse their power and harass citizens. The corrupt system protects them! That is why black people are so angry! But the Black Lives Matter movement is nothing less than anarchy!
The truth of the matter is that our nation has overwhelmingly forsaken the God of the Holy Bible! Legalized abortion is of the Devil (Exodus 20:13). Legalized homosexual marriage is of the Devil (Leviticus 20:13). Allowing sodomites to adopt children's is of the Devil (Matthew 18:6; Romans 1:24-32). The feminist movement is of the Devil (Ephesians 5:22). Women pursuing careers is of the Devil (1st Timothy 5:14-15). The answer to America's problems has always been, and will always be, THE GOSPEL (Good News) of the Lord Jesus Christ!!! Please listen to the awesome sermon by Pastor Ralph 'Yankee' Arnold, 'Freedom Versus Slavery' (MP3).
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?”
In our text passage above, Jesus gives the simple way to be saved, by simply believing on Him. Jesus asked Martha, “Believest thou this?” Jesus didn't ask her if she was willing to turn from her sins, did He. Jesus didn't ask her if she was willing to make full surrender to Him as Lord. No, He did not. Jesus didn't ask Martha is she was willing to do full repentance, forsake self, commit to follow Him and make public confession. No, Jesus simply told her the truth that He alone is the resurrection and the life, and whosoever believes in Him shall never die! Believest thou this? 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.”
I so much wish that I could preach some sense into professed Christians today, who have bought into the Devil's lie that you must “repent of your sin” to be saved. Sincere men like Pastor Marty Herron (former longtime pastor of Harvest Baptist Church on Guam) have bought into this Devil's lie, alienating themselves from the grace of God. No one is saved who believes that you must turn away from a lifestyle of sin to go to Heaven! That is what Pastor Herron preaches, which I heard with my own two ears, while listening to him preach in 2014 at Harvest. As a true friend, I gave hardcopies of the helpful book: “I NEVER KNEW YOU” (.PDF) by Michael P. Bowen to Pastor Herron, and his assistant pastors, for which I was thrown under the bus, forced out of the church, and have been cruelly ostracized since. The new pastor Gary Walton is no better, who still ostracizes me, and is 100% in full sinful support of Bob Jones University today! 2nd John 1:11, “For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.”
Bob Jones University (BJU) today is very different than when Dr. Bob Jones Sr. (1883-1968) was at the helm. “Dr. Bob” as he was known was 100% right on the Gospel, teaching that we simply “believe” to be saved. BJU teaches something very different today, requiring that you also repent and turn from your sins to be saved, which is exactly what the Mormons teach! First here is what BJU teaches in their official statement of faith. Bob Jones University is pulling on the same rope as the Devil! Here is a deceptive quote from their college's website:
With regard to the doctrine of Soteriology:
We believe Scripture teaches that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone (Eph. 2:4–10; Rom. 3:21–26; Titus 3:5) and apart from any human work of righteousness (Phil. 3:9). God offers this salvation freely to all men who are willing to repent and turn from their sins (Acts 3:19, 17:30) and place their full faith and trust in the atonement Christ made by His finished work on the Cross (Luke 24:46–48, Heb. 9:11–15, 10:10–14). [emphasis added]
Now look at what the Mormon's teach on their official website:
“Repentance is one of the first principles of the gospel and is essential to our temporal and eternal happiness. It is much more than just acknowledging wrongdoings. It is a change of mind and heart that gives us a fresh view about God, about ourselves, and about the world.It includes turning away from sin and turning to God for forgiveness. It is motivated by love for God and the sincere desire to obey His commandments.” [emphasis added]
That is 100% Lordship Salvation! That is exactly what Harvest Baptist Church on Guam and Bob Jones University are sinfully preaching these days, for which God's curse is upon them! Galatians 1:8, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” Pastor Marty Herron is cursed! Pastor Gary Walton is cursed! BJU is cursed! Pacific Garden Mission and their 'UNSHACKLED' are cursed! Pastor John MacArthur is cursed, to whom Moody Bible Institute, BJU and the Bob Jones' crowd all bid Godspeed, making them partaker of his Calvinist counterfeit gospel! These men are devils in the pulpit today!!! The Mormon website further heretically states concerning repentance:
“Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, our Father in Heaven has provided the only way for us to be forgiven of our sins. Jesus Christ suffered the penalty for our sins so we can be forgiven if we sincerely repent. As we repent and rely on His saving grace, we will be cleansed from sin.” [emphasis added]
I couldn't show you a clearer example of the heresy of partial faith in Christ, plus works. Nowhere does the Bible teach that we must repent of our sins, and continuing repenting of our sins as a lifestyle, to be saved. Evangelist Ray Comfort teaches this nightmare theology, that you must continuing repenting of your sins your whole life to be saved. Getting saved is not a process, it is a new birth! You don't get cleansed of sin as you make an effort to turn from them, and rely on Jesus' saving grace while you are doing it. This is a counterfeit gospel based upon works, and not faith alone. Do you see friend how evil Lordship Salvation is? It is a false Gospel that adds to faith. Whereas the Bible simply teaches to “believe” to be saved, proponents of Lordship Salvation require that you make an effort to turn from your sins, and then secondly trust Christ. That is NOT the Gospel which the King James Bible teaches!
All of the pseudo-Christian cults (Jehovah's Witness, Seventh-Day Adventist, Church of Christ, Roman Catholic, Mormon, et cetera) errantly teach repentance as meaning: “to turn away from your sins,” to be saved. That is why Brigham Young University actually requires their students to read Dr. John MacArthur's book called: “The Gospel According To Jesus” (which is a blasphemous piece of filth and a roadmap to the Lake of Fire). Read for yourself some of the ungodly Satanic lies set forth in Dr. MacArthur's horrible book:
“Thus in a sense we pay the ultimate price for salvation when our sinful self is nailed to a cross. . . . It is an exchange of all that we are for all that Christ is. And it denotes implicit obedience, full surrender to the lordship of Christ. Nothing less can qualify as saving faith.” (“The Gospel According to Jesus,” p. 140.)
“The gospel Jesus proclaimed was a call to discipleship, a call to follow Him in submissive obedience. . . . Forsaking oneself for Christ’s sake is not an optional step of discipleship subsequent to conversion; it is the sine qua non of saving faith.” (“The Gospel According to Jesus,” [Revised & Expanded Edition], p. 27, 142.)
“That is the kind of response the Lord Jesus called for: wholehearted commitment. A desire for Him at any cost. Unconditional surrender. A full exchange of self for the Savior. It is the only response that will open the gates of the kingdom.” (“The Gospel According to Jesus,” [Revised & Expanded Edition], p. 148.)
Pastor MacArthur was inspired by demons when he wrote those heretical statements! Sadly, Dr. Steve Petit (shameful president of Bob Jones University since 2014) fully endorses and bids Godspeed to John MacArthur. Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001) exposes these men as dangerous wolves in sheep's clothing:
“Lordship salvation would make salvation a trade or a deal or maybe even a bribe. It would take away the simple reception of Christ for eternal life and would become God giving us something if we give Him something. God would say to us, 'You give Me something; I'll give you something. We will trade, and you will be saved.' Salvation is not my giving God something and God giving me something; salvation is God giving me something and my receiving it. Romans 6:23, 'For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.'” —Pastor Jack Hyles, “Lordship Salvation” (chapter 11 from his book: “Salvation Is More Than Being Saved”)
Dr. Hyles is absolutely right—salvation is not an exchange or a trade, it is a gift that we simply receive by faith. Read again what Dr. MacArthur foolishly writes:
“Thus in a sense we pay the ultimate price for salvation when our sinful self is nailed to a cross. . . . It is an exchange of all that we are for all that Christ is. And it denotes implicit obedience, full surrender to the lordship of Christ. Nothing less can qualify as saving faith.” [emphasis added] —Dr. John MacArthur, “The Gospel According to Jesus,” p. 140
Dr. MacArthur is an unsaved reprobate in the pulpit. I say that kindly, but truthfully. Pastor MacArthur is a theological liar! Eternal life is a free gift, not a deal or a trade where we must pay a price, nor exchange all that we are to receive it! Why does Bob Jones University bid Godspeed to this theological madman in the pulpit? Why does the shameful Harvest Baptist Church on Guam sell their souls, stooping low, embracing this perversion of God's grace? What does that say about the church members of Harvest Baptist Church? It says they don't care about the truth! Jeremiah 5:31, “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?”
Mormonism is a demonic perverted cult! They are wrong on repentance. They are wrong on the Gospel. They are wrong on Jesus' deity. They are wrong on a bunch of things doctrinally, morally and socially. It disturbs me that the Bob Jones' crowd today are preaching the SAME Lordship Salvation junk theology as the religious cults! What is wrong with professed Christians today? This is a serious matter folks, because there is only one Gospel, and it does not include turning from your sins to be saved. Galatians 1:6-7, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.” Bob Jones University is troubling our churches today, perverting the Gospel of Christ!
Woe unto John MacArthur! Woe unto Bob Jones University! Woe unto Harvest Baptist Church on Guam! Woe unto Marty Herron, Gary Walton, Steve Pettit, Sam Horn, Charles Phelps, Kevin Bauder, and other corrupters of God's grace, who are deadly wolves in the pulpit today! Ladies and gentleman, I have just proven to you that the ungodly Bob Jones University crowd are in doctrinal agreement with the hellbound Mormons on repentance. I didn't pick this fight. I simply shared some Fundamentalist Baptist Christian books and sermons with the theologically incompetent pastors of Harvest Baptist Church on Guam, to which they showed me the door and drew first blood. They started this bloody spiritual war and I'm finishing it, to God be the glory!
What saith the Scripture? Jude 1:3, “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Dr. Bob Jones Sr. is right, who said in 1944, that the Gospel is worth contending for! The Gospel is still worth contending for in 2020! Dr. Jones was a living lion, and I am only a living dog, but the Bible says“a living dog is better than a dead lion” (Ecclesiastes 9:4b). To God be the glory, for Jesus said without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). I am going to preach a free grace Gospel, simply by believing to be saved, until the Lord calls me home to Heaven!
John 3:14-16, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
