Some Truths Every Believer Needs To Know

Proverbs 27:17, “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”

One of my web visitors wrote these words of wisdom, which I wanted to share:

"21 (Short!) Theological and Spiritual Truths that I Want (and More Importantly, God Wants) You to Know, Believe and Experience, Above Anything Else," by C.S.

1. Salvation: Salvation (Forgiveness of Sins, an experienceable spiritual connection and fellowship with God, a new holy and righteous self in Christ, and Heaven guaranteed) is a ~free gift~ through faith in Jesus (Ephesians 2:8,9).

2. "Saving Faith" is: believing the truths of the Gospel, which is the same as, "trusting in Christ Jesus." (John 3:16)

3. Eternal Security: everyone who believes in Jesus Christ as God and Savior, even for a moment, is saved forever, permanently and irrevocably, no matter what good or evil things they might do thereafter, including murder and suicide--and every other sin. Murder and suicide, though they are great and horrific and terrifying sins, cannot cancel the salvation of one who has believed in Christ--salvation is a free gift that is ~irrevocable,~ --that can never be taken away. (Ephesians 1:13,14 says that those who have trusted in Christ are ~sealed~ and ~guaranteed~ to go to Heaven.) ~All~ of a Christian believer's righteousness is Christ Himself, with no reliance on the natural self whatsoever for good works. A person's natural good works are ~not~ a part of what saves a person.

Assurance of Salvation: Because the Lord Jesus said that everyone who believes in Him and His Gospel is saved (John 6:47), we can know with assurance that we are saved, if we believe in Christ, which is the same thing as believing the Gospel, which is the same thing as trusting in Jesus.

4. The Gospel is found and defined in 1st Corinthians 15:1-4: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, He was buried, and He rose again from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures.

God is a trinity: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. (John 3: 34,35)

Jesus is true God and true man. (John 1:1-3)

God created the universe in six 24-hour days (He can do that, He's God.) He created the earth about 6,000 years ago, ~not~ millions or billions of years ago. (Genesis 1:1 and following.)

5. Galatians 1:8,9 specifically damns to Hell ~twice~ anyone who adds anything (good works) to believing the Gospel in order to be saved.

6. You will find the God, and the ~experience~ of Him, when you seek Him with all your heart, through grace, faith, reading and studying and knowing His Word, prayer, confession of sin, worship, fellowship with Him and believers, obedience, love, and continual forgiveness of everyone for everything.

7. Forgiveness is the most important thing you can do for your mental and emotional health. God will send torturers upon your soul if you do not forgive (Matthew 18: 34,35). This is not the loss of salvation, but it will feel like Hell on earth, depression, anxiety, misery--which are the torturers.

8. The truth will set you free. (John 8:32)

9. The Christian life of prayer and following the Spirit is a daily, minute-by-minute thing. (Romans 8:14)

10. All statements are to be evaluated by the truth of the Bible, which is inspired by God, infallible and inerrant, so you must know and read your Bible often (daily?) to grow in truth, especially the New Testament. (2nd Timothy 3:16)

11. There is no comfort, pleasure, peace, joy and satisfaction like the experience of communing with the Spirit and love of Jesus in your spirit and soul. ~God is the God of all comfort.~ (2nd Corinthians 1:3.)

12. God answers prayer.

13. "As you sow, so shall you reap."

14. There are rewards in Heaven for faithful service to Jesus here on earth. (Revelation 22:12)

15. "Repentance" means, "a change of mind" from unbelief in Jesus, to belief in Jesus. The person who has repented of unbelief has ~believed~ in Jesus. (Mark 1:15)

16. There are at least nine baptisms in the Bible. The only one that is necessary for salvation is the ~spiritual~ baptism by the Holy Spirit into the death and resurrection of Christ (Romans 6:3,4). Water baptism is not required for salvation--only faith in Jesus is required for salvation.

17. Some sins are greater than others (John 19:11), but any and all sins will keep unbelievers and God and Christ-rejecters out of Heaven.

18. There is a difference between being nice, reasonably moral, and happy vs. being holy in Christ, divinely loving, and being filled with the fruit of the Spirit: "love, joy, peace..." (Galatians 5:22).

19. Jesus is going to return to earth (Revelation 22:20) in power and glory to judge the living and the dead, and to condemn unbelievers to everlasting conscious torment in a place called Hell. And He will take all believers in Him to Heaven to enjoy eternal life forever.

20. There has never been a person on earth in all of human history who could not be saved. God's Spirit goes everywhere on earth, and God wants all people to be saved. God can send missionaries, Bibles, tracts, radio, TV, literature, dreams, visions, angels, and of course, His Spirit. I believe that all babies and all young children will go to Heaven. The only people who will not be saved are those who reject Him (which, tragically, uselessly, sadly, and avoidably, will be most people, "the many" of Matthew 20:16, only because most people reject Jesus as Savior). Other religions many have many moral and spiritual truths, but they do not preach the Gospel of Jesus. If they did, they would be Christian.

21. Beware, for there are many false prophets (and false teachers). (Jesus said this, in Matthew 7:15.)

—Curtis Smale