John 6:47, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”
Someone sent me a Kent Hovind video today. I watched it. Something that bothers me is that Kent Hovind teaches people to “ASK” God to save them. That is WRONG! Certainly God will still save someone who asks to be saved, but Biblically you don't need to “ask” God to save you. Dear friend, God is already offering you the gift of eternal life freely.
In the beautiful Gospel of John we find the word “BELIEVE” mentioned 88 times, but the word “REPENT” is not mentioned even once. This is because the man who BELIEVES has also REPENTED. The man who REPENTS has also BELIEVED. Faith and repentance are inseparable, happening at the same time. Repentance is automatic, simply a change of mind from WRONG THINKING to believing the Gospel. It is gross theological incompetence for any preacher to make repentance to mean more this this. We are saved by BELIEVING, not by repenting. Repentance is simply a change of mind that facilitates believing. So the person who BELIEVES has definitely repented. It is false teaching to accuse someone of having a false faith because they didn't repent (turn away from their sinful ways) to be saved. The only proof of one's faith in the sight of God is the presence of faith itself.
James chapter two speaks about being justified in the sight of men by works (James 2:18-21). But the Apostle Paul makes very clear in Romans chapter four that we are justified by faith alone in the sight of God. You don't need to “ask” God to save you dear reader. You simply need to receive God's free gift of eternal life by BELIEVING His Word. Simply accept Christ's sacrifice on the cross as payment for your sins, believing that after being buried, He bodily raised up miraculously three days later (1st Corinthians 15:1-4). Men have always been saved by simply BELIEVING on Christ (Acts 10:43). Nothing more is required or allowed.
God is already offering you forgiveness of sins and eternal life as a free gift (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9). Jesus has already paid for everyone's sins with His precious blood (1st Peter 1:18-19; 1st John 2:2). Therefore, God is offering everyone eternal life as a gift. So all you need to do is receive it with childlike faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus paid our debt of sin that He did not owe, because we owed a debt of sin that we could not pay. Jesus paid it all!!!
Many Christians struggle with the assurance of God's salvation because they keep looking back to some prayer they once prayed to get saved. That happened to me. I was born-again at age 13. I knew that saying a prayer didn't save me. I knew that Jesus is the Christ Who died on the cross for my sins. I knew and believed that He was buried, and three days later by the power of God Christ arose victoriously over the grave. But I thought that the way you put your faith in Jesus is by praying for Him to save you. So for seven miserable long years as a teenager I wondered often if I had prayed the right words. “What if?,” I thought. What if I left something out? What if I didn't get it right? What if, what if, what if? The problem was that no one had ever explained to me God's simple plan of salvation. No preacher ever explained from the pulpit that all I needed to do was to BELIEVE to be saved.
That is why one of my favorite books is “I NEVER KNEW YOU” (free .pdf version) by Michael P. Bowen. I love this intriguing book and highly recommend that you read it. You can purchase hardcopies on Amazon.com still. I just ordered three more copies to give away. Michael Bowen does a beautiful job clarifying the simplicity of the Gospel to the reader. I handed hardcopies of this book to the incompetent pastors of the shameful Harvest Baptist Church (cult) on Guam, for which I was scolded and accused of causing “confusion” and “divisiveness” in the church.
Those wicked pastors hated Michael Bowen's book and took great offense to it. The pastor's son-in-law cancelled a dinner invitation for me to come to their home the next evening, after I handed him a hardcopy of Michael Bowen's book Sunday night after church! Folks, the biggest threat to Christianity today are corrupt Bible colleges like Bob Jones University (BJU) and their ungodly corrupt churches, like Harvest Baptist Church on Guam. These wicked men are Calvinists, preaching another gospel. Michael Bowen's book is 100% true and accurate doctrinally, a wonderful defense of the simplicity that is in Christ!!!
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