A Rebuke Of Pastor Cary Schmidt's Book: “Done”

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.”

1st Timothy 6-7, “From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.”

2nd Timothy 2:15-16, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.”

Right doctrine matters! I said RIGHT DOCTRINE MATTERS!!! At the West Coast Bible College in Lancaster, California (run by Pastor Paul Chappell), the book titled: “Done” by Pastor Cary Schmidt is required reading for their students. Cary Schmidt serves as the Senior Pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Newington, Connecticut.

I love preachers and don't enjoy critiquing them, but as a redeemed child of God I do enjoy contending for the Christian faith. 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.” You can freely read Pastor Schmidt's book on his personal website.

Kindly said, and with no intentional disrespect for Pastor Schmidt, the inspired Holy Bible disagrees with his false teaching that a lost sinner must “believe and receive” as two separate acts to be saved. Pastor Schmidt writes these words in his book, “Done”:

You see, on the side of the giver, a true gift must be free and optional, and on the side of the receiver, a true gift must be believed and received! For a gift to become yours, you must choose to believe the giver and to receive it as your own. Until you make these two simple decisions the gift is not truly yours. It could be paid for—it could be wrapped and waiting. It could have your name on it. But if you don’t believe it and receive it, then it will never be yours. 

So it is with the gift of God—eternal life. You don’t get this gift “by default.” You get this gift “by decision.” Yes, it’s paid for. Yes, it’s ready and waiting for you. Yes, it has your name on it. And yes, you could decide to walk away. You could decide you don’t believe and you won’t receive. It would be the worst decision you could ever make.

Now, my kids seem to get past these two decisions pretty quickly on Christmas and birthdays. They don’t usually have much trouble believing and receiving. 

Yet, so many people I meet can’t seem to do this with God. So, how about you, right now? Is this really something that you need to contemplate fifty-seven ways? Is this really something you need to find eighty-two reasons “not to accept”? It’s a gift of God. It’s free for the taking. If you believe the Bible—if you will take God at His word, this can be yours right now.

Here’s how God describes the “taking of the gift.” In Romans 10:9–10 He says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” 

Did you catch that? “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness…”—that’s the believe part. “And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”—that’s the receive part. 

Again in verse thirteen He says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” In other words, whoever will ask can have this gift from God! 

In Acts 16:31 we are instructed, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved….” 

Once again in John 3:16 Jesus said, “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.”

Over and over again in the Bible God says that this gift becomes ours by believing and receiving. It starts internally—in the heart. It starts with true belief—faith.

Now, friend, it’s important that you realize there are two kinds of belief. There is a “head belief” and a “heart belief.” A head belief is simply a knowledge of something. A heart belief is actually trusting that knowledge.

If I went to LAX airport and bought a ticket on Southwest Airlines to Phoenix, I could believe with my head that this ticket and this airline could take me to Phoenix. I could know this in my head without actually placing my trust in this airplane. This is head belief. 

Heart belief would be to actually “get on board” the plane—to fully trust that airline and airplane to take me to my destination. You may already have a head belief in Jesus. 

You may understand everything I’ve written about in this little book. Millions of people in the world claim to believe in Jesus—yet they go about day to day still trying to pay for their own sin and refusing to simply admit their desperate state and trust His full payment on the cross.

The question now is this—will you place a heart belief in Jesus Christ alone? Are you willing to believe that nothing else can save you? [emphasis added]

SOURCE: Pastor Cary Schmidt, Done; pp. 83-86, © 2005 by Striving Together Publications

What you have just read is extremely confusing! Pastor Schmidt is not the only preacher guilty of preaching this false teaching. I once heard Pastor J. Vernon McGee (1904-1988) warn his church congregation...

The distance between the head and the heart is 18 inches. Unfortunately, a “head” knowledge of Jesus Christ—fully knowing and giving mental assent to the plan of salvation…without a “heart” acceptance that brings the personal relationship that the Bible demands—avails nothing to anyone.

SOURCE: https://www.crossway.org/tracts/missing-heaven-by-18-inches-3071/

This is heresy! I would agree that just because someone is familiar with the facts of the Gospel is not enough to be saved:

Hebrews 4:1-3, “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”

A person “fully knowing and giving mental assent to the plan of salvation” is saved!!! But Pastor Schmidt says they mighty still not be saved, unless they also believe in their heart. That is some frightening false theology! In fact, that kind of wrong thinking can drive a churchgoer insane!!! It is ridiculous and unbiblical to say that a sinner who hears and chooses to place their trust in the Gospel of Jesus Christ can still not be saved, unless they also believe it in their heart. That radical idea is nowhere found in the Holy Bible. In the inspired Scripture, you either believe or you don't, period. The apostle Paul never taught any such junk theology that it is not enough to have faith in your head, but not your heart. There is no difference!

God knows that I am not trying to be mean or unkind, just accurate according to the Word of God. Every Bible preacher is held doubly accountable by God for what we teach and preach, because we influence people for eternity. If a preacher is wrong on God's plan of salvation, then he has the blood of all his victims upon his hands, the blood of those who will end up burning in Hell forever who were deceived by his false teachings (Matthew 7:13-15; 2nd Corinthians 11:3-4, 13-15; Galatians 3:1-3).

Now, I don't think that Pastor Schmidt is sending people to Hell with his false teaching. However, the woeful danger and risk is that people will become utterly confused, worrying their whole life if they really believe in their heart, or just in the mind. I know, because I receive countless emails from such confused people, who are afraid that they only believe the Gospel in their head, but not their heart. Folks, there is no such animal!!! It is IMPOSSIBLE to believe (to rely upon, trust, put your confidence) in the Good News (Gospel) of Jesus Christ, but still not be saved because you don't really believe it in your heart. I hate when preachers confuse people like that! They are sincere no doubt, but wrong nevertheless (Proverbs 16:25).

It is possible to know the facts of God's simple plan of salvation, but not believe them. But the former is KNOWLEDGE, the latter is FAITH. In fairness to Pastor Schmidt, he does admit that head knowledge cannot save a person. But where he goes horrible astray is when he wrongly calls such knowledge a form of “belief.” This confusion is caused by a common misunderstanding of James 2:19, “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” Carefully notice that this passage doesn't mention believing the Gospel, but believing in God. It is not enough to believe that God exists, the Bible says you must place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:30-31).

I applaud most of what Pastor Cary Schmidt is teaching, but he got Romans 10:9-10 very wrong! You don't need to believe and receive to get to Heaven. It is easy for eager Bible students to read too much into the Scriptures, taking away strange doctrines that don't exist in reality. Remember, anytime that you life a text out of context, you create a new pretext (i.e., a false doctrine). Never look too hard into a Scripture passage. God said what He meant, and meant what He said.

A good rule to follow when interpreting the Bible is to never use an obscure passage to contradict a clear one. I learned that from Pastor Curtis Hutson (1934-1995). God specifically authored the Gospel of John to teach humanity how to get to Heaven. So says 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.” In the Gospel of John we find the word “believe” mentioned 85 times; but the words repent, confess, pray, surrender, follow and persevere are not mentioned even once. John 6:47, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”

Kindly said, Pastor Schmidt is preaching strange doctrine! What saith the Scripture? ...

Romans 10:13-17, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Don't forget what Pastor Curtis Huston said: “A good rule to follow when interpreting the Bible is to never use an obscure passage to contradict a clear one.” It would be unwise to completely ignore the entire Gospel of John, and the Epistle of Galatians, and base a plan of salvation upon Romans chapter 10 alone. Remember, God authored the Gospel of John to show mankind how to be saved (John 20:31). Yet, every preacher that I know who teaches error regarding salvation uses obscure passages of Scripture to do it!

For example: The demonic Church of Christ false religion, errantly uses Romans 10:9-10 to require lost sinners to “confess” Christ publicly to get to Heaven. But no such requirement is found in the Gospel of John! We read in John 12:42-43 that many of the chief rulers believed on Jesus, but they “DID NOT CONFESS HIM.” They were saved, but loved the praise of men more than the praise of God (John 42:43). Clearly, they were not following Jesus yet as the supreme “Lord” of their life, but they were still saved and secure in God's promise of eternal life, which is by faith alone. Amen and amen.

Nowhere in the Holy Bible are we taught to “believe and receive” Jesus to be saved. The person who acknowledges being a guilty sinner in need of redemption (Romans 3:19-20), and BELIEVES the Good News of Jesus Christ crucified, buried and risen the third day (1st Corinthians 15:1-4), is instantly, irrevocably and forever saved by God's grace. To BELIEVE is all that is necessary or allowed by God to be saved. Galatians 3:26, “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”

Pastor Schmid is teaching strange doctrine. Again, the great harm that his false doctrine posses is that believers will become utterly confused, fretting needlessly and worrying for years to come if their faith is merely in their head, or in their heart as well. The entire idea is absurd! The man, woman, teenager or small child who comes to God as a needy sinner, and places their childlike faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior is eternally saved! Nothing more is required or allowed. BELEIVING IS ENOUGH!!!

Repentance (a change of mind) and faith happen simultaneously (at the same time). The man who believes has repented. That is, he has changed his mind. And the man who repents has believed. There is no such thing as a person who believes, but isn't really saved because they didn't truly repent. I am so sick and tired of the theological garbage being falsely preached in thousands of pulpits today. The person who believes the Gospel has repented.

Yet, corrupt institutions like Bob Jones University (BJU) errantly teach that repentance from sin is an additional step to believing. BJU's new president, Dr. Steve Pettit, is teaching things from The Twilight Zone! Kindly said, Steve Pettit is an unsaved Calvinist infidel. BJU has become a dangerous religious cult, preaching another gospel (Galatians 1:6-9). RIGHT DOCTRINE MATTERS!!!

I wrote this blog to teach you, dear reader, about the dangers of tampering with the Gospel. The inspired Word of God reads in John 11:26-27, “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?” Did you see anything about “believing and receiving”? No, we did not! The Bible simply says to “believe” on the name of Jesus Christ to get to Heaven.

Pastor Schmidt says: “it’s important that you realize there are two kinds of belief. There is a 'head belief' and a 'heart belief.' A head belief is simply a knowledge of something. A heart belief is actually trusting that knowledge.” Dear reader, head knowledge is NOT a “belief” in any way, fashion or form!!! You cannot show me a single Bible verse to support Schmidt's heresy! You cannot show me any person or group in the Bible who believed only with their head, but not with their heart. I triple-dog dare you to show me! You cannot. Pastor Schmidt is incompetently using the wrong theological terminology.

Hebrews 4:1-3, “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”

The preceding Bible passage says that the Hebrews who wandered in the Wilderness, heard Moses preach the Gospel for 40 years. But that Gospel truth was not mixed with faith in them that heard it. They didn't allegedly “believe in their heads, but not in their hearts.” They didn't have any faith at all! They didn't believe at all. They were familiar with the Gospel, having heard it repeatedly by Moses the prophet for 40 years, but they rejected it. It would be very wrong to say that those Jews believed in the heads, but not in their hearts. No, they didn't believe it!

Kindly said, for Pastor Cary Schmidt to label head knowledge as a form of “belief” is gross theological incompetence. To trust the Gospel (Good News) is to believe in both one's heart and head at the same time, there is no distinction in the Holy Bible. It is impossible to trust Christ with your head, but not with your heart. As cute as Pastor Schmidt's tommyrot theology is, it is dangerous to churchgoers and must be exposed and avoided as quackery.