1st Thessalonians 4:13-14, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”
I have often said that it took me eight years to finish my time attending Hyles-Anderson College (1985-1993). I graduated with honors on the Dean's List in 1993, quite an accomplishment considering that I was in the Dean's office my first year for having too many demerits for less than ideal behavior. I am still a work in progress, God is still working on me.
Anyway, what I've never shared with anyone before is that I took 1 1/2 years off from college. After my first year of living on campus at Hyles-Anderson College (HAC), I attended Lincoln Technical Institute in Norridge, Illinois, to learn automotive and truck repair. I had been working evenings part-time at United Parcel Service in Chicago while attending college classes at HAC during my first year. I wasn't making enough money to pay my bills, so in 1986 I decided to learn a trade. My father suggested auto mechanics, so that was it. I graduated from Lincoln Tech (I earned 9 A's grades, and 3 B grades) in 1987.
Then I got married a few months later. I found a job as a truck mechanic. This was all in 1987. I wanted to spent time with my wife, and get used to my new job and save some money, so I could return to HAC in 1988, which I did in January. I toughed it out and finally graduated from HAC in 1993. I had stayed involved with the Bus Ministry, working on our 76-3 bus route in Chicago each weekend with my ministry friends still in school at HAC. I still went soulwinning and visited every Saturday, and rode the bus to Hammond every Sunday to church.
What Changes When You Jack Up A Car's Rear End
Enough of my story, now here's the blog. While attending Lincoln Tech I was fascinated by the workings of the automobile. In my Automatic Transmissions class, I learned about the Planetary Gear Set, which blew my mind that some genius had figured out how to make such a thing. Amazing! The automatic transmission is still a fascinating invention to me. Wow!
Then I learned in my Chassis & Suspension class about what happens when you jack up the back of a car (i.e., physically raise up its height from the ground). I grew up in the 1970's and early 1980's as a teenager. I turned age 18 in 1985. I was a popular trend back then for white boys to jack up the back of their car, to make it look like a Hot Rod. The black guys came along in the 1990's with their Low Riders, physically lowering the back of their cars, scraping on the ground whenever they hit a pothole...lol.
Anyway, I was absolutely intrigued when I learned in school that jacking up the rear of an automobile changes all of the following things (I'm going from memory here):
- The engine tilts forward, causing the crankshaft bearings to receive less lubrication. The oil in the engine oil pan also shifts toward the front of the pan, which can potentially when hitting bumps cause the oil pickup to suck air instead of oil.
- The front headlight's angle is lowered. The headlights must be adjusted to point higher to compensate, otherwise they'll be aiming too much toward the ground.
- The working angle of the drivetrain's U-joints (for rear wheel drive cars, which is all we had in the 1970's) changes. U-joints wear out more quickly when their working angle is increased.
- Braking ecoefficiency changes. Normally, 70% of braking is performed by the front caliper breaks, due to weight shifting when coming to a stop. But if you jack up the back of a car, even more stress is placed upon the front brakes. Front brake pads will wear out faster.
- The center of gravity changes (now higher), making the vehicle more top-heavy when traveling on highway turns.
Those are just a few of the physics (dynamics) that change when you jack up the rear of a car. There are dozens more. I guarantee you that not one of those teenage guys, who go messing around with their car's factory specifications, realize what they are doing by raising up the rear of their car...lol. The same holds true for those teenage guys who lower the rear of their car. Those fellas have no idea how dangerous it can be to modify your car outside of the manufacturer's factory settings.
What Changes When You Jack Up God's Simple Plan Of Salvation
I was thinking today about how great of an illustration this is about tampering with God's simple plan of salvation. When these well-meaning but woefully ignorant preachers go messing with God's simple plan of salvation, they alter many things to corrupt the Gospel.
When you add the unbiblical requirement to “turn from your sins” or “live a changed life” in order to get to Heaven, you have changed the following:
- Salvation is no longer by God's free grace, it is by works (Romans 11:6).
- Salvation is now by partial faith in Christ plus works (Acts 15:1; Galatians 3:1-3).
- By adding works to faith, you are saying that God owes you eternal life (Romans 4:4).
- By having to live a changed life to prove you're saved, you will continually worry in uncertainty if you're really saved, because we all sin continually (Romans 7:14-25).
- You cannot “know” that your name is written in Heaven; not until you've faithfully run the Christian course until the end of life (Luke 10:20; 1st John 5:13).
- The lines have been blurred between justification and sanctification, that is, between salvation and service (Galatians 3:26; Romans 12:1).
- Salvation is no longer a free gift, it has become an exchange, a trade of sorts (Romans 5:18; Ephesians 2:8-9).
- Adding turning from your sinful ways to faith alone in Jesus Christ to be saved is Lordship Salvation. Lordship Salvation confuses people and leads them into Hell (Acts 19:32). Faith is the only righteous thing that I can do.
- No one has ever turned from their sinning. If to “repent” means to forsake our sinful ways TO BE SAVED, but Jesus already paid for our sins by dying on the cross, then what are we repenting from?
As Michael P. Bowen rightly says in his helpful book titled, “I NEVER KNEW YOU,” Satan's greatest weapon is to con people into living the Christian life without being born again. I love that statement, because it is so very true. The Devil is a beautiful liar!
Dear reader, just as raising up the rear of a car changes many things in the vehicle's working dynamics and operation, so also does changing God's simple plan of salvation alter a bunch of things. I love you unconditionally with God's love dear friend, which is why I am telling you the truth.
Truthfully, Christ died on the cross to pay for your sins and mine. Christ died for “the ungodly” (Romans 5:6-9). Why in the world would God demand that you first be willing to give up your lifestyle of sinning to receive His “free gift” of eternal life? You'll find those exact words “free gift” in Romans 5:18. We've got a bunch of well-meaning, but very dangerous, preachers today who are as incompetent as children who've found their father's loaded gun in the closet, and they have no idea what they are doing!
The Plain And Simple Gospel
God made His plan of salvation very simple, easy and free. Ungodly men have turned God's simple plan of salvation into a complicated plan of slavation! You are a guilty sinner, and so am I! We deserve to be punished in the fires of Hell forever to pay for our own sins. But thanks be to God, He sent His only begotten Son Jesus into the world, to die on a cross for pay our debt of sin. Christ died on the cross. He was buried. Three days later He bodily resurrected from the dead. This is “the gospel” (1st Corinthians 15:1-4). Whosoever believes this Gospel (which means Good News) is saved (Romans 1:16).
Let me explain it another way. Anyone who comes to God as an admitted guilty sinner (Romans 3:19-20), and receives Christ's sacrifice on the cross as full payment for your sins, believing that He was buried but raised up physically three days later, instantly and forever has eternal life. 1st Thessalonians 4:14, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”
Oh, why do men complicate the simplicity that is in Christ? 2nd Corinthians 11:3-4, “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.” In this Scripture passage Paul warns us about three enemies:
- Another Jesus
- Another Gospel
- Another Spirit
An example of “another Jesus” is the cults of Mormonism and the Jehovah's Witness. Both groups deny that Jesus is almighty God (i.e., they deny His deity). JW's deny the Godhead (aka, the “Trinity” in theology). They have another Jesus, not the accurate portrayal of Jesus presented in the inspired Word of God. John 6:40, “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” You must see Jesus as He truly is, as God who came in the flesh; the Word of God incarnate (John 1:1-3, 14). It is not enough to believe on a Jesus who is not the biological (only begotten) Son of God (making Him God). JW's are not born again believers. They must first repent (change their mind) from trusting in another Jesus, and instead trust on the true Jesus who is “the almighty” (Revelation 1:8b).
This is one reason why I warn everybody not to use the Devil's modern corrupt Bible revisions, because nearly all of them remove the word “godhead” from Acts 17:29, Romans 1:20 and Colossians 2:9. Instead you'll find something like “divine nature,” which sounds like new age heresy to me. What's wrong with the word “godhead”? The Devil's crowd removed this word to attack the triune nature of God (Matthew 29:19-20; Colossians 2:2). Only the inspired King James Bible is trustworthy!!!
Another Gospel
An example of “another Gospel” is the Devil's lie that you must “turn from your sins” (or be willing to turn from sin) to get to heaven. No such nonsense is taught in the inspired King James Bible. Wicked men added this additional requirement to be saved (Proverbs 30:5-6). God's only prerequisite to be saved is that you realize you're a guilty sinner (Romans 3:19-20), because you've got to know what you're being saved from—the wages of sin which is physical death, and the second death in Hell forever (Romans 6:23; Revelation 20:11-15, 21:8).
Also, you do NOT have to be water baptized, speak in tongue, observe sacraments, join a church, partake of communion, live a holy life, forsake a lifestyle of sinning or anything else to be saved. You get saved by trusting Jesus! Simply believe that He did it all for you!!!
Another Spirit
An example of “another spirit” is the Roman Catholic church (the biggest cult in the world). Any spirit that is not the Holy Spirit is a familiar spirit (i.e., a demon). I learned that from my dear friend Pastor Max D. Younce (1935-2023), who graduated to Heaven recently on August 11, 2023. I strongly encourage you to visit Dr. Younce's church website, where you can still freely read and download all of his excellent Bible study books. Also, please visit the ministry website of my friend Robert Serreyn, a longtime member of Pastor Younce's church congregation in Walnut Grove, Minnesota. We're all doing our small part to reach this sin cursed world for our precious Lord and God, Jesus Christ (John 20:28).
The Roman Catholic church worships Mary! They'll openly deny worshipping Mary, while bowing down to pray to her and count Rosary beads. In a standard Rosary a Catholic will say “hail Mary” 53 times! Woe unto the Catholic prisonhouse of religion! Listen for yourself to a group of brainwashed Catholic children reciting the Satanic Rosary!!! Dear reader, that is false religion!!! Just like KFC does chicken right, from the cradle to the casket Roman Catholicism does religion right! They are totally devoid of biblical truth and salvation, but if you want the formalities of false religion with all its garb and grandeur, Catholics are your poison!
Also, if that weren't bad enough that Catholics worship Mary and their patron saints, they teach that Mary is a co-redemptrix with Jesus. Literally, Catholic errantly believe that Mary has a part on one's salvation. This is another spirit, not the Holy Spirit. The indwelling Holy Spirit in every believer NEVER leads us contrary to the Scriptures. And for that matter, neither does the Holy Spirit convict lost sinners contrary to the inspired Scripture! God's Holy Spirit always works in conjunction with the written Word of God in the lives of men.
As if things couldn't get any worse for Catholics on judgment day in eternity, they have literally completely REMOVED the Second Commandment of God, which prohibits bowing down to any graven image (statues). To compensate for the missing Second Commandment, Catholics split the Tenth Commandment into two. You couldn't make this stuff up! For someone to continue to be a Catholic, with all the truth available on the internet which exposes Roman Catholicism as a demonic cult, I am shocked that anyone would still go to their cursed churches (Galatians 1:6-9). It is so sad and tragic! Catholics have another spirit. In fact, they have another Jesus, another gospel and another spirit. What a hellhole of fake religion!!!
Salvation is not a reward for the righteous, it is a gift for the guilty! Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith. Turning away from sinful ways would be a work. Faith puts all of the merit where it belongs, on the object of our faith, Jesus and His work. The true Gospel always points you to CHRIST; a false gospel always points to YOU. We must stay true to the simplicity of the Gospel!! Repentance regarding salvation is a change of mind from unbelief to belief!!! We must earnestly contend for the faith (Jude 1:3).
I love you dear friend with Christ's unconditional love, no matter who you may be. Thank you for privileging me with your time. God bless.
He's Still Working On Me
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