Build on the True Foundation

From: joie (Original Message)

Sent: 9/19/2001 3:04 PM

Repentance

Repentance is good, and it is required. However, repentance is not enough. Believing on the Lord is a positional thing. It puts you in a position to experience salvation.

Notice in Acts 16:31 it says "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."

It didn't say "believe and you ARE saved". It said "believe and YOU WILL be saved". Otherwise, if the jailer just believed, then his whole house would immediately be saved, even if they did not believe. The jailer was not saved just because he believed, and neither was his house. He had to act upon that belief and obey the plan of salvation.

By the same token, Romans 10:9 states "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."

Notice, it says "thou SHALT be saved", not "thou ARE saved". Again, it's a positional statement. Romans was written to those who had already obeyed the plan of salvation, so there was no need for them to obey it again. However, they were instructed to continue to confess Christ and believe on him.

Baptism

I’ve often heard the argument "God does not need a man to come in and complete the transaction for him." Although I agree with this statement, I disagree with context in which it is used.

The truth of the matter is, God has always used man to help fulfill his will. Not because he HAS to, but because it's part of his plan. A perfect example of this is the five-fold ministry, which is used for the PERFECTING of the saints. In the Old Testament, God used the Levitical priesthood, prophets, kings, and even a donkey! Why should we expect any less of him today?

The Apostles and the Lord Jesus Christ himself commanded baptism. The Gospel message has not changed.

Holy Ghost Infilling

Some people teach that Holy Spirit infilling comes at the time of repentance and acceptance of salvation �?in other words, walking up to the front of a church and making a "confession of faith in Christ", or "accepting Christ as their personal savior". However, this is not a biblical teaching, and you won’t find it anywhere in the holy scriptures.

The doctrine of "accepting Christ" is a man-made tradition, and is in contradiction with what the early church did and taught.

So, when does a person know they have received the infilling of the Holy Ghost? To answer that, I will go to In the Book of Acts, where there was a definite concrete evidence for those who were filled with the Holy Ghost.

Acts 2:4 "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and AND BEGAN TO SPEAK WITH OTHER TONGUES, AS THE SPIRIT GAVE THEM UTTERANCE."

Acts 10:44-48 "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. FOR THEY HEARD THEM SPEAK WITH TONGUES, AND MAGNIFY GOD. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days."

Acts 19:2-6 "He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and THEY SPAKE WITH TONGUES, AND PROPHESIED."

Two Different Types of Salvation?

There are two different types of salvation spoken of in the Bible. The first has to do with salvation in regards to being "born again". You can have this salvation, yet it is a salvation that must be maintained every day that we walk on this earth. It is a salvation that can be lost if we choose to break our covenant with God. God’s covenants have always been conditional �?"if" you do this, I will do this, etc.

The second type of salvation has to do with the salvation that comes when believers "endure to the end", and receive eternal life. This salvation is a walk of faith.

The Holy Ghost is an earnest of our inheritance (initial faith and salvation), but full inheritance (saving faith and salvation) won’t come until we step inside those pearly gates.

To conclude, you can experience being "born again" (initial salvation), yet walk away from God and lose out on eternal life (final salvation). Yet you cannot experience eternal life (final salvation) until you've been born again of the water and the Spirit (initial salvation).

Conclusion:

Let me sum everything up by stating:

YOUR PART + MINISTER’S PART + GOD’S PART = INITIAL SALVATION

Repentance is YOUR PART.
Baptism is the PREACHER OR PASTOR'S PART.
Holy Ghost infilling is GOD'S PART.

All three of these "components" agree together to bring about initial salvation. Each is an experience in itself, making up one whole and complete salvation experience.

Once you have experienced initial salvation, however, the equation changes to look like this:

YOUR PART = CHURCH’S PART = GOD’S PART = ETERNAL LIFE

Walking in obedience and faith is YOUR PART.

Edification, exhortation, etc. is the CHURCH’S PART (esp. the five-fold ministry).

Indwelling of the Holy Ghost to help you and guide you is GOD’S PART.

Notice I didn’t "plus" signs in the equation above, but "equal" signs instead. These three now make up ONE COMPONENT, all working together in the Christian’s life to bring about salvation unto eternal life

This was written by Donna Kat

From: <NOBR>

Bro_Bryan</NOBR> (Original Message)

Sent: 8/1/2007 9:40 AM

The Sinner's Prayer:
"Modern apostasy and false teaching that prevents men from being saved."
The earliest notion of sinners prayer is less than 500 years old. It wasn't
formalized as a theology until around the time of Billy Graham.

No one in the Bible ever prayed for their initial salvation. They did
however believe, repent, confess Jesus and be immersed in water for the
forgiveness of their sins. The sinners prayer is a an innovation that
thwarts God's plan of salvation. First they replaced believers baptism by
immersion with infant baptism by sprinkling. Second they later replaced
baptism altogether with the "sinners prayer" so that baptism is no longer
even part of the plan of salvation. If you prayed the "sinners prayer" for
your salvation, you are still lost in your sins, because it is not what God
said to do.

The Sinner's Prayer

C.S. Lewis used the term "a great cataract of nonsense" to describe how
people use a modern idea to construe Bible theology. One such example,
perhaps the best example, is a conversion method called the Sinner's Prayer.
It is more popularly known as the Four Spiritual Laws.

Lewis used this term to describe what happens when someone looks backward at
the Bible based only on what he or she has known. Instead, an evangelical
should first discern conversion practices from Scriptures and then consider
the topic in light of two thousand years of other thinkers. As it is, a
novel technique popularized through recent revivals has replaced the
biblically sound practice.

Today, hundreds of millions hold to a belief system and salvation practice
that no one had ever held until relatively recently. The notion that one can
pray Jesus into his or her heart and that baptism is merely an outward sign
are actually late developments. The prayer itself dates to the Billy Sunday
era; however, the basis for talking in prayer for salvation goes back a few
hundred years.

Consider the following appeal:

"Just accept Christ into your heart through prayer and he'll receive you. It
doesn't matter what church you belong to or if you ever do good works.
You'll be born again at the moment you receive Christ. He's at the door
knocking. You don't even have to change bad habits, just trust Christ as
Savior. God loves you and forgives you unconditionally. Anyone out there can
be saved if they ... Accept Christ, now! Let us pray for Christ to now come
into your heart."

Sound familiar? This method of conversion has had far-reaching effects
worldwide as many have claimed this as the basis for their salvation. Yet,
what is the historical significance of this conversion? How did the process
of rebirth, which Jesus spoke of in John 3, evolve into praying him into
one's heart? I believe it was an error germinating shortly after the
Reformation, which eventually caused great ruin and dismay in Christendom.
By supplying a brief documentation of its short, historical development, I
hope to show how this error has served as "a great cataract of nonsense".

The Reformation
Although things weren't ideal after the Reformation, for the first time in
over a thousand years the general populace was reading the Scriptures. By
the early 1600s, one hundred years after the Reformation was initiated,
there were various branches of European Christendom that followed national
lines. For instance, Germans followed Martin Luther. There were also
Calvinists (Presbyterian), the Church of England (Episcopalian), various
branches of Anabaptists and, of course, the Roman church (Catholics). Most
of these groups were trying to revive the waning faith of their already
traditionalized denominations. However, a consensus had not been reached on
issues like rebirth, baptism or salvation--even between Protestants.

The majority still held to the validity of infant baptism even though they
disagreed on its significance. Preachers tended to minimize baptism because
people hid their lack of commitment behind sayings like "I am a baptized
Lutheran and that's that." The influence of the preachers eventually led to
the popular notion that one was forgiven at infant baptism but not yet
reborn. Most Protestants were confused or ambivalent about the connection
between rebirth and forgiveness.

The Great Awakening
The Great Awakening was the result of fantastic preaching occurring in
Europe and the eastern colonies during the early to mid 1700s. Though
ambivalent on the practice of baptism, Great Awakening preachers created an
environment that made man aware of his need for an adult confession
experience. The experiences that people sought were varied. Jonathan
Edwards, George Whitfield and John Wesley furthered ideas of radical
repentance and revival. Although there is much to be learned from their
messages, they did not solve the problems of the practices associated with
baptism and conversion.

Eventually, the following biblical passage written to and inspired for
lukewarm Christians became a popular tool for the conversion of
non-Christians:

"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the
Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. ....Those
whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I
stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I
will come in and eat with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:14-20)

This passage was written explicitly for lukewarm Christians. Now consider
how a lecturer named John Webb misused this passage in the mid 1700s as a
basis of evangelizing non-Christians:

"Here is a promise of Union to Christ; in these words, I will come in to
him. i.e. If any Sinner will but hear my Voice and open the Door, and
receive me by Faith, I will come into his Soul, and unite him to me, and
make him a living member of that my mystical body of which I am the Head."
(Christ's Suit to the Sinner, 14)

Preachers heavily relied on Revelation 3:20. By using the first-person tense
while looking into the sinner's eyes, preachers began to speak for Jesus as
they exhorted, "If you would just let me come in and dine with you, I would
accept you." Even heathens who had never been baptized responded with the
same or even greater sorrow than churchgoers. As a result, more and more
preachers of Christendom concluded that baptism was merely an external
matter--only an outward sign of an inward grace. In fact, Huldreich Zwingli
put this idea forth for the very first time. Nowhere in church history was
such a belief recorded. It only appears in Scripture when one begins with a
great cataract of nonsense. In other words, it only appears in the New
Testament through the imagination of readers influenced by this phenomenon.

Mourner's Seat
A method originated during the 1730s or '40s, which was practically
forgotten for about a hundred years. It is documented that in 1741 a
minister named Eleazar Wheelock had utilized a technique called the
Mourner's Seat. As far as one can tell, he would target sinners by having
them sit in the front bench (pew). During the course of his sermon
"salvation was looming over their heads." Afterwards, the sinners were
typically quite open to counsel and exhortation. In fact, as it turns out
they were susceptible to whatever prescription the preaching doctor gave to
them. According to eyewitnesses, false conversions were multiplied. Charles
Wesley had some experience with this practice, but it took nearly a hundred
years for this tactic to take hold.

Cane Ridge
In 1801 there was a sensational revival in Cane Ridge, Kentucky that lasted
for weeks. Allegedly, people barked, rolled over in the aisles and became
delirious because there were long periods without food in the intense heat.
It resulted in the extreme use and abuse of emotions as thousands left
Kentucky with wild notions about rebirth. Today it is generally viewed as a
mockery to Christianity.

The excesses in Cane Ridge produced expectations for preachers and those
seeking religious experience. A Second Great Awakening, inferior to the
first, was beginning in America. Preachers were enamored with the idea that
they could cause (manipulate) people into conversion. One who witnessed such
nineteenth century hysteria was J. V. Coombs who complained of the
technique:

"The appeals, songs, prayers and the suggestion from the preacher drive many
into the trance state. I can remember in my boyhood days seeing ten or
twenty people laying unconscious upon the floor in the old country church.
People called that conversion. Science knows it is mesmeric influence,
self-hypnotism â€�?It is sad that Christianity is compelled to bear the
folly of such movements." (J.V. Coombs, Religious Delusions, 92ff).

The Cane Ridge Meeting became the paradigm for revivalists for decades. A
lawyer named Charles Finney came along a generation later to systemize the
Cane Ridge experience through the use of Wheelock's Mourner's Seat and
Scripture.

Charles Finney

It wasn't until about 1835 that Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875) emerged
to champion the system utilized by Eleazar Wheelock. Shortly after his own
conversion he left his law practice and would become a minister, a lecturer,
a professor, and a traveling revivalist. He took the Mourner's Seat
practice, which he called the Anxious Seat, and developed a theological
system around it. Finney was straightforward about his purpose for this
technique and wrote the following comment near the end of his life:

"The church has always felt it necessary to have something of this kind to
answer this very purpose. In the days of the apostles, baptism answered this
purpose. The gospel was preached to the people, and then all those who were
willing to be on the side of Christ, were called out to be baptized. It held
the place that the anxious seat does now as a public manifestation of their
determination to be Christians"

Finney made many enemies because of this innovation. The Anxious Seat
practice was considered to be a psychological technique that manipulated
people to make a premature profession of faith. It was considered to be an
emotional conversion influenced by some of the preachers' animal magnetism.
Certainly it was a precursor to the techniques used by many twentieth
century televangelists.

In opposition to Finney's movement, John Nevin, a Protestant minister, wrote
a book called The Anxious Bench. He intended to protect the denominations
from this novel deviation. He called Finney's New Measures "heresy", a
"Babel of extravagance", "fanaticism", and "quackery". He also said, "With a
whirlwind in full view, we may be exhorted reasonably to consider and stand
back from its destructive path." It turns out that Nevin was somewhat
prophetic. The system that Finney admitted had replaced biblical baptism, is
the vertebrae for the popular plan of salvation that was made normative in
the twentieth century by the three Bills --- Billy Sunday, Billy Graham and
Bill Bright.

Dwight Moody and R. A. Torrey

However, it wasn't until the end of Finney's life that it became evident to
everyone and himself that the Anxious Bench approach led to a high fallout
rate. By the 1860s Dwight Moody (1837-1899) was the new apostle in American
evangelicalism. He took Finney's system and modified it. Instead of calling
for a public decision, which tended to be a response under pressure, he
asked people to join him and his trained counselors in a room called the
Inquiry Room. Though Moody's approach avoided some of the errors encountered
in Finneyism, it was still a derivative or stepchild of the Anxious Bench
system.

In the Inquiry Room the counselors asked the possible convert some
questions, taught him from Scripture and then prayed with him. The idea that
prayer was at the end of the process had been loosely associated with
conversion in the 1700s. By the late 1800s it was standard technique for
'receiving Christ' as Moody's influence spread across both the United States
and the United Kingdom. This was where a systematic Sinner's Prayer began,
but was not called as such until the time of Billy Sunday.

R. A. Torrey succeeded Moody's Chicago-based ministry after his death in
1899. He modified Moody's approach to include "on the spot" street
conversions. Torrey popularized the idea of instant salvation with no
strings attached, even though he never intended as much. Nonetheless,
"Receive Christ, now, right here" became part of the norm. From that time on
it became more common to think of salvation outside of church or a life of
Lordship.

Billy Sunday and the Pacific Garden Mission
Meanwhile in Chicago, Billy Sunday, a well-known baseball player from Iowa,
had been converted in the Pacific Garden Mission. The Mission was Chicago's
most successful implementation of Moody's scheme. Eventually, Sunday left
baseball to preach. He had great public charm and was one of the first to
mix ideas of entertainment with ministry. By the early 1900s he had become a
great well-known crusade leader. In his crusades he popularized the
Finney-Moody method and included a bit of a circus touch. After fire and
brimstone sermons, heavy moralistic messages with political overtones, and
humorous if not outlandish behavior, salvation was offered. Often it was
associated with a prayer, and at other times a person was told they were
saved because they simply walked down his tabernacle's "sawdust trail" to
the front where he was standing. In time people were told they were saved
because they publicly shook Sunday's hand, acknowledging that they would
follow Christ.

Billy Sunday died in 1935 leaving behind hundreds of his imitators. More
than anything else, Billy Sunday helped crusades become acceptable to all
denominations, which eventually led to a change in their theology. Large
religious bodies sold out on their reservations toward these new conversion
practices to reap the benefits of potential converts from the crusades
because of the allure of success.

Both Dwight Moody and Billy Sunday admitted they were somewhat ignorant of
church history by the time they had already latched on to their
perspectives. This is highly significant because the Anxious Seat phenomenon
and offshoot practices were not rooted in Scripture nor in the early church.

Billy Graham, Bill Bright
Billy Graham and his crusades were the next step in the evolution of things.
Billy Graham was converted in 1936 at a Sunday-styled crusade. By the late
1940s it was evident to many that Graham would be the champion of
evangelicalism. His crusades summed up everything that had been done from
the times of Charles Finney through Billy Sunday except that he added
respectability that some of the others lacked. In the 1950s Graham's crusade
counselors were using a prayer that had been sporadically used for some
time. It began with a prayer from his Four Steps to Peace with God. The
original four-step formula came during Billy Sunday's era called in a tract
called Four Things God Wants you to Know. The altar call system of Graham
had been refined by a precise protocol of music, trained counselors and a
speaking technique all geared to help people 'accept Christ as Savior.'

In the late 1950s Bill Bright came up with the exact form of the currently
popular Four Spiritual Laws so that the average believer could take the
crusade experience into the living room of their neighbor. Of course, this
method ended with the Sinner's Prayer. Those who responded to crusades and
sermons could have the crusade experience at home when they prayed,

"Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I
open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You
for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne
of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be."

Later, in 1977 Billy Graham published a now famous work entitled, How to Be
Born Again. For all the Scripture he used, he never once uses the hallmark
rebirth event in the second chapter of the book of Acts. The cataract (blind
spot) kept him away from the most powerful conversion event in all
Scripture. It is my guess that it's emphasis on baptism and repentance for
the forgiveness of sins was incompatible with his approach.

The Living Bible and Beyond
By the late 1960s it seemed that nearly every evangelical was printing some
form of the Four Spiritual Laws in the last chapter of their books. Even a
Bible was printed with this theology inserted into God's Word. Thus, in the
1960s, the Living Bible's translation became the translation of choice for
the crusades as follows:

"Even in his own land and among his own people, the Jews, he was not
accepted. Only a few welcome and received him. But to all who received him,
he gave the right to become children of God. All they needed to do was to
trust him to save them. All those who believe this are reborn! --not a
physical rebirth resulting from human passion or plan--but from the will of
God."(John 1:11-13, Living Bible, bolds mine)

The bolded words have no support at all in the original Greek. They are a
blatant insertion placed by presuppositions of the translator, Kenneth
Taylor. I'm not sure that even the Jehovah's Witnesses have authored such a
barefaced insertion in their corrupt Scriptures. In defense of Taylor's
original motives, the Living Bible was created primarily with children in
mind. However, the publishers should have corrected the misleading verse in
the 1960s. They somewhat cleared it up in the newer LB in the 1990s, only
after the damage has been done. For decades mainstream evangelicals were
using the LB and circular reasoning to justify such a strong 'trusting
moment' as salvation, never knowing their Bible was corrupted.

A whole international enterprise of publishers, universities and
evangelistic associations were captivated by this method. The phrases,
"Receive Christ," and "Trust Jesus as your personal savior," filled
airwaves, sermons, and books. James Kennedy's Evangelism Explosion
counselor-training program helped make this concept of conversion an
international success. Missionaries everywhere were trained with Sinner's
Prayer theology. Evangelicalism had the numbers, the money, the television
personas of Graham and Kennedy and any attempt to purport a different plan
of salvation would be decried as cultic and "heresy."

Most evangelicals are ignorant of where their practice came from or how
Christians from other periods viewed biblical conversion. C.S. Lewis
regarded it as chronological snobbery when we don't review our beliefs
against the conclusions of others:

"Most of all, perhaps, we need intimate knowledge of the past. Not that the
past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet
need something to set against the present, to remind us that the basic
assumptions have been quite different in different periods and that much
which seems certain to the uneducated is merely temporary fashion. A man who
has lived in many places is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of
his native village; the scholar has lived in many times and is therefore in
some degree immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the
press and the microphone of his own age." (Learning in Wartime, 1939)

While most do this unknowingly, evangelicals are skewing church auditoriums
all over the world from a clear picture of conversion with a nonsensical
practice. Author Unknown

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