False Doctrines: The Good Works Approach

 Rather than diligently seek for the truth that sets free, many are seeking and following after popular opinions instead of convictions and are being led astray by false doctrines.

There are many false beliefs in this Last Days. One of them is known as the Good Works Approach. Another is the doctrine of eternal security that says ‘Once Saved, Forever Saved’’.

Those who believe in the Good Works Approach say that God will add up all their good works and their bad works and if their good is greater than their bad, they have passed the test and will be admitted into Heaven. They think that their external religious works settles the matter and earns them favour before God.

This was the major error and undoing of the rich young ruler in Luke Chapter 18:18-24. He had great riches and a powerful office as a ruler. He had good morals and manners and claimed he kept the Law of Moses, the Ten Commandments to the letter.

This young ruler measured his obedience to God by his external actions but not by his inward attitudes and was convinced that he was blameless before God. However, in his inward attitudes, he was not blameless before God.

He was a covetous man who had a love of money, who trusted in his great riches and was not willing to use his riches to glorify God. His covetous attitude violated the tenth commandment in the Law of Moses, indicating his inability to keep the whole Law he boasted about.

He lacked a living faith in God. He made money his god and wanted salvation and eternal life on his own terms. He did not see himself as a sinner before God, rather boasted about the laws he kept from his youth, trusting in his own self-righteousness.

Isaiah 64:6 says,
‘’ But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags…’’

Jesus offered him salvation and eternal life on His own terms which the young ruler turned down. He was told to liquidate his estate and give the money to the poor, then take up a cross and follow Jesus.
Because the deceitfulness of riches had choked his heart and was unwilling to give it up, he rejected God’s greatest gift to man: eternal life. He lost eternal life because he could not humble himself.

Sin is rooted in the heart. Mark 7: 21-23 says,
‘’for from within, out of the hearts of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within and defile the man.’’

The young ruler by his inward attitudes was a defiled person before the Lord yet did not want to acknowledge that fact. His good works religiosity fell short of God’s standards for salvation and eternal life. Good works alone without the new birth and the right changes in the heart and opening one’s heart to Jesus is vain.

Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). Holiness that is acceptable to God must be within and without i.e. both inward and outward. Man believes in outward holiness only.

We cannot be saved from sin by keeping the law or keeping some laws. The Law is a mirror that shows us how unclean we are but it cannot wash us clean. The Law can bring us to Christ but cannot make us to be like Christ. Only grace and faith in Christ can do it (Ephesians 2:8-10) (Galatians 2:16-21).

Another prominent scriptural example was the Pharisee in Luke 18:10-14 who went into the temple to pray. He boasted before God about his tithes and fasting while condemning the publican beside him as a sinner. The Pharisee was proud and did not see himself as a sinner. He thought his self-righteousness was sufficient.

Many today are like the rich young ruler and the Pharisee who are trusting in their self-righteousness and external religious works as their key to salvation and do not want to humble themselves before God.
Justification before God is by our faith in Christ and not by our works of the law, for by the works of the law, shall no flesh be justified (Galatians 2:16).

We need to act like the Publican in Luke 18:13. He humbled himself, acknowledged his sinfulness and asked God for mercy unlike the proud and boastful Pharisee. The Publican was justified for his humility and sincerity.

We need to receive salvation on God’s own terms by coming to Him through Jesus Christ who alone can save. Reconciliation with God is effected through Jesus Christ who is the only name given for the salvation of men (Acts 4:12). Salvation is by grace and by faith in Christ.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says,
‘’ ‘’for by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.’’

Prayer: Lord Jesus, have mercy on me. I am a sinner (Luke 18:13)

Salvation: What is it and who needs it? (4)

Although man by his freewill choices separated himself from God through disobedience, God still loves him. God greatly desires to restore us to harmony with Him so that we can share an eternal salvation with Him.

In saving man, sin must first be dealt with because it is sin that introduced the sorrow, sickness, death and chaos experienced in the world. For a man to be saved, he must first be saved from sin. Man cannot save himself and cannot enter into fellowship with God in his state of disobedience. God cannot receive man to Himself as long as sin reigns in man.

Evil has a power over man that no man can shake off or deliver himself from. Man must have a mediator, who can take his part and suffer in his stead, and pay the penalty for his sins. Jesus Christ was the one who came into this world to save us from our sins (Matthew 1:21).

The sin of the world, of all men, was placed upon Him. Jesus became sin in the sight of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). He died physically on Mount Calvary where He was nailed to a Cross. He went down to Hell where He preached to the saints in prison. He rose again from the dead to everlasting life and has the keys of death and hell (Revelations 1:17-18). Because He lives, you and I shall live also (John 14:19).

The sacrifice of Jesus is enough and sufficient. We must believe and accept the love sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Unbelief is man’s greatest enemy. We must accept Jesus’ words that He Is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6).

All men born of a woman need salvation because sin has passed unto all men (Romans 5:12).  Through one man Adam, sin and death came into the world but through another man, the Lord Jesus who died for all, we have eternal life restored to us.

Why must we choose Jesus for eternal life?

§  It is Christ who came to give us life (John 10:10)

§  It is Christ who died for us (Hebrews 2:14)

§  It is the Blood of Jesus which cleanses us from all sins (1 John 1:7)

§  It is Jesus Christ who rose from the dead (Romans 6:9) and because He lives, we shall also live if we trust in Him.

How to Reconcile With God

o   First, admit that you are a sinner who cannot save himself

‘’all men have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God’’ (Romans 3:23). 

o   Secondly, come consciously to God through Jesus Christ

‘’ therefore, He (Jesus) is able to save those who come to God through Him’’ (Hebrews 7:25)

o   Third, repent of your sins. Be sorry enough to quit sinning

‘’repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.’’ (Acts 3:19)

‘’except ye repent, ye shall likewise perish (Luke 13:3)

o   Fourth, confess your sins to Jesus

‘’ he that covers his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confess and forsakes them shall have mercy’’ (Proverbs 28:13)

‘’ if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’’ (1 John 1:9)

o   Fifth, receive Jesus into your heart and life. Only you can open the door of your heart and invite Jesus to come in.

‘’behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.’’ (Revelations 3:20)

‘’ but as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in His name.’’ (John 1:12)

o   Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that He was raised from the dead. Salvation is by faith in Christ.

‘’ That if thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shall be saved: For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation’’ (Romans 10:9-10)

Sample Prayer:

Lord Jesus, thank you for dying for me on the Cross for my sins. I am sorry for all the wrong things I have done. I believe that you are my Lord and Saviour. I ask you to come into my heart and life, to live in my heart forever. I trust you to make my heart clean. In your name I pray, Amen.

o   Lastly, follow Jesus

‘’…whoever will come after me, let him take up his cross, and follow me.’’ (Mark 8:34)

Today is the day of our salvation. Tomorrow may be too late. Do not postpone your decision any longer because no one knows what the next minute or hour will bring (Proverbs 27:1) (2 Corinthians 6:2). Death will come like a thief in the night but after death is judgment…sure and certain!

There are no second chances for repentance and salvation in the grave. It is dangerous for anyone to reject God’s offer of salvation and continue to harden his or her heart in unbelief. Unbelief in God’s Word has always been man’s undoing since Adam.

John 5:24 says,

‘’Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that hears my word, and believes on Him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life’’

John 8:24 says,

‘’ I say therefore unto you, that you shall die in your sins: for if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins.’’

We enter into God’s kingdom by faith: helpless, unable to save ourselves and totally dependent on the mercy and grace of God. There is nothing else we can do besides faith and trust in Jesus to earn or merit eternal life.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says,

‘’for by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.’’

Close.

Salvation: What is it and who needs it? (3)

Salvation: What is it and who needs it? (3)

 Eternal death
The third type of death that resulted from the sin of Adam and Eve is eternal death meaning eternal separation from the presence of God forever and ever, time without end. To experience eternal death means to die in sin without salvation, without repentance and conversion, without regeneration of the soul.

Eternal death means to spend one’s eternity in Hell, the place of eternal torment for all sinners who died in sin. Hell is described in the Scriptures as an unquenchable fire that burns eternally with sulphur and brimstone where wretched souls wail and gnash their teeth in indescribable, unbearable pain.

By the mercies of God, you and I will not end up in eternal Hell in Jesus name.

In eternity, there are only two places of abode which are Heaven where God lives and Hell which is the eternal home of the lost souls who rejected God’s offer of salvation and are not qualified for admission into Heaven because nothing unclean will be allowed into it. When man lost eternal life during his fall in the Garden of Eden, eternal death replaced eternal life.

Man by his own wrong freewill choices fell from the position of great glory, headed for eternal destruction. Man is God’s greatest investment and because of His love for man, He brought up a plan of redemption to purchase eternal life for man. The plan of redemption constitutes the salvation of man. Its characteristics are as follows:

 Sin and death must be conquered to earn eternal life for fallen man. Sin is the problem in the life of man and must be conquered before man can be restored to favour with God.

 Blood must be shed for the remission of the sins of fallen man. Without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sins (Leviticus 17:11).The blood of bulls and goats cannot atone for the sins of man who was created in the image of God (Hebrews 10:4).

 The blood of a sinner cannot atone for the sins of fellow sinners. The blood of a sinless person must be shed to atone for the sins of fallen man.

John 3:16
‘’ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.’’

It was Jesus Christ, the Son of God who offered His life as a sacrifice to die for man to save man. He is God who came in human form and is our perfect sacrifice. He had no sin, knew no sin and did no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21) (1 Peter 2:22). His death was God’s plan for our redemption.

He laid his life of his own accord and freewill to save you and me from our sins (John10:18) and there are no other sacrifices that can take away sin (1 Peter 1:18-19).

Jesus died on the Cross at Calvary but on the third day he resurrected, conquering death. Through his resurrection, eternal life that was lost during the fall of man in the Garden of Eden has been restored. Jesus the Risen Christ is living and lives forever. That He is living and lives forever is our guarantee of eternal life (John 14:19) (Revelations 1:18).

Men now have two options to make a choice from, either eternal death or eternal life. Through the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, eternal life was lost and eternal death which replaced it became an inheritance. But through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the Risen Christ, eternal life is now available to man but based on freewill choice.

What choice are you going to make?
Are you continuing on the road to eternal death or want to inherit eternal life? Remember that God forces no man because man is a free moral agent. One of the characteristics of God’s love for man is to allow him make his own decisions.

But it is God’s wish for you and me to choose life, ‘’…therefore choose life that both you and your descendants may live.’’ (Deuteronomy 30:19)

Salvation: What is it and who needs it? (2)

When Adam and his wife, Eve sinned against God, they died as God had earlier warned in Genesis 2:17. Through their sin, every man on earth born of a woman became a natural sinner because all men descended from them and through their blood. Their sin has passed unto all men on earth irrespective of race, religion, color, tribe or ethnicity.

Through their sin, death came into the lives of men. Recall that God who created man in His own image lives forever and cannot die. He created the man to live forever on earth but through their sin, death came into existence and has passed unto all men on earth born of a woman.

Sin and death as repercussions of the disobedience and Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden are universal:

‘’All men have sinned and have come short of the glory of God’’ (Romans 3:23)
‘’The wages of sin is death…’’ (Romans 6:23)

The death that resulted means separation and there are 3 types of death that came into the existence of men. They are physical death, spiritual death and eternal death.

 Physical death
Recall that man was created as a three-in-one person having a body, soul and spirit. Physical death results when the body is separated from his spirit. As a result of the Fall of Man and the curses that followed, his body has to return to dust from where it came (Genesis 3:19) (Ecclesiastes 12:7). His spirit is from God and must return to God to give an account of his life on earth in the body.

As a result of the fall of the man, men on earth have lost the power to live forever on earth. Men have to die (when the spirit separates from the body) and the body returns to dust.That means that eternal life was lost during the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. Sin has cut short the life span of men on Planet Earth.

 Spiritual death
Spiritual death means a separation between the spirit of man and God. God is a spirit and man also is a spirit. Sin has polluted the spirit of man and made him an unclean person before a Holy God who cannot behold sin. Sin has caused a separation between God and man meaning that communication has broken down between the spirit of man and the spirit of God.

Isaiah 59:1-2 says,
‘’Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His hear heavy, that it cannot hear:
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that He will not hear’’

All men born of a woman, descended from Adam and Eve were born spiritually dead in sin. We were born with the sin nature in our blood and are natural sinners cut off from God. No one teaches a baby to commit sin. It is when he comes of age that he naturally begins to do things that are sins in the sight of God.

Being born spiritually dead and cut off from the Spirit of God, every man born of a woman who descended from Adam and Eve was born into the Broad way to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14).
Repentance and conversion is necessary to move a man who was born into the Broad Way to destruction, to the Narrow Way that leads to life.

It is spiritual death that leads to eternal death. Eternal death will occur when a man born spiritually dead, still remains spiritually dead while passing away in physical death. A man who was born dead in sin i.e. spiritually dead must be made alive to be reconciled with the Spirit of God.

Fellowship and relationship with man was God’s original purpose for creating man before sin thwarted it creating a separation. But God is still interested in reconciling with man for the benefit of the fellowship and relationship.

Salvation: What is it and and who needs it? (1)

The Heavenly God needed a friend to have fellowship and relationship with, so he created Man.The first man was named Adam.Man is created in the image of God. There are several characteristics in the creation of man that include:
 God is holy and has no sin. He is light and in Him there is no iota of darkness. He created the Man a holy personality. That means that God did not create man a sinner.

 2ndly, God lives forever and cannot die. He created the man to live forever on earth which was created for the man to be his dwelling. God did not create man to die. If Adam had not sinned, you and I would live forever on Planet Earth without dying.

 3rdly, God created the man a free moral agent with freewill powers of choice and decision to make his own choices voluntarily.

 4th, God is a three-in-one Personality; therefore the man was created as a three-in-one person too, having a body, soul and spirit.

God placed the man in a garden known as the Garden of Eden with powers to exercise authority and dominion over all the works of creation, and to be fruitful and to multiply on earth. He also created a woman for the man to be his companion and a helpmate.

To test the man’s obedience, He gave the man and the woman a restriction based on a command not to eat of the fruit of a specific tree in the Garden of Eden, known as the tree of knowledge of good and evil with the warning that if they disobey, they would die (Genesis 2:17).

Prompted by the Devil not to believe God's Word, the man and the woman disobeyed God’s instructions and ate of the forbidden fruit. It should be noted that Adam and his wife voluntarily disobeyed by their powers of choice and decision.

The Devil merely deceived them but did not force them to eat the forbidden fruit. They chose to be disobedient to God. Disobedience and unbelief in the Word of God were the first sins and are the major sins in the lives of men to this day.

Two Possibilities Before Man, But Only One Choice!

Man is a free moral agent created with the power to make personal voluntary decisions and to decide his own destination. He had no choice about his entry into the world but after his birth and coming of age to be accountable, he will be held personally responsible for his salvation or damnation.

Every man has the power to accept or reject God’s means of salvation (John3:16) (Revelations 22:17) and will give an account of his choices on the Day of Judgment.

There are two possibilities placed before man and he can make only one choice:

 Life or death (Deuteronomy 30:19)
 Good or evil (Deuteronomy 30:19)
 Blessings or curses (Deuteronomy 30:19)
 Righteousness or unrighteousness (Romans 6:12)
 Holiness or Sinning (Leviticus 11:44) (Romans 6:14)
 Light or darkness (John 8:12)
 Eternal life or eternal death (Matthew 19:16) (Mark 3:29)
 Heaven or hell (Matthew 4:17) (Psalm 9:17)
 The Narrow Way to Life or the Broad Way to Destruction (Matthew 7:13-14)
 Salvation or damnation (Luke 13:3-5) (Mark 16:15-16)

Deuteronomy 30:19 says:
‘I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before thee life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed may live’

God is advising man to choose life by choosing His grace and means of entering into eternal life. Men can, and should make the choice, for God will not force the will of any to serve Him, to surrender to Him or remain obedient to Him. All men, always and without exception are free to choose eternal life or eternal death.

Jesus Christ is the door to the salvation of all men born of a woman because all men have sinned (John10:9) (Romans 3:23). He died for the sins of all men and His Blood was shed for the remission of their sins. The blood of bulls and goats cannot atone for the sins of any man created in the image of God (Hebrews 10:4).

His name is the only name given for the salvation of men (Acts 4:12) because He alone died and resurrected from the dead. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John14:6). He is our guarantee of eternal life (John 3:16).

God loves man and He is merciful, not willing that any man perish, but that they come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). He is this day calling on all men everywhere including you and I to repent now before it is too late (Acts 17:30) (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Choosing Jesus Christ means choosing life, blessings, righteousness, holiness, light, eternal life in heaven and salvation. To reject Jesus Christ means choosing death, evil, curses, sin, darkness, eternal death and everlasting punishment in Hell.

The choice is yours!

To choose Jesus and eternal life, act as follows:
 Acknowledge that you are a sinner (Luke 18:13)
 Repent of your sins (Luke 13:3) (Acts 3:19)
 Confess your sins to Jesus (Proverbs 28:13) (1 John 1:9)
 Ask Jesus for mercy and forgiveness and determine in your heart to forsake sinning (Isaiah 55:7)
 Confess with your mouth that Jesus is your Lord and Saviour and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9-10).
 Allow Him to come into your heart to take control of your life (Revelations 3:20)

Act now because no one knows what will happen in the next minute. After death, comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27). There are no second chances for repentance and forgiveness in the grave.

Ayodele Adegbulugbe
Lagos,Nigeria

Conception via Anonymous Semen: An Aberration?

There is a scriptural account in Genesis 38:9 of a man who had sexual intercourse but spilled his semen on the floor, wasting it and lost his life for that. He sought to have intercourse for the fun of it while avoiding attendant responsibility for procreation.

In other words, he enjoyed the pleasures of the sexual act but while seeking to avoid its procreative function, he spilled his semen in an unauthorized location thereby incurring the wrath of the Creator.
If a man could be killed for spilling his semen on the floor while having authorized and lawful sexual intercourse, how is his crime different from another man who spills his semen into a condom to be wasted?

Semen is sacred.

Semen contains life and is the instrument for procreation and multiplication of the human race. The natural destination of the semen is the female vagina and spilling it willfully, in unlawful destinations makes it an aberration.

The condom campaign encourages and promotes sexual immorality and irresponsibility among the unmarried for whom premarital sexual intercourse is a sin. The condom campaign tells them that if they cannot abstain from sex and cannot exercise self-control over their sexual desires, they should use condoms to practice safe sex whereby they can enjoy the pleasures of sex while avoiding responsibility for procreation.

In this view, the condom encourages immorality.

Same is applicable to the married class. The condom encourages a married spouse to seek for sexual pleasure outside his marriage having an assurance that the condom protects him against diseases and responsibility for possible procreation.

Sexual immorality breeds sexual diseases and marriage is the avenue to avoid the sexual immorality that breeds sexual diseases. Every man is to have his own wife and every woman is to have her own husband and every spouse should stick to his or her lawful partner for sexual purposes.

Endorsing the condom is endorsing sin and immorality. The Scriptures say that it is better to marry than to burn with sexual desires, if one cannot endure temptation. Until one is lawfully married, he is to flee fornication.Therefore, for the unmarried, premarital sex is an unlawful activity. Spilling the semen into a condom is another illegality and two wrongs do not make a right.

Rather than use a condom to practice a deceptive safe sex which looks like a safe sin, one should get married and have lawful sex within marriage. If he is not ready for lawful marriage, he is to avoid sex…as simple as ABC!

Society endorses the condom as being useful for birth control purposes. The natural family planning based on fertile and infertile days is the natural avenue for birth control and should be promoted.
There are some female contraceptives which actually terminate a life that has already been formed, and do not prevent any conception.

Science has proved that fertilization can occur within 3 days and at the point of fertilization, a zygote is created which is a new individual and a living being. It is after the zygote has been formed that some female contraceptives work to terminate the new life already created and that is pure murder…no more, no less! There are no safe sins.

The worldly concepts of safe sex which is a deception and encourages sexual irresponsibility and murder in some cases should be discouraged. Some governments have progressed from promoting safe sex through contraceptives to legalizing abortions. One sin always leads to another worse sin.

If it is a sacrilege to spill one’s semen on the floor, is it not also a sacrilege to spill one’s semen into the mouth of a woman, known as oral sex and a product of a sick mind?

If it is a sacrilege to spill one’s semen on the floor, is it not also a sacrilege to spill one’s semen into the anus of another, known as anal sex and an indication of a sick head and a reprobate?

If it is a sacrilege to spill sacred semen on the floor, does that not make masturbation or self-sex and other sexual perversions abominable sexual practices which indicate depravity?

Recently online was a discussion about an unmarried woman who became pregnant through an anonymous semen donor and was suspended by her church. Questions were asked whether the church was right or wrong.

In God’s Word, marriage is the institution ordained for procreation. Marriage comes first before sexual intercourse and pregnancy. Therefore, pregnancy without marriage or pregnancy before marriage is an aberration. Where an unmarried woman becomes pregnant without lawful marriage, it is known as fornication and an unlawful conception.

Where an unmarried woman becomes pregnant through an anonymous semen donor, it is an abnormal conception. The IVF technology is not condemned here. The IVF technology is one of the many modern day inventions that resulted from the increase in knowledge and travels predicted in Daniel 12:4.

The IVF technology enhances conception in a woman who cannot conceive naturally through sex by fertilizing the woman’s egg with the man’s semen outside her body and planting it in her womb to grow to maturity. But the semen that was used for the fertilization must belong to a man whom she was lawfully married to. Where this is not so, that is an abnormal process contrary to the Word of God.

If she was married but became pregnant through anonymous semen donor, it is still an abnormality if the semen that was used for the fertilization did not belong to her lawful husband.If one’s wife is impregnated by another man’s semen through normal sexual intercourse between her and the other man, is that not an adulterous conception? Would any sensible lawful husband accept that?

Where an unmarried woman who is a member of a church appears with a pregnancy through an anonymous semen donor and without lawful marriage to the owner of the semen, it is an aberration the church must not accept.

To accept it is to encourage a dangerous trend where women bypass marriage and become mothers through some abominable process of conception. We are in the Last Days where women want to have nothing to do with the institution of marriage yet want to have children without a known father claiming paternity.

Women do not want to recognize the headship of a husband and do not want to submit to the authority of the husband and become a good wife. Women are becoming rebellious and headstrong and are becoming mothers without formal marriage calling themselves Single Mothers...another aberration!

It is not all the modern day inventions that are beneficial to man and not all that conform to the will of God for man. Some are useful and beneficial to God and man while some are destructive and work against the will of God for man.

For example, a technology which encourages the termination and abortion of pregnancies already formed in the womb negates the will of God for man to multiply and replenish the earth.

Ayodele Adegbukugbe
Lagos, Nigeria.