You are currently browsing the daily archive for December 10, 2007.
I first read this sermon Saturday December 8th and I just watched it on youtube Sunday. If you have ever wondered why preachers are predicting judgment on America, because you believe we are a Christian country, watch or listen to this. This man is preaching the “hard to take truth”…..get a cup of coffee, sit and listen… it is 58 minutes. This 58 minutes may change your life forever.
http://www.heartcrymissionary.com/ | www.sermonaudio.com/gcc
SHOCKING YOUTH MESSAGE STUNS HEARERS ––SO SHOCKING AND BIBLICAL THE PREACHER WAS NEVER INVITED BACK
Matthew 7:13-27
Paul Washer
It’s a tremendous privilege for me to be here this afternoon with you. Before we begin with any further speaking, I would also like to go to the Lord in prayer. I would ask you to pray. There is so much going on here this afternoon, so much that you don’t understand, but I’ll tell you where I’m coming from. I’ll preach as a dying man to dying men and women and youth. I’ll preach as though I will never preach again, and I will tell you things that you will misunderstand. I will tell you things that make you so angry with me, and I’ll tell you things that you will deny. And I will tell you things and you will say I have no right to tell you what I’m telling you. But before you come to any conclusion about what is being said here this afternoon, you ask yourself one question.
You see, preaching is a very dangerous thing. It’s dangerous for me because the Bible says that false teachers will undergo greater condemnation. If what I tell you today is not true, I’m in a great deal of trouble and have every right to do this with fear and trembling, because I will stand condemned before God. But if what I tell you today is true, then you’re the one with cause for fear and trembling, because if I correctly interpret this passage of Scripture that I’m going to give you, it is as though God was speaking through a man. Your problem will not be with me; it will be with God and His Word. So, the only question that has to be decided here this afternoon is––Is this man before us a false prophet? Or is he telling us the truth? And if he is telling us the truth, then nothing else matters except conforming our lives to that truth.
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
Father . . .Father, I am so small and so pitiful, Father, in so many ways. You know, Lord, You
know, though dear God, should false fire be the only thing ever placed on Your altar, or could
fire come down from Heaven amidst all the noise and the clamor and the activities . . . could fire
come down from Heaven and these dead bones live, You know me. In Your sovereignty, I pray
and I beg before the throne of God that You would be gracious to us, that You would open up
hearts and minds. Lord, we can’t wait for them to open theirs; they never will. Open up their
hearts and minds and cause them to see biblical truth. Breathe on them. Grant them repentance.
Grant them faith. Bring them into Your Kingdom, Lord, for Your own glory, for the sake of
Your own great name, do this thing, Lord. As the brother said, let it be so, Lord, so that no man
will take credit for it, so that no man will lay his hand to the ark of God and, if he did, that You
would strike him down dead, Lord. Oh, God, move among us, please, because we have no other
hope. We have no other hope. These children have no other hope except that You move.
Amen.
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I’ll be teaching from Matthew chapter 7. If you have your Bibles, follow with me. In Matthew
chapter 7, verse 13, Jesus said:
Enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad
that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the
gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who
find it.
Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but
inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes
are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? So every
good tree bears good fruit, but every bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree
cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree
that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then,
you will know them by their fruits.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of
heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.
Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your
name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many
miracles. Then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you
who practice lawlessness. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of
mine and acts upon them may be compared to a wise man who builds his
house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew
and slammed against that house and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded
upon the rock.
Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be
like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand. The rain fell and the
floods came and winds blew and slammed against the house and it fell, and
great was its fall.
I stand here today . . . I’m not troubled in my heart about your self-esteem. I’m not troubled in
my heart about whether or not you feel good about yourself, whether or not life is turning out
like you want it to turn out, or whether or not your checkbook is balanced. There’s only one
thing that gave me a sleepless night. There’s only one thing that troubled me all throughout the
morning, and this is this. Within a hundred years, a great majority of people in this building will
possibly be in hell. And many who even profess Jesus Christ as Lord will spend an eternity in
hell.
You say, Pastor, how can you say such a thing? I can say such a thing because I don’t do my
Christian work in America. I spend most of my time preaching in South America, in Africa, and
Eastern Europe. And I want you to know that, when you take a look at American Christianity, it
is based more upon a godless culture than it is upon the Word of God. And so many people are
deceived, and so many youth are deceived, and so many adults are deceived into believing that,
because they prayed a prayer one time in their life, they’re going to Heaven. And then, when
they look around at others who profess to know Christ and see those people also just as worldly
as the world, and they compare themselves by themselves, nothing troubles their heart. They
think, well, I’m the same as most in my youth group. I watch things I shouldn’t watch on
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television and laugh about the very things that God hates. I wear clothing that is sensual. I talk
like the world. I walk like the world. I love the music of the world. I love so much that’s in the
world, but bless God, I am a Christian. Why am I a Christian? I don’t look any different than
most of the other people in my church. Why am I a Christian? Because there was a time in my
life when I prayed and asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart.
I want you to know that the greatest heresy in the American evangelical and protestant church is
that, if you pray and ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart, He will definitely come in. You
will not find that in any place in Scripture. You will not find that anywhere in Baptist history
until about 50 years ago. What you need to know is that salvation is by faith and faith alone in
Jesus Christ. And faith alone in Jesus Christ is preceded and followed by repentance . . . a
turning away from sin, a hatred for the things that God hates and a love for the things that God
loves, a growing in holiness and a desire not to be like Britney Spears, not to be like the world,
and not to be like the great majority of American Christians, but to be like Jesus Christ! [Theaudience then erupts in applause].
I don’t know why you’re clapping. I’m talking about you. I didn’t come here to get amens. I
didn’t come here to be applauded. I’m talking about you.
People so many times come up to me and say, “Oh, I’d love to follow you into Romania”; “I’d
love to follow you into the Ukraine”; “I’d love to preach where you preached and planted
churches in Peru in the jungle.”
And I tell them, “No, you wouldn’t.”
They say, “Yes, I would.”
I say, “No, you wouldn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because you’d be excommunicated from the church down there.”
What we need to see . . . I’m not trying to be hard for the sake of being hard. Do you realize how
much love it takes to stand before 5,000 people and tell them that American Christianity is
almost totally wrong? Do you know what it’s going to cost me to never be asked back again to
something like this? To be unpopular? Do you know why you do it? You don’t do it because
you get paid well. You don’t do it because men love you. You do it because you love men and
because, more than that, you want to honor God.
I want to tell you something. We’re going to go into Scripture, and I want you to look at it as it
really is. It’s not comparing yourself with others who call themselves Christians. Compare
yourself to the Scripture. When someone, a young person, comes to a pastor or a youth minister
and says, “I’m not sure whether or not I’m saved,” the youth minister will usually throw out a
cliché: “Well, was there ever a time in your life when you prayed and asked Jesus to come into
your heart?”
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“Well, yes.”
“Were you sincere?”
“Well, I don’t know, but I think so.”
“Well, you need to tell Satan to stop bothering you. Did you write it in the back of your book . . .
the back of your Bible like the evangelist told you when you got saved, write down the date so
that any time you doubted you could point him to the Bible?”
What superstition has overcome our denomination? Do you know what the Bible tells Christians
to do? Examine yourself. Test yourself in light of Scripture to see if you are in the faith. Test
yourself to see if you’re a Christian.
Do you realize if I dismissed us right now and told everyone to go knock on every door in this
city, do you know what we would find out? Ninety-nine percent of the people, at least, in this
city believe themselves to be believers. If you go back to your hometown and knock on every
door . . . because I went back to my hometown after I got saved and knocked on every door, and
you know what I found out? Everyone in my town is a Christian. Eighty-five percent of them
do not go to church, and those who do go to church are not concerned about holiness. They’re
not concerned about serving. They’re not concerned about being separate from the world.
They’re not concerned about the Gospel being preached among the nations. But, bless God,
they’re saved.
Why are they saved? Because some evangelist who should have spent less time preaching and
more time studying his Bible told them they were saved, and he did it so he could brag about
how many came forward in his next revival.
I love you, and there are men here who love you. And I want to go into Scripture now, now that
I’ve shocked you into light. I want you to listen to me. Listen to the Word of God and begin to
ask yourself some questions. First of all, Enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide andthe way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. There is a
narrow gate.
And you know, historically–one of the reasons I’m a Southern Baptist is that the Southern
Baptists have always been quick–when other denominations have failed to realize this–the
Southern Baptists have always been quick to realize that there is one gate; there is one God; there
is one mediator between God and man; and His name is Jesus Christ. It’s not multiple choice.
Not every road leads to Rome. As a denomination, we have always told people what Jesus told
people: I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.
So, I praise God for that, that the only way any human being on this earth will ever be saved is
through Jesus Christ, and that is all. Because you need to realize the Bible says, For all havesinned and come short of the glory of God, and you have no idea what that means, that we were
born radically depraved and God hating, that we would have never sought God, never come to
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God. We have rebelled against God, broken every law. It’s not just an issue that you have
sinned. The issue is you’ve never done anything but sinned. The Bible says in the prophets that
even our greatest works are like filthy rags before God. And because of that, you know what we
deserve? The wrath of God. The holy hatred of God.
You say, “Now, wait a minute. God doesn’t hate anybody. God is love.” No, my friend. You
need to understand something. Jesus Christ taught, the prophets taught, the apostles taught this
-that apart from the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord, the only thing left for you
is the wrath, the fierce anger of God because of your rebellion and your sin.
When I speak in universities, they’re always quick to point out, “No, God cannot hate because
God is love.” And I tell you God must hate because God is love. You see, I love children;
therefore, I hate abortion. If I love that which is holy, I must hate that which is unholy. God is a
holy God. That’s something that the Americans have forgotten. Many of the things that you
love to do, God hates. Did you know that?
Pray for revival. You’re going to have a youth meeting; you want God to move, but before you
go there you watch programs on television that God absolutely despises. And then you wonder
why the Holy Spirit hasn’t fallen on a place and why you have to create false fire and false
excitement. Because God’s not in it. God is a holy God and the only way you and I could ever
be reconciled to a holy God is through the death of God’s own Son when He hung on that tree.
Now listen to me, if you’re saved here tonight, you’re not saved because the Romans and Jews
rejected Jesus. You’re not saved because they put a crown of thorns on His head. You’re not
saved because they ran a spear through His side, and you’re not saved even because they nailed
Him to a cross. Do you know why you’re saved if you are saved? Because when Jesus Christ
was hanging on that cross, He bore your sin. The sin of God’s people and all the fierce wrath of
God that should fall upon you fell upon His only begotten Son. Someone had to pay that price.
Someone had to die. It was God the Father who crushed His only begotten Son. According to
Isaiah 53, it says, It pleased Yahweh to crush Him.
People say the cross is a sign of how much man is worth. That’s not true. The cross is a sign of
how depraved we really are, that it took the death of God’s own Son. The only thing that could
save a people like us was the death of God’s own Son under the wrath of His own Father paying
the price, rising again from the dead. Powerful to say, this is the Gospel of Jesus.
Now what are you called upon to do? You say you go through the narrow gate. How do you do
that? Jesus said, The time is fulfilled. The Kingdom of God is at hand. What must you do? In
Mark, He tells us . . . repent and believe the Gospel.
You say, “Brother Paul, I got saved by praying and asking Jesus Christ into my heart.” And I’m
sure you did, but you weren’t saved by a magic formula or some words you repeated after
someone else. You were saved because you repented of your sins and you believed, and not only
did you do that in the past, you continued to do it even until now, because when Jesus . . . a
proper translation of that verse He gave is this: The Kingdom of God is come. The time isfulfilled. Now, spend the rest of your lives repenting of your sins and believing in Me.
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Conversion is not like a flu shot. “Oh, I did that. I repented. I believed.” The question is my
friend–are you continuing to repent of sin? Are you continuing to believe? Because He who
began a good work in you will finish it. He will finish it.
Now, we as Southern Baptists preach that you’re supposed to go through that one and only gate
which is Jesus Christ. But we as Southern Baptists have forgotten something. And I want youth
ministers and pastors and everyone to listen to me, parents, we have forgotten a very important
teaching in the Gospel. It says that, not only the gate is narrow, it says the path is narrow. What
we basically do is lead someone to Christ, lead someone in a prayer and then they spend the rest
of their life living just like the world, and if you deny me on this, I can bring the statistics to
prove you wrong. Gallup poll, Barnard polls, every kind of poll you can possibly look at, when
it questions the morality of the church in America against the morality of those who claim to be
lost in America, the polls find no difference. Now that is statistics. It has nothing to do with
religious interpretation. Those are statistics.
Book after book is being churned out by theologian and philosopher and sociologist alike. What
has happened to the church? We find out that abortion in the church is just as prevalent as
outside in the world. We find that divorce is just as prevalent. We find that immorality . . . you
know as well as I do, there are youth here right now who are practicing immorality and yet
worshiping God in the same breath. You know there are youth here that are doing drugs and yet
coming to youth group. You know, watching and doing things that are not appropriate for a
Christian, and yet they’re coming to the youth group, believing themselves satisfied, believing
themselves saved, and no one is saying anything except this: They’re carnal Christians. They’re
really Christians; they’re just carnal. That was a doctrine that started in a Baptist seminary, that
is not a Southern Baptist seminary, several decades ago. It is not biblical and it is not historical.
My dear friend, there is no such thing as a carnal Christian.
You say, “Now, wait a minute, Brother Paul. First Corinthians chapter 3, Are ye not carnal.
Paul said that.”
No, that’s what Paul said. You need to read the whole book to find out what he meant. You see,
one of our problems, youth, listen to me . . . most of our Christianity is based on clichés that we
read on the back of Christian tee shirts. Most of our Christianity comes from songwriters and not
the Bible. Most of what we believe is dictated to us through our culture and not by the Bible.
The Bible never teaches that a person can be a genuine Christian and live in continuous carnality
and wickedness and sin all the days of their life. But the Bible teaches that the genuine Christian
has been given a new nature. The genuine Christian has a Father who loves them and disciplines
them and watches over them and cares for them.
My heart is breaking because you know as well as I do, young people, let’s not be hypocrites
about it. Let’s not hide it. There are so many. You know them. You might be one of them, or
you at least know that they’re in your youth group. They come to youth group. They do all this
stuff, but in their heart, they’re as wicked as wicked can be. There is no difference. There is no
light. Everything that the world does, they do, and it’s appropriate; it’s okay. My friend, that’s
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not Christianity. They’re not in danger of losing their reward. They’re in danger of hell. They
know not God.
What don’t we teach? When was the last time you heard someone say there’s not only a narrow
gate into Heaven but a narrow way? Jesus indicates that one of the principal signs of being a
genuine Christian is that you walk in the narrow way. Do you know what the sign for being a
genuine Christian in America is? You prayed a prayer one time. Isn’t that amazing? What are
you asked if you doubt your salvation? Did you pray a prayer one time? What does Scripture
teach? Examine yourselves. Test yourselves in the light of Scripture to see if you’re in the path,
because a Christian will be different.
Now, am I saying that a Christian is without sin? No, because, in First John, we learn that
Christians do sin, and if any man does not acknowledge his sin, he knows not God. He’s not
walking in the light? So what is the difference? What am I really getting at? What I am getting
at is this. If you are genuinely a born-again Christian, a child of God, you will walk in the way
of righteousness as a style of life. And if you step off that path of righteousness, the Father will
come for you. He will discipline you. He will put you back on that path. But if you profess to
have gone through the narrow gate, but yet you live in the broad way, just like all the other
people in your high school, just like all the other people who are carnal and wicked, the Bible
wants you to know that you should be terribly, terribly afraid because you know not God.
I fear men who have spent most of their life telling other men that they are saved. I fear you if
you’ve done that. You don’t tell men they are saved; you tell men how to be saved. God tells
them they are saved. What we have forgotten to believe is that salvation is a supernatural work
of God, and those who have genuinely been converted, regenerated by the power of the Holy
Spirit is going to be a new creature. The Bible says, If any man be in Christ, he is a newcreature. So we find out here in Scripture that there is a narrow gate and a narrow way.
We go into verse 15. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardlyare ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. One of the things you need to realize is
this–something a wise man told me a long time ago. He said, “Paul, your best friend is the one
who tells you the most truth.” In America, we have become so thin-skinned that no one can
rebuke us. No one can tell us we are wrong. And ministers and leaders alike have bought into
this lie. We do not want to offend. We want to be seeker friendly. What you need to realize is
there is only one seeker and His name is God, and if you want to be friendly to someone in your
church, you need to be friendly to God. And you need to be more concerned for the glory of
God than you are for the attitudes of men. But another thing you need to realize is the person
who loves you the most will tell you the most truth.
One of the greatest distinguishing marks of a false prophet is that he will always tell you what
you want to hear. He will never rain on your parade. He will get you clapping. He will get you
jumping. He will make you dizzy. He will keep you entertained, and he will present a
Christianity to you that will make your church look like a Six Flags over Jesus and keep you so
entertained you are never addressed with great issues such as these. Is God working in my life?
Am I growing in holiness? Have I truly been born again?
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Listen to me. If everyone in this town believes themselves saved, and we know that’s not true by
Scripture because the Bible says that few will enter in, how do you know that you’re saved?
How do you truly know that you are saved? Because someone told you? Because you prayed a
prayer? Because you believed? Well, let me ask you a question. How do you know you
believed? Because everybody says they believe. How do you know you’re not like them? Do
you know how the Bible teaches you that you know you are saved? Do you know how Baptist
theology, up until about 50 years ago, would have told you how you know you have been saved?
You know you have been saved because your life is in the process of being changed, and your
style of life is one of walking in the paths of God’s truth.
And when you step off those paths in disobedience, as we all do, God comes for you and puts
you back on the path. One of the greatest evidences that you have truly been born again is that
God will not let you talk as your flesh might want to talk. God will not let you dress as the
sensual world and the sensual church allows you to dress. God will not allow you to act like the
world, smell like the world, speak like the world, listen to the things that the world listens to.
God will make a difference in your life.
He says here, as we go on, verse 16: You will know them by their fruits. How will you know a
false prophet? In the wider application here and all of Scripture, how will you know if someone
is a genuine Christian? By their fruit. By their fruit, my dear friend. Look at your life. Look at
the way you walk. Look at the way you talk. Look at the passions of your heart. Is Jesus in
there somewhere? Or is He just some accessory that you add on to your life? Is He just
something that you do on Wednesday or Sunday? Is He something that you give a mental assent
to? Is He an accessory or is He the very center of your life? And what is the fruit that you’re
bearing? Do you look like the world? Act like the world? Do you have and experience the
same joys that the world experiences? Can you love sin and relish it? Can you love rebellion
and relish it? Then you know not God. You will know them by their fruit. God has the power
to change them.
Let’s imagine for a moment Jesus teaching this passage, and you’re sitting out there listening.
And He looks at you. He says, “Thistles, thistles. Do you find thistles on fig trees?”
And you respond, “Of course not, Jesus. I mean, you’re not an agriculturalist; you’re not a
farmer. I mean, you’re a carpenter. But everybody knows, Jesus, you don’t find thorns on fig
trees.”
“Well, then, let me ask you another question. Do you find figs–good fruit–on thorn trees?”
“Why, no, Jesus. That’s absolutely ludicrous. I mean, you’re never gonna find thorns on a fig
tree, and you’re not gonna find figs on a thorn tree, Jesus. To say that could be
possible–anyone who tells you that, Jesus, you can mark it down . . . they’re either crazy or
they’re a liar.”
And then Jesus responds to you. “Well then, those who call themselves my disciples and bear
bad fruit, would not it be the same to say that they were either lying or out of their mind to make
such a statement?”
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Let me take it a little further. Let’s imagine that I show up late and I run up here on the platform,
and all the leaders are angry with me and say, “Brother Paul, don’t you appreciate the fact you’re
given an opportunity to speak here and you come late?”
And I’d say, “Brothers, you have to forgive me.”
“Well, why?”
“Well, I was out here on the highway, and I was driving and I had a flat tire and I got out to
change the tire, and when I was changing the tire, the lug nut fell off, and I wasn’t paying
attention that I was on the highway and I ran out and I grabbed the lug nut, and as soon as I
picked it up in the middle of the highway, I stood up and there was a 30-ton logging truck going
120 miles an hour about ten yards in front of me, and it ran me over and that’s why I’m late.”
Now, there would only be two . . . I know no one studies logic anymore, but there would only be
two logical conclusions. One, I’m a liar or, two, I’m a madman. You would say, “Brother Paul,
it’s absolutely absurd. It is impossible, Brother Paul, to have an encounter with something as
large as a logging truck and not be changed.”
And then my question would be to you–What is larger? A logging truck or God? How is it that
so many people today profess to have had an encounter with Jesus Christ, and, yet, they are not
permanently changed? Let me give you a few things to think about. You know I’m telling you
the truth. How many times do you go and rededicate your life over and over and over again?
How many times do youth groups go to things like this and get fired up and go back to the
church, and it lasts about a week and a half? And yet, “Oh, it was a great move of God.” No, it
wasn’t. If it doesn’t last, it wasn’t a great move of God. It was emotion. It was so many things,
but it wasn’t a great move of God. Has God worked in your life? Is God working in your life?
You will know them by their fruit. You will know them by their fruit.
Now, we go on, verse 19: Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown intothe fire so you will know them by their fruit. Look at this. You need to understand something
about Hebrew literature. When you and I want to emphasize something, do you know what we
do? We raise our voice. If we’re writing, we put it in bold letters, or we capitalize it. But to a
Jew, it’s different. When he wants to emphasize something, he repeats it and he repeats it.
That’s why you find Hebrew parallelisms in the Book of Proverbs. The wicked shall not live inthe land. The wicked shall be destroyed. He’s saying the same thing, just in a different way to
give greater emphasis. That’s what Jesus is doing over and over again here. You will know themby their fruit. You will know them by their fruit. You will know them by the path that they walk
in. You will know them by their fruit. You will know them by their fruit. And He says, Anyonewho does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. What is He talking about?
My dear friend, He is talking about the judgment of Almighty God that will one day fall upon the
world, that will one day fall possibly upon you.
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Oh dear friend, I cannot look into your heart. I am so easily deceived by my own heart, but there
is One who is not deceived. There is One who is not deceived, and He is not deceived by a
contemporary Christian culture. He knows. You will know them by their fruit.
And He goes on and He says this, verse 21: Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enterthe kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter. Do
you know what your profession of faith in Jesus Christ is worth? Absolutely nothing. Yes. Did
you read that passage? Study it. Not everyone who comes to me and says, Lord, Lord . . . noteveryone who professes, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven. There are many
people who are going to profess, “Lord, Lord,” but they are not going to enter into the kingdom
of heaven. My dear precious child, are you one of them? “Lord, Lord.”
Now, again, let’s go back to Hebrew literature. He said, Lord, Lord. He didn’t say, Lord. What
does that mean? This fellow who is making this profession, he is not someone who just all of a
sudden decided, “It’s judgment and I better profess Him to be Lord.” This is a person who
emphatically declares to other people that Jesus Christ is Lord. He walks around saying, “Lord.”
He dances up in front while the musicians are playing, saying, “Lord.” He sings the songs,
“Lord.” But Jesus said to him, Depart from me. I never knew you.
Do you know, Billy Graham is one of the kindest, lovingest men; yet, Billy Graham has said he
believed that a great majority of people who attend Bible-believing churches are lost. He said
that he would be happy if even five percent of all the people who made professions of faith in his
campaigns are even saved.
When I’m in Nigeria . . . I was there last year visiting a mother whose son was in our church and
was martyred by the Muslims. In Northern Nigeria, when someone professes faith in Jesus
Christ, you pretty much know they can die because of that profession. But in America, oh,
consider the cost. Think. Examine your life in light of Scripture. Do you know the Lord? Do
you know the Lord? Because not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the
kingdom of Heaven, but what does it say here? Look what it says. Not everyone who says tome, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is
in heaven.
What is the sign that someone has become a genuine Christian? I wish that we would start
teaching this again. What happened to our theology? What happened to our doctrine? What
happened to our teaching? It went right out the window. No one wants to study doctrine
anymore. They just want to listen to songs and read the back of Christian tee shirts. What
happened to truth? Truth tells you this. The evidence–the way that you can have assurance that
you are genuinely a born-again Christian–is that you do, as a style of life, the will of the Father.
You say, “Oh, you’re talking about works.” No, I’m not. I’m talking about evidence of faith,
and it goes like this. Your profession of faith is no proof that you’re born again because
everybody in this whole country professes faith in Jesus Christ. Barnard tells us that 65 to 70
percent of all Americans are saved, born-again Christians. The most Godless country on the face
of the earth. Kill 4,000 babies a day but, bless God, 70 percent of us are born again. How do
you know that the faith you have is not false? A style of life that is concerned about doing the
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will of the Father, that practices the will of the Father, and when you disobey the will of the
Father, the Holy Spirit comes and reprimands you either personally through the written Word of
God or through a brother or sister in Christ, and God puts you back on the path again. If you’re a
genuine Christian, you cannot escape Him.
Let me give you an example. If I was your pastor and you were, let’s say, 14 years old and I
came back from preaching at one o’clock in the morning and I saw you standing out there in a
park or on a corner with a bunch of hoodlums, doing things you shouldn’t be doing and you’re a
member of our church, I would tell you, “Get in the car.” I would take you home to your father.
I wouldn’t be mad at you. I’d be mad at your father. I would tell him, “Sir, you are a derelict
father that you would allow your child to be out in such circumstances.”
I want you to know something. God is not a derelict father. If you can play around in sin, if you
can love the world and love the things of the world, if you can always be involved in the world
and doing things of the world, if your heroes are worldly people, if you want to look like them
and act like them, if you practice the same things they practice, oh my dear friend, listen to my
voice. There’s a good chance you know not God, and you do not belong to him.
Now, we bring this to a close, verse 22: Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we notprophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many
miracles. Then I will declare to them, I never knew you.
You say the most important thing on the face of the earth is to know Jesus Christ. That is not
true. The most important thing on the face of the earth is that Jesus Christ knows you. I’m not
going to get into the White House tomorrow because I walk up to the gate and tell everybody I
know George Bush, but they will let me in if George Bush comes out and says, “I know Paul
Washer.”
You can profess to know Jesus, but my question for you . . . do you know Jesus? Does Jesus
know you? And look how he describes the lost man here. He said, Depart from me you whopractice lawlessness. In Greek, anomia–a negative particle, a, “not”; word nomos, “law”–“no
law.” And this is what it means. Let me give you an accurate translation of this. Depart fromme–Listen to me, if I could come out there and hug you while I was telling you this, I would.
Listen to me. He says, Depart from me those of you who claim to be my disciples who confessedme as Lord and, yet, you live as though I never gave you a law to obey.
I just described a great majority of North American Christianity. If anyone starts talking about
law, if anyone starts talking about Biblical principles on what we’re supposed to do and not
supposed to do, how we’re to live and not supposed to live, everyone starts screaming,
“Legalist.” But Jesus said, Depart from me those of you who live–you called me Lord, but youlived as though I had never given a law.
In American Christianity today, pass through the gate. Praise God. Live like the rest of the
world and it’s okay. You’re just carnal. Maybe one day you’ll come back. Do you know what
happens because of our bad evangelism? We have gazillions of children saved in vacation Bible
school, and when they hit 15 years old, they enter into the world and live like demons, a great
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majority of them. And then when they’re around 30, they come back and rededicate their life.
Maybe they just got saved. Because, folks, it’s more than just telling someone you’re saved
because you acknowledged that Jesus is Lord. Satan acknowledges that Jesus is Lord. Is your
life in a process of change?
And then He drops down and He talks about two people–two foundations. Do you know what
this passage in contemporary . . . See it’s important to study theology and it’s important to study
history. The contemporary interpretation of this passage about the rock and the sand is basically
like this. If you’re a Christian, you need to build your life upon the rock because, if you build
your life upon the sand, you’ll be an unhappy Christian and your life won’t go right. That is not
what Jesus is teaching and history backs me up on it. It was hardly ever interpreted that way.
Do you know what the interpretation is? It goes like this.
There are two ways. There’s a narrow way and a broad way. Which one are you on? There are
two types of trees. There is a good tree that bears good fruit, and it’s going to Heaven. There’s a
bad tree and you know it’s bad because it bears bad fruit, and it’s going to hell. It’s going to be
cut down and thrown into the fire. There are those who profess Jesus is Lord and they do the
will of the Father who is in heaven, and there are those who profess Jesus Christ is Lord and they
do not do the will of the Father who is in heaven, and they go to hell–not because of a lack of
works, but because of a lack of faith demonstrated by the fact that they had no works.
And then he goes on. He says, not two Christians building their house on two different
foundations. No. This is a saved man and a lost man. The lost man hears the Word of God
preached but he lays no foundation. You cannot see in any way in his life how the Word of God
is forming and building and sustaining his life. His life is not–how many people in the
Southern Baptist Convention, regardless of all our numbers, regardless of everything we say, if
we were to simply take this passage and compare the people to this passage and say–Are you
building your marriage on the Word of God? Are you raising your children on the Word of
God? Are you doing your finances on the Word of God? Are you living, separating yourself
from the things of this world based upon the Word of God? How many would be able to answer
positively?
No, none of that. “I profess Jesus. He’s my Savior. My Sunday school teacher told me so.” Oh.
I know, like Leonard Ravenhill, an acquaintance of mine before he passed on, used to say, “I
preach in a lot of Baptist churches once.” I preach in a lot of places like this once. I could have
got up here today with a vocabulary that would have astounded you and preached you things that
would have lifted you up and floated you around this room. I could have told you stories that
would have made you laugh and stories about dogs and grandmas that would have made you cry,
but I love you too much for that. I know . . . I know, because the Word of God is true, that there
are people who believe themselves to be saved and they are no more saved. They’re not.
I know that there are some of you who look around and you think, “Well, I’m saved. I mean,
look, I look like everybody else in my youth group.” What makes you think your youth group is
saved? “Well, I’m like my parents”; or, “I’m like the adults in my church or the deacon or the
pastor.” What does that matter? You won’t be judged by them on the day of His coming. My
question for you, beloved, my question for you, little child–I mean, you could be my children,
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and I pray someday when my little boy grows that there will be a preacher who will stand before
him and say, “Enough of this!”
Let’s get down. What does the Word of God say? How does your life stand in front of that
blazing fire which is the holiness of God on that final day? Beloved, precious little girl, beloved,
precious young man, on that final day will your confession hold true? Are you saved? And I’m
not talking about, “Well, I think I’m saved.” You know, there’s a way that seems right unto aman, but it leads unto death.
“Well, I feel in my heart of my hearts that I’m saved.” Well, let me ask you a question. Did you
ever read that the heart is deceitfully wicked; who can know it? Shouldn’t you go to the
testimony of Scripture?
“Well, I know I’m saved because my mom, my dad, my pastor, everybody else told me I was
saved.” Well, I’m telling you this. What does the Word of God tell you?
We talk so much about being radical Christians. Radical Christians are not people who jump at
concerts. Radical Christians are not people who wear Christian tee shirts. Radical Christians are
those who bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Radical Christians are those who reverence and
honor their parents even when they feel like their parents are wrong. Radical Christians are
those who do not–now listen to me. This is going to make you mad, and I’m talking to boys
and girls. Radical Christians are those who do not dress sensually in order to show off their
bodies. If your clothing is a frame for your face, God is pleased with your clothing. If your
clothing is a frame for your body, it’s sensual and God hates what you’re doing. Everybody
wants to talk about a prophet, but no one wants to listen to one.
I’m talking about Christianity. I have spent my life in jungles. I have spent my life freezing in
the Andes Mountains. I have seen people die. A little boy, Andrew Myman [phonetic], the
Muslims shot him five times through the stomach and left him on a sidewalk simply because he
cried out, “I am so afraid but I cannot deny Jesus Christ. Please don’t kill me, but I will not deny
Him.” And he died in a pool of blood. And you talk about being a radical Christian because you
wear a tee shirt, because you go to a conference. I’m talking about holiness. I’m talking about
Godliness.
I wish–you know what a move of God would be in this place? If all of you came under
conviction, if I myself came under conviction of the Holy Spirit, we fell down on our faces and
wept because we watch the things that God hates, because we wear the things that God hates,
because we act like the world, look like the world, smell like the world, because we do the very
things, and we know not that we do these things, because we do not know the Word of God.
Because, even though we claim as a denomination that the Scripture is the infallible Word of
God, basically all we get is illustrations, stories, and quaint little novels. Oh, that God will glow
on this place, that we would turn away from our sin, that we would renounce the things that are
displeasing to God, and, then, that we would run to Him and we would relish Him and we would
love Him.
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Oh, that God would raise up missionaries. I don’t wish the same things your parents want for
you. They want for you security and insurance and nice homes. They want for you cars and
respect. I want for you the same thing I want for my son, that one day he takes a banner, the
banner of Jesus Christ, and he places it on a hill where no one has ever placed a banner before,
and he cries out, “Jesus Christ is Lord,” even if it costs my son his life. Oh, when he’s 18 years
old, if he says to me the same thing I said when I was a young man, “I’m going into the
mountains. I’m going into the jungle.” And they said, “You can’t go there. You’re insane. It’s
a war. You’re gonna die.” I’m going. When that little boy puts on that backpack, I’m going to
pray over him and say, “Go! God be with you, and if you die, my son, I’ll see you over there and
I’ll honor your death.”
Oh, God, let’s pray, let’s pray.
Oh, God, I don’t care about reputation. I don’t care what men think. I want You to be honored.
I want these young people to be saved. I want those that are saved to stop looking around at a
cultural Christianity that You hate and will spew out of Your mouth, and that they will look at
the Word of God and say, “I will follow Jesus.”
Oh, God, I pray for youth ministers and pastors and I pray that You’d fill them with the spirit of
wisdom and love and boldness and discernment. And dear God, whatever the cost, I pray that
you will raise up missionaries. I can’t help but look at these kids and think of my own little boy.
Oh, God, that You would save Ian and that You would raise him up and send him into the worst
part of the battle. Oh, dear God, raise up missionaries here. Raise up missionaries. Raise up
preachers and pastors and reachers and evangelists that know the Word of God. Oh, God, work
in this place, please work in this place, dear God. Please. Please. Please. Please.
Now with every head bowed, is there anyone here tonight that would say, “Brother Paul, I have
been living a lie. I claim to be a Christian but I love the world, and I look like it and smell like it
and I hate myself for it, and, Brother Paul, I am so tired of this Christianity that I’m living. I’m
just sick of it. I’m just sick of it. I want to be saved. I want to be saved.” I just want you to
stand up. “Brother Paul, I want to be saved.” Amen. Is there anyone else? Amen. Amen.
In a moment, we’re going to have an invitation. Those of you who stood up–I’m going to come
down here and I want you to meet with me. I want to talk to you. Now, you may be seated,
thank you.
Now, I want to talk to those of you who claim to be Christians. Does your life honor Jesus
Christ? Are you looking in His Word to find out how you’re supposed to live? I pray with all
my heart, the only thing that’s going to save the church in America, there’s only two
possibilities. One is a total reformation in our preaching and our study of the Word of God, and
the other is fierce, horrifying persecution. That’s the only thing that’s going to save the church
in America. Oh, I pray, I pray that you would return to the Word. I pray–listen to me, young
person. You need to know. You need to say, “Okay, how am I supposed to live before my
parents?” Go into the Word, find out, obey it. “How am I supposed to dress?” Go into the
Word, find out, obey it. “How am I supposed to talk?” “What am I supposed to listen to?”
Bring every thought, word, and deed into subjection to Jesus Christ.
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Now, I’m not going to ask you to stand because I am so tired of people coming forward and
making those commitments, and those commitments last them two minutes. I’m not here so I
can write up in my magazine that a gazillion of you came forward. I want you to go home and I
want you to live for Jesus Christ with all your heart. But if you need counseling, you say,
“Brother Paul, I want to–I want to live for Jesus Christ. I don’t know how. I don’t know how.”
In a minute, we’re going to give an invitation, and I do want you to come forward, not to make a
commitment. You want to make a commitment, you make that commitment right where you’re
seated. If you need to tell somebody, you go tell your pastor. You go tell your youth minister,
and you know what, we’ll know if that commitment lasts. You know how? Because it will last,
we’ll know if it’s from God.
Let me tell you something. For everyone who’s here right now, I want to tell you something. If
you made a decision to follow Jesus Christ, if you made a decision to get saved in these last two
days, I want to tell you something. If it was genuine, it will last. If after a few weeks you go
right back into the world, live like the world, act like the world, I want you to know something,
you didn’t get anything here this weekend. You got emotion, that’s about it. If you really got
something from the Lord, I want you to know something, it will last. And even if you try to run
away from it, you won’t be able to do it. You won’t be able to do it. Oh, I love you so much. I
love you so much.
I would ask that we all stand. If you need counseling about a decision that you have made but
it’s not clear, I want you to come forward. And I’m going to come right down here. Those of
you who stood up–there were many of you over there who say, “I need to know Jesus Christ,” I
want to come down here right now and I want to meet with you, and I want to go back over here
with you and some other counselors and I want to talk to you. And I want to tell you something,
not a five-minute deal, not a ten-minute deal. If you need to talk all night, we will stay. That is
the attitude of every counselor in this place. We will stay all night if necessary, all night. God
love you. God love you. Let me pray for you.
Dear God, please, Lord, there has been so much movement. Last night, Lord, I don’t know how
much of it was real, and I know that I saw people last night weeping. I saw people trying to
make commitments, and I believe that there was a great deal of what happened last night because
of You. I saw this morning a young man preach, Father, give his testimony, and I saw real
working of the Holy Spirit. I don’t know how much of all the decisions were real, but there was
real things going on. I pray right now, Father, I don’t know how much will be real. Only time
and eternity will show us that. But, oh, dear God, please, please, work, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
————————————————————————————————————-
From Contender Ministries this is an excellent response to “A Course in Miracles”. The impact will be great from this book because of Oprah Winfrey’s endorsement. Oprah Winfrey has been an advocate of the New Age Movement which is influencing many women.
We need to have answers for those who are following the “broad path”to destruction.
A BIBLICAL RESPONSE TO A COURSE IN MIRACLES
The Course in Miracles often speaks of Jesus Christ, God, the atonement, sin, and other Christian terms. However, when examined closely, it becomes very clear that the meanings given to these Christian terms are far more consistent with the New Age movement than Christianity or the Bible.
CREATION
Throughout the Course, the world is explained as simply an illusion created by the ego of man. The Bible however, teaches that the ego of man had nothing to do with the creation of the world.
Genesis 1:1 “In the Beginning God created the heaven and the earth”.
John 1:3 “All things were made by Him(Jesus); and without him was not anything made that was made.”
Paul writes in Col 1:16, “For by Him(Jesus), were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth.”
There was a creation for sure, but it was not done by man’s ego. All things were created by God alone.
REVELATION AND “ALL PATHS LEAD TO GOD”
On the topic of revelation, we should first realize that A Course in Miracles consistently contradicts Jesus own words, so it cannot come from the Jesus of the Bible. A Course in Miracles teaches that revelations are completely subjective and do not have to be consistent with another persons revelation or the revelation in the Bible.
A Course in Miracles vol.1, p.5 – “Revelation is intensely personal and cannot be meaningfully translated”
On The Course itself the text states “The Course is but one version of the universal curriculum. There are many others…They all lead to God in the end”
I Thessalonians 5:20-21 tells us “Do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good”. According to the Bible, not all prophecy is necessarily from God and we should test these claims against the Word of God so that we might separate truth from fiction. Jesus also commended the church at Ephesus because “you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false” (Rev. 2:2). If all revelations were equally valid and were all from God, it would make no sense to commend the church for recognizing false apostles. The Bible makes it clear that not all people who claim to speak for God are to be trusted. The Bible also tells us how to recognize these false teachers. If A Course in Miracles were truly from Jesus it would agree with the Bible. Isaiah 8:20 “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn”.
All paths are not truth, and all teachings or beliefs are not to be trusted, especially if they teach that Jesus Christ is not the only one by whom we must be saved.
Luke 13:24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to”
John 10:8-9 “All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.”
THE INERRANT WORD OF GOD
A Course in Miracles makes the claim that the Bible is not without error. Apparently all revelation should be accepted as truth according to the Course, except the Bible. In the Bible’s case, The Course takes the liberty of presenting needed corrections in the scriptures where it suits them.
A Course in Miracles, vol 1 page 28-29
“The statement ‘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’ needs only one slight correction to be meaningful in this context; ‘He gave IT TO His only begotten Son’”.
In order to support their beliefs that Christ was not offered as a living sacrifice to cover our sins (sins they don’t believe exist), they change this verse to mean that God gave Jesus the world instead of God offering His Son to the world as a sacrifice. Since the Course defines the “Son” as each of us, the consequence of this revision is that instead of the world being given Jesus Christ, the world is given to us. They twist this verse further by believing that the “Him” in the verse means ourselves since we are the son’s of God. Instead of, as the Bible teaches, believing that belief in Christ saves us, the Course teaches that belief in oneself saves us.
Volume One page 87 also states that “the Apostles often misunderstood the crucifixion…and out of their own fear they spoke of the ‘wrath of God’ as His retaliatory weapon…These are some of the examples of upside-down thinking in the New Testament…If the Apostles had not felt guilty, they never could have quoted me as saying ‘I come not to bring peace but a sword’. This is clearly the opposite of everything I taught.”
2 Timothy 3:16 says ,”All scripture is God-breathed”, and 1 Thessalonians 2:13 says that preaching of the Bible should be received “not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe” Jesus also said of the Old Testament scriptures that they are “the word of God” (Mk 7:13) that “cannot be broken” (John 10:35). The Course in Miracles refutes the inerrancy of the Bible largely because it does not support their teachings on so many things.
THE DOCTRINE OF GOD
A Course in Miracles teaches the idea of monism (or the belief that all is one), pantheism (the belief that God is in everything), and panentheism (the belief that all are a part of God).
A Course in Miracles, Vol. 2, p.92
“In my own mind, behind all my insane thoughts of separation…is the knowledge that all is one forever. I have not lost the knowledge of who I am because I have forgotten it. It has been kept for me in the Mind of God, Who has not left His thoughts. And I, who am among them, am one with them and one with Him.”
A Course in Miracles, vol. 2, p. 45
“God is in everything I see”
Vol. 1, Page 92
“God is still everywhere and in everything forever. And we are a part of Him”.
Vol. 1, p. 165
“Whenever you question your value, say: ‘God Himself is incomplete without me’”.
Vol. 1, p. 136
“The recognition of God is the recognition of yourself. There is no separation of God and His creation”.
The Bible is clear that God is distinct from His creation. John 4:24 tells us that God is spirit, but we are flesh. Psalms 50:21 tells us that God us unlike man ethically, “You thought I was altogether like you. But I will rebuke you”. God is righteous and holy (Lev. 11:44, 19:2; Isa 6:3) and He distinguishes sin from righteousness.
Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put karkness for light and light for darkness who put better for sweet and sweet for bitter.”
Romans 1 also makes it clear that God is distinct from His creation. He is the Creator and divine in nature while the creation is not.
Romans 1:20-24
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised.”
It is also wrong to think that sin has not created a separation between God and mankind. Isaiah 59:1-2 says “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save. Nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” This is why Christ was sent as a mediator and a ransom to set us free from the sins we have committed so that we can receive our promised inheritance (Hebrews 9:15).
THE NATURE AND DEITY OF JESUS CHRIST
A Course in Miracles teaches that Jesus and those who accept Him are equal.
A Course in Miracles, vol. 1, p. 5
“Equals should not be in awe of one another because awe implies inequality. It is therefore and inappropriate reaction to me. An elder brother is entitled to respect for his greater experience, and obedience for his greater wisdom…There is nothing about me that you cannot attain”.
Vol. 1, p. 70-71
“My mind will always be like yours, because we were created as equals. It was only my decision that gave me all power in heaven and earth. My only gift to you is to help you make the same decision”.
The Bible does not teach that we are equal with Christ; it teaches that Jesus is both God and man. As God, Jesus does not possess sinful desires, susceptibility to temptation, or mortality, which are all attributes of sinful man. Because Jesus is also God, He is not equal to us as we are not deity. In John 8:23 Jesus said, “You are of this world; I am not of this world.”
John 1:1-3 tells us that Jesus was God the Son, the eternal Word who created the universe. He took on mortal, human nature and came “in human likeness” (Philippians 2:7). At Christ’s resurrection Jesus retained His human nature and His divine nature as God, and His physical body was changed from mortal to immortal (1 Co. 15). While Jesus is God the Son who took on human form, we as human beings have only one nature, a human nature.
A Course in Miracles also teaches that Jesus should not be understood as a sacrificial lamb for our sins.
A Course in Miracles vol. 1, p. 33
“I have been correctly referred to as ‘the lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world,’ but those who represent the lamb as blood-stained do not understand the meaning of the symbol. Correctly understood, it is a very simple symbol that speaks of my innocence…Innocence is incapable of sacrificing anything, because the innocent mind has everything and strives only to protect its wholeness”.
The Course denies I Peter 2:24 which reads, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been set free.” The Course denies even the need for Christ’s sacrifice because they teach that people are already sinless and perfect beings. You have to wonder what planet these people have been living on. Examples of just such sin can be seen all around us. The Bible is very clear that we are reconciled to God through the death of his Son (Romans 5:10).
The Course distorts the Bible even further, however, by claiming that Jesus Christ wasn’t the Son of God, but rather we are the Son’s of God referred to in these scriptures.
A Course in Miracles, Vol. 1, p.2
“The Sonship is the sum of all that God created”.
Vol. 1, p.14
“In the creation, God extended Himself to His creations and imbued them with the same loving will to create. You…have also been created perfect. There is no emptiness in you.”
Vol. 2, pp. 353-354
“You are the holy Son of God Himself. And with this holy thought you learn as well that you have freed the world…All power is given you in Earth and Heaven. There is nothing that you cannot do.”
The Course requires the student to affirm, “Your Son…is but what I really am in truth. He is the Son You love above all things. He is my Self as You created me. It is not Christ that can be crucified.”
The Bible states clearly that Jesus is God’s only begotten Son (John 1:18; 3:16; 1 John 4:9) The term “only begotten Son” is never used to refer to believers in the New Testament, but only to Jesus. Jesus Christ is the only Son of God. However, the word sons (plural) and “children of God” are applied to Jesus’ followers several times in Romans, 1 John and elsewhere. Christians are not “sons of God” by nature but we become sons of God (Romans 8:15).
Galatians 4:4-7
“But when the tie had fully come, God sent his Son born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba”, Father. So you are no longer a slave but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.”
Unlike Jesus, who is eternally the Son of God (Ps 2:7; Heb 1:2,4) we obtain a derivative relationship through faith: “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:26).
Further discounting the sacrifice made my our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, A Course in Miracles teaches that Jesus is but a man who found Christ in other people and is no more the Christ than anyone else.
A Course in Miracles vol. 3, p. 83
“The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered God. So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God. The man was an illusion, for he seemed to be a separate being, walking by himself, within a body that appeared to hold his self from Self, as all illusions do.”
“Jesus remains a Savior because he was the false without accepting it as true. And Christ needed his form that He might appear to men and save them from their own illusions”.
Jesus, of course, never taught this. When Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16), Jesus did not reply, “Yes, and so are you”. When the woman at the well said, “I know that Messiah is coming,” Jesus replied “I who speak to you am he”. He didn’t say, “We are each the Christ”. Furthermore, the word Christ cannot refer to all people everywhere. The Old Testament was very clear about who the Christ, or the Messiah, would be, where he would be born, when he would be born, and who he would descend from. (Mic 5:2; Dan 9:24-27; Mt 22:42)
The Course also teaches that the resurrection of Jesus should not be understood as a literal, physical return from the dead. According to the Course, the body does not exist and death does not exist. Thus, Jesus could not have been raised from the dead in any real sense.
A Course in Miracles, vol. 1, p. 87
“…the resurrection is the symbol of sharing because the reawakening of every Son of God is necessary to enable the Sonship to know its wholeness”
Vol. 3, p. 65
“The resurrection is a reawakening or rebirth: a change of mind about the meaning of the world.”
Vol. 1, p. 396
“A slain Christ has no meaning. But a risen Christ becomes the symbol of the Son of God’s forgiveness on himself; the sign he looks upon himself as healed and whole.”
The reality that Christ “died for our sins” and subsequently was raised on the third day is the heart of the gospel.
1 Co 15:3-6
“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance; that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures and that he appeared to Peter and then to the twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time,”
The physical nature of Jesus’ resurrection was part of the apostolic message. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter said that the messianic psalms of King David “spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay” (Acts 2:31)
When Christ appeared to “doubting Thomas” and the other apostles to show His pierced hands, feet, and side, it is clear that He was showing His physical body and that this was not a visionary experience.
Luke 24:38-39 “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in you mind? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”
THE DOCTRINE OF SIN
A Course in Miracles teaches that sin does not exist, and each person is perfectly guiltless and innocent. In other words no one is sinful in any way.
A Course in Miracles Vol. 1, p. 88
“No one is punished for sins, and the Sons of God are not sinners”
Vol. 1, p. 423
“The Holy Spirit will never teach you that you are sinful”
Vol. 1, p. 377
“When you are tempted to believe that sin is real, remember this: If sin is real, both God and you are not”
The Bible teaches that sin affects all people.
Ecc 7:20
“For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin”
The Bible also addresses those who, like followers of the Course in Miracles, deny the reality of sin:
1 John 1:8 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”
It doesn’t get any plainer than that. Nowhere in the Bible are we told that sin is merely an illusion. We will all be held accountable to God (Romans 3:19).
In order to explain the obvious sin that surrounds each and every one of us in this world on a daily basis, the Course teaches that sin appears to exist, but this is a false illusion or an insane thought caused by the ego.
A Course in Miracles, Vol. 2, p. 409
“Sin is insanity. It is the means by which the mind is driven mad, and seeks to let illusions take the place of truth…And yet what sin perceives is but a childish game. The Son of God may play he has become a body, prey to evil and to guilt, with but a little life that ends in death. But all the while his Father shines on him…There is no sin”
Vol. 2, p. 327
“The betrayal of the Son of God lies only in illusions, and all his ‘sins’ are but his own imagining. His reality is forever sinless. He need not be forgiven but awakened. In his dreams he has betrayed himself, his brothers and his God. Yet what is done in dreams has not been really done”
The Bible does not teach that sin is an error to be corrected, or an illusion that does not exist. Rather, sin is a wrongful act and condition of mankind that requires repentance, remission, and forgiveness.
Hebrews 9:22
“Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness”
Hebrews 9:26
“now he [Jesus Christ] has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
The remedy for sin is not “waking up” as the Course teaches. Repentance and confession is the only remedy. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
“He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy” (Pr 28:13)
THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION
A Course in Miracles teaches that man’s original state is perfection. Salvation in the Course comes by undoing the misbelief that we are separated from God and are sinful beings. We simply arrive at a state of awareness that we are perfect.
A Course in Miracles Vol 1, p. 9
“The purpose of the Atonement is to restore everything to you; or rather, to restore it to your awareness.”
A Course in Miracles Vol. 1, p. 6
“I am in charge of the process of Atonement, which I undertook to begin. When you offer a miracle to any of my brothers, you do it to yourself and me. The reason you come before me is that I do not need miracles for my own Atonement, but I stand at the end in case you fail temporarily. My part in the Atonement is the canceling out of all errors that you could not otherwise correct. When you have been restored to the recognition of your original state, you naturally become part of the Atonement yourself”
In the New Testament, atonement, propitiation, and reconciliation are intertwined with the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. In Christ we now receive “atonement” (Romans 5:11). Through the blood of Jesus we obtain “propitiation” (Romans 3:25). It is Jesus who is the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 2:2; 4:10). Atonement does not open our eyes to our own perfection, but instead covers our sins before God. Only through the acceptance of the sacrifice Christ mad on the cross can we be saved.
It makes sense that the Course would completely ignore the sacrifice Christ made for our sins, since it teaches that God did not allow His Son to die on the cross for our salvation.
A Course in Miracles, vol. 1, p. 32
“If the crucifixion is seen from an upside-down point of view, it does appear as if God permitted and even encouraged one of His Sons to suffer because he was good…Yet the real Christian should pause and ask, ‘How could this be?’ Is it likely that God Himself would be capable of the kind of thinking which His Own words have clearly stated is unworthy of His Son?”
A Course in Miracles, vol. 1, p. 32
“Persecution frequently results in an attempt to justify the terrible misperception that God Himself persecuted His Own Son on behalf of salvation. The very words are meaningless…In milder forms a parent says, ‘This hurts me more than it hurts you’, and feels exonerated in beating a child. Can you believe our Father really thinks this way? It is so essential that all such thinking be dispelled that we must be sure that nothing of this kind remains in your mind. I was not ‘punished’ because you were bad. The wholly benign lesson the Atonement teaches is lost if it is tainted with this kind of distortion in any form”
It is clear in the New Testament that Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of mankind.
1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit”.
The Old Testament also teaches that it was the will of God the Father to sacrifice Jesus Christ for us.
Isaiah 53:5 “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
The Course follows the thinking of Peter before the resurrection – a line of thinking he was clearly rebuked for.
Matthew 16:21-23
When Jesus told the disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and be killed, Peter said this must not happen. Jesus replied, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men”.
The Course contends that the reason for Christ’s crucifixion was to induce people to love one another.
A Course in Miracles, vol. 1, p.87
“The message of the crucifixion is perfectly clear: ‘Teach only love, for that is what you are’. If you interpret the crucifixion in any other way, you are using it as a weapon for assault rather than as the call for peace for which it was intended”.
The Bible addresses just such thinking this way:
1 Corinthians 1:18; 15:3-4
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”
Continuing their teaching that there is no sin, the Course teaches that there is no Hell or eternal punishment.
A Course in Miracles, vol. 1, p. 281
“The Holy Spirit teaches thus: There is no hell. Hell is only what the ego has made of the present”
Scripture, however, teaches us that there will be eternal punishment for the wicked and the unrepentant.
Matthew 13:41-42
“The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of theath”.
Revelation 20:15
“If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire”.
On the subject of Christ’s return, the Course teaches that the Second Coming and final judgment are not meant to punish sinners, but to heal the mind, rectify mistakes, and dispel the illusions we have believed in.
A Course in Miracles vol. 1, pp. 29-30
“Judgment is not an attribute of God…The Last Judgment is generally thought of as a procedure undertaken by God. Actually, it will be undertaken by my brothers with my help. It is a final healing rather than a meting out of punishment, however much you may think that punishment is deserved.”
Vol. 2, p. 439
“Christ’s Second Coming, which is sure as God, is merely the correction of mistakes, and the return of sanity.”
Vol. 2, p. 445
“The Final Judgment on the world contains no condemnation. For it sees the world as totally forgiven, without sin and wholly purposeless.”
Judgment is a basic attribute of God.
Isaiah 30:18
“The Lord is a God of judgment”
Psalms 9:7-8 “He has established his throne for judgment. He will judge the world in righteousness; he will govern the peoples with justice.”
The Second Coming of Christ will be as literal and physical as His first coming was. “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). This is not simply the arrival of a spirit or a thought in our minds. When Christ returns He will bring God’s punishment on the wicked.
II Thessalonians 1:7-9
“…the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.”
Jesus referred to this coming as the “day of Judgment”. (Mt 10:15; 11:22-24; 12:36)
These and many other scriptures show that the Course’s teaching that there is no sin, no judgment, and no Hell are completely unbiblical and must be rejected.
Here is a link to another article that is relevant
https://kimolsen.wordpress.com/2007/08/12/women-of-theosophy-a-course-in-miracles/
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