“There are too many “dropouts” in the school of Christ.”

~Vance Havner

The daily devotions are from Pepper ‘n Salt by Vance Havner. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1966.

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Proverbs 14:12 — King James Version

“Sometime ago a man said to me: “I work in an acid factory. A little of that stuff can kill you, but it is not the new workers who get burned. it is the old hands who grow careless.” Something like that is true in Christian experience. There is the peril of getting used to being a Christian so that we grow careless and no longer watch and pray.”

~Vance Havner

The daily devotions are from Pepper ‘n Salt by Vance Havner. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1966.

Days of Heaven on Earth

By A.B. Simpson

Thursday, March 12, 2015

All who fight the Lord’s battles must be content to die to the favorable opinions of men and the flattery of human praise. We cannot make an exception even in favor of the good opinions of the children of God. It is very easy for the insidious adversary to make this also an appeal to the flesh.

It is all right when God sends us the approval of our fellow men; however, we must never make that approval a motive in our life. All such motives are poison and deprive us of the strength with which we are to give glory to God. Rather, we must be content with the solitary way and the lonely wilderness.

The man of God must walk alone with God. He must be content in the realization that God knows all things. it is such a relief to the natural man within us to fall back upon human countenances and human thoughts and sympathy that we often deceive ourselves and think it “brotherly love, when, in fact, we are just resting in the earthly sympathy of some fellow worm!

Why America Must be Punished

As Moses’ life drew to a close, God issued to the nation of Israel the keys to national health, i.e., the specific principles necessary to sustaining national existence. The book of Deuteronomy records these great admonitions that serve as extremely relevant advice for America. One insight pertains to the level of wealth and prosperity that characterizes the lifestyle of the average American. Indeed, this country has achieved a greater level of prosperity for a greater number of its citizens than any nation in human history. America’s standard of living is the envy of the civilized world. Even the poorest American lives far better than much of the world’s population.

This circumstance was anticipated by the Founders who insisted that freedom coupled with Christian principles will enable a country to achieve unprecedented prosperity, progress, and happiness. For example, on October 11, 1782, the Continental Congress issued a proclamation to the nation that articulates this foundational principle, recommending to citizens of

all ranks, to testify their gratitude to God for his goodness, by a cheerful obedience to his laws, and by promoting, each in his station, and by his influence, the practice of true and undefiled religion,which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness (Journals of…, 23:647, emp. added).

America has graced the world with unparalleled technological progress, shared prosperity, and benevolent assistance. We literally wallow in abundance.

But this paradisaical status cannot last. America must suffer punishment for turning her back on the Source of her greatness, and for spurning the moral and spiritual principles that propelled her to the premiere position among the nations of the Earth. The reason for national punishment is the same reason given for Israel’s expulsion from Canaan. Their punishment? “[T]herefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you” (Deuteronomy 28:48). But why? Why did Israel merit such punishment? Moses articulated the reason in his farewell address to the nation—words that are eerily apropos to Americans: “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything” (Deuteronomy 28:47, emp. added). If only Americans en masse would awaken to reverence and serve the Master of the Universe.

REFERENCE

Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789 (1904-1937), ed. Worthington C. Ford, et al. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office), Library of Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwjc.html.

Copyright © 2012 Apologetics Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

We are happy to grant permission for items in the “America’s Culture War” section to be reproduced in their entirety, as long as the following stipulations are observed: (1) Apologetics Press must be designated as the original publisher; (2) the specific Apologetics Press Web site URL must be noted; (3) the author’s name must remain attached to the materials; (4) any references, footnotes, or endnotes that accompany the article must be included with any written reproduction of the article; (5) alterations of any kind are strictly forbidden (e.g., photographs, charts, graphics, quotations, etc. must be reproduced exactly as they appear in the original); (6) serialization of written material (e.g., running an article in several parts) is permitted, as long as the whole of the material is made available, without editing, in a reasonable length of time; (7) articles, in whole or in part, may not be offered for sale or included in items offered for sale; and (8) articles may be reproduced in electronic form for posting on Web sites pending they are not edited or altered from their original content and that credit is given to Apologetics Press, including the web location from which the articles were taken.

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With Him — All Things

By Vance Havner

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things”
Romans 8:32

How blessed to move from our nothingness to “everything in Jesus”! ‘By him all things consist.” The Father has given him all things (John 3:35; 13:3; 16:15). All things were made by him (John 1:3; I Corinthians 8:6) Jesus has said, “All things are mine…Come” (Matthew 11:27, 28); “All things are mine…Believe” (John 3:35, 36); “All things are mine…Go” (Matthew 28:18-20).

Your part is to bring Him all your need. His part is to supply all your need. (Philippians 4:19). If the first step is to realize the nothingness of yourself, the second is to turn to the Allness of Christ.

“All that I need is Jesus,” because all that I need is in Jesus. If God spared not His own Son buy freely delivered Him up for our redemption, He will not give me the greater and fail to give me the lesser, but with Him He has giving all else that I need, whether great or small.

And if everything is in Jesus, surely Jesus ought to be everything to us!

Without Me — Nothing

By Vance Havner

Without me ye can do nothing.
John 15:5

The starting point to “all things” is to learn that we are nothing. “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing” (Romans 7:18). “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself” (Galatians 6:3). What a self-deceived generation, then, is ours!

“It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” We do not have what it takes. Start with your nothingness – “Just as I am, without one plea” – and you are on your way to His “all things.”

The Ministry Of Comfort

by Pastor Paul M. Sadler

Scripture Reading:

“Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.”
— II Corinthians 1:3

Since the entrance of sin into the world, the way of man has been anything but easy. Job seemed to have his finger on the pulse of the matter when he wrote, “… man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.” It is interesting though, that when calamity strikes, men are quick to blame God, or to ask why He allows such occurrences in their lives. But shall we blame God for what man has brought upon himself? God forbid! Man is a product of his own folly.

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).

Some claim that if they had been back in the garden everything would have been different. I certainly have no reason to doubt them. In all probability, they would have pushed Adam aside to reach the forbidden fruit before he did! You see, God saw the entire human race in Adam, as only He could do. So when Adam stretched forth his hand to partake of the forbidden fruit, each of us were reaching for it as well — we are his posterity, thus we share in his guilt. God could have condemned the whole human race to the Lake of Fire and have been perfectly justified in so doing. Thankfully, we did not receive what we justly deserved, for “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy” (Psalm 103:8).

HOW GOD COMFORTS US

“Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God” (II Corinthians 1:4).

Here, of course, the Apostle refers to believers. Our heavenly Father knows that we are frail creatures of dust, overwhelmed with sorrow, sickness and even death; not to mention the spiritual upheavals that come our way. Always sympathetic to our plight, He walks with us every step of life’s journey comforting us in all our tribulations. The tribulation cited here by the Apostle Paul is not a reference to the Tribulation Period known as The Time of Jacob’s Trouble. Paul is speaking of the personal tribulations he had encountered due to spiritual conflicts and poor health. Personal trials come in all forms: criticism, rejection, financial setbacks, sickness, bereavement, etc.

When sorrow overwhelms us like an ocean tide the Lord in His goodness is always present to comfort us in our time of need. But exactly how does God comfort us in the dispensation of Grace? We know for instance that the heavens are silent and that neither the Lord nor any of His angelic host visibly appear to minister to the saints today. During the administration of Grace the Lord, first of all, comforts us through His Word.

For example, some years ago death took my great-grandmother. She always held a very special place in my heart and even to this day I get choked up sometimes when I think of her. My sense of loss would be difficult to bear except for the consolation I have received from the Word of God. The Lord has shown me that I need not sorrow as others who have no hope. Some day soon the trump will sound and the dead in Christ will be raised. Then we will be caught up together with all those departed loved ones who were saved, and so shall we ever be with the Lord! Little wonder Paul says, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Another way the Lord comforts us is by bringing someone into our lives at just the right moment to encourage us in those times of despair. Surely we have a precedent for this in the life of Paul himself. The intensity of the spiritual warfare at Ephesus and Macedonia had taken its toll on the Apostle, both physically and spiritually. “Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus” (II Corinthians 7:5-7). The arrival of Titus was a direct result of Divine intervention to not only encourage Paul, but also that he might lend assistance in the work.

Finally, God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but rather that we might comfort others. It has been given to us to carry on a ministry of encouragement to those who are in any trouble. Think of it, having already been the recipients of God’s consolation, He uses us to put our arm around that dear Christian friend who is perhaps facing his first surgery and tell him, “we too had this same surgery a few years ago and the Lord saw us through it.” With hope we can face any thing. That’s why God has revealed to us the Blessed Hope that one day soon we shall be with Him. Truly He is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. AMEN!

God’s Love and Christian Perseverance

There is no greater knowledge in the world than knowing one is saved by the loving Creator and Savior (1 John 5:13)—that one is a member of the blood-bought body of Christ that Jesus will one day take home with Him (1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11). Though sin separates man from God (Isaiah 59:1-2), knowing that Jesus paid the debt for sin (Acts 20:28), knowing that one has become a recipient of the gift of salvation (see Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; see also Lyons and Butt, n.d.), and knowing that no outside forces, not even Satan, are strong enough to separate a Christian from the love of God (Romans 8:35-39), Christians should be the happiest people on Earth. No one can force a saved person from the spiritual safety found in Christ Jesus (John 10:28). No one is strong enough to take away the Christian’s gift of salvation. No one can make a saved man live in sin. No one can separate a follower of Christ from the love of Christ!

But, do not mistake Christ’s love (1 John 4:8), the power of His soul-cleansing blood (1 Peter 1:18-19), or the promise of spiritual safety (Romans 8:35-39) for a free pass to disobey the Master without suffering eternal consequences (cf. Romans 6:1). Although many have bought into the doctrine of “once saved, always saved” (i.e., a Christian can never fall out of favor with God), Scripture repeatedly denies such a claim.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Mathew 6:14-15). What will happen to a forgiven Christian who becomes unforgiving? God will not forgive him of his sins. What happened to the servant who was previously forgiven an enormous debt, but later failed to forgive the small debt of another? “His master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers” (Matthew 18:34). “So,” Jesus said, “My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses” (18:35). When a person receives the gift of salvation (through confessed faith, repentance, and immersion in water—Acts 2:38; 8:26-40; 16:30-34; 22:16) and becomes a Christian, God forgives him of his debt. If he, however, becomes hardened and unforgiving, God will “deliver him to the torturers” (Matthew 18:34; 25:31-46).

The Bible nowhere teaches that Christians who, for example, lose their first love or who become lukewarm are still in a right relationship with God. Jesus never said that hypocrites are still saved. To the Christians in Ephesus who had lost their first love, Jesus said, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent” (Revelation 2:5, emp. added). Christians who become lukewarm cannot remain in that state and expect to receive “the crown of righteous” on Judgment Day. Lukewarm Christians must “repent,” or, Jesus said, “I will vomit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:19,15-16). Unlike imperfect, yet saved, Christians who are striving to “walk in the light” (1 John 1:5-10), impenitent Christians defiantly living in sin are in a lost state and must repent in order to begin walking in the light again. A Christian should not expect to inherit heaven if he does not remain faithful to Christ. Jesus taught: “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).

Christians should rejoice that no one can forcefully take the gift of salvation away from them. But, it is possible for Christians to lose hold of their own salvation (i.e., “fall from grace,” Galatians 5:4) by willfully becoming disobedient to the Master, Jesus Christ. Christians may choose to walk in darkness (becoming unforgiving, unmerciful, lukewarm, etc.), and thus forfeit their eternal life with God in Whom there “is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Or, Christians can choose to “walk in the light as He is in the light,” and forever remain in a saved state, having the blood of Jesus Christ continually cleanse all sin (1 John 1:7-9).

Lyons, Eric and Kyle Butt (no date), Receiving the Gift of Salvation, [On-line], URL: http://www.apologeticspress.org/pdfs/e-books_pdf/Taking%20Possesion%20of%20God%20Gifts.pdf.

Copyright © 2009 Apologetics Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

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John 3:16

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

“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.”

Do you believe it?
With all your heart?
Do you believe that God gave His Son because He loved the whole world?
Do you believe that whosoever believes in Him receives everlasting life?
Gentiles as well as Jews?
Do you believe that John 3:16 applies to this age?
SO DO WE!–WITH ALL OUR HEARTS!

We emphasize this because we have been charged of late with putting a dispensational question mark opposite John 3:16.

We not only believe that John 3:16 applies to this age, but that it is more pertinent today than when our Lord first spoke it to Nicodemus.

But first let us turn to two other Scriptures, just as plain, though less frequently quoted.

In Matthew 15:24 we have the plain words of our Lord, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

In Matthew 10:5,6 we read “These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

How can we reconcile these Scriptures with John 3:16?

John 3:16, — “The world…whosoever.”

Matthew 10:5,6; 15:24, — None but “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

The key to this question is found in Acts 3:25,26 where Peter says to the house of Israel, “Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, AND IN THY SEED SHALL ALL THE KINDREDS OF THE EARTH BE BLESSED. Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”

The Old Testament abounds with prophecies that salvation would go to the ends of the earth through Israel. This is why our Lord confined His earthly ministry exclusively to the house of Israel. This is why Peter said to the people of Israel, “Unto you first…”

It was no secret that salvation would go to all the world, but remember that it was to go through the covenant people.

We must not forget that John 3:16 was spoken to “A RULER OF THE JEWS.” This makes the words of our Lord doubly significant. It would not be at all amiss to paraphrase them thus: “For God so loved the world, Nicodemus — not only Israel, but the world– that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Sad to say, the rulers of the Jews rejected Christ. The glorious message of John 3:16 would never have reached the Gentiles if God had waited for Israel to proclaim it.

As a nation they themselves rejected God’s Son. They even persecuted those who preached Christ and Saul of Tarsus became the leader of the opposition.

It was in this crisis that God arrested Saul and saved him so that He might unfold His secret purpose of grace to him and through him.

We quote a few Scriptures from Paul’s letters:

“Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but…the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant…that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting” (I Timothy 1:13-16).

“Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned…so might grace reign” (Romans 5:20,21).

“FOR GOD HATH CONCLUDED THEM ALL IN UNBELIEF, THAT HE MIGHT HAVE MERCY UPON ALL. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:32,33).

“For He is our peace, who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us…for to make in Himself of twain one new man…and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body BY THE CROSS” (Ephesians 2:14-16).

This message of grace abounding, of grace reigning was revealed from heaven by the Lord Jesus Christ to the apostle Paul. He says in Ephesians 3:2,3: “If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward, HOW THAT BY REVELATION HE MADE KNOWN UNTO ME THE MYSTERY.” This was God’s eternal purpose, “kept secret since the world began” (Romans 16:25), “hid in God” (Ephesians 3:9), “in other ages not made known,” (Ephesians 3:5), “hid from ages and from generations” (Colossians 1:26), “THE MYSTERY” (Romans 16:25; Ephesians 1:9; 3:3,4,9; 6:19; Colossians 1:26,27; 2:2; 4:3).

And now, thank God, though Israel, through whom the nations should have been blessed, gropes in darkness and staggers in unbelief, any poor sinner, Jew or Gentile, may rejoice that “GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE.”

Dawkins Calls Evil Good and Good Evil

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; who put darkness for light and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20). Turning right and wrong upside down is a human habit that goes back thousands of years. Modern times are no different. Famous evolutionary biologist and professor of Oxford University, Richard Dawkins, recently showed his hand in a twitter conversation that has gained media attention. The British Broadcasting Corporation, a public service broadcaster among many others in the United Kingdom, reported that a twitter user said to Dawkins, “I honestly don’t know what I would do if I were pregnant with a kid with Down’s Syndrome. Real ethical dilemma.” Dawkins replied, “Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice” (emp. added). He said: “These are fetuses, diagnosed before they have human feelings.” After coming under some fire for his comments, he defended himself by saying, “I do not for one moment apologise for approaching moral philosophic questions in a logical way. There’s a place for emotion & this isn’t it” (as quoted in Hawkins, 2014).

It is a scary thing to admit that he is right, from a naturalistic perspective—the worldview that he holds. His thinking is a logical outgrowth of naturalism. If naturalism is correct, we are the end result of evolution, where the ultimate law of the Universe is “survival of the fittest”: might makes right; the strong survive. If naturalism is correct, it would make sense that one should do whatever is necessary to encourage the survival of the species, including helping nature eliminate the unfit (cf. Lyons, 2008). Why would one spend time, energy, and resources helping someone who is a significant “drain” on society? Why would one try to keep those around that are loaded with harmful mutations, syndromes, and disorders? From a naturalistic perspective, such behavior would be fighting against progress and evolution. It would be “immoral.”

The day after the public backlash from his comments, Dawkins attempted to calm the furor he generated by further clarifying his thinking on his Web site. He said,

For what it’s worth, my own choice would be to abort the Down fetus and, assuming you want a baby at all, try again. Given a free choice of having an early abortion or deliberately bringing a Down child into the world, I think the moral and sensible choice would be to abort…. I personally would go further and say that, if your morality is based, as mine is, on a desire to increase the sum of happiness and reduce suffering, the decision to deliberately give birth to a Down baby, when you have the choice to abort it early in the pregnancy, might actually be immoral from the point of view of the child’s own welfare…. In any case, you would probably be condemning yourself as a mother (or yourselves as a couple) to a lifetime of caring for an adult with the needs of a child…. [W]hat I was saying simply follows logically from the ordinary pro-choice stance that most of us, I presume, espouse (2014, emp. added).

What a selfish and scary society in which to live—reminiscent of Nazi Germany. Imagine being deemed unfit because of the effort others must exert to help you. Imagine being deemed “unfit” because of your ailments or aches and pains, your age, your race, your financial situation, your I.Q., your level of education, your psychological state, or worse, your beliefs. Who would have the right to be the fitness police? Who would be deemed the fitness judge? Dawkins? How is he qualified to deem what is moral and what isn’t, considering the fact that there is no such thing as “immorality” if naturalism is true (cf. Lyons, 2011)? [NOTE: See Butt, 2008 for a thorough discussion of other disconcerting implications of naturalism.]

If naturalists had their way in determining laws based on their standards of morality, progress would be hampered. As our growing understanding of genetics allows us to anticipate disorders that will likely arise in an individual, people that would even be deemed valuable by naturalists in the future if they were allowed to live would inevitably be wiped out. Famous atheist, theoretical physicist and cosmologist of Cambridge University, Stephen Hawking, was diagnosed, decades ago, with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease), is permanently in a wheelchair, must communicate through a computer system operated by his cheek, and must “have around-the-clock care” (Harmon, 2012). Ironically, he would have likely been killed off long before he became the famous naturalistic thinker and influence that he is now. Truly, the fact that people with such conditions have proven themselves to be of benefit to society is a strong argument against abortion of the “unfit.”

Eerily, the United States might not be as far from a society in which Dawkins’ thinking has free reign as we might think. According to a 2012 Gallup poll, 15% of Americans believe we owe our origins to naturalistic evolution (Newport). That figure translates to about one in every seven Americans who you meet on the street being naturalists. If those individuals follow out the logic of their worldview, they will be forced to think the same way Dawkins does about the “unfit.” This implication of the naturalistic mindset and the millions that are affirming naturalism highlights the paramount need for Christians to be prepared to defend the truth from the dangerous doctrine of naturalism. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.” [NOTE: See Miller, 2013 for a scientific refutation of naturalism.]

REFERENCES

Butt, Kyle (2008), “The Bitter Fruits of Atheism (Part I),” Reason & Revelation, 28[7]:49-55, July, http://apologeticspress.org/apPubPage.aspx?pub=1&issue=603.

Dawkins, Richard (2014), “Abortion & Down Syndrome: An Apology for Letting Slip the Dogs of Twitterwar,” Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science, August 21, https://richarddawkins.net/2014/08/abortion-down-syndrome-an-apology-for-letting-slip-the-dogs-of-twitterwar/.

Harmon, Katherine (2012), “How Has Stephen Hawking Lived to 70 with ALS?” Scientific American, January 7, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stephen-hawking-als/.

Hawkins, Kathleen (2014), “Richard Dawkins: ‘Immoral’ Not to Abort Down’s Foetuses,” BBC News Ouch, August 21, http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-ouch-28879659.

Lyons, Eric (2008), “Save the Planet…Abort a Child!?” R&R Resources, 7[2]:8-R, February, http://apologeticspress.org/pub_rar/28_2/0802.pdf.

Lyons, Eric (2011), “The Moral Argument for the Existence of God,” Reason & Revelation, 31[9]:86-95, September, http://apologeticspress.org/pub_rar/31_9/1109.pdf.

Miller, Jeff (2013), Science vs. Evolution (Montgomery, AL: Apologetics Press).

Newport, Frank (2012), “In U.S., 46% Hold Creationist View of Human Origins,” GALLUP Politics, June 1, http://www.gallup.com/poll/155003/Hold-Creationist-View-Human-Origins.aspx.

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A Template

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

With the knowledge of good and evil man came into the possession of conscience. A sense of blameworthiness smote him when he committed, or even contemplated committing, evil. This has been so ever since. The Bible tells us that even the most ungodly and benighted heathen “show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another” (Romans 2:15).

It is true that man’s conscience can be violated so often that it becomes calloused or, as St. Paul puts it: “seared with a hot iron” (I Timothy 4:2), but events or incidents can take place which suddenly awaken the conscience and make it sensitive again. Many a person has indulged in “the pleasures of sin” more and more freely until, suddenly, his sin has found him out and his conscience has caught up with him to condemn him day and night and make life itself unbearable.

The Bible teaches that all men outside of Christ are, to some degree, troubled by guilty consciences and certainly most are “through fear of death… all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:15). But it also teaches that “Christ died for our sins” so that our penalty having been paid, we might be delivered from a guilty conscience.

The works and ceremonies of the Mosaic Law could never accomplish this, but sincere and intelligent believers in Christ, having been “once purged”, have “no more conscience of sins” (Hebrews 9:14; 10:1,2). They are, to be sure, conscious of their sins, but they are no longer tortured by a forever-condemning conscience, for they know that the penalty for all their sins, from the cradle to the coffin, was fully met by Christ at Calvary.

This is not to imply that even a sincere believer may not be troubled about offending the One who paid for his sins, but he knows that the judgment for these sins is past. Thus he earnestly seeks, like Paul, “to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man” (Acts 24:16).

Christ at the Door of Your Heart?

One of the most familiar expressions uttered within Christendom is: “Christ stands at the door of your heart.” Many have been the preachers who have urged their hearers to “invite Jesus into their hearts” in order to be forgiven of sin and made a Christian. Someone said if you repeat a statement enough times, people will come to accept it on the basis of sheer repetition and familiarity. The admonition that “Christ stands at the door of your heart” has been repeated so frequently that, for many, to question it is unthinkable. One would think that since this approach to salvation is so widespread, and the expression is so predominant, that surely the statement can be found in Scripture—even if only in so many words. How disturbing to realize that the statement is not found in Scripture and that the Bible simply does not teach this doctrine!

The phraseology is reminiscent of Revelation 3:20—the passage usually quoted to support the idea of Christ standing at the door of one’s heart. But observe the context. Revelation chapters two and three consist of seven specific mini-letters directed to the seven churches of Christ in Asia Minor near the end of the first century. At the outset, one must recognize that Revelation 3:20 is addressed to Christians—not non-Christians on the verge of conversion.

Second, the verse is found among Christ’s remarks to the church in Laodicea. Jesus made clear that the church had moved into an unfaithful condition. They were lost. They were unacceptable to God since they were “lukewarm” (3:16). They had become unsaved since their spiritual condition was “wretched and miserable and poor” (3:17). Thus, in a very real sense, Jesus had abandoned them by removing His presence from their midst. Now He was on the outside looking in. He still wanted to be among them, but the decision was up to them. They had to recognize His absence, hear Him knocking for admission, and open the door—all of which is figurative language to say that they must repent (3:19). They would have to return to the obedient lifestyle so essential to receiving God’s favor (John 14:21,23).

This means that Revelation 3:20 in no way supports the idea that non-Christians merely have to “open the door of their heart” and “invite Jesus in” with the assurance that the moment they mentally/verbally do so, Jesus will come into their heart and they will be simultaneously saved from all past sin and counted as Christians! The context of Revelation 3:20 shows that Jesus was seeking readmission into an apostate church.

“But doesn’t the Bible teach that Christ does come into a person’s heart?” Yes. But not the way the religious world suggests. Ephesians 3:17 states that Christ dwells in the heart through faith. Faith can be acquired only by hearing biblical truth (Romans 10:17). When that biblical truth is obeyed, the individual is “saved by faith” (Hebrews 5:9; James 2:22; 1 Peter 1:22; et al.). So Christ enters our lives when we “draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience [i.e., when we repent of our sins] and our bodies washed with pure water [i.e., when we are baptized in water]” (Hebrews 10:22). Here is the New Testament (i.e., non-denominational) way to accept Christ.

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