SCRIPTURAL SMALL-MINDEDNESS (4)

(…continues from part 3…)

4)            Where, I continue to wonder, did Adeboye get the idea that tithing evasion will cast one to hell? The only thing that takes one to heaven is to be born again – with no morality of strings attached. A jailor’s experience in Acts 16:16-36 made him ask Paul and Silas what to do to be saved: “Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 30) And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31) And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:29-31). Tithing is not even directly mentioned in the New Testament, albeit, adequately implied (1Cor 16:2; 2Cor 8:3; Philippians 4:17). Getting born again is strictly a spiritual, conscious effort on the part of an individual. After getting born again a Christian’s life is hidden in the righteousness of Divinity. Colossians 3:3-4 “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4) Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” What does this Pauline verse mean by “For ye are dead?”

The redeemed Born Again is dead to sin

                It means that the Christian is dead as far as sinfulness is concerned. What this implies is that we cannot be held accountable for punishment due to a sinner. This is what Christianity is all about, Pastor Adeboye. We are hidden in the Just One, Jesus Christ, the same Whose Divine life is now rightfully ours. We are doubly safe: for our hiding place is both in Christ and God the Father. The word ‘hid’ is kruptō (kroop’-to): ‘to hide, conceal, to be hid; escape notice; metaphorically to conceal (that it may not become known).’ We cannot be known to death: we have been hidden from the annihilation of hell. Jeremiah 23:6 “In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” How can we lose this life of the soteriology when it says that Jesus Christ is our righteousness? Are you not attempting to contaminate Divine righteousness when and if you try to use your carnality to maintain your salvation? Selah!

                Can you not see, Pastor Adeboye, that what this means is that Jesus, the Author of the salvation, being a responsible God, will take full responsibility of protecting us from being lost, having bought us with the most precious of all things, His Divine Zoe (Life)! In case you want to ask, “How safe is the Christian? The answer is in John 3:17 “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” The word ‘saved’ is sōzō (sode’-zo): ‘to save, keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction (from injury or peril) to save a suffering one (from perishing), i.e. one suffering from disease, to make well, heal, restore to health; to preserve one who is in danger of destruction, to save or rescue; to save in the technical biblical sense.’ Does it not say unequivocally in John 10:28, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” The word ‘pluck,’ is vicious harpazo (har-pa’-zō): ‘to seize, snatch away.’ With Jesus as the Saviour of the soteriology, nothing can go wrong with us.

                These definitions prove that the Christian salvation is total. Amen. The truth is that we had been in spiritual preservation before the actual day of our regeneration, as seen in Jude 1:1 “Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:” where ‘sanctified’ is hagiazō (hag-ee-ad’-zo): ‘to make holy, that is, (ceremonially) purify or consecrate; (mentally) to venerate;’ the next word, ‘preserved’ is tēreō (tay-reh’-o): [From teros (a watch; akin to theōreō (theh-o-reh’-o) ‘to view attentively’)] to guard (from loss or injury, properly by keeping the eye upon; and thus differing from phulassō (foo-las’-so): ‘isolation’, which is properly to prevent escaping; and from koustōdia (koos-to-dee’-ah) which implies a fortress or full military lines of apparatus), that is, to note (a prophecy; figuratively to fulfil a command); by implication to detain (in custody; figuratively to maintain); by extension to withhold (for personal ends; figuratively to keep unmarried);’ and ‘called’ is klētos (klay-tos’): ‘invited (to a banquet); invited (by God in the proclamation of the Gospel) to obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom through Christ.’ Salvation is a total package as the above definitions show.

                1Corinthians 3:15 “If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” What ‘work’ is Paul explaining here? It is the work of teaching the word of God – the great commission of Mark 16:15 – as a believer. The Bible clearly says that if one brings the likeness of wood, hay and or stubble as the work of evangelism of teaching of the Scripture, it gets burnt and consumed by fire – that one will not get any reward for his vineyard toil. Will he be sent to purgatorial punishment? No; Paul teaches that: “but he himself shall be saved.” Pastor Adeboye needs to understand theology of the Bible. The reason why the one who suffers loss in heaven will not go to hell is for the earlier verse: “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1Corinthians 3:11). The foundation of our salvation is the eternality of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

                Getting born again is a conscious effort on the part of an individual. Get born again. Say this sinner’s prayer.

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!” 

(…to be continued…)

Read part 3 here

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