Thank You for Martin Carey’s Article
Thank you to Martin Carey for his article “Is Your Faith For Real?” This is an issue which has plagued me since childhood in the Seventh-day Adventist church.
When I found 1 John 5:13 in 1983 while studying with The Navigator missionaries, I was stunned! It reads, “these things were written that you may know you are saved; He that has the Son has life”! I exclaimed to my husband “the Bible says we can know you are saved! We were always taught we could not know we were saved.”
That started the steps to deciding to exit the Adventist church. I realized I had been lied to, even brainwashed. My father told me, “If you leave the SDA church, you will go to hell!” What a terrifying proclamation that had been in my life.
I have had to forgive my father for that teaching, and Father God had taught me that is not who He is or how he operates. However, Even after many years of hearing the true gospel. I hear doubts crop up in my mind.
We were not taught about spiritual warfare in the Adventist church, so for a long time I wasn’t aware that thoughts that came to my mind could be whispers from temptations of demonic sources or of the flesh. I thought it was just my voice, but I needed to evaluate those thoughts with Scripture.
The verse that Martin included, 1 John 3:19, 20, that “if our heart condemns us He is greater than our hearts” took on great significance this morning. It joins with 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 that the believer has weapons of warfare, not carnal ones but spiritual ones for taking thoughts “captive to the obedience of Christ”.
Christ pronounced people who proclaimed faith in Him as saved, right then! He had all authority to state that as truth, for He was God in human form on earth.
There is grief in my heart at the loneliness and confusion that we lived in as children who were taught lies under the title of “The Gospel”. It took me years to realize that Jesus’ sitting down at the right hand of the Father meant that “It is finished” was true! It meant salvation was won. Christ was given all authority in heaven and earth—and the highest Name— at that time!
What kind of omnipotent God would have to open books to discover His people were saved? If that were true, He would not be God because God is all knowing.
Thank you again for the clarity of your proclaiming the true gospel, Martin Carey.
—VIA EMAIL
How Do We “Sell” God to Unbelievers?
Forgive me if the answer to this question has already been answered, I am binge watching your content.
Our question is this: for loved ones in our lives who are “good people” but do not express belief in the gospel in any way—can God glorify those people? Would that not solve everything?
I wonder this because pretty much all people would love to go to heaven and be with God even if they don’t know it. Even if they say they don’t—they actually do..
Question two: for people to want to go to heaven, don’t they need to know what heaven is and that it even exists? How would they know that?
Question three: how do we “sell” to people the truth that God’s standard is perfection, and because we can’t achieve that, Jesus had to come, and thus we need a Savior because actually we are horrible sinners?
—VIA EMAIL
Response: God Himself reveals Himself to people. Romans 1:18–21 says that the eternal power and divine nature of God is revealed in what has been made so that all are without excuse, but the wicked have suppressed their knowledge of God by their wickedness.
Yes, God can reach people who have no idea of the truth. Yet he also asks us to share Him with people when He gives us the opportunity. Our “natural goodness” does not recommend us to God. Philippians 2 shows Paul explaining that he was zealous for the law, but all those good works were rubbish, filthy rags. It was when he met Christ and was born again that his actions began to flow from the life God gave him and were the works of God.
It is part of our calling as believers to help people understand who we are by nature. Sometimes it helps to start with Genesis and show how God made Adam and Eve and how they sinned and died spiritually. That death is what we all inherit and is the thing that only Jesus can overcome and reverse. (See Ephesians 2:1–10).
We have to help people understand that the power that created the things in nature is the God who made us, and He demands our worship. Pagans worship the created things that seem powerful, like the sun, moon, and spirits, but those things are creations. They are not the intelligent power that caused all things to exist. Creation reveals the intelligence that designed all things—including us—and His existence is eternal. He has provided a way for us to be with Him.
We really can help those people understand by showing/reading to them the words of Scripture.
The best way to “sell” this paradigm of reality is to help them read the Bible. For example, begin with Genesis and see how God revealed Himself to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob. Read Job and see how God revealed to Job that He was SO much bigger and more sovereign than even righteous Job understood. Read Isaiah 53 to show them how Isaiah prophesied that a Savior would come to bear the sins of all mankind. Read through the gospel of John together. John reveals who Jesus is and how He came to take the sins of the world.
Scripture is God’s word, and it is living and active. If you read Scripture with your unbelieving loved ones, God will work in ways you can’t “see”. He is faithful and does not allow His word to return to Him empty.
Ask the Lord where to start and to give you opportunities to speak. Ask Him to give you the words He wants you to say. He will guide your conversations. He knows how to reveal Himself. And read the Bible together! †
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