How You Can Know for Certain You’re Going to Heaven — John 5:24
“Most assuredly, I say unto you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” (John 5:24) I was a senior in college and it had only been a few months since I had heard about […]
Saturday Mornings: The Rough Road of a Carnal Christian
By Luis C. Rodriguez It was a Saturday morning, but it could have been any morning. A night out drinking, smoking, shooting pool, laughing. Now a terrible hangover. I hurt inside. And I could see that I was hurting the people I loved and the God who had saved me. This was painful-to think that […]
Absolute Certainty or Acceptable Doubt?
When I became a Christian I was taught that I could know for sure that I was eternally secure in God’s love. I was taught that assurance of salvation meant the certain knowledge that no matter what happened in the future I was a member of God’s forever family. Today, however, some who believe in […]
Not Everyone Who Says “Lord, Lord” Will Enter the Kingdom: Matthew 7:21-23
21 Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in […]
FREE, Not Cheap
By Brad McCoy The idea that salvation from hell is a totally free gift is often ridiculed today. Many suggest that eternal salvation is very costly to us. They encourage people to whom they witness to count the cost of becoming a Christian. However the Scriptures clearly and repeatedly speak of eternal salvation as a […]
John MacArthur’s The Gospel According to Jesus A Review
MacArthur’s book hits four main issues: assurance, faith, repentance, and the relationship between salvation and discipleship. Assurance While he never says it in so many words, MacArthur does not believe in assurance. That is, he thinks that no one can or should know with certainty that he is saved. He suggests that it is healthy […]
Knowing God By Our Works? – 1 John 2:3-11
“Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3) Recently I was on a radio talk show and a caller asked me to explain how 1 John 2:3 could fit my view that salvation is a free gift and that assurance is based not on looking to […]
Salvation and Assurance on the Death Bed
By Alfy Austin The room was typical: two beds, some chairs, a privacy curtain between the beds, a TV, and some IV stands. The patient I had come to visit had been a devout Roman Catholic all of his seventy-seven years. He was dying and he knew it. Death could come at any moment. Fear […]
Homosexuals and Salvation
Ask anyone the following question and you will have a good idea of their view of the gospel: What would you tell a practicing homosexual that he had to do to be saved? Many today suggest that ongoing homosexuality is a sin for which there is no forgiveness. Many people today believe that a practicing […]
The Parable of the Four Soils: Do the Middle Two Soils Represent Believers or Unbelievers? – Matthew 13:20-22
In Matthew 13 we read these words of Jesus Christ concerning two undesirable types of soil: 20But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21Yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or […]