The Danger of False Assurance: Can a Saved Person Go to Hell?

Posted on 08/16/2024 by Paul Pavao

Assurance

We like to assure a new convert that they have eternal life. We point them to verses like John 6:47 and 1 John 5:13

Most certainly, I tell you, he who believes in me has eternal life. (John 6:47)

 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:13)

These seem conclusive, right? If a person believes that Jesus died for their sins, then they have eternal life. Eternal life is forever, so how could someone possible lose it.

The problem is that quoting those two verses ignores most of the other things that John wrote in his Gospel and first epistle. For example, do you tell a new convert that if they don’t keep Jesus’ commandments, they don’t know God? (1 Jn. 2:3-4). Do you tell them that if they hate any other Christian, they will be a murderer, and no murderer has eternal life? (1 John 3:15). These are  two of the things among “these things” that John wrote to us in 1 John to let those who profess faith in Jesus Christ know whether they are really Christians.

Note: Let’s pause here to define “we.” For me, “we” means a lot of people I know and have fellowship with, including some pastors. There are, of course, a lot of pastors and Christians who do not pull John 6:47 and 1 John 5:13 out of context, just as there are a lot of pastors and Christians who do. “We,” then means, “If the shoe fits, wear it, quit taking Paul and John out of context, and look at what the Bible really says about assurance.”

Okay, with “we” out of the way, let’s talk about assurance. John 6:47 and 1 John 5:13 and not “assurance” verses unless you are loving the family of God, keeping Jesus’ commandments, and NOT loving the world (1 Jn. 2:15-17). There is an assurance passage in 1 John, though:

My little children, let’s not love in word only, or with the tongue only, but in deed and truth.And by this we know that we are of the truth, and persuade our hearts before him,because if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.Beloved, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have boldness toward God;so whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight.This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he commanded.He who keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him. By this we know that he remains in us, by the Spirit which he gave us. (1 Jn. 3:18-24)

There is another assurance verse in 2 Peter 1:10:

Therefore, brothers, be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble.

In 2 Peter 1:10, “these things” refers to virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love from verses 5-7. He had already told his readers that if  those things are in them and increasing, they would be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus (2 Pet. 1:8). In verse 10, he is telling them to be diligent to “make … sure” of their being called and chosen by “doing these things.” In fact, in verse 11, he tells them that this is the way to have an abundant entrance into Jesus’ kingdom.

Just as a note, we like to talk about “going to heaven,” a term the New Testament never uses. Instead, it uses terms like “inheriting the kingdom” (Gal. 5:19-21; Ephesians 5:5). If the writer is not John but, say, Paul or Matthew, then they might also say “be repaid with eternal life” (Rom. 2:7) or “reap eternal life” (Gal. 6:8) or “enter into eternal life” (Matt. 25:46).

If you really want to know about “going to heaven,” and you don’t have those important passages memorized, you should look of the context of these verses and find out what you have to do to inherit the kingdom and be rewarded with eternal life.

Of course, you can also do what a lot of Christians do and go find verses that something different than the ones I quoted, probably out of context like John 6:48 and 1 John 5:13, and stand on those verses against the ones I used. Of course, this announces to everyone around us that the Bible contradicts itself and, in the end, you won’t get eternal life because you ignored the warnings of the New Testament.

Saved But Not Yet Saved

If you think that, for the most part, American pastors are teaching “the whole counsel of God,” then you will be shocked at what I am about to write. On the other hand, since the Bible teaches it directly and clearly, you should be able to overcome your surprise.

Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life. (Rom. 5:9-10)

As you can see in this passage, no matter what your pastor thinks and no matter who else you’ve listened to, there is a salvation that is in the future for a Christian. Yes, we “are now” justified and “were” reconciled to God, but we “will be” saved from wrath. The “were” part was accomplished by his death, and the “will be” part will be accomplished by his life … if we walk in it.

Paul wrote:

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me. (Gal. 2:20)

When Paul said in Romans 5:10 that we will be saved by “his life,” this is surely what he is talking about, Jesus’ life at work in us. He adds in Colossians:

Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory. (Col. 3:2-4)

So Paul is telling us that by letting Jesus live through us we can be saved from wrath in the future. This may not be what you have been taught, but I trust that it makes sense to you. John quotes Jesus in John 15:

I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. (Jn. 15:5-6)

Here Jesus says just what Paul said. If we have been grafted into the tree that is Christ (Rom. 11:17). As long as you remain in him, you have life and bear much fruit. Separate from him, and you wither. Eventually, you will be thrown into a fire to be burned up as useless.

The assurances you have been given that people with eternal life possess it eternally is a false promise. It is the life itself that is eternal. Your possession of it is contingent upon you remaining in Christ. John tells us:

The testimony is this, that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has the life. He who doesn’t have God’s Son doesn’t have the life. (1 Jn. 5:11-12)

As long as we remain in him, we have eternal life. If we don’t, then we no longer have the life because we are no longer attached to the vine.

It is important that we switch to different wording here. The Bible uses many different phrases for remaining in him.

Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let’s not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don’t give up. (Gal. 6:7-9)

Here the apostle Paul talks about sowing to the Spirit. This is the same thing as remaining in him because it is by the Holy Spirit that we will bear fruit in the same way that if we remain in him we will bear fruit. Paul discusses the fruit of the Spirit just a little earlier, in Galatians 5:22-23.

He also gives some different terminology about remaining in Jesus. In between those two passages, he tells us, “If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25). This is the rough equivalent of saying, if you were attached to the vine that is Christ, remain in the vine. He says it even one more way in his letter to the Colossians:

You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him, if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard. (Col. 1:21-23)

In other words, we were separated from God (“alienated”), but through Jesus’ death we were reconciled to God, just as we read in Romans 5:9-10. Now, just as we were reconciled to God by faith in his blood, so we continue steadfastly in that faith, and the life of Christ will bring us spotless before the judgment seat of Christ on the last day.

What does walking in the Spirit, sowing to the Spirit, remaining in Christ, and continuing steadfastly in the faith look like? Paul has given us a practical clue in Galatians 6:7-9, though I did not stop to emphasize it when I quoted it:

Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let’s not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don’t give up.

Continuing steadfastly in the faith looks like not growing weary in doing good.

The Judgment According to Works

We are talking about continuing in the faith so that we can appear before Jesus blameless on the last day. Paul ties this idea to not growing weary in doing good in Galatians 6:8-9. He says this even more clearly in Romans 2:7:

[God] will pay back to everyone according to their works: to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life. (Rom. 2:6-7)

In Galatians 6:8-9, Paul tied sowing to the Spirit and not growing weary in doing good to reaping eternal life. Here he tells us that God rewards eternal life to those who persevere in doing good.

Just in case this is so far outside your theology that you’re having a hard time comprehending how I could even suggest these things, I do want to point out that the World English Bible translation puts “will pay back to everyone according to their works” in quotes and cites Psalm 62:12 and Proverbs 24:12 as the sources Paul is quoting.

It will also help you to look at what the Bible means by good works, just how thoroughly God has equipped us for good works, how many times the apostles warn us of a judgment by works, and finish with the most helpful question you can ask about the final judgment.

What Does the Bible Mean by Good Works?

It is easy to miss the Bible’s emphasis on those in need. James, the Lord’s brother, wrote:

Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (James 1:27)

I suppose it would be possible to use just this one verse to describe what the Bible means by good works. Jesus told us about the final judgment, talking about the day he would come back in his glory, his holy messengers with him. (The Greek word for “angel” actually means messenger. Many times, but not always, the word is used of heavenly messengers, but it does not mean heavenly messenger; it just means messenger.) He is going to divide the sheep and the goats before him, reward the sheep with eternal life and an inheritance in the kingdom, and he is going to send the goats into eternal punishment (Matt. 25:31-46).

Jesus had only one criterion for separating the sheep from the goats. The sheep helped those in need (by feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, sheltering strangers, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick and imprisoned); the goats did not. It was as simple and final as that.

That jibes with James’ statement that true religion is visiting the widows and orphans in their distress, though Jesus covered other needs in Matthew 25. God spoke in a similar way through Isaiah:

Wash yourselves. Make yourself clean.
Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes.
Cease to do evil.
Learn to do well.
Seek justice.
Relieve the oppressed.
Defend the fatherless.
Plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:16-17)

This is such a big deal that the Holy Spirit says in Proverbs, “He who has pity on the poor lends to the LORD; he will reward him.”

I think you get the point, but James did not just talk about visiting widows and orphans. He also said to remain unspotted by the world.

If I were to fully delve into this, I could fill pages with warnings. Some of that will be covered in the warnings about the judgment, but I want to address the main point James is making. There is a kingdom of darkness, and there is a kingdom belonging to God’s beloved Son, Jesus (Col. 1:13). The two are very different:

Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship do righteousness and iniquity have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what portion does a believer have with an unbeliever? What agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God and they will be my people.” Therefore, “Come out from among them,and be separate,” says the Lord. “Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you. I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,” says the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (2 Cor. 6:14-7:1)

Once again, when Paul says we must be separate from the world in order to belong to the Lord Almighty, he is quoting the Old Testament, Isaiah 52:11 to be specific. God’s judgment did not change when Jesus died. God was merciful even before Jesus died. The problem is that God’s judgment is and always has been reserved for the righteous, the ones who are at least trying to do his will; the ones who loyally adhere to him and honor his name. Jesus did not die so that God would be more merciful to the unrighteous. No, God’s mercy was perfect in the Old Testament. Even then God “freely pardoned” the repentant (Isa. 55:7).

God has and had no need. Jesus did not die so that God would be nicer to us. He died so that we would be nicer to God; he died to purify us and make us zealous for good works, the repentant righteous that he freely pardons (Titus 2:11-15).

By the way, the last verse of that passage tells Titus, and all who would teach the truth after him to say these things and exhort and reprove with all authority, letting no one despise us.

God Has “Thoroughly” Equipped Us for Good Works

Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

God is focused on transforming us into doers of good. We talked earlier about remaining in Jesus, walking in the Spirit, sowing to the Spirit, and living by the life of Jesus. All those things equip us for doing good so that we are the ones who “persevere in doing good” and are rewarded with eternal life.

We just saw that the purpose, or at least one purpose, of the Scriptures is to thoroughly equip us for every good work. He gave us a lot more to equip us for good works, though. I like to think that the following list is what Peter was talking about when he said, “[God’s] divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3).

  • Grace breaks sin’s dominion over us (Rom. 6:14), and teaches to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts (Tit. 2:11-12)
  • By grace, which we receive and stand in by faith (Rom. 5:1-2), we have been saved, meaning we were created in Christ Jesus for good works even though we used to be dead in our sins (Eph. 2:1-10).
  • Jesus’ death purified us from all unrighteousness and bought himself his own people, zealous for good works (Tit. 2:13-14).
  • We assemble as a church in order to stir one another to love and good works (Heb. 10:24-25). Not only this, but we “exhort”* one another daily so that our heart are not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

*“Exhort” in the New Testament is parakaleo in Greek, a really big word that can mean everything from “plead with” to “console” to “rebuke.” This makes it difficult to translate in a context like Hebrews 10:24-25. I tell people that 1 Thessalonians 5:14 explains what the Bible means when it tells us to exhort one another: “We exhort you, brothers: Admonish the disorderly; encourage the faint-hearted; support the weak; be patient toward all.”

I think I would be remiss not to add:

  • “God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to you first to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your wickedness.” (Peter, Acts 3:26)
  • For to this end Christ died, rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. (Rom. 14:9)
  • He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again. (2 Cor. 5:15)
  • [Jesus] gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. (Tit. 2:14)

The above lists make it clear why God is just to judge us by our works. He has thoroughly equipped us to do them and to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust (cf. 2 Pet. 1:3-4).

A List of Warnings About the Judgment by Works

I am going to give you two things in this section: the list the title promises and a paragraph on the “pre-judgment” of the seven churches of Revelation, chapters 2-3.

  • Don’t marvel at this, for the hour comes in which all who are in the tombs will hear [the Son of Man’s] voice, and will come out; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.
  • But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God; who will pay back to everyone according to their works: to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life; but to those who are self-seeking, and don’t obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath, indignation, oppression, and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
  • For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. (2 Cor. 5:10-11a)
  • If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear, knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ. (1 Pet. 1:17-19)
  • I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them. I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened books. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. The sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. They were judged, each one according to his works. Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.

In the context of this article, it might seem strange or ironic that I would suggest the most thorough exposition of the judgment, by God himself through Ezekiel, as a comfort.

“If the wicked turns from all his sins that he has committed, and keeps all my statutes, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live. He shall not die. None of his transgressions that he has committed will be remembered against him. In his righteousness that he has done, he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” says the Lord Yahweh; “and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?

“”But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, should he live? None of his righteous deeds that he has done will be remembered. In his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them he shall die.”

This reminds me of 2 Peter 3:9, that God does not want anyone to perish, but rather to come to repentance.

Perhaps the best examples of the final judgment, the one we will all face on the last day, are Jesus’ letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor in Revelation 2-3. You can see in those letters both the “severity and goodness” (Rom. 11:19-22) of Jesus, whose judgment and mercy are just like his Father God.

And finally, I gift you with John Chrysostom’s explanation of Romans 6:22-23. I am confident it will stir your heart, as it did mine, and you will thank me for this final section.

The Most Helpful Question You Can Ask About the Final Judgment

The most helpful question you can ask about the final judgment is: If we have to do good works to receive eternal life, then how is it a gift? (Rom. 6:23)

Romans 6:22-23 is an intriguing, maybe even confusing passage. It reads:

But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Verse 22 says that eternal life is the result of holiness (sanctification), which is the fruit of becoming a servant of God, which is made possible by being freed from sin. Verse 23 says that eternal life is a gift. (Adding “free” in front of “gift,” is a controversial translation that I am not qualified to comment on. My discussion is not affected by whether charismata is translated “gift” or “free gift.”)

In the past, I was puzzled by the seeming contradiction between 6:22 and 6:23. When I found out that John Chrysostom, a fourth-century preacher nicknamed “Golden Tongue” for his brilliant teaching, I went straight to these verses to find out his take. I am not going to quote him, but you can read the 1890s translation of his sermon at ccel.org.

What I was missing was that it was a gift that God freed us from sin! As Ephesians 2 teaches, we were transformed from being dead in our trespassed to being created in Christ Jesus to do good works by grace, through faith, not of ourselves, not of works, but as a gift from God.

Chrysostom beautifully explains what a relief it is to be freed from sin, what a joy it is to be in God’s service, and what pleasure the fruit of holiness brings to us in the presence of the Lord. The wages of sin may be death, but eternal life cannot be called a wage. Yes it is a reward for overcoming the world without defiling ourselves, but we accomplished this by great and precious promises that allowed us to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust and, an even greater gift, allowed us to be partakers of God’s divine nature!! (2 Pet. 1:3-4).

No, eternal life is not a wage, but a gift rewarded to us for receiving a previous gift: freedom, the Holy Spirit, Jesus as our elder brother, God as our Father and the one who favors us. We have bold access to the Throne of Favor (“grace” means “favor”), where we get mercy and favor to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16).

Okay, I’m off to meditate on and bask in the marvelous provision of Jesus Christ and the blessed presence of both God and Son that we enjoy by the Holy Spirit. (Those are shouting words!)

Posted in Bible, Dealing with Scripture Honestly, Evangelicals, Gospel, Holiness, Modern Doctrines, Protestants, Rebuilding the Foundations, Teachings that must not be lost | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

What if we were to go and obey 2 Corinthians 6:14-18?

Posted on 07/06/2024 by Paul Pavao

Paul did not write 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 in order to get the churches to pretend that worldly people are actually the children of God. He wrote that passage in order to tell us to get the people who make no effort to live the Sermon on the Mount out of the church. The church in Rome has not done that since Constantine embraced the Church and the Church embraced Constantine. Yes, they have tried to make whole cities and whole civilizations Christian, but that cannot be done. Instead, they have churches with liturgies that people go through, but their lives are no different than the world. Usually those are a large percentage of attendees, far more than half, just like in Protestant and Orthodox churches because we refuse to obey the Bible.

When I say refuse to obey the Bible, I mean getting the sons of Belial, ,unbelievers, those living in darkness, etc. out of the church (2 Cor. 6:14-18) and refusing to make a way for the saints to provoke one another to love and good works and encourage one another in the assemblies (Heb. 10:24-25). We could start with doing that. Paul said to get the wickedness out from among you (1 Cor. 5), and John said the difference between the children of the devil and the children of God is apparent because the children of God love each other but do not love the world and obey Jesus’ commands (1 John).

Posted in Bible, Church, Dealing with Scripture Honestly, Modern Doctrines | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Bible’s Contradictions and Errors Are Inspired

Posted on 07/03/2024 by Paul Pavao

In this post, I am not arguing against the Bible, but for it. If we believe the Bible is inspired by God himself, we should receive its words as they are rather than as we wish they were. When you deny the contradictions and errors in the Bible, you are not defending it but changing the message God sent to us.

I have been reading through the Gospels, and once again the contradictions between the birth stories in Matthew and Luke stand out. Matthew has Joseph and Mary living in Bethlehem. When the wise men arrive, they go to Joseph’s house, not to a manger. When they leave without visiting Herod, Herod has all the children under 2 years old in Bethlehem put to death. Joseph and Mary avoid this by going to Egypt. When Herod dies, they return to Israel, but when they find out Herod’s son is reigning, they go to Nazareth. This prompts Matthew to say that this trip to Nazareth fulfills a prophecy, one which is unknown to us, that Jesus would be called a Nazarene.

Luke, on the other hand, has Joseph and Mary living in Nazareth when she become pregnant. They only go to Bethlehem because of a census. The census is another historical item that is unknown to us. The census Luke describes happened in A.D. 16, some 20 years after Jesus was born. After he is born, they wait the requisite 33 days to offer their sacrifices, and then they go back to Nazareth.

There is no reconciling these two stories despite all the efforts to do so. Christian historians have looked under every rock to find historical evidence that there was a census ordered by Quirinius during Herod’s reign. They’ve found nothing more than speculation.

Most pastors and teachers will never bring up these facts to you, but I love and honor and believe the Bible more than they do. I will not change it, not even to be delicate with your faith. I want to believe, and I want you to believe, the Bible as God gave it to us. If you do, here is what you can learn.

The Bible is not for carnal minds. God was not and is not trying too get hardened, lost souls to be so impressed by the scientific and historical accuracy of the Bible that they have to believe. The Bible is for spiritual minds. It is infused with spiritual truths that rush into the heart of his own and burst forth in revelation and power. That power drives away sin and produces obedience. The Bible was written so that we can be “thoroughly equipped for every good work,” not so that we can get a theology degree.

In the early third century, Origen was widely regarded as the greatest Christian teacher of his time. He had this to say about “impossibilities and incongruities” in the Bible:

But if in all instances of this covering the logical connection and order of the Law had been preserved, we would certainly not believe … that anything else was contained in it except what was indicated on the surface. So for that reason, Divine Wisdom took care that certain stumbling blocks—interruptions—to the historical meaning would take place. He did this by introducing into the middle [of the narratives] certain impossibilities and incongruities. (De Principiis, Bk. IV, ch. 1, par. 14)

Origen’s argument is that God does not want to reveal the deep mysteries of his word to lazy Christians, but only to those hungry to learn. Thus, he introduces a historical narrative impossibilities and contradictions in the text to indicate to the spiritual and diligent that we need to dig deeper and find the the spiritual mysteries God wants us to know.

The reality we must face is that as hard as Christians and their pastors, theologians, and scholars have tried, there is no sensible way to reconcile the birth stories in Matthew and Luke. Origen (and I) would argue that this is not a mistake that you need to help God correct. You should accept the Bible for what it is, not what you wish it were. God has something deeper or more to tell us than where Joseph and Mary lived before he was born.

I would suggest that he wants us to understand the fullness of what Joseph and Mary went through. I think he wanted us to focus on the fact that Jesus is the Savior of the wise and ignorant alike. The wise may seek him by signs, by research, by insight. The poor and ignorant, on the other hand, get a majestic revelation from heavenly messengers glowing with unearthly light.

Jesus focused on the poor, declaring that revealed his praise through babies and nursing children. He confounded the wise, and Paul announced that God uses the foolish of the world to confound the wise (1 Cor. 1:27). The rich and wise can seem to be left out, and in the Epistle of James can even seem to be condemned. Matthew’s birth story, though, gives hope that if the wise are diligent, and if they can divest themselves of their riches for the Christ, then they too can be saved (cf. Matt. 19:23-26).

There is probably much more to be discovered beneath the contradicting birth stories of Matthew and Luke but, unfortunately, I have little help in finding it because my brothers and sisters are wasting their time trying to rectify historical details that God has no regard for.

We must not be so faithless as to think that we must hide or be deceitful in order to defend God or the Scriptures. We do not.

Posted in Bible, Dealing with Scripture Honestly | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Interpreting Paul’s Epistle to the Romans

Posted on 06/30/2024 by Paul Pavao

I wrote this on Facebook today:

How can you correctly interpret Romans if you don’t believe its foundational precepts? “Those who practice such things are worthy of death” (1:32) and “to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, [God will repay” eternal life” (2:7).

Romans is about the miraculous provision God makes to turn sinners into obeyers, not the way Jesus turned his Father from justice to mercy.

God’s justice and mercy were always perfect. He did not and does not need salvation. We, on the other hand, practice such things as are worthy of death, so Jesus ransomed and purchased us so that we could be created in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:10) to persevere in well-doing.
Romans 14:9: “For to this end Christ died, rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”

In between 2:7 and 14:9, Paul did not switch to the subject of saving us from God’s justice by appeasing his wrath. No, we can only appease God’s wrath by Christ living in us throughout our lives (Rom. 5:9-10; Eph. 5:3-7).

Maybe the best way to try to verify what I have written here is to read Romans 8:1-13, but chapters 5 and 6 are clear on this matter as well.

Posted in Bible, Dealing with Scripture Honestly, Gospel, Modern Doctrines, Verses Evangelicals Ignore | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

News and New Articles

Posted on 06/18/2024 by Paul Pavao

It’s been a minute since I updated this blog. Today I’ll give you the links for my most recent Christian-history.org posts and news about things I’m doing.

New Articles on Christian-history.org

A few weeks ago, I posted “I Desire Mercy and Not Sacrifice”. I also made it a book. I tested out Kindle’s new AI audio book maker as well. I liked the AI voice well enough, though I was not able to get it to pronounce everything perfectly, nor always emphasize the right words in sentences. Maybe someone who can get it for free with their audible account can let me know how it sounds. (I published the paperback, too, but then unpublished it because it costs too much in its current form.)

For those of you who write, listening to that AI voice was a great help with editing. Typos stood out, and it was easy to notice sentences that needed to be worded better.

I also wrote “A Primer on Salvation from Sin, Wrath, and Evangelical Theology, Part 1.” I really struggled with whether to use the provocative title, but in the end, I thought it was accurate. So I went with it. It is much shorter than “I Desire Mercy and Not Sacrifice.”

On the other hand, “Can I Lose My Salvation” is longer than the “Mercy” article! It too will become a book. It will be the second in a series of booklets called “Teachings That Must Not Be Lost.” I am working on the draft of “The Tradition About Tradition” (working title) as well. It should be the third in that series followed by a booklet on the Law of Moses for Christians.

News

It definitely appears that my old URL, ancient-faith.com, is lost forever. I have made my peace with that. I also lost all my 2022 and 2023 posts, but the “Wayback Machine” can find them so I can download and repost them.

I am making an attempt to start a theology/discipleship course. I have rented a booth at an indoor flea market locally. I am going to sell my books and a few others there. Mostly, though, I am going to do my best to market the teachings that are in my book Rebuilding the Foundations, and advertise the course. Hopefully, I will get 3 or 4 people to want to take the course and help me develop it. I much prefer the question and answer teaching method or discussion method anyway, so we can develop the course together lesson by lesson as we learn. After that, I’ll publish the course on my web site and on YouTube.

That is the plan anyway. I feel like the best thing I have to offer is an honest approach both to interpreting the Bible and to examining myself as a Christian. The best way to communicate those two things are in person. It is not uncommon for people that I teach in person to comment on how honestly I research and for them to “relax and be real” about where they are in Christ so they can go forward in devotion and submission to him.

For those of you who still follow this blog, stay in touch! Comment and question as much as you would like. I often have great conversations by email (paul@christian-history.org) with readers.

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Jesus Triumphantly Rescued Us! Atonement by Ransom

Posted on 04/30/2024 by Paul Pavao

From a comment I put on Facebook:

It was not until yesterday that I realized the full import of Ephesians 1:7 and Colossians 1:14. Both are saying we have been released because we were ransomed by his blood (Gr. apolutrosis), so that we now have aphesis (release/deliverance of) our trespasses. There’s a cool part about this I’ll put lower in this post.

The import of those Old Testament passages I gave (1 Sam. 15:22; Hos. 6:6; Ps. 51:16-17; Micah 6:6-8) is that God has always forgiven the righteous their occasional stumblings. Not many of us, however, were righteous, so God gave his Son to ransom us out of our slavery to sin (as described best, I think, in Ephesians 2:1-3). The purpose was mainly to make us righteous, and the result is that as people who do good, we are among the blessed to whom God does not impute sin (Ps. 32:2; Rom. 4:1-8).

According to Psalm 32:2, those are the people in whose spirit there is no deceit. This aligns will with 1 John 1:7ff, where those who walk in the light–exposing their deeds, good or bad, to God all the time (cf. Jn. 3:19-21)–have ongoing fellowship with one another and ongoing purification from sin.

The cool part I mentioned about the ransom is the parable of the strong man, whose house can only be plundered by one even stronger. Jesus gave himself as ransom in our place, but Jesus was stronger than Satan, bound him and plundered his house, then “triumphed over him in it” (Col. 2:15). The picture there is that he made a triumphal march, like a Roman general would, with his defeated enemies walking in chains behind him. Because he plundered Hades, its gates can no longer withstand the church.

If you liked this post, feel free to friend me on Facebook. If your cover photo is a beautiful girl, send a message as well as a friend request because I generally just delete those.

Posted in Early Christianity, Gospel, Modern Doctrines, Rebuilding the Foundations, Teachings that must not be lost | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Does Even the Slightest Sin Deserve Eternal Damnation?

Posted on 04/25/2024 by Paul Pavao

Calvinists like to quote James 2:10 to teach that even the slightest sin requires eternal damnation. Here’s my response from my book, Rebuilding the Foundations:

The passage is in James 2 and talks about showing favoritism to one another, yet Calvinists have made it the gold standard for God’s final judgment. It reads:

But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. (James 2:8-11)

This passage warns us not to favor one person over another because we are all lawbreakers, having violated God’s law in one way or another. It does not say that God will judge us for breaking one small point of the law; it says we should not judge one another because we are all lawbreakers.
James 2:8-11 teaches that any violation of the law makes you a lawbreaker. It does not say all lawbreakers deserve eternal damnation. In fact, it says nothing at all about eternal damnation, nor who deserves it.

There are passages that talk about what violators of the law deserve. A very good one is the story of the adulterous woman (John 8:3-11). Jesus was teaching a small crowd near the temple. The scribes and Pharisees broke into their gathering and threw a woman at his feet. They announced, “Teacher, we found this woman in adultery, in the very act.”

I am sure the sarcasm dripped from their tongues as they unknowingly confronted their Creator and future Judge. “Now in our law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do you say about her?”

Oddly, Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger. I have heard several guesses as to what he was writing, my favorite being the name of the Pharisees’ mistresses. My guess is that the hypocritical condemnation of this woman, the ignoring of the man that was with her, and the sneering tone of the arrogant Pharisees infuriated the Son of God, who was a man tempted in every way we are (Heb. 4:15). Writing on the ground, whatever he wrote, may have given him time to refrain from ‘un-creating’ them with a thought, dissolving their miserable hides into sub-atomic particles.

Whatever the reason, he wrote long enough to simply state, in so many words, “All of you who have not broken the law, you have the right to throw a stone at her.”

James 2:10 is right. We are all lawbreakers. Even the Pharisees, when Jesus called them on it, could not deny it.

We also find out, through Jesus, just what God thinks we lawbreakers deserve: a second chance. Or maybe it was a third chance … or a fourth … or a forty-fourth … or maybe the four-hundred-and-ninetieth (70 times 7; Matt. 18:22).

Jesus told her, “Woman, where are your accusers? Did no one condemn you? … Neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more.” (Jn. 8:10-11).

Here we have an actual case of how Jesus, and thus God, looks at adultery. Like all other sins, he forgives, and he asks the sinner to stop sinning. The people who aroused God’s wrath were the proud and hypocritical (Matt. 23).

Jesus gave us multiple examples of the way he, and thus his Father, judges. In his judgment, sinners need his physician-like skills to repent and become righteous (Luke 5:31-32).

****************

I am working on the cover of a new book called I Desire Mercy and Not Sacrifice. Whether or not Calvinists read my book, they should listen to that quote from both Hosea and Jesus, and  then they might not be so quick to condemn the innocent, nor the guilty.

I think the Kindle version of I Desire Mercy and Not Sacrifice is live.

Posted in Bible, Evangelicals, Gospel, Modern Doctrines, Protestants | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Tobit, Jesus, and the Breathtaking Power of Almsgiving from Within

Posted on 04/25/2024 by Paul Pavao

Jesus told the Pharisees, “But give that which is within as charity and, behold, all things are clean for you” (Luke 11:41, NASB with note).

Tobit says something similar: “For almsgiving saves from death and purges away every sin. Those who give alms will enjoy a full life, but those who commit sin and do wrong are their own worst enemies” (12:9-10). (I know we Protestants don’t read the Deuterocanonicals–the Apocrypha, the 7 books in the Catholic Bibles that are not in Protestant Bibles, but Tobit’s statement about almsgiving was well-known to the church fathers and the Protestant Reformers.)

Peter converted “almsgiving” to “love” and wrote, “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pet. 4:8).

We might all want to consider how generous we are, not only with our money, but with “that which is within,” especially to the poor.

Jesus said, “When you give a [a]reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they are unable to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:13-14).

Just WOW! Let me take this opportunity to recommend Matt Newman’s Good in the Hood, which talks about how to “give what is within” to the poor by drawing close to them like the Samaritan did to the bleeding man on the road to Jericho.

Posted in Gospel, Holiness, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Today’s Hodge-Podge: Messengers, Large Church Meetings, Archippus, and Apostolic Succession

Posted on 03/22/2024 by Paul Pavao

For those interested, I wrote this in an email in response to questions concerning Colossians 4:14, 16-17:

  1. For at least 150 years, perhaps longer, it was perfectly okay that the Sunday morning meetings grew large enough to need big meeting places, at least in the large cities, because the churches were still family. They took care of one another, shared possessions, visited one another house to house, etc. Having a big Sunday morning meeting in that culture is great. The day to day is fellowship is even more important than listening to pastors teach (Heb. 3:13; 10:24-25), so having big meetings on Sunday without the day to day fellowship is terrible, terrible, terrible. I don’t think that happened until pagans started rushing into the church, most unconverted spiritually, under Constantine. Unfortunately, that sort of public church never went away. It has lasted 1700 years.
  2. The answer to the question about passing on letters would be obvious if we translated the Greek word angellos. It means “messenger.” The “messengers” of the seven churches in Revelation 1-3 were the men responsible for sending and receiving letters on behalf of the church. It seems that every church had one. The 2nd century book, the Shepherd of Hermas, says that Clement was the messenger for Rome and was responsible for receiving the book and then deciding whether to pass it on to other churches.
  3. As for Archippus, we don’t know what his ministry was. We can’t be sure he was an elder, nor even that he was a shepherd in any way. Paul listed a lot of ministries in 1 Corinthians 12.

Apostolic succession: When Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Hippolytus talked about apostolic succession, they were refuting the gnostics. Apostolic succession is the passing down of the faith–also called the truth and the gospel–from generation to generation. To take that responsibility and turn it into a passing down of jurisdiction is to misuse what they taught. Yes, of course the passing down of the faith was from the elders to the next generation of elders and from a bishop to the bishop who succeeded him, but authority for a Christian is not the same as authority for the world. Christians in authority, our bishops and elders and whoever else, are to maintain the truth and serve the saints, training them to do the work of ministry (service). It is a sin to follow a sinner, so even if a man has apostolic succession, he has no authority except it come from his submission to God.

Posted in Bible, Church, Early Christianity, Gospel, History, History (Stories), Leadership | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Reconciling the Evangelical Paul with the Biblical Paul

Posted on 03/22/2024 by Paul Pavao

This is a re-issue of a 2023 post made on ancient-faith.com. A series of circumstances made me think I’d lose that URL, and I might. I do want to keep this blog alive, though, especially for saving things I’ve written on Facebook or by email.

It is common to think that we have to reconcile Paul with James. I suggest rather that we must reconcile the evangelical Paul, who believes that going to heaven has nothing to do with works, and the New Testament Paul, who wrote:

  • Eternal life is a reward for a pattern of good works (Rom. 2:6-7)
  • We have been reconciled to God, but we shall be saved from wrath through Christ and by his life (Rom. 5:9-10)
  • Eternal life is the result of holiness, which is the fruit of serving God (Rom. 6:22)
  • And, as one more thing to reconcile, in the very next verse, he said eternal life was a gift! (Rom. 6:23)
  • We “must” die if we live after the flesh, but we will live if we put to death the deeds of the body (Rom. 8:12-13)
  • Don’t be deceived! The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Examples of the unrighteous are the sexually immoral, homosexuals, thieves, greedy, drunks, and slanderers (1 Cor. 6:9-11)
  • That he himself disciplines his body so that he is not disqualified (1 Cor. 9:24-27). “Disqualified” (Gr. adokimos) is a word Paul contrasts with having Jesus Christ in you in 2 Corinthians 13:5
  • Immediately after saying he had to discipline himself so that he does not fail the test (an alternate translation of adokimos), he argues for 11 verses that the various failures of the Israelites in the wilderness were examples for Christians, then writes, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12)
  • We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad. Fear of this judgment causes Paul to persuade men (2 Cor. 5:10-11)
  • It’s possible to receive the grace of God in vain (2 Cor. 6:1)
  • We must come out from among them, be separate, and not touch the unclean think if we want the Lord to receive us (2 Cor. 6:17-18)
  • The Christians of Corinth must examine themselves to see whether they are really in the faith, Jesus is really in them, or if they are “disqualified” (2 Cor. 13:5)
  • Those who “practice” (Gr. prasso) the works of the flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal. 5:19-21)
  • Don’t be deceived! Sowing to the flesh will result in corruption, sowing to the Spirit will result in everlasting life, so we should not grow weary in doing good (Gal. 6:7-8)
  • The sexually immoral, unclean, and greedy don’t have any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Don’t let anyone deceive you about this! It’s because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience, so don’t partake in their deeds (Eph. 5:3-7)
  • Paul himself was leaving everything behind, counting everything loss, and pressing forward so that he know Jesus, the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering, so that by any means he might attain to the resurrection of the dead. Paul did not regard himself as having already taken hold (Php. 3:7-14)
  • God will present us holy, without defect, and blameless before him if we continue in the faith grounded and settled (Col. 1:22-23)
  • Paul sent Timothy to the Thessalonians so he could know their faith because he feared the tempter had tempted the Thessalonians and Paul, Timothy, and Silas’ work would have been in vain (1 Thes. 3:5)
  • Timothy should hold faith and a good conscience. Some, having rejected those, have had a shipwreck in regard to their faith (1 Tim. 1:18-20)
  • Timothy should pay attention to himself and his teaching. By continuing in these things [the things in 1 Timothy] he will save both himself and his hearers (1 Tim. 4:16)
  • Wealthy people should do good, be rich in good works, and willing to share. This will allow them to lay up a good foundation for the time to come so they can lay hold of eternal life (1 Tim. 6:16-18)
  • Grace instructs us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age, looking for the blessed hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, who died to redeem us from all lawlessness and purify a people zealous for good works (Tit. 2:11-14)
  • Titus is to affirm confidently than God’s people are to maintain good works (Tit. 3:8)
  • Finally, if Paul wrote Hebrews, as many believe, then there are many more verses associating works with “going to heaven,” such as Hebrews 3:14, which says that we are partakers of Christ only if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm to the end; Hebrews 6:6, which mentions falling away; and Hebrews 10:37-39, which tells us that those who shrink back will be destroyed. That is not even mentioning Hebrews 12:14, a cognate to Romans 6:22, which says that no one will see the Lord without holiness.

I should also point out that “go to heaven” is not biblical terminology. You will not find those words in the New Testament. Instead, Jesus and his apostles talk about inheriting or entering the kingdom and, as Jesus said, this will not happen unless we do the will of our Father in heaven (Matt. 7:21).

Despite the staggering list of verses above, which suggest or directly state, that eternal life is a reward for good works, the evangelical Paul was not made up out of whole cloth. Paul did say:

  • that we are saved by grace, though faith, not of ourselves but the gift of God, not of works so that we can not boast (Eph. 2:8-9).
  • that we are justified by faith and not by the works of the law (Rom. 3:28)
  • that we are not saved by works of righteousness which we have done, but by God’s mercy (Tit. 3:5)

How do we reconcile the Paul who wrote Ephesians 2:8-9 with the Paul who wrote Ephesians 5:3-7?

That question can be answered in one sentence: “Saved” does not necessarily mean “go to heaven.” Only “inherit the kingdom” always means “go to heaven.”

“Saved,” the Greek word sozo, is a big word with a lot of meanings, just as it is in English. Thayer’s lexicon lists danger, destruction, and disease as things we can be saved from as well as from “the penalties of Messianic judgment” (cf. Ps. 2:12). More to our point, Romans 5:9-10 gives a couple things we can be saved from:

Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.

When we are “now justified by his blood,” we are saved in a way that is best described by Ephesians 2:1-10. In verses 1-3, we are …

… dead in transgressions and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

Paul pulls out all the stops in these 3 verses. He is telling us just how bad our condition was before God “made us alive together with Christ” (v. 5). In verse 10, however, everything is changed:

We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

That is a huge change, from being dead in our sins to being God’s workmanship, created in King Jesus for good works. In verse 8, Paul rightly calls this being saved.

Hebrews warns us, though, that there is one more thing coming:

It is appointed for me to die once, then the judgment.

That judgment still awaits us, and it is still according to works. That is why Paul says, “We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, to receive the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10). It is also why Paul does not stop at “now justified by his blood” in Romans 5:9. He adds;

… we will be saved from God’s wrath through him.

Romans 5:10 is similar.

We were reconciled by Jesus’ death, but we will be saved by his life.

From Romans 5:10, I cannot help leaping to Galatians 2:20:

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.

If I let Jesus live through me, then I will be saved from God’s wrath through him and through his life. We are warned that God’s wrath is still in the future, and we are even told not to be deceived about it in Ephesians 5:6-7:

Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience. Therefore don’t be partakers with them.

You might be able to play with those words, but I cannot. I have been saved, made alive from my death in my sins and re-created in Christ Jesus to do good works, and I received that salvation by faith apart from works. Being enabled now by my new creation to do good works (Eph. 2:10), and knowing that the purpose of Jesus’ death was to ransom me from all lawlessness and to produce a people zealous for good works (Tit. 2:13-14), I am not at all surprised that God asks me to walk in that salvation, continuing in the faith, not moved away from it, but grounded and settled in it (Col. 1:22-23). I will sow to the Spirit and so reap eternal life (Gal. 6:8).

There is a sense in which the biblical Paul, the New Testament Paul, has two messages. We can be saved from the horrid state of slavery to sin by faith (Ephesians 2:1-10), and if we walk by the Spirit, we will do good and be rewarded with eternal life as a person who has patiently continued to do good in this present age (Romans 2:6-7; 8:1-13; Galatians 5:16-6:9).

Posted in Bible, Evangelicals, Modern Doctrines | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments