Kirjahaku

I once asked a lady, who shared with me her firm and considered opinion that everything happens for a reason, and that there is, therefore, a purpose for everything, what such a belief might suggest to her. She stood, searching in vain for an answer, and eventually conceded saying she did not know. I informed her that if there is a reason and a purpose for everything would that not strongly suggest to her that there is someone behind the reason and the purpose. Would this not only prove that there is a God, that there is a Grand Design, and, therefore, a Great Designer Who is in complete and Sovereign control over everything and everyone?

The grace of God and the mercy of God are life-changing, they are destiny-changing. Grace and mercy diametrically change a man's course of life from being on the broad way that leads to Hell, onto the narrow way that leads to Heaven. God changes things. Grace and mercy are words of hope, not of uncertain hope, not a hope based on what you do with them, not a flimsy, wishful thinking type hope, but a definite, reliable, trustworthy and promised hope. A covenant hope. A hope that can never disappoint. A hope that is sure and unwavering. A hope that is eternal. The Christian's hope is in the God of grace. The Christian's hope is not in the fact he has changed, but solely in the One Who has changed him. The Christian's hope is in God and His grace, and not at all in himself and any of his works. The Christian's hope is not in what he has done, but only in what God has done in him.

The grace of God and the mercy of God are life-changing, they are destiny-changing. Grace and mercy diametrically change a man's course of life from being on the broad way that leads to Hell, onto the narrow way that leads to Heaven. God changes things. Grace and mercy are words of hope, not of uncertain hope, not a hope based on what you do with them, not a flimsy, wishful thinking type hope, but a definite, reliable, trustworthy and promised hope. A covenant hope. A hope that can never disappoint. A hope that is sure and unwavering. A hope that is eternal. The Christian's hope is in the God of grace. The Christian's hope is not in the fact he has changed, but solely in the One Who has changed him. The Christian's hope is in God and His grace, and not at all in himself and any of his works. The Christian's hope is not in what he has done, but only in what God has done in him.

Jesus Christ is God is a treatise on the Deity of Jesus Christ, and the Trinity of God. Very few have a neutral response when they hear the name 'Jesus'. Billions upon billions have called on the name 'Jesus' for centuries, and yet few have ever known the true Person behind the name of the One Who would come and ..".save His people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). Many seek solace and refuge in the name 'Jesus', but few there be who know the Person and Work of the Man behind the name. Many derive great comfort and assurance in their lives simply because they call the one whom they worship, 'Jesus', and yet they will one day realise that to know His name and yet not know the Person behind the name, is to not know Him at all.

Despite a religious climate replete with false teachers and false teachings, most who name the name of Jesus are sincerely convinced in their belief that they have the truth and are truly born again heaven-bound Christians. Their lives are filled with Bible reading, Church-going, prayer times and many other religious exercises. They talk 'jesus' all day long and love to meet with others who 'love jesus', too. Yet there is one very peculiar trait common among most professing christians today and that is the very sad and disturbing fact that they cannot define and, in most cases, have never actually heard God's True Gospel.

The vast majority of professing christians are taught that in some way, and to some degree, what they do or do not do has some bearing on their ultimate and eternal destiny. They believe that what they do, or abstain from doing, is a contributing and determining factor to their attaining or maintaining salvation. In other words, they believe that their obedience and disobedience plays a major role in whether or not they get saved or stay saved. Most who name the name of Christ claim to believe that salvation is all of grace. But the reality of the situation is that most of them have no idea what true grace is and no idea of what salvation is and what it entails, because they have never been taught the truth.

There are so many different 'gospels' today, each presenting significantly different views about the Messiah (Who He is and what He has done), that clearly the questions which should be asked by everyone who professes to be a Christian (that is, a follower of Jesus Christ) are, "How will I know a false minister from a true one?" and "How can I know whether or not I have believed a false gospel or God's Gospel?" How is a man saved? How can we know if we are true Christians believing in the only Gospel that saves? What is God's only Gospel? Jesus Himself asked the religious leaders of His day, "...What think ye of Christ?..." (Matt. 22:42). These are vital questions about which every professing believer should be concerned. With all the lies that abound in our day concerning the Gospel and true salvation the question should not be whether we have faith but are we in THE Faith: "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in THE Faith..." (2 Cor. 13:5).

For many people, the doctrine of election is one that just does not make sense, for it appears to contradict the teachings that God is Love and no respecter of persons. It is even seen as a doctrine which shuts many people out of heaven who desired entry. Thus, it is concluded that the doctrine of election is just not fair; that God would be unjust to select only some people to show His grace and mercy towards, in granting the gift of salvation, and simply leave the rest to themselves, or worse still, consign them to hell. The real reason behind such a conclusion is the flawed foundation upon which these notions are based-a foundation which says that man is not dead in sin as a result of the Fall but is merely a wounded soul, with the ability and desire to seek and choose God, intact. The concept of 'free will' stands in eternal opposition to the doctrine of free grace.

How many Gospels? Just how many gospels are there that a person can believe, safely place their trust in, and rightly consider themselves saved of God? Five? Ten? Twenty? Or perhaps hundreds? Just how many gospels are there that God will lead a person to believe ie. grant the gift of faith to believe? How many gospels are there to which God signs His name and calls 'My power unto salvation'? These are questions that strike right at the heart of the whole issue of doctrine, of what the true Gospel is, and who it is that can rightly judge themselves saved. It is important to realise at the outset that what a person believes about Jesus provides an immediate indication of which jesus they believe in, and therefore which gospel they hold to.

God has given to His Son, Jesus Christ, a people of His own choosing, not according to anything they have done, but solely according to the will and purpose of God. The purpose in them being given to the Son is salvation. Christ would die for these, and these alone, and give unto them eternal life. These are the only people Jesus Christ has made atonement for; The only ones He became a curse for upon the Tree; The only ones whose sins were imputed to Christ and Whose Righteousness was/will be imputed to them. These are the same people who will be presented to the Father in a blessed state. All others were not given to the Son; they are not among those to whom Christ will give eternal life and therefore could not have been among those for whom He died and become a curse for on the Tree. They are not among those blessed of the Father, for they are declared 'cursed' on Judgement Day.

Most people today are taught that Christ Jesus died for every single individual ever born. Sadly, this teaching may be found just as surely in a Protestant assembly as in a gathering of Roman Catholics. Teachings such as these, primarily show an incredible amount of ignorance of what the True Gospel is and show a distinct lack of understanding by those who profess to be believers in churches today which claim to be preaching salvation, about atonement-what it is and who it was made for. What people are being taught about Jesus Christ and His atoning death upon the cross is a lie. The gravity of the situation cannot be emphasized too highly. To deny or to be ignorant of what Christ has done, is to deny Christ Himself. The True Redemptive Character of God and the True Atoning work of Christ have been, and continue to be, grossly misrepresented in churches today. They are not preaching God's Gospel, but a counterfeit in which there is no salvation.

A look at the questions and objections concerning the great Gospel of God, and the ramifications of not believing it, which its enemies have made. Not all the enemies of the great Gospel of God, the only Gospel I might add, which Scripture calls "the power of God unto salvation" (Rom. 1:16), overtly oppose the doctrines it contains. The opposition by those of the Arminian persuasion, who do overtly oppose the great Gospel doctrines which attribute all of salvation to the God of Grace leaving no room for man to boast, are not what we shall be discussing in this booklet. The kind of opposition we will be addressing comes from those people who proudly call themselves Calvinists, or Reformed Calvinists to be precise. These Calvinists claim to believe the doctrines we teach as the very doctrines of the Gospel taught in the pages of the Bible, but they draw the line when it comes to judging saved and lost by the Gospel, by the ramifications that are part and parcel of those doctrines.

It is seldom taught otherwise, in what is perceived by most to be Christian institutions, that Jesus Christ went to the cross and laid down His precious life for every individual in all the world. It is also taught that the door to salvation has been swung open by Christ and it is now up to each individual to make the choice to enter in or not. Such teaching alleges that the saved are a generation of choosers, not "a chosen generation" as the Scriptures clearly teach! (1 Peter 2:9). What has your acceptance got to do with this transaction done on your behalf? Your acceptance is not that which validates (gives legal force to) the transaction, IT IS THE PAYMENT MADE WHICH CANCELS THE DEBT! The popular belief is that Christ did not actually save anyone on the cross, but that He merely made salvation possible for all. The following is a vitally important study of: Jesus Christ the Savior: a) Why He is the Savior b) Whom He has saved c) How He has accomplished salvation.

A Scriptural rebuttal of the unfounded claims of those who say that no one knows what the Gospel of God is and that the Gospel of God is lost. Oftentimes when in the process of declaring the teachings of the Gospel of God, the doctrines of salvation by grace, one is met with the all-too-commonly heard phrase, 'That's just your opinion'. What does such an accusation really mean? What motivates the mindset of those whose reply to the Truth is, 'Well, that's just your opinion', or, 'That's just your point of view', or, 'That's just your interpretation'? What is the mindset behind them and is this way of thinking in accordance with Scripture, or does it stand in contrast to, and therefore in defiance of, Truth? This book will examine just exactly what a person is really saying and what the implications are of such comments, made after hearing the Gospel of God, as well as the consequences of such remarks.

The greater majority of people who profess to be Christian have been taught and, what's worse, have accepted, three of the biggest lies ever perpetrated upon the human race. These doctrines form the basis of what is commonly referred to as Arminianism. They are not what God's Word teaches, for they are contrary to His Word, and stand defiantly opposed to the Word of God, the Sovereignty of God, the Grace of God and the Blood of Christ. There are several variations to these three Arminian doctrines but basically the claims are as follows: (1) Man is not spiritually dead to God; (2) Man can choose God by his own free will; and (3) Christ Jesus the Lord died for every individual ever born. On these three doctrines, which are the foundational teachings of Arminianism, does the Arminian gospel stand, or fall. Our purpose here is to expose the gross error of these three particular dogmas, and how they have formed to become the elemental teachings of the most popularly accepted, yet corrupt, gospels of our day.

Those who are true believers in God's one and only Gospel are often confronted with the argument, 'Its just a doctrinal thing', when upholding the biblical standard that no one is saved who does not hold to the doctrine of Christ, which is His glorious Gospel. When it comes to the matter of Christ Jesus the Lord-Who He is and what He has done-doctrine is of immeasurable importance. It is a life and death issue that a person believes what GOD has testified of His Son, and not some man-made tradition, an imagination of man's mind concerning the Person and Work of Christ. This book will examine the statement, 'Its just a doctrinal thing' and explain why it is an assertion which is made in utter ignorance of the fact that when it comes to Who God is and which God/god one is believing and trusting in, doctrine can never be just a matter of opinion among equally saved people, or some irrelevant and inconsequential 'thing'.

Many have wondered why God did not simply list the doctrines which form His Gospel, the Good News of salvation by grace, in the Bible so that all the 'confusion' and conjecture of what exactly the Gospel is made up of would have been avoided. The doctrines of the Gospel are not in the eyes of the beholder, for they are in the Word of God. The confusion as to what exactly the doctrines are which make up the Gospel of God lies only in the minds of the unregenerate. Belief in a set of doctrines, or a doctrinal system, is important to many, but not the standard by which people like to judge saved and lost. To know the Gospel is to believe the Gospel is to preach the Gospel, and every facet of the Gospel is clearly spelt out in the glorious Word of God. Again, there exists no confusion in the Scriptures as to what the Gospel is, but only in the minds of the lost (see 2 Cor. 4:3).

Most people who are at all religious believe that invariably they are or will be saved. Most are under a fairly strong conviction that they know God and are known by Him, that God understands them and how much they have suffered on this earth and how much they have tried to be a good person by doing their best to lead a decent life, obey Him and attend church etc. They draw a certain comfort and security from their good intentions. They believe that God knows their heart and because of this they feel confident that He will not cast them into Hell. Just as most people never think they will end up a murder victim or die by shark attack so, too, most are convinced that they could never actually be one of those people who end up in hell. But people do get murdered, they do get taken by sharks and real people do go to Hell.

Everything has a beginning. Like all things in life believing, too, has a beginning. The Christian life has a beginning. Which begs the question, what is it that changes a man from non-Christian, a lost person, to a Christian, a saved person? What makes the difference? The fact of the matter is there is no Christian life before believing, and no believing without the Gospel of God. To be a Christian, a child of God, one must believe the Gospel of God. No one expects to be a Christian whose faith is in the Buddhist gospel and no one expects to be a Buddhist believing the Christian Gospel. So we see that to be a Christian one must believe Christ, one must believe HIS Gospel and no one else's.

The title of this book is the question which was posed to a number of pastors who come under the banner 'Reformed'. The reason for this question being asked was to discover and then examine what exactly men of high renown who lead people every Sunday to worship and who are trusted by hundreds, perhaps thousands of people, actually say the Gospel is. What do they say must be believed in order for one to be saved, and what do they say it is that if one does not believe it, one evidences a lost state regardless or how religiously zealous and morally upright one may be? Are they true Gospel preachers leading their flocks on the narrow way, or are they in fact blind leaders who are themselves deluded by, and promote, a false gospel which does not save but rather draws its listeners and believers onto the broad way that leads to destruction?