False religions throughout world history has men trying to earn favor with God by their own merit. They show God how much they are worth, and God chooses them above the others. When they do good works, God becomes their debtor and owes them eternal life. It is ironic, though, that the message of the Bible since the beginning of time has just the opposite. God tells his people to just put their trust in him. But instead, men have put their trust in their own works. They put their…
Category: Justification By Faith Alone
Are Tongues Necessary For Salvation?
The book of Acts records a number of occurrences of people being filled with the Holy Spirit and beginning to speak in tongues. Throughout church history, the debate has raged on about the nature of these tongues. Are they other human languages? Are they ecstatic gibberish, only comprehensible to the heavenly host? But the issue may be pressed further. If somebody speaks in these ecstatic tongues, do they have a deeper level of interaction with the divine than others? Are they more holy? Further even, are tongues necessary for salvation?…
Is The Sinners Prayer Biblical?
The Sinners Prayer is fairly common practice, especially among Baptist and Southern Baptist organizations wherein some evangelist will take people through a checklist; something like, “Do you know that you’re a sinner? Do you want to go to heaven? Do you believe that Jesus died for you? Do you want to accept him into your heart? Did you accept him into your heart?” So long as they answer yes at every station, the evangelist will declare them to be saved and that person will walk away thinking they have just…