Introduction T/M
If next Sunday all the Christian preachers in America were to tell their congregations that when they were baptized in water they were crucified with Christ and raised with Him to the right hand of the Father, and now they are to live by Christ’s Life and to share His sufferings if they are to experience God’s salvation, it is possible over half the "believers" would leave their churches. They have their ticket out of Hell (they think) and that is all they want!
They have not been oriented properly to the Christian salvation.
For many years the church we are pastoring has been fulfilling the Great Commission. We have been going into all the world with our books and tapes, the Internet, E-mail, and sometimes by personal appearance or the personal appearance of members of our church, and have been making disciples. We have been teaching and exhorting people in many countries to obey the commandments of the Lord Jesus.
Go ye therefore, and teach [make disciples of] all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:19,20)
Let us state clearly our conviction that there is a literal Hell and there is a literal Heaven. The wicked are in Hell and the righteous are in Heaven, as far as we know. Let no one accuse us of being soft on Hell or sin. We are stricter than the average American preacher when it comes to presenting the fear of God and the need for righteous behavior. Neither are we diminishing in any manner the continuing need for worldwide evangelism.
What we will be stating in this brief article is that the purpose of the Christian salvation is not to deliver us from Hell apart from a change in our behavior, but to change our behavior so we no longer belong in Hell. There is an enormous gulf between these two perceptions of salvation.
We always have emphasized to our congregation the need to grow to maturity in Christ, that ministry of various kinds will emerge as we give ourselves wholly to the Lord. But some are suggesting our emphasis on maturity in Christ is an exercise in self-centeredness and passivity while the great and unfulfilled need is for us to press each member of the congregation to "get out and evangelize and save souls from Hell."
One aspect of this viewpoint is the idea that if all of us would go out and evangelize, our building would be filled with people, and large numbers of people (it is said) is a good thing regardless of any other consideration. It is maintained that from God’s point of view the more people we can persuade to "make a decision for Christ" the more God is pleased.
The question arose in our mind, "What is the source of this spirit that attacks the fulfilling of the Great Commission?—that is seeking to call us down from building the wall against sin?"
Part of the reasoning continually expressed is that since the Bible commands us to go forth and save sinners from Hell there is therefore no need to wait on the Lord in order to obtain His directions.
But we teach in our church that no aspect of ministry, no aspect of personal holiness, no aspect of judgment, and no aspect of decision making is to be conducted apart from the guidance and enablement of the Spirit of God. We strongly hold to the belief that waiting on the Spirit of God must become a supreme factor in our life and that no commandment of the Bible can be obeyed perfectly, completely, and eternally apart from the enablement of the Spirit.
We take nothing for granted but ask God about everything. (Remember the mistake Joshua made!)
We believe also that God is sovereign in His dealings with mankind. God is in control of every human being, including every Christian—and every sparrow for that matter. We do not have to rush about in distraction trying to save the world. But we do have to be strictly obedient to God’s Spirit as He draws people to Christ.
Our task is to faithfully obey the Spirit of the Lord every day. The Lord’s task is to add people to the Church (often using people as an instrument) according to His sovereign blueprint drawn up when He created the heavens and the earth.
We believe that the Word of God is a Seed that is sown by the Spirit of God. Fifty people may raise their hands and "make a decision for Christ." The number fifty is dutifully entered in the records.
King David got in trouble with God for numbering the people! Why do we persist in this practice when the Scripture stands against it? Such records may prove to be dangerous in the days of persecution that are ahead.
Of those fifty, one or two may follow on to know the Lord. However, there may have been others in the meeting who did not raise their hand but the Seed remained in their heart. Years later the Seed began to germinate and brought forth a great tree of righteousness. Why wasn’t this person entered in our records?
One plants and one waters but God gives the increase. The farmer doesn’t sow seed and reap the harvest in the same day!
We believe further that the goal of the ministries and gifts given to the Body of Christ is to build up each saint to the unity of the faith and to maturity as measured by the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Ephesians 4:13)
We believe yet further, from the prophecies of the Old Testament and the statements of the New, that as soon as the Body of Christ has become one in the Father and the Son, the nations of the earth will come to the Light of God in the saints and be saved. Therefore the hope of the salvation of the world is tied directly to the maturing of the members of the Body of Christ.
And the Gentiles [nations] shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. (Isaiah 60:3)
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. (John 17:21)
"That the world may believe"!
We are brought to maturity in Christ so the world may believe in Him—that He comes from God.
It takes time to stop and sharpen the axe, but in the end we get the wood chopped sooner.
We are writing this brief paper with the thought that there may be other faithful pastors and teachers who love their flock and enjoy ministering the Word of God to the people, sometimes to a handful of souls, who then are disturbed because their congregation is small or because they are not going out to "save souls from Hell."
In several other of our writings we have stressed that the goal of the Christian salvation is not eternal residence in the spirit Paradise in Heaven. The goal of the Christian salvation is to build a great house for God, the Church, in which He can find rest and through which He can govern, bless, teach, and be with the saved nations of the earth.
And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:2,3)
The Church has been called out from the world to be prepared to be the hand of God outstretched to the people of the world, not to flee to Heaven to live in golden mansions doing nothing of significance. This is a totally selfish viewpoint and misses entirely the Divine plan for the salvation of mankind.
If we have a true concern for the souls of men, then we will get on with the job of coming to maturity ourselves and bringing as many other people as we can to the fullness of the stature of Christ so that the Lord Jesus can return with us and break the chains of Satan that keep mankind in slavery to sin.
He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law. (Isaiah 42:4)
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4)
As we have said, we have taught in other booklets that the Scriptures, Old Testament and New, do not point toward Heaven as the eternal home of the saints. There certainly is an actual Heaven but the Scriptures do not teach that we shall live there forever. Search the Scriptures and see if what we are saying is true.
Now we have come to the other end of the problem—what we are saved from. If we are not saved to Heaven, then what are we saved from?
Let us think about some popular expressions that are not found in the New Testament:
Saved from Hell.
Save souls from Hell.
Save souls.
The unsaved.
A passion for souls.
A decision for Christ.
A desire to see souls saved.
A concern for souls.
A devil’s Hell.
We are not claiming that there is no Hell (there certainly is!) or that the concepts listed above are incorrect or not of God. What we are stating is that these expressions are not found in the Scriptures. Whether the phrases are right or wrong, we need to begin preaching and teaching what the Bible says and not what we think it says. Oftentimes a slight deviation from the words of the Scriptures indicates a serious alteration of the Gospel message.
Hell has never belonged to the devil. It is not a "devil’s Hell" in spite of the proclamation of the evangelists. It always has been and always will be God’s Hell. It is God’s prison where He confines the wicked of the earth. The Lord Jesus, not Satan, carries the keys of Hell.
I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (Revelation 1:18)
The expression "save souls from Hell" does not appear in any of Paul’s writings. In fact, the term "Hell" is not used in any of Paul’s writings.
How many times are the expressions "save souls from Hell" and "save souls" used in Christian preaching, and yet such terminology is not found in the Epistles?
Obviously our preaching in this area is unscriptural. In fact, a great deal of today’s preaching is not found in the Bible. Maybe its time to sharpen the axe. We need to rethink what we are talking about until our speech lines up with the Word of God.
The New Testament does not emphasize saving souls from Hell. It does warn us concerning the fiery Gehenna and the need for deliverance from destruction in the day of God’s wrath. However, both the Old Testament and the New Testament emphasize passing from spiritual death to eternal life!
We are supposed to be selling life insurance, not fire insurance.
"The soul that sinneth shall die," not the soul that sinneth shall go to Hell.
The "wages of sin is death," not the wages of sin is Hell.
We are on the wrong track in our thinking and preaching and we need to seek the Lord until we get back in line with the Word of God. We may think that death is a synonym of Hell but it is not.
We may think that eternal life is a synonym of Heaven but it is not. The Scriptures mean exactly what they say.
To save souls from Hell is not the Great Commission. The Great Commission is to go and make disciples, teaching them to obey the Lord’s commandments.
The urgency for missions is not based on the fact that souls are going to Hell. The urgency for missions comes when the Holy Spirit moves on the heart of someone, such as the Apostle Paul, and tells him what to do.
The reason we have departed from the Scriptures is that we are not hearing from God. We are trying to build the Kingdom of God in our own wisdom and strength. Such efforts always result in "Babylon," in man-directed Christianity.
There certainly is a Hell and the wicked will go there whether or not they believe in Christ. The emphasis on saving souls from Hell is misdirected. Let us proceed to explain, for no Christian teaching is worth anything unless it conforms to the Scriptures.