Romans 11:6, “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.”
I am writing this defense of the Christian faith so that you may be indeed
“Rooted and built up in him [Jesus Christ], and stablished in the
faith” (Colossians 2:7). I was reading today from one of the best
and most helpful books available explaining genuine Biblical salvation. The
book is titled, I NEVER KNEW YOU by Michael Patrick Bowen, and I
highly recommend that you
buy several hard copies (Amazon.com link) to give to your pastor,
assistant pastor, missionaries and anyone who is teaching people about
salvation. This is what I have been doing.
Also, you should give a copy to your loved ones and friends if you value their eternal soul's destiny. This isn't child's play folks, although salvation only requires childlike faith in the Savior's death upon the cross for your sins, His burial, and His miraculous resurrection from the dead three days later. This is the gospel (good news) as proclaimed in 1st Corinthians 15:1-4, and there is NO other gospel.
1st Corinthians 3:11 says that no other foundation can be laid than Jesus Christ. The foundation has already been laid, and it is Christ. You cannot pour another foundation of water baptism, because the foundation has already been laid. You cannot pour another foundation of keeping the sacraments, because the foundation has already been laid. You cannot pour another foundation of turning away from sinful living, because the foundation has already been laid. Jesus Christ is the ONLY foundation! God rewards every believer who wisely builds upon the foundation of faith alone in Christ.
Anyone who says that you must stop sinning, make full surrender to Christ, forsake the world, intent to reform or declare “Jesus as Lord” of your life is teaching ANOTHER GOSPEL (an excellent book by Dr. Harry Ironside based upon 2nd Corinthians 11:4-5), which is not another, for there is only one true gospel.
Evangelist Billy Graham is undeniably one of
the most recognized figures in evangelical circles in the 20th century and
beyond. Tragically, churches all around the world have patterned their
ministry after Billy Graham's apostate religious institution, which includes
adopting Billy's perverted teaching of a grace + works fork-tongued kind of
gospel, which the Jehovah's Witnesses also teach.
Satan Wants You To Live A Christian Lifestyle
Satan's greatest weapon is to con people into living the Christian life without ever being born again! Billy Graham's website adds a bunch of extra requirements to be saved, requiring people to count the cost, surrender to Christ by a definite act of the will, and allow God to change your life. These are NOT Biblical requirements for salvation! Mr. Graham has confused discipleship with salvation.
Here are the heretical words of Billy Graham from his website. This is a false Gospel which cannot produce the new birth...
How To Be Sure You're Saved
First, you must recognize your need.
Second, you must understand the cross.
Third, you must count the cost.
He also said, “Which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost? … So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:28, 33).
Many people come to Christ without first counting the cost. The cost includes repentance, the forsaking of sin, and a continual, daily, open acknowledgment of Christ in your life.Fourth, you must take a definite step.
One day at Stanford University, a student of a non-Christian faith came to me and said he was convinced that Jesus is the Son of God but said he couldn’t confess Him publicly. He said that back in his own country the cost socially would be too great.
I had to tell him that the Bible says: “Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33).Like the rich young ruler of old, the student went away sad. He had counted the cost and was not able to pay the price of open acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as his Savior.
We ask people to make a public confession of Christ in our meetings because Christ demanded a definite commitment. Christ had reasons for demanding that people openly follow Him. He knew that an unwitnessed vow is no vow at all. Until you have surrendered to Christ by a definite act of your will, you are not a Christian.SOURCE: How to Be Sure You’re Saved | Decision Magazine | BGEA
Billy Graham has confused discipleship with salvation.
The apostle Paul writes to the saints in Rome (Romans 1:7). Paul pleads with the saints in Rome to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” to the Lord (Romans 12:1-2). Now if discipleship were required to be saved, then these people could not have been saints. The Bible tells us that Paul wrote (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) the book of Romans to the saints (meaning they were saved)...
Romans 1:6-8, “Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.”
Billy Graham is corrupted, big time! In the same article and link that I just shared with you, Graham teaches that the rich young ruler in Luke 18 “had counted the cost and was not able to pay the price of open acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as his Savior.” That is bull crap theology ladies and gentlemen. Would you please read John 12:42-43 with me, proving Mr. Graham a fraud... “Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”
You just read it! Many of the chief rulers believed on Jesus, but due to fear of being kicked out of the synagogue, DIDN'T tell anyone that they were saved. They hid their faith from others. According to Billy Graham's false Gospel, these men were not saved. According to Billy they weren't willing to pay the price of confessing Christ publicly, so they weren't saved. Isn't that a bunch of nonsense that Billy Graham is dishing out! Billy Graham is paid $633,722 a year, to lead people into the fires of Hell, by getting them to live the Christian life without being born-again!!! Ladies and gentleman, that is a false gospel of works salvation!!! Billy Graham is of the Devil.
In Luke 18 Jesus used the law the way it was intended to be used, that is, as a measuring stick to show this young man that he was not as perfect as he thought. The rich young ruler said to Jesus... ALL THESE [COMMANDMENTS] HAVE I KEPT FROM MY YOUTH UP! Jesus pointed out that he had failed to keep the commandment against covetousness! The Lord WASN'T giving him a plan of salvation; but rather, Jesus was using the law as intended to show the rich young ruler his sinnership, guilt of sin, and total inability to save himself. The END OF THE LAW IS CHRIST (Romans 10:3-4; Galatians 3:24-26).
Here is an excellent rebuttal by Michael Patrick Bowen from his book, “I NEVER KNEW YOU,” of Billy Graham's satanic false gospel that subtly teaches grace plus works for salvation. . .
yet he turns right around and says that we must make a 180-degree change in our direction, that it takes a lot of effort on our part to do these things, and that we should determine with all of our efforts to follow Christ.Billy says that we cannot earn our salvation no matter what we do, no matter how many good deeds we do, but immediately afterward he tells everyone that they must change their behavior, submit their inner wills to Christ, and to stop sinning. He gives verses that tell us to believe on Christ alone and that salvation is a free gift given to us the instant we believe, such as John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8-9,
He then says that we don’t have the power to follow Christ unless the Holy Spirit enables us to do so. Billy will then usually tell us again that we must commit our lives to Christ and that we must become practicing disciples of Jesus in order to be born again, but at the same time, he knocks everyone off balance when he turns right back around to tell his audience that salvation is free and that it is received by faith alone and that we cannot do a single thing to earn it. Then Billy demands again and again that we must quit sinning in order to be saved, but directly afterward he rotates back and forth from “quit sinning” to “you can do nothing of yourself to earn it.”
He says that salvation is free, but immediately afterward he says that we must carefully consider the costs of following Christ. “Costs” is the opposite of “free,” yet, nobody will dare to question Billy Graham about the validity of what he is saying because he is, in fact, so forceful in his tone of voice and in his facial expressions that I am convinced people are afraid of him. The glare alone from his stern stare that one can easily see in his eyes as they sweep across the masses of people in his audience is enough to keep people from ever questioning the validity of his teachings.
Again and again, Billy says that salvation is not of yourselves, that it is a free gift, but then quickly does a u-turn and makes your salvation dependent upon quitting your sins and devoting your life to discipleship. Then, to make matters worse, Billy makes everlasting life in heaven dependent upon your walking down the isle and making your decision to follow Christ “as your Lord” public. Billy says that Christ will not acknowledge you before His Father if you do not acknowledge Him before other people, which, in context, means that you will not go to heaven unless you tell other people that you have made a decision to follow Christ.
Then Billy will usually tell his audience that salvation is, again, a free gift that cannot be earned no matter what we do. It is, by far, Graham’s terse persona that captivates and influences an audience rather than the Holy Spirit of God. Hypothetically speaking, how would you feel if you were in a car with someone the likes of whom I am about to describe? Imagine you are trying to get somewhere that you’ve never been before and the person next to you says this:
“Okay, take a left, and then take a right, and then stop, back up, take another right. Wait. Take another left. My map is correct! Trust me! Stop. Go right again, then turn left. Can’t you go any faster? Okay, turn right here. Stop. Take a left, then take another left. Wait. Go back. Can’t you do anything right? Start over. Go right, then left, go sharply right now. Stop! Can’t you follow my directions? Back up and take another right. Wait, go left. Trust me, I know where I’m taking you!” That, reader, is the sad yet accurate equivalent of the plan of salvation according to Billy Graham. It will get you nowhere. “There is an increasing number of ‘evangelicals’ today who are preaching that in order for a man to be saved he must not only receive Christ as his Savior, but also must make Him absolute Lord and Master of his life. This doctrine has been termed “Lordship salvation” and has absolutely no support from the Word of God. It is, in fact, another subtle way Satan has invented to get Bible-believing men to add works to salvation without, perhaps, their realizing it, and to do it in such a way that it sounds spiritual and good” (Stanford, 87-88).
We would all agree that quitting sins and bad habits is the right thing to do, and that following Christ and doing the things that He says to do is the right and honorable way to live in every case or situation we might find ourselves in, but quitting your sins and bad habits, as well as following Christ to the best of your ability, are not part of God’s simple plan of salvation. As good as the Christian Lifestyle is, no aspect of it is included in God’s salvation contract with humankind. Living the Christian Lifestyle and doing all of those wonderful deeds that we are supposed to do as born again Christians comes “after” we are saved, not before.
SOURCE:
I NEVER KNEW YOU (.pdf), by Michael P. Bowen; by Barbour Books, © 2009; pages 137-138
