I’m mad, I’m disappointed and I’m going to tell you why. Someone has been lying to my friends. I know. I can’t believe it either. I can’t believe that someone would be so bold and so blatant that they would unashamedly lie to my friends. If you are the one doing it, please stop. If you can’t tell the truth to my friends, please don’t say anything.
I’m not the only one who is mad. God is mad. God hates lying. He hates lying as much as he hates murder. Solomon tells us so in Proverbs 6:16-19:
“There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.”
The lying I’m talking about is serious. The lying I’m talking about will cause someone to go to hell…eternally…never to experience the glory of our Creator in heaven.
Jesus gives a stern warning to anyone who would cause someone to sin in Matthew 18:6:
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”
If you are responsible for lying to my friends, this warning from Jesus should make you shake with fear.
The lying I’m talking about has given my friends false information about what God wants and expects from His creation. Truth is not difficult. God gave us all His Word that reveals Himself and His will for everyone of us in a single book. He has blessed us with the means of making it available to you and to my friends. Why would anyone read the Bible and then fail to tell my friends the whole truth? My friends are made to feel good about their relationship with God because someone they trust has told them only part of the truth.
What am I talking about? How about the prayer of faith that so many of my friends have been told will save them? It’s not in the Bible folks. Why would someone tell my friends that God wants them to do something that can’t be found in the Bible?
How about the lie that all you have to do is believe in God and you will be saved? Really? The very Bible that you say to be teaching from tells us that even the demons believe and they are afraid. Will the demons be saved? Go ahead. Read it in James 2:19:
“You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!”
Read a little more of that very same chapter and you’ll see that that’s not all James said about “faith only”. In fact, start at verse 14 and read on through the end of the chapter. Here’s a snippet of verse 24:
“You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.”
Why would someone tell my friends that they can be saved by faith only if the very book they claim to be teaching from says just the opposite?
What about baptism? Have you been telling my friends that baptism will not save them? Have you been telling them that baptism is just an outward demonstration of an inward faith? Where did you get that from? Peter seemed to think baptism saves in 1 Peter 3:21:
“There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ”
Go ahead and read the entire passage or even the entire letter. Find out exactly what it is that is so important about baptism. It’s not an outward demonstration of an inward faith.
Paul was told that he needed to be baptized to wash away his sins. He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t argue that he felt saved already. He didn’t tell Ananias that his sins were already washed away because he believed in Jesus. He was told to be baptized to wash away his sins and he did it. He even thought it important enough to teach others to do the same. You can read about it several times in Acts but here is a snippet of what Acts 22 says:
“And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”
If you told my friends that they didn’t need to be baptized, then their sins have not been washed away. You lied to them and now they are living in sin.
Not only that but Paul tells us that when we are baptized, we put on Christ. If you’ve been telling my friends that they don’t have to be baptized, they haven’t put on Christ. Read it for yourself in Galatians 3:27:
“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
Why would you tell my friends something that wasn’t true and deny them the blessing of putting on Christ?
You have even been telling my friends that evil is good and good is evil. You may think you’re quite clever when you twist the truth but you’re doing what has been done for centuries and God is not happy about it. He wasn’t happy about it then and He isn’t happy about it now. Read Isaiah’s warning to God’s people about this very thing. Read the whole chapter of Isaiah 5 and see not only that God was warning them against calling evil good and good evil but He had plans to punish them. God has not changed. He does not look kindly on those who twist the truth.
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil” Isaiah 5:20
What do I mean by calling evil good? There are so many examples that I could list but here’s a sampling:
An unborn child is just a mass of cells so there’s no harm in killing it. If this is true, why do we read in Psalms 139:13, 14 that God knew me before I was born?
“For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works”
That doesn’t sound like a clump of cells that can be discarded.
Marriage is just a man made arrangement between any two people who love each other. Jesus thought differently. He questioned why they didn’t seem to understand what was written at the beginning. It’s not complicated so stop trying to mess up the beautiful, simple relationship God has blessed us with while here on earth.
“Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’” Matthew 19:4
Lying to protect someone’s feelings is a good thing...oh, wait…that’s what started this whole thing. God hates lying…of any kind.
I don’t know why anyone would lie to my friends. I do know that anyone who has done that may be cheered here on earth because they are teaching a comforting message but on the day of judgment, God will show His displeasure. And don’t think that just because you claim to follow Christ that He will accept you. He clearly said just the opposite in Matthew 7:21-23:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
I know what you’re thinking. It’s their own fault. If they want to find out the truth, they should look for it themselves. It can’t be your fault if they believe everything you say. That’s true. My friends are responsible for their own salvation. It’s also true that they trust you. They think you know what you’re talking about because you’ve been to a special school that teaches you what to teach them about God. Or that you have a smooth way of talking that just draws them in and they can’t help but believe you. Or that they have been lied to their whole life by you and people like you that they are confused and don’t know what to believe. Shame on you and on those who have lied to you!
All I ask is that you stop lying to my friends. If you are confused yourself, I’d love to sit down and talk to you about God. Just know that I am praying for my friends that they will be strong enough and courageous enough to study the word of God on their own and see the pure truth as God has given us. And know also that I am praying for you that you will be strong enough and courageous enough to change what your teaching to match God’s will.
I want for you what God wants for you and everyone…for all men to be saved.
“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:3,4
And Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3:9
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
Keep reading that letter and these words should make us all wake up and realize just how important all of this is:
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” 2 Peter 3:10-13
The thief on the cross was not baptized. I am NOT saying baptism is not important. I AM saying that it is not what saves a soul. The blood saves. It is applied when we recognize WHO Jesus is, and believe. I am with you on things quoted, but not found in scripture. One of my pet peeves…”Repent of your sin and be saved.” NOt found in the Bible!
Yes, the blood of Christ saves us, washes us, cleanses us. In Hebrews 9 we are told, ” how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (vs 14).
But how? The book of Acts tells us how several people were washed, cleansed, saved. Look at chapter 22:16 to see what Paul (who was then called Saul) was told to do: “And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” For him to have his sins washed away, for him to be cleansed, for him to be saved, he was told to be baptized.
Why? Paul explains it in his letter to the Christians in Colossae. “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” Colossians 2:11-14
This rather lengthy comment is continued below.
Baptism allows us to be buried with Christ. When we arise from our baptism, we are raised with Him. Before, we were dead in our trespasses. After, we are alive together with Him. Without baptism, we cannot be buried with Christ. We cannot arise with Him. We cannot be forgiven of our sins. Is baptism important? Yes!! If you want to have your sins forgiven. If you want to be buried with Christ. If you want to arise with Christ.
And still more below.
What more can be said? We have been told the lie so often that it’s hard to recognize the truth when we see it. I hope that anyone reading this will begin asking questions like, why am I being told that baptism is not important? Why am I being told that all I need to do is recognize and accept Jesus as my Savior when Paul (who already recognized Jesus as Lord) would be told to be baptized to wash away his sins?
Diana, thank you for being a brave, godly, virtuous woman who is willing to spread God’s truths using Facebook and other social media. I believe that is where we can find a great many of the world’s lost today! Thanks for your example of a keeper at home in today’s society showing women they still have a choice many times. Blessings, Denise
Thank you, Denise.