The Necessity Of The Holy Trinity

Motivated at least in part by the current controvery over oneness heretic T.D. Jakes, (also here and here) please read two very good pieces on the importance of the Holy Trinity. Hopefully, this will help Christians understand that we are to separate with heretics, not dialogue with them.

On The Trinity: Part One – Hermeneutics

On the Trinity: Part Two – The Trinity, Central to Apologetics and Evangelism

National Religious Broadcasters Using Oneness Modalist Heretic TD Jakes To Get Out The Vote

Driving to work this morning viewing the effects of the terrible thunderstorms that spared my neighborhood but hard hit the one right next to mine, I was listening to Christian radio. Out of the blue comes TD Jakes’ booming voice. In it, he first speaks of how much he loves America and so forth. I immediately thought of Jakes doing this to exploit anger over Barack Hussein Obama, Michelle Obama, and Jeremiah Wright’s considerably less than jingoistic statements and actions. Then he went into his exhortation spiel for people to register and get out to vote. 

First, I see Lifeway Bookstores, owned by the Southern Baptist Convention, selling TD Jakes’ doctrinal error (oneness pentecostalism and the Word of Faith/prosperity doctrine are but a few of his MANY problems) and now the National Religious Broadcasters are using this guy. I had been using the NRB as a sort of a refuge from the blatant charismania that you will find on The Word Network, Trinity Broadcasting Network, Daystar, etc. So I just ignored the heavy Pat Robertson presence on the channel, as well as their “white Europeans are the descendants of the children of Israel … the Danube River is so named because of the tribe of Dan” show that comes on early in the morning. I also ignored their embrace of the Ellen White Seventh Day Adventist cult. So I suppose that I cannot cast NRB aside on Jakes’ account, since the ones that I just named are hardly better – if anything some might be worse – or else I would be reacting out of a personal dislike for Jakes rather than on principle. (On the other hand, Slice of Laodicea has criticized NRB, albeit for different reasons, such as this post stating that not one red cent of NRB’s $5 BILLION IN ASSETS is being used to defend the faith from Oprah Winfrey.)

Incidentally, speaking of TD Jakes and PR spots, he has another one out (I did not catch the sponsor!) promoting single sex education, saying that “boys need their own schools so that they will be able to, you know, romp and stuff (his choice of words not mine!) and that boys learn differently from girls and needed their own classrooms in order to be accommodated. So … it looks like Jakes is not that far removed from Jeremiah Wright’s separatist doctrines after all? 

I have to be honest, back when I was part of the religious right and allowing my worldview to be shaped by the Washington Times and the National Review, I was in full agreement. But now … I just recall reading about this inner city public school that went all male. Sure, the discipline problems decreased and the test scores went up. But when they interviewed the boys that attended the school, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM WANTED THEM TO BRING THE GIRLS BACK! Why? Because, er … BOYS LIKE GIRLS! Or at least they are supposed to anyway. Perhaps now that T.D. Jakes is on board with the new world order’s gay rights agenda (and yes this is relevant … perhaps due to his son) he thinks it is OK. To me, the whole single sex education thing … who wants it? Certainly not the kids. Not the administrators or teachers. Parents go for it only because they are desperate for any hook or angle to improve the failing school systems that the government is ruining on purpose. Not even the old fashioned religious sorts – of which I am one – think that it is a good idea anymore, where you were supposed to keep boys and girls separate in their little boarding or finishing schools (where they were supposed to look OH SO CUTE in their little uniforms I guess) UNTIL GRADUATION DAY WHEN YOU MARRY THEM OFF.

Sorry people, but society has changed. Not all of the changes have been for the good, but methinks that one of the most important things for a boy to learn from school is how to treat a lady and how to behave yourself in their presence. For some of us guys, those things do not come naturally, and you only learn them through trial and error. Especially error. (If you don’t learn to handle competition and rejection in junior high and high school, how on earth are you supposed to handle being turned down for jobs, promotions, college choices, etc. later in life?) So … HOW ON EARTH ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO LEARN THOSE THINGS IF THERE ARE NO GIRLS AROUND TO LEARN THEM FROM? 

Like I said, TD Jakes may have his own reasons for wanting to turn your local public school into Morehouse College or similar, and whatever they are I oppose them 100%. All the more reason why the Southern Baptist Convention should not be selling this guy’s books and NRB shouldn’t be using him for their get out the vote campaign. But I suppose that this oneness anti – Trinitarian heretic is just too good at making money and moving public opinion for these people to pass up. That is, unless they are actually along with Jakes, on his side. After all, the Southern Baptists refuse to do anything about the likes of New Age heretic Erwin McManus and Council on Foreign Relations worker Rick Warren (and Richard Land too?), and as stated earlier, Al Sharpton Al Gore global warming propagandist partner Pat Robertson is a major partner with the NRB. 

OK Oneness Liars Here Is The Best HISTORICAL Proof That Your Claims Are False

Similar to Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, many Oneness Pentecostals claim that their unitarian view of the godhead is the true apostolic biblical faith and doctrine, and that the Holy Trinity came as a result of paganism being introduced into the church down the line. Well, if that is true, then this paganism took over the church rather quickly; long before Constantine and the Council of Nicea in the fourth century. Why? Because the oldest recorded Christian hymn, Hail, Gladdening Light!, which was being sung as early as 150 AD, is utterly Trinitarian! Now this date is key, because church tradition generally holds that the Gospel of John and Revelation were the last books of the New Testament and that one or the other was written as late as 96 AD, as the beloved disciple apostle John lived an exceptionally long time. So this hymn was being sung than 60 years after the New Testament was completed and the apostle John died, meaning that people that were personally taught by John and the other apostles were still alive, and thus would have contended against any paganism, heresy, or false doctrine expressed by it (as after all, in those days people actually did contend against false doctrines rather than just throw up their hands and say “who am I to judge … I am just going to remove the beams from my eyes before I go take the speck out of the eyes of the antinomian gnostics over there … who is to say that the montanists, marcionites, arianists, etc. are wrong and I am right … only God knows the heart and He will restore these good hearted Christians and forgive them on judgment day).

People, this is why the intellectual component of our faith, disciplines like systematic theology and church history, cannot be ignored. I would like to know what “oneness historian” deceiver Dr. Curtis Ward with his “unbroken Church lineage in which the oneness church began in the first century and has succeeded in continual perpetuity throughout history” says about this? Well, below is the hymn, and thanks to Ingrid Schlueter of Hope In Laodicea for providing it. Here post (which can be accessed here: Hail, Gladdening Light!) also provides an audio recording of the song.

Hail, gladdening Light, of his pure glory poured,
who is immortal Father, heavenly blest;
Holiest of Holies, Jesus Christ our Lord!

Now are we come to the sun’s hour of rest;
the lights of evening round us shine,
we hymn the Father, Son and Holy Spirit divine.

Worthiest art thou at all times to be sung,
with undefiled tongue,
Son of our God, Giver of life, alone!
Therefore in all the world thy glories, Lord, they own.

Buy The New Juanita Bynum Pajamas! They’re Called “The Art Of Sleeping!”

And her PLASTIC SURGERY (see link) which she calls a gift from God will allow her to play a 28 year old TV producer in a movie that is coming out soon. Read about it here: http://eurweb.com/story/eur36144.cfm. And so TD Jakes launched both Paula White and Juanita Bynum (in addition to child molestor Earl Paulk Child Molestor Earl Paulk Launched Juanita Bynum To Stardom!)? Interesting. I wonder if Bynum bought Jakes a Bentley like White (TD Jakes Made Paula White A Star So She Bought Him A Bentley) did.  Look, if you are not saved through Jesus Christ, please follow The Three Step Salvation Plan so that you can be. Salvation can be yours today! And Read: When They Pierced His Side: The Blood And Water Of Jesus Christ and also What Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jews, Muslims, and Oneness Pentecostals Don’t Understand so that you can learn what salvation through Jesus Christ – the only way that it is available – is about!

Is Bishop Thomas Weeks III A Wife Beater? We Know He’s A Heretic!

Read: When They Pierced His Side: The Blood And Water Of Jesus Christ

From IndependentConservative: Thomas Weeks Beats Juanita Bynum in Atlanta Airport Hotel Parking Lot. Mercy! and also I Knew Thomas Weeks Was a Heretic, But He Has Surpassed My Expectations of How Terrible a Heretic He Really is!. From the Atlanta Journal – Constitution (in my opinion the worst newspaper in the country, but hey it keeps winning Pulitzer Prizes) Husband attacks evangelist Bynum in parking lot. Please note that it says 1. Bynum and Weeks are SEPARATED (so why attend their marriage conferences since THEY ARE BOTH IN THEIR SECOND MARRIAGE ANYWAY!) and 2. Weeks beat Bynum so badly that she required a trip to the hospital and 3. Weeks fled the scene before the police could get him. Now can anyone deny that evil spirits are not involved here? All of you people who have been flooding this weblog with your defense of this couple, their members, and their friends in the religion industry (a great many of whom KNOW what this couple are really like), what do you have to say now?

Does this vindicate everything that I have been saying against Weeks III and Bynum? Actually, no it doesn’t. Why not? Because everyone sins. David committed adultery and then murdered “the other man.” Peter denied Jesus Christ three times, and then almost caused the church to split apart with his refusal to have table fellowship with Gentile Christians. Christians are going to sin (see my essay When Christians Sin)! How do I know this? BECAUSE THE BIBLE SAYS SO!

So the issue here is NOT the sin of Bishop Weeks III beating his wife. Rather, the real issue is the false doctrine of unitarianism (denial of Trinity) that Weeks and Bynum preaches, their false prosperity doctrine, and their getting rich off the gospel by exploiting and making merchandise of the poor. The worst part is that Weeks III (and his father Bishop Weeks II) and Bynum preach an abiblical doctrine of legalism and works that they themselves do not keep!

And some have asked, as did the sincere Pastor Anavah(http://www.victoriouslyfree.org/ plus her own weblog click here) in her comment whether I am against women preachers and enjoyable sex in marriage. Regarding the former, the Bible specifically forbids women having a position of authority over men in the church, and that is a consistent principle established in Old Testament Judaism and carrying over to the New Testament Body of Christ. If Pastor Anavah executes her ministry in a manner that respects the authority of God and the Bible (and not of any man) and is doctrinally sound and faithful to the Bible while doing so then who am I to condemn her calling and work? God forbid that I would do such a thing lest I be condemned myself on account of my false accusation, just as the friends of Job were! Yes, it is possible to minister while not having a position of authority over a man, and writing and distributing her book on spiritual warfare in fighting addiction (which can be ordered on her site) and maintaining a Christian website are excellent examples of how to do so. There are others, and I have tried to list them in my women preachers category, my favorite of which are women in India that converted to Christianity from Hinduism working as evangelists preaching the gospel in a society and culture that treats women quite shamefully and also persecutes Christians (see Women Preachers Working In The Asian Mission Field and Christian Persecution Alert: Female Indonesian Evangelists Released). And no, I am not against enjoyable sex in marriage. Quite the contrary, sexuality is a gift from God – and a spiritual one at that – that was given to be enjoyed by men and women within the confines of holy matrimony. But as false preachers tend to do, Weeks III and Bynum have taken a pure holy God – given gift and utterly defiled it with their false doctrines and own personal perversions, making it something base and wretched. Look at this clip where Weeks III asks this man to name the part of his wife’s anatomy that pleases him the most (a corrupt base view of sexuality; Jesus Christ called this pornea – the root word of pornography – and in Matthew 5:32 listed such evil as legitimate grounds for divorce), and when he gives a predictable response, Weeks III breaks out into uncontrollable laughter!

Strange laughter is a clear sign of demonic presence and activity, and though I am a charismatic with a Pentecostal background, we cannot ignore what many other Bible believing Christians have to say about some of our charismatic “laughing revivals!”

Make no mistake people, there is a statistically proven link between pornea (or pornography) and violence (including spousal and domestic abuse), there are demons involved in pornea and violence, and now you have Thomas Weeks III beating his estranged wife! So I ask you spiritual warfare deliverance minister Pastor Anavah, how on earth could you not know this? Your very position requires you to know it and to preach and teach against it, and not to defend the oneness heretics that exploit the poor trafficking their sexual drugs for financial gain! For I, Pastor Anavah, am not an ordained minister and nor do I hold any church position! This is something that you should be taking me aside and educating me on as did Priscilla to Apollos in Acts 18:24-26! So Pastor Anavah, rather than coming on here defending heresy, you need to be faithfully and zealously pursuing the call that God has put on your life! Monitor and multiply the talents that God has given you charge over lest He take them from you and give them to another, for the closing verse of the parable of the talents, Matthew 25:29, reads “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.”

And this is not a personal attack on Pastor Anavah, who indeed seems to be someone sincerely seeking to serve to God. She represents all of you! God gave every member of the Body of Christ a work to do, a charge to keep, a ministry to fulfill, even if you are as I: not someone who holds a five fold ministry position or church office. You have read the warnings given to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, and if you have not, please read them now! For it is not just about the false preachers. Judgment day is coming, and we will be held accountable: me and ALL OF YOU!

And this is to all of you people who keep claiming how we need unity in the Body of Christ. See this link and understand why I REFUSE TO UNITE WITH HERETICS! LIGHT HAS NO UNITY WITH DARKNESS!

And in closing, here is the news report of Bynum’s being beaten, courtesy of IndependentConservative: . I will point out, in the interests of fairness, that Bishop Weeks III has not had a chance to address these charges, let alone be convicted in a court of law of them, and some have alleged that there is something amiss about this whole affair. Well you can decide for yourself about the domestic violence accusations against the man, but in terms of his heresies and blasphemies, well his own words (and actions in other matters) condemn this oneness false preacher.

As I have said time and time again, there is a war going on. Now is the time for hand to hand spiritual combat, not lukewarm sitting on the sidelines. If you are not saved, follow The Three Step Salvation Plan and get saved. If you claim salvation but have no desire to fight, now is the time to study the scriptures (try http://bible.cc) and examine yourself to see whether you be truly in the faith!

Deepak Receives Healing And Spiritual Deliverance In Nepal

Imagine if you saw a man living in the forest, a man who seemed to act more like a wild animal than a human. What would you do? You may be frightened and want to back away. For Gospel for Asia missionary Akash, the choice was simple: He would pray for the man. And as he and the believers in his GFA-affiliated church faithfully prayed for this man named Deepak, the Lord healed him! Read more about Deepak—and the other lives that have been touched in a village in Nepal—here.I appreciate you and your prayers, which make it possible for Akash to serve the Lord in Nepal. Yours for the unreached, K.P. Yohannan gfa.org

The sight of the man filled Gospel for Asia missionary Akash and his team with compassion. Left alone in the forest, this young man had been considered deranged for years. In fact, he scarcely seemed human. As the missionaries approached him, he muttered something incomprehensible. Once they heard him speak, they realized that he was demon-possessed.

Drawing near to Deepak, the missionaries began to pray for him. In the days that followed, they and the believers in Akash’s congregation continued to pray for him. Within two weeks, Deepak was restored and delivered—much to the amazement of the other villagers. Everyone knew the kind of person Deepak had once been, and they were amazed to see his radical transformation.

Beginning to see that Jesus could heal anyone, the villagers brought to Pastor Akash six others who suffered from mental illness. As Akash and the believers in his church faithfully prayed for these people, the Lord healed each one.

The sight of the man filled GFA missionary Akash and his team with compassion.
Through the healings, people in the village are seeing God’s power at work and His love for those living in bondage. Akash asks for prayer that all in this Nepali village will experience the redemptive love of Jesus in their hearts. Also pray for those who were healed, that they will grow in the love and grace of the Lord.

Links: Read more about Nepal and Gospel for Asia’s ministry there.  Why healings? Last 15 News Articles  News Archives  PhotoShows  SEND! Magazine  Video Archives

Christian Missionaries In India Attending To People’s Basic Needs

Did you know that you can actually put warmth in a box? It’s true! And many of our Gospel for Asia native missionaries need such a package right now, before winter sets in at Asia’s higher altitudes. You see, when native missionaries serve in places like Nepal or northern India, they need to have warm clothing if they are going to reach the villages in the middle of winter. And while most have some form of winter clothing, it does wear out—and new missionaries join them each year.

Click here to learn more about how you can send our missionaries “warmth in a box” for the winter ahead.

Thank you for your help in reaching Asia for Christ!

Yours for the unreached, K.P. Yohannan http://gfa.org

Flooding Kills 2000 In India, Bangladesh and Nepal: Please Help!

From http://gfa.org This is one of the rare times that I am saying that Gospel for Asia desperately needs your financial help quickly. But I feel that I must, and ask that you pray seriously about helping. This truly is an emergency situation.

As I wrote to you yesterday, more than 2,000 people have died in the record monsoon floods across eastern India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Literally millions have been left without homes, and their subsistence farms are under water in the worst flooding in 30 years.

Now, just this morning, I received a report from one particular area that brings this terrible situation closer to home. Our senior leader in Assam called to tell me that 4,000 homes in his area have been washed away. When he told me that over the phone, I was just silent for a moment. I could not imagine four thousand homes destroyed by floods in one place.

Then he made it even more personal–he said that 35 of our believers’ homes among the Mising tribe have been been destroyed. Not only that, but 10 of our pastors and their families are also now homeless, and four of our churches have been washed away by the rampaging waters.

You can click this link to make an immediate gift.  gfa.org/flood-relief-donation

We know the numbers in this disaster are going to increase, because many other believers have had their homes damaged, and some of our other 92 churches among the 3.5 million Mising people have suffered damage as well. So there will be reconstruction needs in the future.

But our immediate concern is for those who have lost everything–not only among our believers, but among all who are suffering because of the floods.

So far, 15 people among the Mising have died from the flood waters, and another 50 have died from the diseases that are now spreading because of the unsanitary conditions. This is a “mini-tsunami” in terms of suffering.  And our response must be rapid.

That’s why, in the midst of all this suffering, our GFA missionaries, pastors and believers are already ministering to those around them in the name of Jesus–bringing them what physical and emotional relief they can, while sharing with them the only true hope that can be found in times like these–Christ. But obviously they need our help, because they have little left to share themselves.

My friend, today we–and they–need your immediate help. You can make a gift to bring relief and hope to those who have lost everything by clicking this link: gfa.org/flood-relief-donation

Please understand, this report I am sharing with you today is just the first of many we will be receiving as the scope of this disaster continues to grow.

So I ask you today to help our GFA missionaries, pastors and believers who are at this moment caring for the suffering all around them with your gift that says you, too, want to reach out with love in the name of Jesus.

And what an opportunity! While 98 percent of the Mising are not Christians, now we can reach out, relieve their suffering and let them know that while their old life has been washed away in a flood, God is offering them a new life that will last forever.

Again, this link will take you to our site where you can make a difference in the lives of those who are suffering so terribly, including our Christian brothers and sisters among the Mising tribe. gfa.org/flood -relief-donation

Thank you for your love and compassion.

For the suffering in Asia,

K.P. Yohannan Founder and President Gospel for Asia

P.S. Click this link to read more about the monsoon floods in Asia. gfa.org/gfa-flood-relief-2007

Gospel For Asia Responds to Massive Floods In India, Nepal, and Bangladesh

From Gospel For Asia founder K.P. Yohannan:

I am writing you today because I have just received word of some of the worst flooding in South Asia in 30 years—and our GFA native missionaries are already on the scene, ministering to the victims in the name of Jesus.

Simon John, one of our senior leaders in India, returned today from four days in Bangladesh, where he witnessed the floods first hand.

“It reminds me of the tsunami all over again in terms of the suffering,” he told me over the phone.

And the floods not only are affecting Bangladesh, but India and Nepal as well. Please read the full story here, then please pray with me about how God can use us to bring relief to the victims. Any gift you can send will make a difference: gfa.org/flood-relief-donation

As you read this story, please pray for those who are suffering, and for our GFA Compassion Services volunteers who are ministering to them. Remember also that our missionaries and church members are among the victims of this disaster.

Thank you for standing with us in this difficult time.Yours for the lost in Asia, K.P. Yohannan

“This is some of the worst flooding I have ever heard about,” said Dr. K.P. Yohannan, president and founder of Gospel for Asia, when he was told about the monsoon floods that have left millions homeless and 2,000 people dead in three South Asian nations.“I grew up with monsoons every year,” he said, “but this exceeds even last year’s floods in terms of the number of victims—and we don’t even have the final numbers yet.”News reports indicate that about 2,000 people have lost their lives so far, and an estimated 28 million people have been driven from their homes. Bangladesh, Nepal, and the adjacent Indian states of Bihar, West Bengal and Assam have been especially hard hit.

In India’s Bihar state alone, more than 12 million people have seen their homes and farmland submerged under the rising waters.

Now health experts are predicting an epidemic of waterborne diseases.

“It reminds me of the tsunami all over again in terms of the suffering of the people,” Pastor Simon John told Dr. Yohannan by phone from Delhi. GFA’s North India leader had just returned from four days in Bangladesh, working with the missionaries and church leaders there to coordinate GFA Compassion Services response to the disaster. He had been unable to communicate with the outside because of the damage to the communications infrastructure.

“Our people are involved in providing rice and beans, kerosene, cooking utensils and other items to the victims,” Pastor John told Dr. Yohannan, “but transporting even these basics is difficult because roads are closed in many parts of Assam and Bangladesh. So our missionaries are walking or using bicycles, canoes or whatever other means are available to get to the victims.”

“By God’s grace we have the missionaries and believers at ground zero to mobilize very fast to help the hurting,” Dr. Yohannan noted. “At the same time, many of our believers have lost their homes and are suffering as well.”

Pastor John said that “in the beginning we didn’t realize that it would be this serious. But the rains just didn’t stop. . . .”

The North Indian leader also noted that many of GFA’s church members make their living through menial jobs, living hand to mouth each day.

“In the floods, their jobs are gone,” he said. “And that means no food-even if there was food available to buy.

“Yet regardless of their own suffering, “our people see this as an opportunity to minister to those around them in the name of Christ. Those that have not been as hard hit are giving of their own food, water, or whatever they can. And our churches are also raising what funds they can among themselves.”

Of course, GFA’s help goes far beyond immediate physical relief.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to show the compassion and love of Christ,” Dr. Yohannan said. “I ask all Christians—whether in Asia or in the West—to join me in praying for the victims of this tragedy. And pray as well for our missionaries and our Compassion Services teams as they pray and counsel with the victims and strive to meet their spiritual and emotional needs as well as bring them physical relief.

“And as the Lord leads you, please help us as we help them. Any contribution you can sent will truly make a life-giving difference. We are committed to doing everything we can to bring relief and hope to these suffering people-not just for a few days, but for weeks and months to come.” gfa.org/flood-relief-donation

Final Answer: The Sinner’s Prayer Is Not Only Unnecessary For Salvation, It May Not Be Expedient!

I first asked the question here: Is The Salvation Prayer Necessary For Salvation?, which was in response to this challenge. Now I maintain that the reason why the issue of salvation is so vexing to the church is because there is no “instruction manual” in the New Testament, which I maintain is good because if there were, it would just be something else that Christians could use to turn into into a work or a ritual; claiming that the process in the Bible saved you rather than God. But a “type” of salvation by unearned grace is given in the Old Testament, in Isaiah 6:1-7. “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.”

All Isaiah did was realize and admit before God that A) God is Holy, B) he was sinful, C) that his sinful condition was unacceptable before God, and D) being unacceptable before God because of your sin is a bad thing indeed. (Please realize that Isaiah was ALREADY SERVING GOD IN THE OFFICE OF A PROPHET when he had this vision.) In short, Isaiah, acknowledged his sin and repented of it before God. Immediately upon doing so, his sin was removed through no act of his own!

But wait: his sin was removed by an angel, and only God can forgive sin! Not so! The angel was only the messenger, the vehicle, the vessel! Keep in mind: they WERE under the old covenant; Christ had not been born, died, and raised from the dead, and there was no gospel for a man to preach. The seraphim did not forgive Isaiah’s sin, he took the live coal from the altar, put it on Isaiah’s lips, and the sin was forgiven. Why was the coal live? It had been burned in the fire. What is a common metaphor for fire in the Bible? God the Holy Spirit; Ruach Hakadosh. Consider the Holy Spirit’s role in salvation by reading this link http://www.eternallifeministries.org/awp_sal.htm, and while you are at it this brief opinion on salvation in the Old Testament in general here: http://www.biblebb.com/files/macqa/70-12-1.htm. And keep in mind: the fire of the Holy Spirit is not a regular, natural fire but a spiritual one. So, when the Bible says that the coal was “live”, it does not merely mean that it was HOT, it means that the presence of the Holy Spirit was still with the coal. How do we know this? Because the angel used tongs! The angel never touched the coal, but had to use tongs to handle it. Why do you think that the angel would need tongs, brothers and sisters? This is an ANGEL we are talking about here, a spirit being! An angel is not going to be burned by handling the bratwursts from your barbecue grill! No, the angel could not – would not – touch the coal because the presence of God the Holy Spirit was upon that coal! And when the coal touched Isaiah’s lips, the Holy Spirit that descended down from heaven by virtue of the coal carried by the angel (with tongs) played the same role in Isaiah’s salvation as it plays in this dispensation when a man hears the gospel of a preacher and believes and trusts in the message through faith in God alone.

The best part of all this is that Isaiah played no role whatsoever in this. He did not choose the time or place or manner of salvation. He did not pray for his sin to be removed or for God to accept or help Him. And no, baptismal regenerationists, he was not baptized. He played no role in his salvation whatsoever. It was 100% initiated, executed, and completed by God. The only thing that Isaiah did was acknowledge that he was a sinner, and that he was unworthy to be accepted by God because of it! Immediately after doing that, GOD SAVED HIM. After all, what is the Name by which we are saved? Jesus (more accurately Yeshua, Y’shua, Yehoshua, or perhaps Joshua) which means “GOD SAVES.”

So why, then, the gospel, and what of it? That would probably be a worthy topic for study, discussion, and debate, but I am satisfied with the explanation that it is the method that God told us to use and to leave it at that. But we see from the Isaiah experience that the critical role of the gospel is to not to get the sinner to ask God to save him. Why? Because Isaiah did no such thing! No, the critical role of the gospel is to get the unbeliever to acknowledge that he is a sinner and therefore unacceptable to God because of it, which is what Isaiah did! Only after the sinner realizes that he is a sinner and cannot be reconciled with God because of his sin can he believe that the purpose of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the Jesus Christ Person of the Holy Trinity was to reconcile the sinner to God, and to trust that the actions of God alone are what saves him!

Again, I have no problem with a sinner’s prayer, but only if it is said as a helpful exercise in “formally” fulfilling Romans 10:9 (That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved), specifically the “confess with thy mouth” part, only after the unbeliever has accepted that he is a sinner and even then only IF the sinner knows that the prayer does not save him and furthermore plays no role in his salvation! And this gets to be a real problem in my opinion. First, there is the well – known issue that a great many evangelists, especially those that rely on systematic methods (following a tract or a technique that they were taught during church evangelism training) soft – play the issue of sin because they do not want to alienate the unbeliever, and also because they may not be able to answer the unbeliever’s questions concerning sin. They may mention it, but to get around that “problem”, these evangelists purport to deal with the sin issue during the prayer, which usually starts off with “Lord, I admit that I am a sinner, please for give me for my sins.” The logic “Hey, if he says it during a prayer that he is saying out of a sincere desire in his heart to be saved, then that counts as a confession of sin and God will accept it.” No, it doesn’t work that way. The person’s KNOWLEDGE and SINCERITY is for God to save him, NOT of his sin and his separation from God because of it. This problem is added to when evangelists say that a person’s separation from God is due to their not accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Well, did Isaiah accept Jesus Christ as his personal Savior? No.

The main goal for a lot of evangelists to get people to say a prayer that will not save them, even if they are sincere about a desire to be saved and sincerely recite the prayer! So how, then, are these people saved? I honestly believe that they are saved later. They go to church and (hopefully) hear preachers talk about sin and repentance (again, this cannot be presumed, even in evangelical and fundamentalist churches). Or they will (hopefully) read about the issue and (hopefully) understand when they (hopefully) read their Bibles (something else that cannot be presumed). What of praying for God to forgive your sins?1) Isaiah did not do this. 2) Nowhere in the Bible are we told to do this. 3) Will God hear the prayer of a sinner? Basically, the rub is that if you ask God to forgive your sins without meaning it or even having a true understanding of what you are asking, then it is a vain exercise. But according to the Isaiah example (and the other Bible salvation examples that I can recall), God cleanses you of your sin immediately upon your becoming aware of your sin, knowing that you are separated from God because of it, and desiring your situation to change. Thus, if you have heard and believed a true gospel presentation, then God has already forgiven you before even start to pray! (And it is a good thing too, since the prayer cannot save you!) And it may actually hinder you. What if you say the prayer (even if you mean it) without every truly dealing with the issue of your own sin? Then if you believe that your salvation came when you said your prayer, then will you even see how all of those sermons and Bible verses that speak of sin apply to you? If you regard yourself to be saved already by virtue of the prayer (or of baptism), then perhaps not.

So, the issue that must be dealt with is the scripturally untrue notion that the sinner’s prayer plays any role in saving a sinner, especially when so many Christians are convinced that they were saved when or as a result of saying the prayer, and that the way to be used by God to bring others into the kingdom of heaven is to get others to say a prayer as they did. It is tempting to say that true gospel preaching would make this matter moot, but sadly it is not true. If you believe that God saves the person as a result of his saying the prayer, then out of your love for the unbeliever and burden for his lost soul, you are going to focus your entire energy on getting him to say the prayer. Everything else will be an exercise, a ritual, a formality. Which, of course, means that it will be EXPENDABLE; meaning that you can sacrifice some of it in order not to offend so that you might gain the person through prayer. Let us be honest: suppose you were to walk up to a person on the street and ask him “Do you want to be saved?” and the person replies “Sure, my best friend just died in a car accident, so I want to be with God when I die; I have heard people say and have seen it on bumper stickers and billboards that you need to accept Jesus to go to heaven, but I do not know how.” The overwhelming majority of fundamentalist and evangelical Christians would leap for joy inside and say “Great, just say this prayer!” I would say that a sizable minority would give a quick gospel presentation about how Jesus Christ died for their sins – and may even briefly mention that the person is a sinner in the process – but that would be it! The person was sincere about wanting to be saved, the person said the prayer and asked God to forgive his sins, so there … he is saved! Before reading Isaiah 6 today, I would have agreed. But after reading it, I am forced to conclude that we cannot presume that the person is saved merely as a result of saying the prayer, and we can definitely know that the person’s saying the prayer without knowledge of sin and his separation from God because of it and without repentance of sin because of that fact will not result in his salvation.

Illustrative example: Paula White! On Trinity Broadcasting Network about a year ago, Paula White was speaking of Without Walls’ “extreme evangelism” methods. One such example was their giving a secular concert (admission was either free or with ticket prices far lower than normal) with R&B and rap artists to attract a large number of young unbelievers. That the concert was sponsored by a church was strictly withheld from the public, so the concert attendees had no idea that they were attending a church evangelism event and spent the entire evening there with nothing regarding Jesus Christ on their minds (or if they were, it had nothing to do with the event that they were attending). After the last act performed (and again, it was a secular concert playing secular music, not that I am condemning secular music or those who make or listen to it, just to point out that Christ or the gospel was unmentioned throughout the entire event) an announcer came on stage and asked if anyone in the building “wanted to accept Jesus Christ in their lives” (Paula White’s words on TBN, not mine). Of course, when you have a bunch of impressionable young people that have spent several hours being entertained by their favorite musicians in a concert setting (and R&B and rap acts frequently ask their audiences to respond … “Get up and say yeah!” sort of thing), they are going to be willing to answer in the affirmative to virtually anything almost without thinking. So, when a bunch of kids did so, the announcer had them stand up and say the sinner’s prayer! Which meant that if they were sincere in saying the prayer (and when you are a kid with your friends at a music concert, you can be sincere about a lot of things, especially for oh, about 30 seconds that it takes to say such a prayer), then they were saved. Right?

One final thing: Isaiah 6:8 says “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who shall go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. send, and who will go for ” Once again, you have God referring to Himself as I (singular) and us (plural). I = Unity, us = Trinity. Trinity in Unity, or Tri – Unity.And in this context, this whole “royal we” (where dignitaries refer to themselves in plural) not apply. Else, the verse would have read “Whom shall WE send, and who will go for US?” No way the normal language would have been used for “I” and the royal language for “we.” Yet another example of why there is no excuse whatsoever for calling yourself a Christian while denying Trinity, or making the “the true nature of God is an unknown mystery that has not been revealed” or “the word Trinity is never given in the Bible” canards that are commonly used as excuses for following some Jesus Only oneness preacher or movement. And isn’t it amazing that God JUST HAPPENS to declare His Tri – Unity during this salvation scene? Do not be deceived, it was no coincidence. God referred to Himself as “I” and “We” during that vision precisely because the Tri – Une nature of God is integral to salvation, and that there is no salvation apart from it. All oneness dissenters: please explain how a “manifestation” of God or a “father – son – uncle relationship of God” went with that live coal to burn the sin out of Isaiah!

From The Gospel For Asian Mission Field: Goat Milk for the Soul

In his village on the border of Nepal and India, Arnash struggles to provide for his family’s survival. But every Sunday, they come to the GFA-affiliated church to worship Jesus, who sustains them. And the rest of the week, they find joy in Him even while they labor to earn enough to eat. Read the story of how God provided for Arnash through a friend of Gospel for Asia.Please remember people like Arnash in your prayers. God is doing great things! Thank you for your partnership.

Yours for the unreached, K.P. Yohannan Founder & President

Join The Gospel For Asia Prayer Team; click here!

Carlton Pearson Defecting To The Religious Left: Not As Big A Deal As It Seems

Here is the MSNBC.com link To hell and back – Dateline NBC – MSNBC.com on Carlton Pearson, the former Pentecostal megachurch preacher out of Tulsa who has joined up with the Episcopalians, with the gay rights issue being the main motivating factor. Now some might say “what a tragedy for a preacher to turn his back on the Bible like that.” I say instead that all Pearson did was add to the false doctrine that he was already preaching, and that his new doctrine was no worse than what he was deceiving the nations with before. How so? Because Carlton Pearson was already preaching that godliness is gain (see
The Prosperity And Word Of Faith Blasphemers) through his Word of Faith/prosperity doctrines. You know, the same group of people that refuse to explain the difference between the promises given to natural Israel under the Old Covenant and spiritual Israel under the New Covenant in order to not only cause people to think that God is some genie in a lamp that exists to grant their every wish; that God has given them the right to stand in His Place and use His Name to be “little gods” (to create and destroy with the power of the tongue, so that our will shall be done on earth and in Heaven rather than God’s); but  also that God loves them so much more than He loves Christians suffering in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and all of these other places … that He saw fit to give us alone all of this peace and prosperity! If only those Third World Christians had our faith; if only they had our “favor from the Lord”… if only they tithed like we did, then their “overflow” would come, right?

And that symbolizes the problem with a lot of Christians today. So long as Carlton Pearson was merely being a WORD OF FAITH/PROSPERITY blaspheming heretic directly contradicting scripture and being given over to a reprobate mind (again, read The Prosperity And Word Of Faith Blasphemers to see what I am talking about) … so long as he kept his transgressions in the spiritual realm where people can’t see, then he was fine in the eyes of so many good decent Christian folk. But oh, the minute that he stepped into the natural realm, the minute that he began to transgress “traditional Christian values” by extending his apostasy to – gasp! – HOMOSEXUALS, then that is when his members got up and left and they had to padlock that megachurch empire of his built on false doctrine. And that is what is so silly about this whole thing. We Christians really do have to grow up with respect to this homosexuality thing, OK? I mean come on, THEY ARE JUST PEOPLE! Homosexuality is nothing else but another sin that God will forgive you for. No different from gluttony, gossiping, lying, adultery, etc. Look, if you are in a lifestyle of gossiping and claiming that it isn’t a sin and that you are so righteous and sanctified and holy and speak in tongues, God is going to burn you for eternity in the lake of fire while that homosexual (see Demon Of The Day: Homophobia) who cries out to God in repentance and salvation will be accepted just fine in heaven! You know what Yeshua, the Hebrew name of Jesus Christ means? God saves. God saves homosexuals. God saves those that have had abortions. God saves thieves. God saves murderers, rapists, prostitutes, and drug addicts. God saves people from other religions. God saves all who repent of their sins and seek after His Truth. But you know who God will not save? Someone who has His Truth in his hands and REJECTS IT to go after LIES, after devil’s doctrines! So, before you give some “profile in courage award” to people who left Pearson’s church when he started preaching his “gospel of inclusion”, you need to ask them A) why were you in that church to begin with and B) did you just leave him to take up with someone else who hates and rejects the true gospel and denies the true nature of God? So no, the tragedy with Pearson is not that he has started preaching inclusion for homosexuals. The tragedy is that A) he was preaching false doctrine long before that, B) people were following him then and C) would still be following him now had he limited his false doctrines to godliness being gain. And that is something that all of us Christians need to admit to ourselves and start seeking the Lord in prayer about; contending earnestly and fighting the good fight of faith for our brothers and sisters in Christ that are in real spiritual jeopardy because they are (knowingly or not) following after lies.

From Gospel For Asia Ministry: God Provides Food For Poor Nepal Family

Balji did his best to provide for his family, but in his destitute village in Nepal, it was almost impossible. Thankfully, Balji and his family were Christians and trusted the Lord to provide. And He did, but not in a form they expected. Read Balji’s story here gfa.org/hope-on-a-leash?motiv=WA76-G1PS.Many families like Balji’s are being impacted through your prayers and gifts. Thank you for your partnership to see Asia come to Christ!Yours for the unreached, K.P. Yohannan Founder & President gfa.org/pray?motiv=061207