The Inner Workings of the Prevalent, Wicked, Lookalike Salvation Doctrine

[Transcript from "Sunday Morning LIVE at Cornerstone Church - 8:30am - Sunday July 14th 2024", "Hagee Ministries", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDCwK_rTqvc, retrieved July 15, 2024.]

Here's a typical salvation message, and it does not tell the whole truth. This is extremely sad and wicked. There are two false aspects, one implied and one directly asserted, which lies about biblical Christian salvation. See if you can spot them, then I'll say what I saw afterward.

~~ TRANSCRIPT QUOTE ~~

 you recognize that if Christ were to return
1:20:10
today there's something in your life that's out of
1:20:16
order there's something in you that needs
1:20:23
him and today you say father I want to bring that to your altar I want to lay it down and I want to walk out of here
1:20:28
set free forgiven and ready to see you face to
1:20:39
face if that's you I want you to raise your hand right where you
1:20:48
are say Pastor today I need to get on an ark because I see the Judgment that's
1:20:53
coming on this world and I don't want to stay in this place of
1:21:01
Wrath I want to know beyond the shadow of a doubt that if Jesus came by sunset
1:21:07
tonight I'd have the opportunity to stand before him set free saved and
1:21:15
redeemed I can't make it any plainer you don't have any more time to make this
1:21:22
decision if that's you and you want want to receive Christ today I want you to raise your hand right where you
1:21:32
are we're going to sing A Chorus and I want you to come walking this way if you've got the courage to raise your
1:21:38
hand you ought to have the faith to move your feet and in doing so today is going to
1:21:44
be the greatest day that you've ever lived because the Salvation that Christ came for you to receive you're going to have just by
1:21:52
asking in faith believing
1:21:58
I want you to come as we sing

~~ END OF TRANSCRIPT QUOTE ~~

So, did you see what was wrong? First, the implied connected between something wrong in life which can be extracted and set at the altar of God to result in the salvation type of forgiveness. In other words, there's the implication that turning over a new leaf or reorganizing life or giving up sin leads to salvation. But that's works religion! Did I put it in the preacher's mouth here? I don't think I did, of course, or I'd say something else, but it's what I see. Compare it with the fact that after salvation, we bring our sin to the altar and God gives us the type of forgiveness that comes to those who have already been saved. It's salvation versus sanctification, or whatever words you use that mean the same thing. It's justification versus living righteously.

The second wrong thing in this typical example of false salvation doctrine is more straightforward. It's the false statement that salvation is received by asking for salvation with belief that you'll get salvation (because you asked God for it in faith). That is NOT what the Bible has always said we must believe to be saved and to do to be saved. The faith isn't in our ability to have faith, first off. Secondly, the faith isn't in our request to God for the salvation!!! This is a gigantic misunderstanding. The Bible directly says in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 what we must believe to be saved. That list of four items is especially proven in verse 2 as both necessary and sufficient for the belief side of things for salvation.

There are specific things we must believe to be saved, according to God's Word.

There's also a single action we must take to be saved, according to God's Word.

The action is directly tied to believing those four facts and a directly resulting behavior when we actually believe them. It's not a mystery why we would do that action which the Bible says we must do to be saved if we believe those facts. The facts define who Jesus is and distinguishes Him from all the lookalike antichrists that are everywhere. They're all around us, vying for our belief and confession instead of believing the real Jesus and confessing that He is the Master. Romans 10:9-13 contains the action, emphasized three times, that we must, according to the Bible, do to be saved. Verse 14a ties it together with the belief passage.

The particular beliefs define the Jesus that we verbally confess to be "Master" in order to be saved. That's just plainly what the Bible has always told everyone.

So, do you see now why I said that the typical form of salvation doctrine in this sermon is false and wicked? It does not say that we must believe those four facts, it says that we are saved when we perform an action of changing our life in some particular way by giving some particular thing up to God, which is left to each individual to decide, no less, along with belief that God will give us salvation when we ask Him for it directly but without knowledge, let alone belief, of these facts about Jesus' great salvation work! That's a lot of words, because evil squirms through linguistic loopholes, but the concept is simple. People have always wanted to give up some sin and then believe they're eternally saved - that's Paganism, Satanism, and every false religion. In this version, Christ is in the background enabling the Pagan dream to plausibly activate for the adherent.

But Christianity, as a continuation of Adam's sacrificial religion and Judaism, says that we are entirely unable to give up anything in our life to be saved, but it does require us to believe specific things about Christ's sacrifice which drives us to do the only thing we can, which is also about Him and not us, to call on His name to be saved! That's the opposite, not only in logical explanations and words, but in its core substance, because we are absolutely still as sinful as we were before, but His blood covers that sin; we are able from salvation onwards, though, to be raised in our Master's resurrection into a new birth under a different ruleset than the 10 Commandments and all the rest of the externally enforced laws. We still don't break God's Law, though, out of love for Him and not out of terror of punishment. In fact, we adhere to it more strictly than those who lived before us under the Law, because God's Spirit of Holiness relays our Master's thoughts and desires directly to our own spirit, which our soul decides to act on or not as we constrain our body's desire to sin, because our body is still just as sinful as it was before, but we serve Christ with our mind. See Hebrews 6-10 and Romans 6-8.