Chapter 8 – Conviction is Obsolete, Just ‘Give Your Life to Jesus’
I never realized how costly obedience could be until I was compelled to sit through two hours of ministration by Ling that Sunday morning of July 15, 2007. Imagine my pains when Hegel announced that all church workers must attend the evening service meant for salvation seekers. The moment he made the statement I knew there was no point arguing with God about the matter. I braced myself to listen to another dose of what I knew to be a strange gospel, the miracles notwithstanding.
There was no joy in my heart as I climbed the stairs leading into the auditorium about 4.30p.m. The choir was rehearsing the popular song, ‘Amazing Grace’ to the delight of worshippers who stayed back after the morning session. Before I could sit down, I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Emmaus Klaus. As usual, he was wearing his tradecraft broad smile. I was forced to smile back despite my state of mind. He stretched out his hand and said, “Good evening pastor Louis. Can I have a word with you?”
I wasn’t really in the mood for a friendly chat with anyone but I forced myself to say, “Oh sure.” Trust Klaus, he didn’t even notice my discomfort. He sat besides me and brought out a Bible from a purse under his armpit. While I was still trying to fathom his mission, he said, “Pastor, there’s much about God that we may never know on this side of heaven. What He reveals should help us to put our trust in Him for He’s altogether good. Pardon me Sir the Lord is uncomfortable with the bitterness building up in your heart.
I know you’re very familiar with Hebrews chapter twelve verse fifteen. I still want to read it for you from the Amplified Translation. It says, “Exercise foresight and be on the watch to look after one another, to see that no one falls back from and fails to secure God’s grace (His unmerited favour and spiritual blessing), in order that no root of resentment (rancour, bitterness, or hatred) shoots forth and causes trouble and bitter torment, and the many become contaminated and defiled by it.”
Sir, I’ll be deceiving you if I pretend not to be disturbed by some of the things happening in this ministry. My strength has remained the Lord that called me to serve Him and His people. Knowing who my Master is has been my chief joy. That’s why I’ve remained strong despite the buffeting by the wicked one. The Lord wants you to look up to him in this very challenging time. We are nearing the time of gross darkness both in the church and the world. If we walk in our own light, we’ll miss our calling and give the enemy the opportunity to decimate the sheep of Christ.
I believe many of us in this ministry are undergoing a refining of some sort to prepare us for specific missions. We can’t afford to join issues with human beings because that’s always a distraction. We war not against flesh and blood. That’s what the Lord laid on my heart to share with you Sir.”
After Klaus left, I felt shame wash over me. Despite the rebuke, I knew I was still bitter against Hegel. I needed to talk to God about the way I felt but there was no way I could leave the auditorium at that point. Ling and his entourage were already being ushered into the complex. Not knowing what else to do, I pleaded for God’s mercy and the grace to forgive my Bishop. God granted me repentance immediately and I was able to look in Hegel’s direction without feeling the usual bile of resentment.
With a renewed commitment to follow only Jesus, I asked the Holy Spirit to shut my ears to anything contrary. It was then I enjoyed the peace that had eluded me since Ling’s arrival. This time around, I resolved to listen but with my Bible as a constant guide. I had completely tuned the visiting minister out during the morning session.
Shortly thereafter, one of the Pastors, Jay Goldstein led the congregation in the opening prayer. Hegel took over from there and invited Ling to the altar. It was obvious that the evening session would be devoid of fanfare. The moment Ling took the microphone from his host he turned to the congregation and said, “How many of you know that your destiny lies in your hands? Hands shot up across the auditorium.
Apparently satisfied with the response, he faced the pastorate and said, “If the people know that they hold the keys to their destinies, why should we preach another gospel that seeks to torment them with guilt?” I ask the question because there are certain ministers who propagate what I call the ‘gospel of anguish’. They erroneously believe that no man can receive Christ except such a one has attained a certain level of repentance.
In my years of service for the Lord, I’ve realized that people who know what they want from Him and proceed in that strength to attain spiritual maturity, make better Christians. When we emphasize repentance before people receive the new life, we place the responsibility for man’s salvation solely in God’s hands.
We in effect prevent man from cooperating with God to birth the new life. From time immemorial, God desired not a compliant Adam, but a partner. Open with me to the book of Genesis chapter one verses twenty-six to twenty-eight. I’ll read from the New Living Translation.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves. They will be masters over all life- the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the livestock, wild animals and small animals.”
“So God created people in His own image; God patterned them after Himself; male and female He created them.
“God blessed them and told them, ‘Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Be masters over the fish and birds and all the animals.”
From the Scriptures I’ve read to you this evening, you can see that God desires that you take charge. You are masters of your own destiny. It’s an act of folly for you to wait for God to save you after He has already sent His Son to the cross to die for you.
I don’t normally preach long salvation message. I believe everyman should decide where to spend eternity. I know some of you will say that the Holy Spirit has to convict a man before he can accept Christ. Don’t let us be dogmatic about the work of God.
The Holy Spirit was sent primarily to illumine the Scriptures so that we the ministers of Christ can lead people to the truth. The truth I’ve unveiled to you today agrees with the light the Holy Spirit gave to Paul on the new birth. Open with me to Philippians chapter two, verse twelve. Let’s read it together from the King James Version.
“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” We don’t need to study theology to understand this Scripture. It’s self illuminating. God’s work was completed on the cross. That was why Jesus cried out, “It’s finished.” Salvation’s man-dependent. God cannot save you except you choose to be saved.
Without much ado, I want those who have decided to give their lives to Christ to come the altar so that I can place a seal of the Holy Spirit on them. Let the church workers join them please.”
As the multitude of people moved towards the altar, I sat transfixed, mulling over Ling’s version of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Strange, I thought. Could this have been the reason the Lord sent me a book, My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers last month?
The book, a devotional captivated me for the three weeks it took me to complete it. Thank God great Saints like Oswald have been spared the filth that’s flying all over in the name of the gospel of Christ. Oswald was emphatic in his rejection of what can be described as pseudo- Christianity, a strange religion that points you to a non-existent Christ.
Writing on the subject of salvation, that great Saint said, “The entrance into the kingdom of God is through the sharp, sudden pains of repentance colliding with man’s respectable “goodness.” Then the Holy Spirit, who produces these struggles, begins the formation of the Son of God in the person’s life….The foundation of Christianity is repentance.”
In addition, how can we have repentance without conviction, when Jesus Christ declared in John chapter sixteen, verse eight that only the Holy Spirit would effect this? How could Ling, a man who claimed to be an Ambassador for Christ call his master a liar? If the salvation of mankind was completed on the cross why did Jesus ask the early disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with the power of the Holy Spirit?
As I sat in that auditorium juggling these questions in my mind, the Holy Spirit prompted me to read the second book Paul wrote to young Timothy, specifically chapter three. I read from verse one through to five in the New Living Translation.
Paul’s admonition to Timothy was that he should know that in the “last days, people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control; they will be cruel and have no interest in what is good.
They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act as if they are religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly.”
That’s it! I thought. Imagine a supposed man of God dismissing the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of a saint! Apparently I wasn’t the only one grieved about the ministration. As I looked up from the Bible, Goldstein turned in my direction and said, “What a load of crap! This must be a new improved gospel.” Still overcome by emotion, I could only shake my head.
How does one argue Scripture with a man that has exalted himself to the position of God’s chief spokesman for the twenty-first century? Ling had never given a quarter about the many nasty things written about him in both secular and religious tabloids. Who then would belt what was obviously a very nasty and obnoxious cat that was feeding fat on the ignorance of gullible Christians and unbelievers?
What genuine Christian does not know that conviction by the Holy Spirit precedes the new birth? In fact, chapter one, verse thirteen of the gospel according to Saint John emphasized this lucidly. According to the New Living Translation, the new birth does not result from human passion or plan, it comes from God.
What then did Paul mean when he exhorted Christians at Philippi to “work out their own salvation with fear and trembling?” Does God speak from both sides of the mouth? Certainly not! So, how can a Christian work out his own salvation? When the Jews asked Jesus what they needed to do to receive God’s favor or please Him, Christ pointed them to the Light. He said, “This is what God wants you to do: Believe in the one he has sent.”
Paul in his first letter to Corinthian Christians in chapter twelve, verse three said, “So I want you to know how to discern what is truly from God: No one speaking by the Spirit of God can curse Jesus, and no one is able to say, Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. Paul obviously drew from the inspiration of the standard set by Christ himself, for Jesus said in Luke chapter ten, verse twenty-two, “My Father has given me authority over everything.
No one really knows the Son except the Father, and no one really knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son CHOOSES to reveal him. He capped this up in the gospel according to Saint John chapter six, verse forty-four, “For people can’t come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them from the dead.”
Still occupied with my thoughts, I cast a glance at the altar where church workers were rounding up documentation of ‘new converts’ to Ling’s gospel. I felt sorry for new ‘believers’. They would leave the auditorium with the same heart with which they came. They would return to their homes, ‘twice the children of hell’, their old wineskin filled with polluted wine. What a farce!
Immediately grace was said, I picked up my stuff and bid my fellow pastors farewell. As I turned to leave, the Lord spoke to my spirit. He said, “Man’s effort to earn salvation is an affront to my Father’s holiness. It’s like spitting on His face. My Father has made redemption free and easy so no man will have an excuse on the Day of Judgment. Why is it difficult for my people to accept my word? Why do they need to make the simplest thing in the world so complex and cumbersome?
Preaching salvation by works diminishes the importance of my Spirit in the redemption process. I’ve said it, no man can receive salvation except he’s been convicted by the Holy Spirit. Conviction shows man his depravity and his need for a saviour.
My Spirit does this by holding up the holiness of God and revealing to man how far he’s gone off the mark. It’s then and only then, a repentant sinner can cry out, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ Any other way isn’t mine and is bound to lead to destruction.”
Of course, I knew the Lord wasn’t trying to expound a new theology on salvation to me. What He said that evening wasn’t novel in the least but I was glad He spoke to me. It actually comforted me to know that the Lord cared so much about my state of mind to send His word to reinforce these truths. In spite of myself, I grinned.
Suddenly it dawned on me that my worries about the state of the church were manifestations of unbelief in the ability of Jesus to protect His sheep. Had he not declared that the counsels of hell would not prevail against His church? With my sanity restored by His word, I strode out of the auditorium with the sure steps of one that found his bearing after being lost in a thick forest.