Do you realize not one in a hundred knows what it is — how to get it — when you receive it?
Don't be too sure you do!
Here, once for all, is the TRUTH made so plain you will really UNDERSTAND it!
COULD you, yourself, answer these questions? If someone asked you to open your Bible and show him exactly where the Bible says salvation means going to heaven — could you do it?
Is salvation a place, a destination, a condition, a reward — or what? . . . and where would you turn in your Bible to find it? Are you sure?
Could you open your Bible and show a questioner where it tells you when you receive salvation? Do you actually get it now, when you die, when Christ returns — or at some other time? This article will show you plainly.
Are you, at conversion, an inheritor, an heir to inherit, or what — and just what does one inherit?
Suppose you were asked what connection there is between salvation and that whole third of the Bible devoted to prophecy. Could you explain it? Another third or more of the Bible is taken up with history Can you explain the connection of this vast amount of Scripture with salvation? Can you believe MOST of the Bible is totally unconcerned with the matter of salvation?
Let's make it PLAIN!
Religious people talk about "getting saved." Yet even most religious people understand no more of what the Bible teaches about salvation — the real meaning of the word "salvation" — than a certain young man did about another religious expression.
He said to me, "I gave my heart to the Lord at the revival meeting last night."
"Well," I said, "Just what do you mean — you gave your heart to the Lord?
Just how did you do that? Did you reach in your hand, take your heart out and actually hand it to the Lord — and was He really right there, in Person?"
"Well, uh — uh —" he stammered, confused, "uh — well, no, I didn't do that."
"Then just what did you do? How did you give your heart to the Lord?" He stammered some more, then guessed he didn't know.
That's the way it is with a lot of people who say "I got saved." They don't really know what they mean by "getting saved.
Do YOU know what the BIBLE teaches about salvation? Millions of sincere people have supposed they knew — yet have been deceived into accepting a FALSE SALVATION.
It's about time to get to the plain WHY'S, WHAT'S, HOW'S, and WHEN'S, so you can see it clearly, plainly, right in your own BIBLE! Why should the most important thing in life be a vague, mysterious, superstitious, ethereal, meaningless thing?
I'm going to make it PLAIN — in your Bible! So prepare yourself for a SHOCK! And don't believe me — believe THE BIBLE!
What Salvation Is
While the real truth must come from the Bible, the dictionary definition may help a little. Webster defines "salvation" as: "1) The saving of man from the spiritual consequences of sin; especially deliverance from sin and eternal damnation. . . . 2) Preservation from destruction, failure, or other evil."
Now we need to learn the Bible definition of SIN, and to see what the Bible reveals the spiritual CONSEQUENCES to be. Whatever the CONSEQUENCES, Webster says salvation is to save you from it — and in this the Bible shows Webster was right. Also salvation means PRESERVATION — and in this, we shall see the Bible affirms the definition.
But why would you need to be saved from the spiritual CONSEQUENCES of sin? And WHY, if you are an immortal soul, do you need preservation f ram destruction? What has this to do with YOU?
Suppose you say, "Look, I don't go to church. I don't pretend to be religious. Why should I be concerned with all these religious words like 'sin' and 'salvation' and 'spiritual consequences'?"
Does this concern only religious people?
WHY You Are Concerned
God Almighty, who designed, created, and sustains human life — including yours, says this: "ALL have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
That involves YOU!
Right now you probably have no conception of what is meant by "the glory of God" you have come short of. You'll really open your eyes in astonishment when it is made plain to you.
But, whatever SIN is, you have sinned. ALL humans have! Christ, only, is excepted. You are involved. And since salvation is saving man from the consequences of sin (and the Bible affirms this, as we shall see), let God's Word tell you what the consequences are.
It is plain and simple. Here it is: "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23).
But why have you heard — and possibly believed — just the opposite? Look at that — read it in your own BIBLE! Notice! The wages you are going to be paid for having sinned is DEATH! Then why do so many religious people teach exactly the opposite of the Bible — why do they teach that the wages of sin is ETERNAL LIFE in hell?
Look at that again, in your Bible! On the one hand, the penalty is DEATH — on the other hand, the gift is ETERNAL LIFE. The two are contrasted — it is one or the other — DEATH, or ETERNAL LIFE.
Right here let me make VERY PLAIN one thing THE BIBLE teaches. A few persecutors have accused us of teaching" a salvation by Works" — that is, that our "works" earn salvation. Let it be made clear and plain right here that your "WORKS" — your evil works — do earn something — but it is NOT SALVATION — what they earn — the WAGES they earn — is DEATH, and not salvation!
Further, let's get this point straight and plain right here — ETERNAL LIFE is not something you can earn; it is GOD'S GIFT through Christ! That is the plain teaching of YOUR BIBLE! You earn wages. The only wages you can earn is DEATH. Your Bible says that. We say that. But our accusers actually teach the very thing they accuse us of teaching! ! ! — they teach that ETERNAL LIFE is the wages you EARN by your works — even though it is eternal life in hellfire.
Again — your BIBLE says very plainly that the GIFT of God is ETERNAL LIFE." Now this very verse (and all others in the Bible bearing on the subject agree) says plainly that what you RECEIVE by God s GRACE — as His GIFT, is ETERNAL LIFE. It says that eternal life is something you have to obtain as a GIFT from GOD! Therefore SALVATION actually IS ETERNAL LIFE — a GIFT! But do you know the accusers who try to discredit this very work of God DENY That? They actually DENY that eternal life comes only as God's GIFT by grace and through Christ. THEY SAY YOU Already HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. They say you are an IMMORTAL SOUL!
Yes, this is amazing!
This is important! This is the crux of the whole question — of life — of the reason for existence! If you have an immortal soul — if you already have eternal life — then the Bible is not true when it says plainly eternal life is a GIFT from God. According to the Bible, what the "saved" receive as God's GIFT through Jesus Christ is ETERNAL LIFE. Salvation, then, actually is the receiving of something you don't now have — ETERNAL LIFE. And if that Bible statement is TRUE, then our accusers are FALSE!
They try to deceive people into believing they do not need to be saved from death by Christ's free grace — by His shed blood. They say you do not need saving from death at all. They say, as Satan deceived mother Eve, that you will not surely die — you are — or have — an immortal soul!
NOTICE THIS IN YOUR BIBLE!
It's time to quit believing and following MEN. Look in your own Bible. BELIEVE GOD!
WHY You Are Helpless
Now does the Bible say anywhere that you are, or have, an "IMMORTAL SOUL"?
For years we offered $1,000 to anyone who can show any place where the words "immortal soul" are found in the Bible. No one ever found it!
WHY IS IT that religious people speak continually about "your immortal soul," about "going to heaven," about dead loved ones being now "with the Lord," and many other such things supposed to be the basic beliefs of Christianity — and yet never once showing You any such teaching IN THE BIBLE! They talk of these teachings as if they were true. They lead you to take these teachings for granted — to suppose they came from the Bible.
What does the Bible teach about the soul? Will you read it in your own Bible? Don't take my word for it — don't believe me — BELIEVE GOD!
Read it, in Ezekiel 18:4: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Yes, again, the wages of sin is DEATH — that soul that sins shall DIE!
The truth about the soul is so important God caused it to be written twice. Turn now to Ezekiel 18:20: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Souls are not immortal. Your Bible says they can DIE!
But the deceiver may say: "That's in the Old Testament." Read in the NEW Testament that ALL Scripture — all that Timothy had known from youth, which was the Old Testament — is given by inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:15-16) .
Again, in the New Testament: Jesus Christ Himself said you should "fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in gehenna" — a fire that will burn them up — cause them to DIE — destroy what is burned! Oh, yes, the Bible does teach that kind of hellfire — but not the kind where one burns forever and yet never burns up (Matthew 10:28). Let's believe Jesus Christ when He says souls can be DESTROYED! They are NOT immortal!
This may come as a surprise: not only is it true that there is no such expression anywhere in the Bible as "immortal soul," but the word "immortal" occurs only once in all the Bible — in 1 Timothy 1:17, where it refers to GOD as being immortal.
Further, the word "immortality" can be found only five times in all the Bible. In Romans 2:7 you will read it is something for us to seek for. Of course! It is the GIFT of GOD, who has it to give! You don't need to seek for something you already have! In 1 Corinthians 15:53, and again in verse 54, immortality is something the "saved" shall put on, AT THE TIME OF THE RESURRECTION. In 1 Timothy 6:16 it speaks of the resurrected and glorified Christ, who, only, of all who have been born human, has immortality. And finally, in 2 Timothy 1:10, immortality is something Jesus Christ brought to light — made possible for us to receive — through the Gospel.
So the Bible teaches that the soul is NOT immortal, but is mortal, subject to DEATH as the penalty of sin!
Now where does this leave YOU? Let's get back to YOU!
All have sinned. That includes you. The penalty is DEATH! You do not possess eternal life from natural birth. Christ said: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6). So you are only mortal, material FLESH. You are "of the earth — earthy" (1 Cor. 15:47). The life you were born with is merely temporary chemical existence! You live by breathing air in and out of your lungs — the breath of life.
You are only one breath away from death — the cessation of the existence we call "life." If you don't draw that next breath, you can't keep alive or conscious ten more minutes. There is no immortal soul that will keep you alive and conscious. You ARE a soul (Gen. 2:7) that has sinned, and so shall DIE, unless saved from it by Christ's grace.
If your heart does not make that next beat, there is nothing in you to keep you alive ten minutes. You exist by breathing of air and circulation of blood — fed by food and water. You have only temporary chemical EXISTENCE. You are like a clock wound up, and running down. You don't know at what second it will stop!
You can't give yourself any LIFE beyond this running-down chemical existence. There is no eternal life inherent in you. Nothing you can do will produce it, supply it, or EARN it. You can't get it by your own works!
What your own works have done for you is earn for you the PENALTY of death. And it is ETERNAL DEATH — eternal punishment! You see, everyone has "WORKS" — either good or bad.
GOD — and God only — has immortality! Instead of assuming carelessly the pagan teaching of "immortality of the soul," turn again to I Timothy 6:16 and read it with your own eyes in your own Bible! The risen Christ and He only, of all who were born human, has immortality. God has immortality — life inherent, in Himself (John 5:26). He has given to the Son, Jesus
Christ, also to have LIFE in Himself. And only GOD can impart eternal life to you! It comes through Christ.
But how are you going to go to God? Your past sins not only have condemned you under penalty of death — they also have put a total barrier between you and God. They have cut you off from all access to God!
Read it ! See it in your own Bible: "Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear" (Isaiah 59:1-2).
HOW Seek God?
So HOW, when this barrier stands between you, are you going to GO TO GOD to obtain eternal life?
Again Isaiah answers: "SEEK ye the Eternal while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake His WAY, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. . . For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Eternal" (Isa. 55:6-8).
So now you SEEK GOD, so you may obtain eternal LIFE from Him. You REPENT! You forsake dozer way of life, and turn to God's way. But you find something is still lacking! You find you still are cut off! The barrier is still there! Do you know why?
At this point we need to stop and find out what is meant by that word SIN.
Haven't you honestly been a bit confused by this religious terminology? You hear people talk about "sin," "getting saved," "under law or under grace, " " justification, " "sanctified, " "heaven," "hell," "predestination," and dozens of other terms. Haven't they been pretty vague to you — rather meaningless? Do you know that most religious people who use all these religious words usually don't know any more than you do what they really MEAN?