You may submit your own question via the contact information on the “ABOUT” page. A link to the about page can be found at the top of any of the website pages.

Question Summary:

Once a person has accepted Christ, are they always saved no matter what?

Reply:

The salvation guarantee is a question that is asked by almost every Christian at one time or another in their walk with Jesus. It is also a question that has been debated since shortly after the words of the New Testament were written. Without a doubt, there are differing views on this important topic but I have been asked to share mine.

My beliefs actually fall in the middle of two extreme positions of belief on this topic. I believe both sides have the issue correct to some degree but find themselves at odds with one another because they avoid addressing those rare circumstances that keep their positions on the matter locked in a stalemate. The key to answering this question can be found in the “no matter what” portion of your question.

Is God going to grant salvation to a person, then take it away? No, I do not believe He will do that. Can someone renounce Christ and lose their salvation? Yes, I do believe that is possible. The difference being that God does not take away salvation that He has granted, instead man through a very limited amount of actions or choices, chooses to turn His back on God and renounce Christ. Once we have accepted Jesus as our Lord, our very own personal Savior, He never turns His back on us or abandons us but we most certainly can turn our backs on Him.

Now I will answer the question further by asking some questions.

In the Book of Revelation, John writes about the Great White Throne of Judgment. When an individual reaches the Great White Throne of Judgment, their name had better be in the book. If it is not, their fate is hell. At that point, no excuses will be made or accepted and no explanations will be made or accepted. The time for all of that will have passed.

Revelation 3:5 (NKJV) – Jesus speaking during His Revelation to John.

He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.

Why would Jesus speak of blotting someone’s name out of the Book of Life, if a name could not be removed?

Revelation 22:19 (NKJV)

and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Why would God have it penned in His Word that a person’s “part” could be taken away from the Book of Life if it were not so? It is impossible for God to lie. It is impossible for God not to be faithful to His Word. God’s actions described in this verse are not based on God’s personal desire; they are a result or consequence of someone’s deliberate sin.

Revelation 20:11–15 (NKJV)

The Great White Throne Judgment

11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

‘Anyone not found in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.’

Is Jesus going to address the issue of removing someone name from the Book of Life, if He never takes such action? Or if He does not have the power to do so? Or if He is not willing to do so? No. Our Savior never addressed anything that did not serve a purpose or better yet, His Purpose.

Regarding worldviews:

Secular sources – self-help, advice, mass media – some of these resources can be useful in obtaining knowledge about what is going on in our world but they are not credible sources for a Believer when it comes to establishing beliefs, opinions, and directives for life. The gap between the two foundational platforms (biblical vs. secular) is too vast at this point in our present day society to bring reconciliation between the two. A Believer should seek out Christian lifestyle training, godly counsel, and Christian forms of mass media using those to shape their approach to life.

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

¹¹And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹²for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

You may submit your own question via the contact information on the “ABOUT” page. A link to the about page can be found at the top of any of the website pages.

Question Summary:

I will be combining and summarizing several questions on the same topic into this one question summary. Additionally I have chosen to omit information that I believe too personal to the individual to make known publically or publish here.

This question was actually mentioned in an earlier piece where I addressed the issue of persecution. I mentioned then I would address one specific reader’s questions more directly. However, due to the very sensitive nature of her circumstances I will not give many details about her situation.

Nevertheless, here is a summary of her issue and question.

This is a Christian mother, a godly woman form what I can tell, who has three children in public school. Her issue is with attempting to reconcile her Christian beliefs with the environment she is forced to deal with within the public school system. Basically, she is being told that if she wants her children to go public school she will have to medicate two of them with psychotropic drugs. The details of her situation are lengthy and not appropriate for sharing publically but what I do have the okay to share is that it deals primarily with ADHD and ODD.

This Christian mom wants to know how she can possibly train up her children in the way they should go as Proverbs 22:6 teaches, according to their own temperament and how God created them if she complies with what is being asked of her. Her primary focus is on whether or not the squelching of “passions” is a real agenda for those pushing the ADHD diagnoses.

Reply:

Let me first say, my heart goes out to this mother. My child, 27 years old now, went to public school and during the last few years things were getting pretty odd within the system. I symphonize with any Christian parent who has to deal with the bureaucracy of raising a child today.

Secondly, let me make this plan. As this reader knows, I am not a medical doctor, nor have I ever claimed to be a medical doctor. I have study psychology and psychiatry extensively as well as some sociology but again I am not a doctor and my thought and opinions are just that, mine. My thoughts and opinions are based on what I read and study, what I learn from actual psychologist and psychiatrist, what I learn from other Christian spiritual leaders and my personal beliefs based on Scripture and theology.

per Merriam-Webster’s Medical Desk Dictionary

ADHD is attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

ODD is oppositional defiant disorder.

ODD is typically something younger children are labeled with and it involves anger, outburst, aggression, as well as other aspects of behavior. Before the world became so psychologized we called this the terrible two, which if dealt with at the age of two or three would not become a situation where you had a defiant child. If not dealt with early in a child life, a child would become willful and defiant seeking to control their environment at any cost – potentially, if not corrected, getting worse and worse as they grew older.

We live in a society that wishes to make an excuse for almost any unacceptable behavior. It is a society that for the most the part no longer believes in the true biblical definition of sin or evil. A society that hates personal responsibility, loves to blame others, and refuses to believe personal choice and self-control are more important than drugging oneself into submission. A society that drugs their children into submission because it is easier than putting forth the huge amount of effort it takes to train them up according to God’s Word. What is sadder is that in the post-modern churches, the pews are filled with individual, and parents, who are themselves filled with psychotropic drugs.

We live in a society, which is psychologized in almost everything they do. We have a church who has embraced much of the same. However, do people think about how these experts’ opinions have changed repeated over time? Example: In the late 1970’s, early 1980’s it was the official position of the APA that homosexuality was a mental illness, yet, today some thirty years later they actively promote the opposite. God’s Word about how we should we act and how to handle our problems does not change. Whom would you rather depend on, because it is very difficult to depend on both? It is very difficult to reconcile the two.

The ADHD label typically comes a bit later in a child development. The daydreamers and those who can’t sit still end up with this label. Do people stop to think about what is doing on in the daydreamers mind or why the child who cannot sit still thinks life is so exciting? It is usual only after someone tells these children/people something is wrong with them that they begin to think something might be wrong with them, beforehand most of them were fine with how God created them.

This godly woman just cannot believe that her child has a mental illness or is deserving of a mental diagnosis such as ADHD because they possess characteristics that are typical for their age and other characteristics that she even considered good qualities, once those characteristics are brought into balance through godly instruction and personal maturity. However, the list she gave is accurate and her concern about “passions” is believed by many, if not most, in the psychiatric profession.

Here are some of those negative symptoms/traits that caused her teenager to be slapped with a label of ADHD and therefore, be in need of medication.

energetic

disinterested if not challenged

sensitive

daydreams

feels passionately

absentminded

hyper focused

excels in a specific area to the exclusion of other areas

Overall, the issue that concerned her regarding the “passions” aspect of the diagnosis is that children or people with ADHD will be ‘hyper focused people who will excel at their passion.’ Now isn’t that a horrible thing to have happen to your child. Isn’t that how we got the great artists, the great writers, the wonderful researchers, great surgeons, marvelous concert pianists, brilliant legal minds, or some of the world’s greatest thinkers and theologians? Billy Graham, now in his nineties, has spent his entire life focused on doing one thing, spreading the Gospel of Jesus – sharing the same message over and over and over. Some of our greatest inventors in history were so absentminded they could barely remember to wash their face and comb their hair each day.

A lot of something, usually outweighs a little of everything. Have I missed something here? Are we all supposed to be good at everything or most of us good at nothing in particular?

Mediocrity per Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary: 1 a: the quality or state of being mediocre b: moderate ability or value 2: a mediocre person

Mediocre per Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary: of moderate or low quality: ORDINARY

The spreading or promotion of mediocrity is among one of the greatest things that can later be used to control people.

Regarding worldviews:

Secular sources – self-help, advice, mass media – some of these resources can be useful in obtaining knowledge about what is going on in our world but they are not credible sources for a Believer when it comes to establishing beliefs, opinions, and directives for life. The gap between the two foundational platforms (biblical vs. secular) is too vast at this point in our present day society to bring reconciliation between the two. A Believer should seek out Christian lifestyle training, godly counsel, and Christian forms of mass media using those to shape their approach to life.

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

¹¹And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹²for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

You may submit your own question via the contact information on the “ABOUT” page. A link to the about page can be found at the top of any of the website pages.

Question Summary:

Does trouble in our lives always mean there is sin in our lives? My friend told me that where there is trouble there is sin.

Reply:

The first thing I would like to recommend dear reader is that you go back to you friend and ask for clarity about what he or she meant. People will often make statements that relate to one aspect of a circumstance or truth but it does not reflect a firm belief they have that can be applied across the board to all circumstance. It is hard to understand fully what a person believes based on one or two statements they make. Moreover, it can be detrimental to jump to assumptions about what they believe. This happens often to minister and teachers because typically when they are making a point they do not have the time to address a principle exhaustively.

Trouble in someone’s life does not always mean the person has sin in his or her life. Trouble can come into a person’s life due to persecution. Trouble can come upon a person because they are suffering from the sin of another. Trouble affects people’s lives because of the collective sin of our world, society, families, environment, et cetera. Trouble comes into our lives for many reasons not just our own sin nevertheless; trouble can come into our lives because of our own sin.

Richard Sibbes, a seventeenth-century Puritan, was known for saying, “you can read the sin in the cross.” He meant, we can often determine what sins we might have committed based on the affliction, trouble, or trial we find ourselves bearing – trial being what he referred to as a “cross” in his statement.

When we do find ourselves in the mist of trouble, in a trial, or suffering an affliction it should be our practice to look at ourselves first, and then look for a secondary source. In a society that loathes taking personal reasonability the first reaction is typically to look everywhere else and at everyone else to place blame first, before we embark on self-examination. However, even in the most difficult circumstances where we have been clearly wronged, where trouble is found at our door due to another, we should still examine ourselves before God to see if He would have had us do anything differently at that time or in the future, should we find ourselves in similar circumstance.

If we allow ourselves to live under constant stress, we abuse our bodies, or we neglect our personal care how can we then seek to blame another, God, or Satan when our bodies break down and we become afflicted with an illness that could have been prevented – as God’s Word tells us to care for our temples, our bodies. If we neglect our marriage or our friendships how can we blame our spouse or our friend when they lose interest in us and we are faced with the trial of being alone – as God’s Word tells us we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. How can we sin by stealing a man’s property then be angry because we find ourselves in trouble with a business owner or worse yet, the law – as God’s Word tells us not to steal. If we are poor stewards of the money and things that God gives us then we have no cause to moan because we do not have more or because we have financial problems – as God’s Word tells us to be good stewards. If we are cruel to people we know or to strangers why should we view the cruelty directed toward us as an unjust affliction – as God’s Word tells us we will reap what we have sown. If we take it upon ourselves to make a decision without seeking godly counsel that turns out to be a poor decision which brings trouble to our lives how can we then complain about our troubles – as God’s Word tells us there is safety in seeking godly counsel. Through these few examples, you should be able to understand my point about when trouble might be a result of our own actions or sin.

It is true that trouble is not always due to our sin but when trouble, affliction, or trial comes, let us let us first look inside our own selves, within our own lives, cleaning up the mess there that might be affecting us before we start chasing demons or blaming others.

Regarding worldviews:

Secular sources – self-help, advice, mass media – some of these resources can be useful in obtaining knowledge about what is going on in our world but they are not credible sources for a Believer when it comes to establishing beliefs, opinions, and directives for life. The gap between the two foundational platforms (biblical vs. secular) is too vast at this point in our present day society to bring reconciliation between the two. A Believer should seek out Christian lifestyle training, godly counsel, and Christian forms of mass media using those to shape their approach to life.

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

¹¹And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹²for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.