Category: Newspaper Articles

Newspaper articles confronting pregnancy centers that promote cultic and ecumenical Bible studies for clients. Newspaper articles confronting pregnancy centers w/ a political/dominionist agenda

Cultic beliefs, Cultic Beliefs, Newspaper Articles

A False Gospel—called the “Water Gospel”

Lee Anne Ferguson

Many are believing what’s called Baptismal Regeneration, or the “water gospel,” (basically a “watered-down gospel”) where baptism is added as a requirement for salvation. But we must “try the spirits” behind this doctrine, as we’re commanded to do in 1John 4:1. And two signs of deceiving spirits are when “contradicting and blaspheming” of God’s word occur (Acts 13:45). For example, one may say it’s not our works that save us, but then turn around later and contradict themselves by saying faith and baptism are works we do to be saved.

I found another example recently in a “House to House” pamphlet (vol. 18) sent out by a local church. It claims the thief on the cross was saved without being baptized because he was still under the Mosaic Dispensation. Yet, their website contradicts this by claiming Jesus told Nicodemus (who was ironically also under the Mosaic Dispensation) that he must be born again by being water baptized (John 3:5). So we must ask, “Why the double standard?” Besides, baptism isn’t even mentioned here, which is embarrassingly ironic, for they claim to be “silent where Scripture is silent.” The context here and 1John 5:6-8, even make it obvious that Jesus was explaining the difference between natural and spiritual birth.

Scripture also reveals that saving faith is the means God uses to bring His sheep home. Even Mark 16:16 doesn’t say, “he who isn’t baptized will be damned,” but it does say, “he that doesn’t BELIEVE shall be damned.” Also in 1 Pet.3:20-21 Noah’s family was “saved by water” only in the sense that it was a figure of the true (Jesus Christ), for it symbolized His death, burial and resurrection, just as baptism does today. The water itself didn’t save, or else those outside the ark would’ve been saved. As Peter even says here, baptism itself can’t put away the filth of the flesh, for a symbol can’t purge a guilty conscience, it’s only an outward testimony of what’s already occurred inwardly. Baptism is a figure of the true, whereas faith is the substance (Heb.9:9, 14, 26; 11:1, 7).

Yet, promoting baptism as a requirement for salvation turns the one who “administers” the “requirement” into a human mediator, which is blasphemy. There’s only one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus (1Tim.2:5). Only He can administer what’s necessary for our salvation (saving faith), for He obtained it and all other spiritual blessings that accompany salvation (repentance, obedience, etc.), so that those who are His don’t try to add their own works to the sufficiency of His sacrifice (Rom.8:32, Eph.1:3, 4:8, Phil.4:19).

Still, many go to great lengths to exalt man and his works, such as twisting Acts 2:38 to mean we’re baptized “in order to get,” remission of sins, rather than baptized “because” believers sins have already been remitted by the shedding of Jesus’ blood (Heb.9:22). Common sense even tells us that one doesn’t take medicine FOR a headache “in order to get” a headache. One takes medicine FOR a headache “because” they’ve already got one!

 Matt.3:11 uses the same Greek word in connection with baptism, as Acts 2:38. And clearly it can’t mean “in order to get” repentance, for John told the Pharisees they had to first “produce fruits worthy of repentance” like the Ethiopian, Saul, Cornelius, his family and thousands of others did in Acts, AFTER God had purified their hearts by faith (Acts 15:8-9), BEFORE they were baptized. Yet, if these verses meant baptism “obtains” remission of sins and repentance, then one would have to confess, no one needed that more than the Pharisees, yet John refused to baptize them! To be consistent with the “water gospel,” one would also have to confess that the Israelites were baptized “in order to get” Moses to be their leader, rather than “because” he’d already led them out of Egypt, for the same Greek preposition is used in conjunction with baptism in 1 Cor.10:2.

There are many more infallible, biblical proofs that Baptismal Regeneration is a false gospel, but may have to be covered in upcoming articles. Until then, just remember friend, Jesus didn’t shed His blood in vain. True believers don’t feel they have to make His blood effectual by doing something, for they simply trust that His blood atonement is effectual for those it was intended for, based on the effectual working of HIS power, not theirs (2Cor.4:7, Eph.3:7; Heb.13:12, 20, 21).

Sis Lee Anne—-readers with questions or comments are free to contact me at gospel4life@live.com

freewill vs. Sovereignty of God, Newspaper Articles

Therapy or Theology?

Lee Anne Ferguson

In the last article we seen how Scripture proves God is sovereign in all things, including suffering. We also touched a little on the deistic view of suffering. Yet, we need to take a closer look into deism, for it’s the view of the whole world, which lies in wickedness (1Jn.5:19).  It attempts to put man or “mother nature” in charge and portrays God as a helpless bystander. But Scripture clearly shows that God’s hands are not tied by His laws of nature or even by the so-called “freewill” of man (e.g. Dan.4:35, Eph1:21).

For example, Jonah wasn’t willing to do what God called him to do. Far from it, Jonah tried to run from God and found out that he couldn’t. Why? ….because God always catches up with His own. He never leaves them to themselves, but seeks them and rescues them, which is why God prepared the fish to swallow Jonah and spew him out on land again. God knows how to incline His people to be willing to obey! His hands are NOT tied!!

Even in Ezekiel 2:1-2 we see that God grants His people what He commands, for He knows we’re helpless. Yet, the motto of deism is “God helps those who help themselves,” when Scripture clearly shows the opposite. God helps those who CAN’T help themselves (e.g. Isa.64:6, Lk.18:10-14).  Sin has so corrupted our nature, we must be born again by the Holy Spirit, Who alone can quicken us from being dead in sin and make us alive in Christ (Eph2:1-10).

Much of our suffering (even as Christians) is due to the sin that dwells in the flesh. Many times even depression begins with sin (worry, impatience, doubting God, believing the devils lies), not low self-esteem. Yet, therapeutic deism turns people to therapy, rather than to God for mercy. A Savior can never be truly treasured as long as one thinks they’re basic “goodness” can attain salvation. When in reality the only part we play in salvation is the sinning. God does all the saving and He does it effectually and completely, leaving none of it to us, because “there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” “For when we were yet WITHOUT STRENGTH in due time Christ died for the ungodly”(Rom.3:10-12, 5:6). 

Deism is a self-help religion that downplays how terrible sin is and labors to boost self-esteem. But 2 Tim.3:2 shows us that’s the last thing we need. We already love ourselves too much! We’re naturally selfish and every other bad thing. So our greatest need is to have a Savior Who can cover our sins, reconcile us to God and love us more than we could ever love ourselves. We need the blessed assurance that we’re saved from the eternal damnation our sins deserve.

Deism also idolizes the mind by claiming the gospel can be grasped by natural reason, rather than supernatural revelation by God. But “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1Cor.2:14). So the only “freewill” the natural mind has is “freedom” from righteousness, for “when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness” (Rom.6:20). But God never leaves His people to their own fallen “freewill,” but opens their understanding and grants them repentance so they CAN recover themselves from the snare of the devil (2Tim.2:25-26). 

So friend, “if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed (Jn.8:36). Jesus even delivered someone possessed by a legion of demons, not due to an ability to choose Him with their natural mind, because it wasn’t until AFTER Jesus delivered him that he was even in his right mind to follow Jesus (Mk.5:15). So take comfort fellow-sufferer, one can even be out of their mind and still be saved and delivered by God, who gives the spirit of a sound mind (2Tim1:7) ….because nothing is impossible for God. Sis. Lee Anne—e-mails welcome at gospel4life@live.com

freewill vs. Sovereignty of God, Newspaper Articles

God’s Sovereignty

Lee Anne Ferguson

Many think that if they’re seeking what only God can provide, they must be seeking God. But Jesus told a multitude that they were only seeking Him for His earthly benefits, not for the heavenly miracles that proved His Deity.  In other words, they weren’t really seeking God. And Jesus explained why by saying, “No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him” (John 6:26, 44, 66).

 Jesus’ words were so offensive, many walked away.  Because like today, many admit God is sovereign over nations and temporal life, but they can’t handle the fact that God is sovereign over all things, including eternal life.  They’d rather make up a god they’re more comfortable with, because “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,” which is why “it’s not in man that walketh to direct his own steps” (Jer.10:23, 17:9).

So why does God command us to seek Him and proclaim the gospel? Since only God changes hearts and draws sinners to Jesus to be saved, why should we take action at all?  Obviously, the answer is simple. He commands us to.  For He already knows that although some won’t obey in spirit and truth, some will.  Just as God commanded light to shine out of darkness (Gen.1), everything didn’t become light, but what God ordained to be light, obeyed His command. That’s why there’s a universal call of the gospel but not a universal redemption, “for many be called, but few chosen” (Matt.20:16, Acts 13:48).

Although fallen humanity has the “light of conscience” and the “light of creation” to prompt them to an outward performance of God’s commands, they can’t seek Jesus from a pure heart unless God commands the “light of the gospel” to shine into their hearts.  A mere outward response isn’t the deciding factor, God is. In fact, God’s sovereignty in salvation is so obvious that Jesus recaps this point in John 6:65 by saying “No man can come unto Me, except it were given unto him of the Father.”

Yet many are believing what’s called “decisional regeneration,” where trust is placed in a “decision for Christ” rather than Holy Spirit regeneration, where the Spirit bears witness with our spirit, that we’re His (Tit.3:5, Rom.8:16). For believers “have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us” (2Cor.4:3-7), because those who receive God’s free gift aren’t those with more “willpower” but those whom God has given the power to become His (John 1:12, 13).  “For it is not of man who wills or runs, but of God who shows mercy” (Rom.9:16). 

“For who maketh thee to differ from another” (1Cor.4:7)? Are Christians different because they’re better than others?  Are they able to receive, repent, believe and obey the gospel due to having more common grace of character, conviction, morality, or ability to choose the things of God? Absolutely not! Or else they wouldn’t need a Savior and could do without God’s sovereign saving grace.

So dear friend, although many turn away from such a sovereign God, you don’t have to become a statistic. And you don’t have to try to be better than others.  Just cry out to God for mercy, confessing your desperate need of a Savior.  He never turns away those who are truly brokenhearted over sin (Ps.51:17), for He sent Jesus to seek and save an endless multitude of people who are poor in spirit.  So be encouraged, no one is closer to God’s free grace than when they finally realize the poverty of their own sinfulness and powerlessness compared to God’s sovereign, majestic holiness.

Sis Lee Anne—-Readers with questions or comments are free to contact me at gospel4life@live.com

Newspaper Articles

Justified by Faith

Lee Anne Ferguson

Many try to discredit the Bible based on its supposed “contradictions.” But the truth is that God purposely uses such things to confound those who are wise in their own eyes (1Cor.1:27, Luke 10:21).  In fact, He gives the proud just enough material in His word for them to build a case with.  In other words, they have “just enough rope to hang themselves.”

A great illustration for this point is the seeming contradiction between Apostle Paul and James.  In Rom.3:27-28 Paul says, “a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”  But James in 2:24 says, “by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.”  And yet they both mention Abraham to prove their points and both even use the same Greek word for “justified.”  However, they don’t use it in the same sense, for they are both addressing two different matters.  Paul was addressing work-righteousness and the false belief that one could earn salvation, whereas James was addressing false professions of faith and those who try to use God’s grace as an excuse to sin.

For example, in Rom. 4:3 Paul appeals to Gen. 15:6, where Abraham is “justified” (counted righteous) by simply possessing the gift of faith God had freely given him….BEFORE he had performed any works of obedience.  Whereas James in 2:21 appeals to Gen. 22, where Abraham’s faith is “justified” (proved) by being granted the power to exercise it in the offering of Isaac on the altar…… a work he was enabled to perform.…..AFTER he had already been justified by God’s grace.

Did you catch that?  Both Paul and James are actually presenting two sides of the same coin.  Like all the other supposed “contradictions” in the Bible, they are actually in perfect harmony. Both make it clear that works are not the means of salvation, but the outgrowth of salvation.  Likewise, true God-given faith always manifests itself in works of obedience and in the ability to trust Jesus alone for salvation.  However, a faith that doesn’t work proves to be the “faith” of devils, for it contains no God-given power to prove its claim.  And it can only trust in its own powerless works rather than fully trusting in Jesus alone and His finished work on the cross.

Perhaps this is why James 2 becomes a “noose” for those who want to try to establish their own righteousness.  And since they lack the ability to harmonize their case with the rest of Scripture, they often end up trying to prove that Paul was only addressing the Jewish “oral law” rather than God’s law.  But ironically, by still subtly trying to establish the principle of law for their justification, they only dig themselves deeper by promoting a “do more, try harder” moralism that makes God’s grace seem like something that just “helps those who help themselves.”

That is not a saving grace, but a fall from grace that makes it look like we have to meet God halfway by somehow contributing to the finished work of Calvary by “cooperating” with His grace, where Jesus just merely “fills the gap.” This version of “grace” is a faulty foundation that’s built upon the sinking sand of humanistic philosophy rather than the solid Rock of Jesus Christ, who actually “fills all things” (Eph.4:10).

So friend, remember God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (1Pet.5:5).  Repent by turning away from your own futile attempts of trying to justify yourself and put your trust in Jesus alone to save you.  For only Jesus’ merits have perfectly satisfied God’s holy law, so that guilty sinners who come to God for mercy can be made righteous through Him.

—Readers with questions or comments are free to contact me at gospel4life@live.com

freewill vs. Sovereignty of God, Newspaper Articles

A New Heart and a New Spirit

Lee Anne Ferguson

Theological Thoughts

     Just recently Ezekiel 18 was brought to my attention by a loved one who felt these verses proved that we should be able to conjure up faith, repentance and obedience to God in our own power.  Of course these verses came as no surprise, since I too had struggled with them and many others, most of my life.  Coming from a legalistic background, I would read all the do’s and don’ts in God’s word and despair of ever being able to live up to them all.  It wasn’t until God opened my blind eyes that I could finally understand that He actually wanted me to despair of ever being able to live up to His standards, so that confidence in my own self-sufficiency would be shattered and so I could finally realize my desperate need for a Savior (2Cor.3:5). 

 

     Ezek.18 is actually a perfect example of how God deals with His people.  He commands them to do the impossible.  In verses 30-31 He commands His people to “turn themselves” and make themselves a new heart and a new spirit.  He tells them to do what He already knew they could never do apart from His divine intervention.  Even in Ezek. 3:7 God tells His prophet from the very start that these people wouldn’t listen, for they were hard-hearted.  So why did God even bother telling them to do what He already knew they couldn’t? 

 

     By reading the whole book of Ezekiel in context, the answer becomes obvious.  He did this so they would realize they didn’t have the power to do the very things that would save them.  And when they accused God of being unfair, He revealed even more of His glory by making it clear that He could destroy them all and still be just, because like all of us, they deserved hell for sinning against their holy Creator (Ezek.18:25,29).  “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10).

 

       But in Ezek.36:22 we see that God is full of mercy and grace and He shows us that He can change the most repulsive sinner in order to reveal His glory.  Again in vs.26 and 27 God tells them He is the One who gives a new heart and a new spirit.  Even as early as Ezek.11:19-20, God tells them they will become His people only because He Himself will put a new heart and a new spirit in them and that only then would they have the power to obey His commands.  For no one has the natural power within themselves to do this, because we can only “believe according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ (Eph.1:19, 20). 

 

     The book of Ezekiel is just another beautiful reminder of how God’s mighty power can triumph over our sin nature.  Just as Jesus commanded Lazarus’ dead body to come forth, He still commands sinners who are dead in their trespasses to do the impossible, to repent and believe the gospel.  And just as Jesus gave Lazarus the power to come, He still gives His people the same power to come today.

 

     So friend, that which is impossible for you, is not impossible with God.  Come to Him today and confess your helplessness and place your trust in Him alone (not in yourself) to give you the new heart and new spirit that you so desperately need to be saved.  And keep coming to Him.  Pray, read God’s word, worship and commune with God’s people until you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God has forever changed you and that you are forever His.    

 Lee Anne  

freewill vs. Sovereignty of God, Newspaper Articles

Are You Sitting on a High Horse?

Lee Anne Ferguson

Scan0025 Theological Thoughts

     While attending summer revivals with my family, I’ve pondered some theological thoughts that have inspired me to write about this painting I’ve finished and titled “Are You Sitting on a High Horse?” By painting a depiction of the Lamb of God in the background I wanted to portray how many of us, even as Christians have the tendency to sit on the “high horse” of freewill with its prideful appearance of natural ability and strength, while God’s sovereign free grace gets placed in the background of our lives.  One way this happens is when we refer to our salvation in first person (e.g. I went to the altar, I said this prayer, I made a decision for Christ, I invited Jesus into my heart, I got baptized, I did this or that …….THEN God saved me) rather than second person (e.g. God first loved me, God’s word convinced me I was a sinner in need of a Saviour, God changed my heart and granted me the grace to repent, believe and obey the gospel, God secured my salvation in Jesus……BEFORE I could’ve had anything to do with it). 

     The former makes God’s grace sound cheap, as if it’s only effective if we do something first, or that it only enables us to attain our own salvation. Yet the latter, “praises the glory of His grace” (Eph. 1:6) by emphasizing the miracle of what Jesus already attained by His death, burial and resurrection to secure the eternal plan of redemption by which God has determined to save, through Christ, sinners whom He has chosen and how He freely bestows the grace necessary for them to respond in faith and repentance. “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God (Eph.2:8).

    Freewill can only act in harmony with its nature (Rom.8:7-9). For example, in the natural scheme of things, we can choose to either walk or run but we can’t choose to flap our wings and fly. Our nature prevents us from doing so. Likewise, freewill is limited by our fallen nature. Before the Fall, mankind had freewill to either obey or disobey God. But now, the will is only “free” in the sense that it still has the natural ability to disobey God and of trying to attain salvation thru works (Rom.10:3). So by nature, our will isn’t truly free to obey the gospel until God first intervenes with free grace to enable us to become partakers of the divine nature (2Pet.1:4). “For it is God who works in you to will and to do” (Phil.2:13).

    So friend, pray God will grant you free grace, so you’ll be able to truly repent, believe and obey the gospel. For your natural inability to repent enough, believe enough or be good enough is no barrier to His ability to change all that and save you from hell. His grace is enough. And though God resists the proud, He gives grace to the humble and poor in spirit, (1Pet.5:5) for He often refines them in the furnace of affliction to remind them they can never earn it (Isaiah 48:9-11). God in His mercy has already provided the means of salvation in Jesus’ blood atonement and He supplies the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to apply the merits of that sacrifice, while regenerating the dead spirit that was held captive by sin.    

  God’s free grace also helps overcome the external compulsion to sin, which still makes our position one of major accountability. At the same time, believers have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ who intercedes for us in our weaknesses and saves us to the uttermost (Heb.7:25, 12:2). He is the author and finisher of our faith, (Phil.1:6) not by violating our will, but by changing our heart so that our will is free to obey Him in spirit and in truth rather than legalistic bondage.  Because being seated in heavenly places by God’s free grace is far better any day, than being seated on the high horse of freewill by our own works.  For “The horse is prepared against the day of battle; but safety is of the Lord” (Prov. 21:31).

Sis Lee Anne —–Readers w/ questions or comments are free to contact me at gospel4life@live.com