Salvation Is Only Hard For A Child If You're Not Saved

2nd Timothy 3:12-17, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”

Do you see the simplicity of salvation dear friend? Please notice what the Apostle Paul said to Timothy—“that from a child” he had known the Holy Scriptures, which teach salvation by “turning away from your sins and having faith.” Is that what Paul said? No, he simply told Timothy that salvation is THROUGH FAITH WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS. Galatians 3:26, “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” Again and again, in hundreds of Scripture passages, we are simply taught to BELIEVE. So where did today's perverse preachers (like Pastor Marty Herron, Gary Walton, Sam Horn, John MacArthur and Steve Pettit) get the false idea that a person must “repent and turn away from your sins” to be saved? You won't find that teaching anywhere in the Bible, unless you wrest the Scriptures. ...

2nd Peter 3:16-17, “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.” 

A web visitor recently wrote to me about Evangelist Dan Corner of the Evangelistic Outreach ministry online. Dan preaches hardcore works for salvation! It doesn't surprise me that so many religious people, especially preachers, fail to grasp the truth of the simplicity that is in Christ, because the Bible says the natural (or unregenerate) man cannot understand truth:

1st Corinthians 2:14-16, “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. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

Until a person humbles them self by faith in the presence of God, to embrace the simple Bible truth that you contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary, you will never understand God's grace. Romans 10:3-4, “For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” The very concept of turning from one's sins to be saved is rooted in self-righteousness! They fail to grasp the simplicity that is in Christ. 

Paul very simply reminded Timothy that the Scriptures from his childhood had made him wise unto salvation, which is simply by faith in Jesus Christ. 1st Thessalonians 4:14, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” I love that Bible verse! That is so simple that even a little child can be saved, as was Timothy. 

On September 25, 1990 at the Calvary Baptist Church in Brewer, Maine (Pastor Larry Pawson), Dr. John MacArthur was involved in a question and answer session which was publicly taped. During that session MacArthur said the following about child salvation:

"Now let me say this and I don’t want you to panic when I say it. Saving faith is an ADULT ISSUE. Saving faith is an ADULT EXPERIENCE. Salvation is an ADULT EXPERIENCE. Am I saying that a child cannot be saved? I’m saying that salvation is a conscious turning from sin to follow Jesus Christ with an understanding of something of the sinfulness of sin, its consequences and something of who Jesus Christ is, what He has provided and that I’m committing my life to Him. At what point can a child understand that?... I tell parents that salvation is an adult decision... There is no illustration in Scripture of childhood salvation. There is none. People want to throw the Philippian jailer and his household; well that’s talking about his servants so there is no reference there about his children. So there is no such thing as a childhood conversion."

Dr. MacArthur is saying that if a child is to be saved he must understand as an adult, make an adult decision, and have an adult experience. The Lord Jesus taught the exact opposite, that to be saved adults must become as little children (Matthew 18:3). MacArthur teaches that to be saved children must become as adults. That is gross theological incompetence! Mr. MacArthur fails to mention Samuel in the Old Testament, a child prophet. He fails to mention king Josiah, a godly child who began to reign at only age 7. MacArthur fails to mention the humble shepherd boy David, who as a lad feared and worshipped his God under the stars at night in the fields. The Bible is full of godly children. Samson from birth was raised up to serve the Lord. Likewise, John the Baptist. Jesus Himself at age 12 astounded His listeners, as He taught in the temple, being about His Father's business (Luke 2:46-52).

How does this relate to Dr. MacArthur's teachings on Lordship? If salvation is by simple childlike faith in the Savior, then child salvation is no problem. On the other hand, if salvation involves obedience to Christ’s commands, surrendering to Christ’s Lordship, fulfilling the demands of discipleship, turning away from one's sinful behavior, committal of one’s life to the Savior, running the race and enduring faithfully to the end, et cetera; then salvation has become a very involved and complicated thing that would not at all be simple for a child to do.

If we complicate the Gospel with all kinds of Lordship requirements, then we have indeed made it very, very, difficult for children (and for adults)! If we proclaim the Gospel message that salvation is SIMPLY BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH (based solely upon Christ's sacrifice on the cross), then this is a message that can be gladly received by people of all ages. Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith. God only saves those who are trusting to be saved, not those who are trying to be saved. Eternal life is received, not achieved. There is much wicked arrogant and pride in today's corrupted churches and Bible colleges, who pollute the world with their Calvinist doctrinal filth. John Calvin (1509-1564) was a mass-murdering theological madman! Calvin murdered 58 people, including women and children, for merely disagreeing with his beliefs.

Dear reader, if you think salvation is too hard for a child to understand and partake of, it is only because you are not saved yourself. How can you be, since you think more is required than simple childlike faith in Jesus? If you admit that you're a hell-deserving sinner, and believe Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sins, was buried, and that He resurrected physically three days later, and that is what you are relying upon to get you to Heaven, you are saved. John 11:25-26, “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” Faith is the only righteous thing that I can do!

I was gloriously saved by faith at age 13 in the year 1980. I didn't know that Jesus was God. I didn't know about the virgin birth. I didn't know about Jesus' blood being sprinkled on the heavenly Mercy Seat. I believed that there is a Hell, and I deserve to go there, but I vaguely didn't know what Hell was like (and neither do any adults). I just knew that I was a sinner and Jesus paid for my sins on the cross. I trusted Him personally, and He saved me because I put my trust in Him. I wasn't a theologian. That is all God requires to be saved. John 1:12-13, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

In recent years, I've read some articles online by religious people, who attempt to present the plan of salvation, which are extremely boggled down with information and utterly complicated. That is not the Gospel. The religious garbage that Bob Jones University preaches today is NOT the Gospel. The theological trash promoted by Unshackled (by Pacific Garden Mission) is NOT the Gospel. Woe unto the false prophets! God warns in Proverbs 30:5-6, “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” Kindly said, the Bob Jones University crowd are LIARS! They have added to what God said in the Scriptures. 

Also, BJU sinfully sells, uses and promotes Devil's Bible versions! They promote the English Standard Version (ESV), which is a theological nightmare. Pastor Al Lacy (1933-2016) was absolutely right: “These are Devils Bibles!” Bob Jones University are doing major damage to the cause of Jesus Christ today (they all belong in prison)...

It is neo-fundamentalism’s tragic compromise with modernistic, rationalistic, and ecumenical textual critics and their modern perversions of the Bible that is causing the confusion and the schism within Biblical Fundamentalism today. Biblical fundamentalists loyal to their Lord and His Word have no choice but to separate from these neo-fundamentalists, and expose them for their hypocrisy. 

Man’s Subjective and Fallible Opinions

Many names do not the truth make. 

No man is perfect save the Lord Jesus Christ, and no book is perfect save the Holy Bible. 

Biblical fundamentalists believe that the Holy Scriptures, infallible and inerrant, are the final and supreme authority of Christian faith and practice. 

It is unfortunate that BJU and company, despite their “conservative and God fearing” profession, do not practise what they preach. In their vain attempt to bolster their untenable position on Biblical preservation, instead of simply believing what Scripture explicitly teaches about its own preservation, and applying that truth in their ministry, they cite a list of fundamentalists who had likewise thought and taught wrongly concerning the preservation of Scripture. They quote James Brookes, B H Carroll, C I Scofield, James Gray, R A Torrey, John Straton, William Erdman, A T Robertson, W B Riley, Richard Clearwaters, Noel Smith, John R Rice, and speak as though they are the only rightful representatives of fundamentalism, and there is consensus among fundamentalists over the text and translation issue.11

SOURCE: http://www.jesusisprecious.org/books/bju_neo_fundamentalism.pdf 

What saith the Scripture? 2nd Corinthians 11:3-4, “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.”  Dr. Steve Pettit (president of Bob Jones University since 2014) is preaching ANOTHER GOSPEL. Mr. Pettit is cursed by God. He is a follower of Pastor John MacArthur, the modern-day godfather of Lordship Salvation (i.e., repackaged Calvinism). 

I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of Bob Jones University's leaders and graduates one day, when they are held accountable for spreading corruptible seed, propagating another gospel, and bidding Godspeed to devil-preachers. Moody Bible Institute is just as bad! Liberty University is a hellhole of apostasy today! The Faith Baptist Bible College And Theological Seminary is a disgrace to the cause of Christ, and in big trouble with the Lord. These horrible religious frauds are corrupting the churches—corrupting God's Word, perverting the Gospel, spreading indifference like cancer, and destroying Christianity in America! 

There is no greater form of evil than theological indifference toward THE TRUTH!!! Yet for telling the truth I was kicked out of Harvest Baptist Church on Guam in 2014, and forbidden to return in 2017 (when I pleaded for their love and help). Heavy, heavy, hang God's judgment over their heads at Harvest Baptist Church in Guam in Micronesia, and former disgraced Pastor Marty Herron (who fled to Iowa in pursuit of money, now raking in a 6-digit lucrative salary destroying young people's lives with his dog and pony show, preaching the Devil's lie of Lordship Salvation, from his assortment of Devil's Bible versions that he uses). 

May God strike me dead, if in all of this battle since 2014 with the Bob Jones' crowd, I have done anything wrong! I am the victim. I told THE TRUTH as a true friend does, and for it I was counted their enemy by the Bob Jones University camp! The Apostle Paul was mistreated the same horrible way. Galatians 4:16, “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” Yes, that is exactly so Paul. The ungodly institutions of Harvest Baptist Church and Bob Jones University sinfully count me their enemy, because I told them THE TRUTH! I did the righteous thing. Proverbs 12:17, “He that speaketh truth sheweth forth righteousness: but a false witness deceit.”