Softening the Words of Jesus: The Dangerous Drift of Modern Christianity

Dave Robbins: A well-known actor and Christian media personality
has stirred controversy, quite the controversy by publicly
rejecting the traditional doctrine of hell as eternal
conscious punishment.
Yet eternal judgment stands as a foundational doctrine of the New
Testament church.
Sound biblical doctrine and the correct understanding of it is
essential to salvation.
Well, we’re gonna address this topic and much more on this
edition of “The Endtime Show.”
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Dave: Good afternoon, everybody.
I’m Dave Robbins with Endtime Ministries, and I do thank you
for joining me on this edition of “The Endtime Show.”
You know, the truth is important, is it not?
So today what I want to do, it’s gonna be Bible study 101.
We’re gonna walk down the Scriptures.
I wanna make sure because there’s so much going on in the
news right now and there’s so much–there’s so many efforts to
kind of soften some of the things that the Bible is very
just straightforward on, even the teachings of Jesus himself.
There are many efforts in the world to soften that.
And I wanna make sure that we know what the Bible says and the
tone that the Bible says it in.
It’s very, very critical.
So, Bible prophecy, Bible study because hell is as much a
prophecy as the mark of the beast, world government, the
Second Coming of Jesus Christ, a heavenly eternal existence.
Hell is just as much a prophecy as any of them.
Jesus Christ himself taught about hell more than any other
preacher or teacher in the Bible.
I want you to think about that before we would move off of some
of the consequences that he was talking about while he was here
on the earth in a physical form speaking to us.
And so we’re gonna start today with 2 Timothy chapter 4,
verses 1 through 4.
We’re gonna do a lot of Scripture reading today.
The Bible says, “I charge thee therefore before God and the
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at
his appearing and his kingdom.”
He says, “Preach the word, be instant, in season, out of
season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering
and doctrine.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers
having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from
the truth and shall be turned unto fables.”
Now, I wanna make sure before we go, before we dive off into all
this, that going completely sideways on a truth, in other
words, teaching the absolute opposite of one of the truths in
the Bible, that is a big no-no, obviously.
But also something that is very pointed and says this and that
happens, and there’s no gray area here to try to soften that
or just to turn away from it to move their belief system a
little bit is certainly something we absolutely should
not do.
And so I wanted to make sure because there’s a lot of that
going on on social media right now.
Folks, listen to me.
Make sure you understand the Word of God, that you have a
working knowledge of the Word of God.
So, you say, “But I don’t understand this certain part
over here.”
I get it.
But if you have a working knowledge of the entire scope of
the Word of God, then you can know whether something’s right
or wrong.
And so I wanna make sure that we understand these things as I go
through this lesson today.
Now, doctrine.
Doctrine is increasingly viewed in the modern church, now not
all churches, I know great awesome wonderful churches.
But I say collectively think about all the churches in
the world.
I’m watching many of the churches going sideways and
doing different things, so doctrine I can see is
increasingly being viewed in many modern churches, I’ll say,
as something negative– I’m talking about biblical
doctrines–and ever more divisive.
And listen, everybody, this stands in direct opposition to
the apostle Paul’s instruction to Timothy.
In 1 Timothy 4:16, the apostle Paul said, “Take heed unto
thyself and unto the doctrine.
Continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt save both
thyself and them that hear thee.”
So doctrine’s pretty important, isn’t it?
So Paul clearly taught that sound doctrine is essential for
salvation, not something optional or expendable.
On a recent episode of a Christian media figures podcast,
this individual, very well-known individual, said the traditional
understanding of hell just doesn’t seem to fit the language
of the Old Testament or the broader biblical narrative.
He said, well, instead, he expressed openness to
conditional immorality, also known as annihilationism.
And that’s the belief that the wicked, ultimately, they just
perish and they’re dead and they’re gone, rather than
suffer eternally.
The well-known, let’s say, I think he’s a podcaster.
He pointed to Old Testament passages that describe judgment
using words like to destroy or to perish or the soul that sins,
it shall die, citing Ezekiel’s declaration, Ezekiel 18:4, the
soul that sins, it’s gotta die, the law of sin and death, that
it shall die.
And he took that, so he argued that Scripture consistently
contrasts eternal life.
This one’s gonna die.
It’s just gonna be done and over with rather than the promise of
eternal life as a gift for righteous, for the righteous,
while the wicked are described as being consumed or which the
Bible doesn’t–the Bible talks about that their torment
ascendeth up forever and ever, right?
But he says, oh no, he focuses on consumed, gone forever, and
remembered no more.
And this is where he got his position from.
That there’s not an eternal conscious soul that would be
eternally burning in a hell, eternal flame.
So I wanna speak to this today.
Again, this is gonna be Bible study 101.
Because this, what we’re talking about, eternal judgment, is one
of the essential doctrines of the church, folks.
So you say, “Well, what’s the problem?”
The problem is, is I don’t want–I wanna make sure that
people are not swayed by this, that you take something that is
just black and white and there’s no gray area and says, “Well,
let’s put a little gray area in there.
Let’s start questioning this.”
There’s nothing wrong with asking questions, but we’re
asking questions to know the truth.
And if you’re an influential individual and you’re gonna have
hundreds of thousands of people listening to you, we need to be
talking about the truth here, and I want to make sure that we
understand this.
Because now there are people that are gonna question one of
these essential doctrines of the Bible, and there’s no
question here.
So here’s my question to you.
One of them, is doctrine important?
Is doctrine–is the doctrines of the Bible important to you?
Do you know the doctrines of the Bible?
You know, the Scripture says, and this is in Acts chapter 2.
The Bible says Peter taught the plan of salvation, 3,000–the
Bible says, “And three thousand souls came to the Lord.”
Well, after 3,000 souls were added to the church in Acts
chapter 2, Scripture says that they continued steadfastly in
the apostles’ doctrine, fellowship, breaking in bread,
and in prayers.
Now, I know it’s easy to read some of these Scriptures and all
that sounds good.
Man, they continued steadfastly in the apostle doctrine,
fellowship, breaking in bread, and prayers.
What does that mean?
When the Bible says they continued steadfastly in the
apostles’ doctrine, well, they were just saved so now, when
they continue in the apostles’ doctrine, what were they
continuing in?
And so I wanna make sure we don’t slide over some of these
passages here.
I mean, this passage gives– it gives us four things the
apostles continued in and the people that were born again
afterward, and these four things are necessary for
spiritual life.
If we want to encapsulate what being a Christian is really all
about, these are the four things.
What is it?
Again, they continued steadfastly in the
apostles’ doctrine.
In other words, they were just saved, brand new babes in
the Lord.
Then what?
They go right back out and do whatever they were doing before?
Uh-uh, God forbid.
Once a person is born again, then they start to be discipled
and they start to live a Christian life.
The whole thing about being born again and repentance, dying to
self and everything is to begin to live a Christian walk after
that, you’re not living, the Bible says, “Old things have
passed away, now all things have become new.”
And so, how do they do that?
How do they start to be–to live as a Christian life?
Well, they had to continue in the apostles’ doctrine, they had
the fellowship, they had the breaking of bread, and they had
to learn how to pray, and they had to continue in prayers.
So what I wanna do, I’m gonna go down through and when I get to
eternal judgment, we’ll talk about the podcaster again, what
he said, and then we’ll prove all of that.
Dave: One of the most frequently asked questions we receive at
Endtime Ministries is, why do you guys teach the Rapture
happens after the Great Tribulation?
Should we be passively waiting to be taken at any moment or
actively preparing for the greatest revival in history?
Paul states plainly it will not occur until after the man of
sin, the Antichrist, is revealed, and that will not
happen until God declares it is time.
I will walk you through a timeline of the final
seven years.
The Rapture, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, and the Second
Coming of Jesus Christ is one continuous event.
It’s not an event separated by seven years.
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Dave: Let’s talk about the apostles’ doctrine, very, very,
very, very critical.
In Hebrews chapter 6, verse 1 through 2, the writer of Hebrews
says, “Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of
Christ, let us go on unto perfection.”
What is it?
“Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works,
faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of the
laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead,” and
here it is, “eternal judgment.”
This is one of the main doctrines.
These people were saved and had the principles of the doctrine
down pat.
Here, the writer of the Hebrews is writing to them.
They already–these people are saved individuals.
They’ve got these doctrines.
I mean, they’ve got them and they’re living by ’em.
But he’s urging them to leave the principles of the doctrine
and go on to perfection.
All of us need a clear understanding of what the
doctrine of Christ really is.
Now, perfection means to grow into the fullness of the stature
of Christ.
Every Christian on the planet should be endeavoring–you say,
“Well, I thought, you know, being a Christian meant that
I’ve got five cars in the garage and I’m, you know, I’ve got tons
of money and that means I’m doing okay with the
Lord,” right?
No, no, no, that is not it.
There’s nothing wrong with having some money and some–and
different things.
There’s nothing wrong with that.
But that’s not a sign of I’m doing okay with the Lord.
Perfection means to every Christian on earth should be
endeavoring to do this.
To grow into the fullness of the stature of Jesus Christ.
If you’re endeavoring to do that, you’re doing the God’s
will in your life.
And if you find something that Jesus would–that’s why, you
know, the famous, “What Would Jesus Do?”
Well, that’s a very, very–that’s a great–whoever
come up with that, WWJD, “What Would Jesus Do?”
Very important, ’cause if you can let that kind of help guide
your life a little bit, you know, what would Jesus do in
this circumstance?
Well, he wouldn’t do that, then you probably shouldn’t do that.
So, these are–Hebrews chapter 6, verse 1 through 2, these are
the foundational doctrines of Christianity.
The first step in coming to God is to first believe in God and
that, but also in the plan of salvation is to repent, repent
from works that should die from your life.
You got to get rid of these, folks.
Old, old things have to pass away.
The Bible says the works of the flesh are–now, some of these,
fornication, adultery, lying, stealing, wrath, jealousy,
and strife.
These are things that we lay aside once we become part of
Jesus Christ, part of the bride of Christ by being born again.
You’re not doing that kind of stuff anymore.
The doctrine of repentance from dead works is one of the
foundational doctrines.
You can’t teach something other than that.
You can’t say, well, maybe repentance is part of essential
for salvation.
Maybe repentance isn’t.
Maybe, you know, let’s kind of sugarcoat it.
There’s no sugarcoating it.
You either die to self or you don’t.
You know, a corpse, or somebody in the hospital, when they die,
they’re either dead or they’re not dead.
The deal on the screen is either they’re still going up and down
on their heartbeat or it’s flatlined.
And it’s the same way with a Christian.
When you repent, you’re either dead to self and you’re living
for the Lord, you’re bought and paid for with a price by his
blood on Calvary, or you’re still alive to your own
self, right?
So repentance from dead works, that’s one of the
foundational doctrines.
Dying to self encapsulates the entire concept, we die to the
flesh and no longer live after the flesh, but now we live after
the spirit.
Secondly, is our–these are the doctrines here, and I’m telling
you about.
Secondly is our faith toward God.
And you say, “Well, what our faith towards him, I’m not even
100% sure what that is.”
Well, faith that he died and was buried and raised again for us.
This is the very essence of the Christian belief system.
Through accepting his death, burial, and resurrection, we
are, the Bible says, redeemed.
And our penalty for sin is paid.
All of us owe the penalty for sin when you’re born, day one.
You were under the law of sin and death because of Adam
and Eve.
But our penalty is paid for through the death of Jesus
Christ on Calvary, and we receive that when we are
baptized into Jesus Christ.
The Bible says, “Know ye not that so many as of us were that
were baptized, were baptized into Christ and were baptized
into his death.
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death that like
as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
What a wonderful promise that is.
So when we are baptized in his death, our sins are remitted or
our sins are paid for.
The Bible says, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no
remission,” no payment for sin.
And so when that happens, we pass from death to life and we
are delivered from the law of sin and death.
The Bible says in the book of Romans, “The spirit of life in
Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
The soul that sins has gotta die.
Now, I don’t have to.
And so we’ve been delivered from that law which the soul that
sinneth it shall die.
We’ve been delivered from that.
We are translated into a new law.
The law of liberty in Christ Jesus, again, that’s made me
free from that law of sin and death.
This is a concept, folks, if you get this, it will change your
whole walk with God, it’ll change the way you live your
life, it’ll change everything once you get this concept.
And what happens is we transition out of the New
Testament or the–we transition out of the Old Testament, the
old will of God into the New Testament, and that is what
faith toward God is all about.
And that’s the reason we can say Romans 8, verse 1, “There is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”
If you’re living under condemnation, then we need to
fix that.
You need to get in Christ Jesus.
How do we get in Christ Jesus?
By being born again.
When we are born again into Christ Jesus, then we are born
into the family of God.
And so this is why it is of utmost importance that we
understand these doctrines and we do not move off of
these doctrines.
And there are people nowadays that are seeing these doctrines
as divisive.
But the doctrines are not made to be divisive.
The doctrines are there to help save us.
So we don’t ever wanna move off of one of these doctrines.
I mean, not even–we don’t wanna turn the steering wheel of life
even 1/8 inch because several miles down the road, you’re in
the ditch, right?
Don’t wanna do that.
We’re gonna stay right by these doctrines.
Very important.
The third essential doctrine to Christianity is the doctrine of
baptisms, and this is interesting because Ephesians
chapter 4, verse 5 says that there’s one Lord, one faith,
one baptism.
So is the Bible contradicting itself?
Absolutely not.
The Bible never contradicts itself.
Sometimes you have to ask yourself what is this
not saying?
The passage in Hebrews used the word plural–or I’m sorry,
baptisms as plural with an S on the end, plural the doctrine
of baptisms.
Well, this is, again, this is not contradicting the other
Scripture because the one baptism of Ephesians 4 is
referring to the mode of water baptism.
There is only one mode of baptism used in the entire New
Testament church.
The Bible teaches another baptism, which is the baptism of
the Holy Ghost.
When Jesus told Nicodemus, he said, this is John 3,
“Nicodemus, you must be born of the water and the Spirit.”
There is a water baptism and there is a Spirit baptism, which
is what the Scripture is referring to.
It does not–it’s not contradicting itself, okay?
And again, this is Bible study 101 today, folks, but I wanna
make sure you get this because there is so much stuff flying
around the internet, wow, make your head swim, doesn’t it?
But once you understand the Bible and these doctrines and
all of the principles that are laid out in the grand scope of
everything, you can say, “Wow, I think with the Lord’s help that
I can be saved,” and you absolutely can.
It’s a promise from God.
Now, another doctrine here refers to–in Hebrews chapter 6
verse 1 through 2, refers to the doctrine of the laying on
of hands.
And by reading the book of Acts, let’s say, let’s go there,
we know the apostles laid hands on people and transferred to
them the power of the Holy Ghost by laying hands upon them.
The Bible teaches if there’s any sick among you, let them call
for the elders of the church, and they will anoint them with
oil and lay hands upon them and the prayer of faith shall save
the sick and the Lord shall raise them up.
This is very biblical.
If you’re not in a church that believes in laying on of hands
and praying for people, maybe you guys should have a
discussion about that because it’s one of the principal
doctrines of the church.
You guys can have a discussion on Hebrews chapter 6, verse 1
through 2.
Now, the easiest way to teach the laying on of hands
is to–like my father-in-law, Irvin Baxter, I heard him tell
this a million times– think of it like jumper cables.
I mean, have you ever had a dead battery and someone comes along
and gives you a jump, they hook their jumper cables from their
truck or their car to your vehicle and boom, your engine
starts, right?
You had a dead battery.
Well, you know, this is– that’s kind of the way it is
when–that’s kind of the way the laying on of hands works.
If your spiritual battery is dead, you can come up and have
the ministers, a male or female, it doesn’t matter, lay hands
upon you, and it’s kind of like jumper cables.
And now, hopefully, there’s not two dead batteries there, my
father-in-law would say.
It’s so funny.
I’ve heard him talk about it a million times.
But hopefully, the minister has been in the prayer room and
they’re charged up, right?
And very, very important.
But when a minister, again, male or female, it doesn’t matter,
lays hands on somebody and they’re full of the Holy Ghost,
they’ve got power to impart and it’s one of the
principal doctrines.
I mean, the Bible says to lay hands on no man suddenly though.
Say, what does that mean?
Well, there was a time in the Bible when there were people who
were laying hands on people who didn’t have a right to because
they didn’t know what they were doing.
They hadn’t been in the presence of the Lord.
I mean they were just copycatting what the apostles
were doing.
There was–if you remember, there was a man possessed of a
devil and they let these individuals lay hands on him,
and they said, “We adjure you through the name of Jesus whom
Paul preacheth.”
They had like a, kind of like a thirdhand relationship with
Jesus Christ.
And they were casting out devils in the name of Jesus Christ who
Paul preached.
And they didn’t really know Jesus Christ for themselves.
Well, guess what happened?
There was a problem.
In this one gentleman, there was more power in that man that was
demon possessed than what they had.
And the juices flowed the wrong way and the devil jumped on
them, beat ’em, and they fled naked.
Now, you don’t wanna do that.
You better be full of the Holy Ghost if you’re gonna start
laying hands on people and start praying for them.
Now, I know that I personally don’t lay hands on
people indiscriminately.
Some people aren’t ready to have hands laid on them.
I try to discern when we’re in a service, you know, they have–
those people have a dead short and it won’t do them any good.
And you have to fix the dead short before it’s time to lay
hands on people and get them back on the road again, right?
And that comes from, you know, spending time in the ministry
and times in the presence of the Lord.
And so certainly something that, but if you’re in a church that
believes in this, it’s one of the essential doctrines of the
church, right?
The doctrine of laying on of hands.
And it’s God’s means of through the power of the Holy Ghost of
helping that person out and recharging their battery, right?
You can help them and a lot of different things happen.
It’s very biblical and if you don’t do it, you should have a
conversation about it.
Do some Bible studies about laying on of hands, go through
the Scriptures, go through the book of Acts.
It’s all there for you to see and partake of.
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