by David J. Stewart | September 2016 | Updated March 2019
Romans 4:5-6, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.”
The Gospel is very delicate and easily corrupted. Wrong theology means going
to Hell. Literally, your doctrine determines your destiny! The Word of God
plainly defines “the Gospel” for us:
1st Corinthians 15:1-4, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”
There you have it—Christ DIED on the cross for our sins, He was BURIED, and He bodily RESURRECTED from the dead three days later. This is “the Gospel,” which means “Good News.” Anyone who admits that they are a guilty sinner in God's sight, and believes the Gospel is saved. No one has ever been saved who didn't admit that he is a guilty sinner in God's sight. You need to know what you are being saved from. We all deserve to be punished in the fires of Hell forever because of our own sins.
Now read what Dr. Ken Ham teaches...
The Free Gift of Salvation: Belief in Christ
Jesus, being the perfect sacrifice, offers the free gift of salvation. God loves you so much that He sacrificed His own unblemished Son to suffer the wrath against sin and die on the Cross. He commands you to repent (change your mind and turn from sinful ways) and trust in Him. [emphasis added]
SOURCE: https://answersingenesis.org/gospel/salvation/what-does-it-mean-to-be-saved/
That is NOT the Gospel of free grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ's death on the cross, burial and bodily resurrection.
Ken Ham Preaches a False Gospel of Reformation
For Salvation
It
is frightening that Pastor Clarence Sexton of the Temple Baptist Church in
Knoxville, and other Baptist preachers today support and promote Mr. Ham's
counterfeit Gospel. I am also against Ken
Ham's Young Earth heresy! Our apostate churches have embraced Calvinists as
if they are Christian brethren! Calvinism is NOT the Gospel!!! Turning away from
sinful ways is NOT the Gospel.
Dr. Harry Ironside (1876-1951) beautifully states:
“Which comes first, repentance or faith? In Scripture we read, 'Repent ye, and believe the gospel.' Yet we find true believers exhorted to 'repent, and do the first works.' So intimately are the two related that you cannot have one without the other. The man who believes God repents; the repentant soul puts his trust in the Lord when the Gospel is revealed to him. Theologians may wrangle over this, but the fact is, no man repents until the Holy Spirit produces repentance in his soul through the truth. No man believes the Gospel and rests in it for his own salvation until he has judged himself as a needy sinner before God. And this is repentance.” (Except Ye Repent, p. 16) [emphasis added]
Pastor Ironside is absolutely correct, repentance is judging one's self as a needy sinner before a holy God. Romans 3:19, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” Clearly, repentance does NOT mean to turn away from sinful ways, which is what Evangelist Ken Ham errantly teaches.
Read again the heresy from Ken Ham's goofy website, Answers In Genesis:
The Free Gift of Salvation: Belief in Christ
Jesus, being the perfect sacrifice, offers the free gift of salvation. God loves you so much that He sacrificed His own unblemished Son to suffer the wrath against sin and die on the Cross. He commands you to repent (change your mind and turn from sinful ways) and trust in Him. [emphasis added]
SOURCE: https://answersingenesis.org/gospel/salvation/what-does-it-mean-to-be-saved/
It may seem like a small matter that's not worth debating, but it definitely is a big issue. Just adding that one little extra Biblical requirement to “turn from sinful ways” to be saved, totally perverts and negates the saving power of the Gospel.
Either a person must “turn from sinful ways” to receive God's gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life, or they do not. It cannot be both! Either a man must purpose in his heart to forsake a deathstyle of fornicating, boozing and thieving to be saved, or he can simply believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved without giving up anything. The difference between these two plans of salvation is drastic. One requires nothing on the part of the sinner, except trusting faith in the Gospel. The other places a heavy burden upon the sinner's shoulders—requiring that he make substantial life's changes, forsaking the sinful world, ceasing from sinful bad habits, and following Jesus as his absolute Lord. None of these constitute the Gospel.
Carefully examine our text passage of Scripture again. Notice that salvation is “without works,” and that a man is saved solely by God's imputed righteousness through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (i.e., “Him that justifieth the ungodly”)...
Romans 4:5-6, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.” [emphasis added]
So few people have a clear
understanding of how salvation works. Let me make it very simple. YOU
ARE A SINNER and unless you accept Christ's payment on the
cross for your sins, you will spend eternity burning in the fires of Hell. You cannot
add or subtract anything to Christ's payment. Jesus paid the price of
our sins in full with His precious blood (1st Peter 1:18-19). Religion
is man trying to reach God through human effort, but Christianity is God
trying to reach man by the sacrifice of His Son on the cross. Salvation is
not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to
your account through receiving Him by faith. Unless you
trust CHRIST ALONE for your salvation, you CANNOT be saved.
Ken Ham is Wrong On the Meaning of Repentance
There
is woeful confusion and misunderstanding today in the churches over the
meaning of repentance. Biblically, the Greek word for “repent” is the
noun metanoia (a
change of mind), or the verb form, metanoeo (to think
differently). Ken Ham errantly alters this meaning to, “change your mind
and turn from sinful ways.” As you can clearly see, Mr. Ham has
perverted the meaning of repentance. This perversion has crept into most
of the churches today, changing how a person gets saved. So instead of
an admitted sinner simply trusting upon the Savior, through childlike
faith in the Gospel; now people are told to invite Christ into their
life, and to receive Jesus as their “Lord and Savior,” and to turn away
from sinful ways as a requirement to be saved. The former is the new
birth, the latter is dead religion. Satan's greatest weapon is to con
people into living the Christian life without ever being born again.
Ken Ham is a false prophet, teaching Lordship Salvation. I highly recommend that you listen to the following excellent, doctrinally sound, awesome, MP3 sermons to help clarify the Gospel in your mind.
