This book points out the tragic situation of so
many today. They think they are on their way to Heaven; but, they are not;
as, they have not heard the clear Gospel of Grace. They are victims of those
who preach a message of salvation mixed with human effort, and their
ultimate end will be the Lake of Fire! Unless someone reaches them with the
truth, they will hear the devastating words, “Depart from me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew
25:41). That is the message of this book.
Bowen
documents the so-called “salvation” messages of some of the “great” pastors and evangelists of today, which do not
give eternal life. He compares them to the message of Christ, which does
give eternal life. He makes his comparisons respectfully, considering that
these pastors and evangelists are just as deceived by Satan, the Father of
Lies, as are their followers by the message they preach
Here is the list of individuals he gives “The Plan of Salvation
According to”: Joel Osteen, Charles Stanley, Pat
Robertson, Rick Warren, John Hagee, Beth Moore, James Dobson, Jimmy
Swaggart, Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron; and, Franklin and Billy Graham.
Read the PDF online; or, if you wish to purchase
your own copy of the book, it is available on Amazon.com. Read the book! You
won't be disappointed.
MICHAEL BOWEN holds a Master's degree in English (Technical and Professional
Communication) from East Carolina University. He is currently teaching
college-level English composition at a community college and operates an IBM
AS400 computer at a local hospital. He enjoys astronomy, martial arts, and
reading. ~David J. Stewart
Where The Burden Rests In Salvation
I love
Michael P. Bowen's superb book clarifying the Gospel, “I NEVER KNEW YOU: THE
COMING GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT AND HOW YOU CAN AVOID IT!” I just ordered three
hardcopies from Amazon.com... one copy to share with some neighbors who are
religious, but lost; another copy to have on reserve to give someone who
needs it, and the last copy for my library. I'm glad Michael Patrick Bowen
wrote this needful book as a resource tool for Christians on the spiritual
battlefield. This excellent book really knocks the ball out of the ballpark,
hitting a homerun, contending for the faith in defense of the Gospel, which
the Bible calls, “the simplicity that is in Christ” (2nd Corinthians
11:3b). Many of the “greats” today (e.g., Billy Graham, Ray Comfort,
Jimmy Swaggart, Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, et cetera) have complicated God's
simple plan of salvation, adding all sorts of unbiblical requirements. Such
manmade plans of salvation cannot produce the new birth, because they are
not “the Gospel.”
I am glad that Michael Bowen has shared his
personal pain, hardships and great losses with the world. I've known people
who committed suicide because of similar circumstances; yet Michael Bowen has
turned his grief and pain into a needful and doctrinally sound book to honor the
Lord Jesus Christ. Michael's love of 8-years, Debbie, just up and left him for another,
devastating his heart. After more than a decade of depression, Michael met Cristy, who dumped him; and then Lora, who also left him without warning.
All three women dumped Michael, after he gave his heart to them. After much heart-searching, Michael Bowen
realized that God had a purpose for all his afflictions and losses, that is,
God was teaching Him that Christ will dump anyone at The Great White
Throne Of Judgment who hasn't obeyed the Gospel.
Giving one's best to Jesus isn't good enough.
Devoting one's life to Christ isn't salvation. Seeking a relationship with
Christ or becoming one of His disciples is not the way of salvation. Jesus
died on the cross, He was buried and bodily resurrected 72 hours later. That
is “the Gospel” according to 1st Corinthians 15:1-4. Romans 1:16a teaches
that we are saved by believing the Gospel, which is “the power of God
unto salvation, to them that believe.” If you by faith receive Christ's
sacrifice on the cross as payment for your sins, believing that He raised up
bodily from the dead the third day, you are saved.
I read in chapter 7 where Michael lost 20
pounds due to sorrow in the loss of his second love, Cristy, which I related
to, for I have had painful experiences in my own life which caused me to
lose considerable weight. I once lost 30 pounds because of marriage
problems, when my wife abandoned me for a month. I thought it was over. I simply lost my appetite due to emotional trauma.
There is no pain like rejection or betrayal by loved ones. I didn't expect
to read such things in a book about salvation, but was pleasantly surprised
and am thankful for Michael Bowen being so transparent in his testimony.
My own beloved wife of 18 years (1987-2006)
abandoned me in 2006, filing for divorce. I was devastated. Long story
short—I lost my home, I lost most of my possessions, I lost my retirement, I
lost my pets, and to an extent, I lost my mind for a time. It's a long and
painful story. I've never remarried. I have lived alone, with no girlfriend,
for the past 10 years. It's now 2016. I often am lonely, but Jesus is the
love of my life. Brother Bowen's book encouraged me in my own pain and
suffering, that I'm not alone. Most people are reluctant to share their pain
with others. I recommend this book to everyone.
I have suffered pains worse than death myself,
emotionally and bodily. My online ministry was born out of adversity and has
continued through much afflictions. My neck pain and stiffness will be with
me until the grave. It makes me moody and irritable, which makes it next to
impossible to be around people. I am a loner. The radiating neck pain always
irritates me, being so close to my head, affecting my entire facial area
with dull constant pain. Although there are no direct connecting nerves from
the neck into the face, any good pain specialist will confirm that if the
pain is chronic enough it will radiate into the facial area. It is a heavy
burden that never goes away. Yet, God's rainbow shines through the storm.
God's promises are the silver lining in every storm cloud. My online
ministry is my escape from my pain and afflictions. I am not wasting my
suffering. I am using it to honor the Lord.
Here's a great quote from “I NEVER KNEW
YOU,” pg. 77...
“You can live for Christ,
you can love Christ, you can serve Him with all your might, time,
talent, and wealth. You can pray to Him, read your Bible, get
water-baptized, join a church, witness to people, and do every wonderful
work contained within the realm of Christianity, but if you fail to
trust Jesus Christ alone for your salvation, He will 'dump' you.”
The majority of religious people in the world's
churches today have believed a lie, a false gospel of making Jesus “Lord” to
be saved. Their basis for such belief is that a person cannot be saved and
continue in sin. So they corrupt the gospel by adding self-righteousness to
it, masquerading behind the word “Lord.” Ironically Jesus said that not
every one who saith, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter into the kingdom of God, but
he that doeth the Father's will. Just as unsaved Roman Catholics who
errantly think they are going to Heaven via their sacraments, so also
will all those false evangelicals who trust in making Jesus Lord go to Hell
in their unbelief.
Repentance is often misunderstood these days.
It is quite ironic that the ministers who accuse us fundamental preachers of
teaching easy believism, are the very ones whom Jesus warned about in
Matthew 7:21-23... “Depart from Me, ye cursed, for I never knew you.” Why?
It's because they failed to do the will of the Father, which according to
John 6:40 is to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many say,
“Lord, Lord,” but think they'll get to Heaven by “the life they live” as
John MacArthur so teaches in his deadly book titled,
HARD
TO BELIEVE.
The book doesn't expose John MacArthur per se,
but the chapter on Ray Comfort reflects MacArthur's beliefs well. Pastor
John MacArthur's HERESY TO YOU radio show (“Grace To You”)
is heard nationwide and is deceiving millions of people with a false gospel
of making Jesus “Lord” to be saved. Pastor Robert B. Thieme Jr. mentored
John MacArthur, and then MacArthur mentored
Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron. MacArthur's corrupt study Bible is promoted on
Kirk Cameron's website, as well as on Living Waters and Way Of The Master
by Ray Comfort.
Here's the garbage theology of Dr. John MacArthur, who says:
“Don’t believe anyone who
says it’s easy to become a Christian. Salvation for sinners cost God His own
Son; it cost God’s Son His life, and it’ll cost you the same thing.”
SOURCE:
Dr. John MacArthur, Grace To You, an
updated quote from his book 'Hard To Believe', page 93
Is
John
MacArthur a Seventh Day Adventist? Or
maybe
MacArthur's a Mormon? It's frightening when one of America's most dynamic,
beloved, popular and in-demand pulpeteers teaches the same doctrines concerning
salvation as do Seventh Day Adventists, Mormons and
even
Roman Catholics. Lordship Salvation doesn't offend Catholics, because it
teaches that works are required for salvation. As typical with false prophets,
they say “no” while meaning “yes.” It's all double-speak, a forked-tongue false
Gospel.
MacArthur foolishly teaches that it
is hard to become a Christian, because he says it will
cost you your life of worldliness, sinful bad habits and selfish
ambitions to make your faith valid. Clearly he does not believe
that faith alone in Christ is enough to be saved. The thief on the cross was saved immediately when he
believed on Christ, saying “Remember me” to Jesus (Luke 23:42). We are saved solely by faith in
Christ, which may or may not be expressed by words. Believing happens in the
heart, not the mouth. Words are not required
to be saved. We are saved the moment we believe (trust) in our heart that Jesus is
the Christ Who died FOR OUR SINS on the cross, was buried, and bodily
resurrected 72 hours later (1st Corinthians
15:1-4).
We are saved by receiving Christ's sacrifice on the cross as payment for
our sins, believing that He raised up from the dead three days later. The
only requirement to be saved is to acknowledge your sinnership, judging
yourself as a needy sinner in the sight of a holy God (Romans 3:19).
Otherwise, why would you need a Savior? No one has ever been saved who
didn't know that he is a sinner (1st John 1:8-10). But that is the only
requirement. You need to know what you are being saved from. You don't have
to forsake sinful behavior, or turn from sins, or repent from sins, or be
willing to turn from sins, to receive the free gift of forgiveness of sins
and eternal life. That would constitute works. You cannot show me anywhere
in the Holy Scriptures where it teaches to “repent from sins” or “turn from
sins” to be saved. To be born-again, you simply admit that you are a sinner
and believe the Gospel (Mark 1:15).
The Devil is so subtle. Satan knows that people will reject a lie if it
is too obvious, so he hides a lie amongst truth to disguise it. For example:
I've heard false prophets teach that you're saved by grace through faith, but your faith is not
valid unless there are works to make that faith credible (i.e., to authenticate
it). This is a backdoor approach to a works-based salvation. If my salvation
is conditioned upon my obedient behavior, then I am only placing partial
faith in Christ. If I have to cease from sinful behavior to be saved, then
human effort is necessary for salvation. That flies in the face of
everything the Word of God teaches. And by the way, the only inspired Words
of God today in the English-speaking language are in the King James Bible.
All of the modern Bible revisions are corrupted by Satan,
perverting the meaning of salvation.
Romans 11:6 plainly argues that it cannot be both. Salvation's
either by grace or works, but it cannot be BOTH. Lordship Salvation is by
self-righteous works. Biblical salvation is by grace alone
without works.
The life we live has absolutely NOTHING to do
with the gift of eternal life. The word “gift” is the key word in salvation.
God offers eternal life freely to all mankind, with no strings attached,
no heavy burdens, no worries not uncertainties.
Ray Comfort, Paul Washer, Kirk Cameron, and
John MacArthur are all Calvinist in their doctrine (whether they admit it or
not). MacArthur boasts of being a 5-point Calvinist. Truly, Calvinism and
John Calvin are of the Devil.
These men are all making salvation hard for others. In sharp contrast, Jesus
bore the weight of our sins upon the cross, so we wouldn't have to pay for
our sins in Hell forever.
The unbiblical requirement of making Jesus “Lord”
of one's life to be saved places a heavy burden upon the sinner's shoulder
to amend their way, leave off sinful bad habits, turn over a new leaf,
forsake the world, make a commitment to Christ, get water baptized, and so
forth. These are all proper in their place, but do not constitute salvation.
In fact, adding even one of them to the gospel message perverts it and it
cannot save anybody.
As Michael Bowen explains in his book on page
23, altering the plan of salvation is akin to crossing out the selling price
of a contract to buy a home, writing a lower price instead,
which would negate the entire contract. When the televangelists and
ministers alter God's simple plan of salvation, they negate the gift of
God. The “greats” have it wrong!
I recently watched some religious films that
have sold millions of copies: The Moment After and The Moment After II. Both
films corrupt the gospel by adding making Jesus Lord, living for Christ; but
they fail to include the death, burial and resurrection. 1st Corinthians
15:1-4 defines the gospel for us, so there is no guess work involved. Jesus
DIED, was BURIED and then ROSE again three days later. If you acknowledge
your guilt of sin before God (Romans 3:19) and receive the gospel as payment
for your sins, then you are saved. It's that simple. The gospel plus faith
equals salvation.
On page xi in the introduction to “I NEVER KNEW
YOU,” Michael Bowen states that one of Satan's greatest weapons
against mankind is...
“to con people into
living the Christian lifestyle without ever being born again.”
What a great statement!
One of the things I like about Bowen's book is
that he approaches the matter from a gentlemanly point of view. For example,
on page 21 he states concerning Pastor Joel Osteen...
“Osteen is
not the enemy, folks, but Osteen is being 'used' by the enemy to lead
all who believe in a 'different' gospel into a Christless eternity.”
The enemy is Satan who hates all people, saved
and unsaved alike, and wants to lure as many people into the Lake of Fire
(Gehenna) with him as possible to be punished for ever and ever.
Just as Joel Osteen, likewise Ray Comfort, John
Hagee, Charles Stanley and other “greats” of our generation are not bad
people, they are sincere; but they are sincerely wrong about the gospel. In
one of his sermons, Joel Osteen once asked his church audience where they
would spend eternity if they died that moment. Clearly, Osteen does care if
his congregation goes to Heaven or Hell. Albeit, Osteen's errant way of
salvation is to repent of sins, ask Jesus into our hearts, ask Him to wash
us clean, and make Him Lord of our life. Osteen hasn't even begun to mention
the gospel.
Instead, Joel Osteen has added a bunch of
requirements that God did not. Changing the gospel even in the slightest way
negates it completely and there can be no salvation. The gospel is that
Jesus Christ died, was buried and has been resurrected
(these three things are the gospel). The gospel does not include making
Jesus ones “Lord.” The gospel does not include amending one's ways, nor
joining a church through water baptism, nor keeping sacraments. It is a
simple matter of heart's faith in what Christ has done to pay for our sins.
On page 114 of “I NEVER
KNEW YOU,” the author provides an excellent accurate explanation of true
Biblical repentance...
“Repent, as Christ
meant it to be in terms of salvation, means to change your mind from
trusting in what you can do for God to trusting only in what He can do for
you.”
SOURCE: Michael Patrick Bowen, a quote from
the awesome book, “I NEVER
NEW YOU” (Page 114)
