Could Jesus Have Faked It?

It is often argued that Jesus might have been a self-fulfilled Messiah. That is, that He could have been an imposter who sought to fulfill the Messianic prophecies and so make Himself out to be the Messiah, or that perhaps He was a delusional man who truly believed He was the Messiah and went about to fulfill the Messianic imperatives. Could that be true? Let us consider the evidence.

The first difficulty such a person would have to face if attempting to self-fulfill Messianic prophecy is the timing of the birth of Messiah. Amazingly, the exact time of the Messiah’s birth and the precise conditions and events surrounding the Messiah’s birth are specifically foretold by the prophets in the Old Testament. This presents a virtually impossible obstacle for anyone desiring to self-fulfill the Messianic prophecies. The Book of Daniel records a remarkable prophecy which states that from the issuing of the command to rebuild Jerusalem - after its destruction by the Babylonians which occured in 586 BC - until the arrival of the Messiah, there would elapse exactly 483 years: “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.” (Daniel 9:25). In Hebrew, the word shabuah (translated “weeks”) simply means a period of seven, which in Hebrew thought could either be seven days or seven years. The figure in the verse is 69 shabuah, or 69 x 7, which equals 483.  The city of Jerusalem lay in ruins until the Persian king Artaxerxes Longimanus issued an edict in 445 BC which commanded the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild its walls and streets. It is obvious from the text, and from the fact that the Messiah did not arrive 69 shabuah of days (about one year) after this edict, that the prophecy is referring to shabuah of years. By calculating 483 years from the edict of Artaxerxes forward, we are brought amazingly to the last week of the life of Jesus Christ, also known as “Passion Week” (32 AD). Now hear what Daniel says next:  “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.” (Daniel 9:26) This remarkable prophecy states that the Messiah will be killed at the time He is revealed (though not for any sin of His) and that following His death a people shall come and destroy again Jerusalem and the temple. The precision and grandeur of this prophecy is astounding. Not only did Jesus come at exactly the right time when Messiah was foretold to come, and not only was Jesus put to death exactly as the prophecy foretold would happen to Messiah, but within 40 years of Jesus’ death the Romans came upon Jerusalem and destroyed again the city and the temple, just as the prophecy foretold! Truly, we do not have a Messianic candidate that could fit this prophecy more perfectly than Jesus. If Jesus was not the Messiah, how could He have arranged the precise timing of His birth, the unusual nature of His death, and the necessary political conditions for not only His own nation, but Rome? Based upon this alone, how can anyone honestly blame another person for believing in Jesus? But there is so much more.

Jesus couldn't have chosen to be born in Bethlehem, the place where the Messiah was to be born (Micah 5:2). The circumstances which resulted in Jesus being born at Bethlehem involved Caesar Augustus taxing the Roman Empire, and at just the right time. It is impossible that this could have been arranged. But is it possible that, having found Himself born at Bethlehem, He decided to fake it from there? He couldn't have pretended He was born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14); His mother and father and His brothers and sisters would have blown the whistle on His lie. Besides, if Jesus was born of Joseph, He might have borne the resemblance of Joseph. But suppose He bore the resemblance of Mary, and suppose His family collaborated in the scheme? Mary and Joseph might have planned the whole thing before Jesus was born. But if that were true, King Herod would never have ordered the slaughter of the babies at Bethlehem, for he did this only because of the wise men's report; but if the whole thing wasn't truly of God then the wise men would never have followed the star from the east to come visit Jesus and report to Herod what they saw. Unless, of course, we assume that they too were in on the scheme!

One might argue that His parents were attempting to fulfill prophecy when the young Jesus was taken down to Egypt and then moved to Nazareth to grow up there (Matt. 2:13-15, 23) . But is it really probable that Joseph and Mary were really Messianic conspirators? How could they have understood all the prophecy that needed to be fulfilled at that time, and what would motivate them to orchestrate such a deception? What would they get out of it? What would Jesus get out of it? If they really were prophetically knowledgeable, they would have known that all of this would lead to death – and if didn’t, Jesus couldn’t claim to be Messiah. To suggest that Mary and Joseph were Messianic conspirators is pure speculation devoid of all probability and evidence. If they did in fact conspire to pass Jesus off as the Messiah, they would have had to brainwash Him from a young age, convincing Him that He was the Savior and King of the world.  At a minimum, a boy fed such lies would grow up confused and conceited, emotionally troubled and mentally unhealthy! This we definitely do not find in Jesus. In fact, His neighbors among whom He lived reported absolutely nothing unusual about Him as He was growing up.  They actually later denied His Messianic claims on account of this (Matt. 13:54-58).  Even His family was troubled by his Messianic claims (John 7:5). One of the prophecies of Messiah was that He would be rejected even by His own family (Ps. 69:8). Therefore how could they promote Him while at the same time reject Him?

In order for Jesus to fulfill all Messianic prophecy, it would be necessary for Him to have a forerunner to go before Him to prepare the way for His coming (Is. 40:1-3). Are we also to assume that John the Baptist was in on a big lie? If so, the size of our conspiracy grows as does the size of our groundless speculation. John the Baptist was a holy man and was understood to be so by all of Israel (Josephus,  Antiquities 18.5.2). He spent years eating locusts in the desert, preaching the law of God, until He was eventually put to death for his devotion to God. The extreme unlikeliness of John's involvement in a grand Messianic hoax pushes such an idea into the realm of irrationality. Why, John himself even doubted whether Jesus was the Christ later on in Jesus' ministry (Luke 7:20)!

Clearly Jesus believed Himself to be the Messiah. But how then, if He were merely a self-deluded or willfully lying man, could He have fulfilled the prophecies regarding the miracles and signs and wonders that Messiah must do (Is. 35:5-6, John 7:31)? The Jews would accept no Messiah who could not fulfill this criteria, and certainly Jesus did fulfill it. His life was full of the miraculous, and it was largely on account of this that so many people followed Him: "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." (John 3:2; see also John 2:23, 6:2, 7:31, 11:47, Acts 2:22) How could this have been faked? If we say that He was demon-possessed or a sorcerer, we are now treading upon seriously dangerous ground (Matt. 12:22-37). Why concede the reality of demons and sorcery but not the reality of God and of Christ? How can we attribute demons to one so holy and faultless and God-honoring? There is nothing in the character and life of Jesus that would even suggest an unclean spirit or sorcery, but rather the presence of the Holy Spirit. To charge Jesus with such evil is not only the highest imprudence, but also the highest blasphemy.

There is also nothing in the life of Jesus to even slightly suggest that He was delusional. In fact, there is hardly a better example of one so sound in mind. "Never a man spake like this man." (John 7:47) Commenting on the psychology of Jesus, Dr. Gary R. Collins, professor, author and psychologist, noted: "Psychologists don't just look at what a person says. They'll go much deeper than that. They'll look at a person's emotions, because disturbed individuals frequently show inappropriate depression, or they might be vehemently angry, or perhaps they're plagued with anxiety. But look at Jesus: He never demonstrated inappropriate emotions. He was obviously in contact with reality. He wasn't paranoid, although He rightfully understood that there were some very real dangers around Him. He spoke clearly, powerfully, and eloquently. He was brilliant and had absolutely amazing insights into human nature. He had deep and abiding relationships with a wide variety of people from different walks of life. He was loving but didn't let His compassion immobilize Him; He didn't have a bloated ego, even though He was often surrounded by adoring crowds; He maintained balance despite an often demanding lifestyle; He always knew what He was doing and where He was going; He cared deeply about people, including women and children, who weren't seen as being important back then; He was able to accept people while not merely winking at their sin; He responded to individuals based on where they were at and what they uniquely needed. All in all, I just don't see signs that Jesus was suffering from any known mental illness. He was much healthier than anyone else I know!" (The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel, 147) Clearly Jesus was not mentally ill. Were He delusional, people would have quickly detected it.

There are many other impossibilities. How could Jesus have had Himself "rejected without a cause" (Ps. 35:19, 69:4)? Surely in order to instigate the fulfillment of this prophecy He would have had to have done something worthy of rejection, but the prophecy could only be fulfilled if He did nothing to incur such rejection. Both King Herod and Pilate had to condemn Him, all His own disciples would have to abandon Him, and He would have to be rejected by the entire nation of Israel (Acts 4:25-28). How could He control the actions of others? He would have to control every single person He came in contact with as well as the rulers of the Jews and of the Gentiles. And how could His disciples have been in on the scheme if they too forsook Him (Matt. 26:74-75)?

There are so many prophecies that any attempt to fulfill them all could easily have been foiled. Any number of little things could cause failure to bring them about. Take for example the prophecy of Christ riding into Jerusalem on a donkey (Zech. 9:9). What if the donkey's master didn't want to give the donkey to the Lord? What if no people came out to praise and cheer Him shouting "Hosanna to the Son of David, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord"? Jesus could have been killed without difficulty by the Jewish authorities after He cleansed the temple or preached against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Why didn't they just get rid of Him sooner than they did? How could He have planned even the necessary prophetic mode and timing of His execution, so that He was crucified during the Passover - something the Pharisees didn’t even want to do (Matt. 26:2-5)!? Could it be as the Scriptures state, that "His hour had not yet come" (John 7:30, 13:1)? If Jesus was attempting to self-fulfill prophecy, a vast plethora of things could easily have gone wrong and ended His phony career. There is no other reasonable explanation that can be given except that Jesus is truly the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And why would someone want to be the Messiah anyway? To be the Messiah does not mean gold, women, glory and long life. It means poverty, loneliness, rejection and death. Jesus knew all along that He had come to die (Matt. 20:28), and indeed at the young age of thirty-three, after only three years of ministry, He willingly and without resistance went to His ignominious death. This was not some honorable and painless death. The prophecies concerning Messiah's trial and death were terrible: He must suffer many things, be beaten and scourged and ridiculed, then be nailed to a cross to die as one rejected by God and men - the most painful and shameful execution that could possibly be imagined. And so He fulfilled Isaiah 53:5-7: "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before His shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth."

How could Jesus have controlled all the events that occured during His arrest and crucifixion which demanded exceedingly detailed prophetic fulfillment? Here are just a few: He had to be betrayed by a close friend (Ps. 41:9). He had to be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver - the silver would then later have to be used to purchase a certain field, which Jesus' enemies did indeed buy (Matt. 27:9-10). All His disciples had to abandon Him (Zech. 13:7). He had to be falsely accused (Ps. 35:11), spat on and struck (Is. 50:6), scourged (Is. 53:5), and sentenced to crucifixion (something reserved only for serious criminals, though Pilate found no fault in Him). He had to be killed on the Passover (1 Cor. 5:7). He had to be killed outside the city (Heb. 13:11-12). He had to have His hands and His feet pierced (Ps. 22:16). His garments had to be gambled for (Ps. 22:18). He had to be given sour wine to drink (Ps. 69:21). He had to be ridiculed and cursed while hanging on the cross (Ps. 22:6-8). No bone of His body could be broken, even though the Roman soldiers broke the bones of both criminals that hung next to Him (John 19:31-36). He had to be pierced in His side (John 19:37). He had to be buried in a rich man’s tomb (Is. 53:9). All of these things happened. Could Jesus have faked this? Every one of these things had to be fulfilled, and yet they were all outside of His control.

If any one of these prophecies had failed, then Jesus could never have been believed to be the Messiah. There is simply no possibility that Jesus could have caused all of these prophecies to be fulfilled on that fateful day. The only explanation is that it was in truth the work of the Divine will.

That the prophecies of Messiah required some extremely radical fulfillments is known by all. Anyone who does not fit these claims cannot be followed as Messiah. Messiah would rise from the dead (Ps. 16:10). Messiah would gather the Gentiles to worship God (Is. 11:10, 49:6). Messiah would pour out the Holy Spirit upon the people of God (Joel 2:28-29). Jerusalem and its temple would be destroyed immediately after the appearance of Messiah (Dan. 9:26). Messiah would establish the Kingdom of God upon the earth and reign upon the throne of His father David (Is. 9:6-7). Messiah would totally restore the earth to its pre-fall conditions and bring peace and righteousness to the world (Is. 11:1-9). Anyone who cannot do all of these things is not the Messiah. This explains why, when Jesus was lying buried in the tomb for three days, His own disciples gave up hope that He was the Messiah. They "had hoped" He was the Messiah (Luke 24:21), but a dead Messiah is no Messiah at all. Had Jesus not risen from the dead there would be no such thing as Christianity. The disciples would not have preached that Jesus was the Christ. Christianity therefore requires the empty tomb. The Christian faith is not merely a philosophy based upon ideas and principles, but rather a faith founded upon the historical event of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

"Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption... Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses." - Peter, Acts 2:27, 29-32

Of course we know that the same Jewish leaders who orchestrated Jesus' death also accused the disciples of stealing the body (therefore, as an aside, the Jewish leaders could not have been part of a Messianic hoax), but this article is not concerned with the character of the disciples but with the character of Jesus. A study of the apostles’ character will likewise reveal the absurdity of such a claim. But now we must make a decision. The ultimatum is the same today as it was in the 1st century: either Jesus is the Christ who really did rise from the dead, or it was all just one enormous hoax. But if one chooses the latter, one will find oneself fighting, not only against reason, but against God.

Miraculously, Jesus Christ has continued to fulfill prophecy even since His death and resurrection. While Judaism was an exclusionary religion that included no one but Jews, Christ has drawn the whole world to Himself - people of every tribe, tongue and nation - so that for nearly two thousand years both Jewish and Gentile believers in Jesus have worshiped the one true God of Israel in Spirit and in truth, side by side, just as the prophets foretold would happen after the coming of the Messiah (Isaiah 49:6, 60:3). There is no comparison to the worldwide, cross-cultural, worship of God that Jesus Christ has produced. And not only this, but as the age progresses, more and more prophecy is being fulfilled, rapidly leading the world toward the second coming of Jesus Christ: when He shall return to the earth in great power and glory, fulfilling the prophecies of worldwide restoration and the establishment of the kingdom of God in righteousness and peace.

This article has shown that it is patently absurd to claim that Jesus could have faked His Messianic identity. The next question is, what will you believe about Jesus? Was He a fraud, or the Christ of God who came from heaven to die for your sins? There is no middle ground.  You must decide. 

Jesus Christ said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father except by Me.” (John 14:6) The One who claimed to be the truth now generously offers life to you, and to all who simply turn to Him by faith.

Repentance and the Covenants

The following is a response to a question I received from an LDS student on the nature of repentance in the Bible.

Hi K----, thanks for the excellent question and for putting it so well.

Whenever we study the Bible we have to understand that there is more than meets the eye, because for one, we are told very explicitly that we are dealing with mystery (1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 3:3-4, 9; Col. 1:26, 2:2; 1 Tim. 3:16, etc.), and two, the Bible deals with two very clear covenants, an old and a new covenant, and failure to distinguish between these, or the merging of them, results in nothing but confusion. Romans 16:25 actually says, "Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began..." This means that the gospel of Christ was a mystery hidden in God since the world began and had only at that time begun to be published, or made public. All I am saying is that the Scriptures may not be so "plain" as we may have thought them to be, but requires careful attention to details and careful distinguishing between the covenants; that is, distinguishing what belongs to the Old Covenant and what belongs to the New. There is a vast difference between them, yes?

The primary Hebrew word translated "repent" or "repentance" in the Old Testament is shuwb or shub. It is an incredibly common word and is used all through the Old Testament in a variety of applications. Hebrew has a rather condensed vocabulary and so it uses the same word for many things. All shub means is to turn. There is absolutely no indication of what the turning is from or to - that must be provided by the context. This is extremely important. In the Old Testament God very often "repents", or does shub. For example, "Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people." (Exodus 32:12) Now here the word repent is used, but does it have anything to do with turning from sin? No, of course not, for it is God who repents and it has nothing to do with Him turning from sin. Rather, he turns from punishing the people. Many other examples could be cited.

Now I in no way am excluding the usage of shub in connection with sin. Certainly in the Old Testament the prophets are constantly calling the sinful nation of Israel to turn back to God by obeying the law and putting away their false gods. But the context determines this. We cannot immediately assume that repentance is talking about sin every time it is used, but we must check the context and find out its application.

When we come to the New Testament the same thing applies. The Greek word translated "repent" or "repentance" is metanoia. Once again we find that metanoia has absolutely nothing to do with sin in and of itself unless the context applies it to sin. It simply means to "think again" or "change one's mind". Literally, a person thinks one thing but then changes his mind and thinks another. This is the simple meaning of repentance in the New Testament, and therefore the word by itself it doesn't tell us what is being re-thought or what the change of mind is about. The context is necessary to answer that question.

Unfortunately today, repentance has become a religious word. You don't hear non-believers using the word in everyday speak, and it has come to mean "turn from sin" without any consideration of context. This is an error largely due to the word "repentance" itself as it sounds like the word "penance", which word came out of Roman Catholic theology. Penance was the sinner's work of atoning for his sins by means of good deeds, restitution or self-inflicting punishments. Penance was thought necessary to show God how sorry you are and to make Him merciful and forgiving toward you. That is a perverted and wicked idea that has no grounds in the New Testament. But repentance has traditionally become associated with it, and today it has stuck. Say the word repentance and you immediately are thought to mean "turn from sin" in some fashion. This is a major source of misunderstanding.

Here is an example of metanoia in non-Biblical classical Greek literature:

"We were inclined to conclude that for man, as he is constituted, it is easier to rule over any and all other creatures than to rule over men. But when we reflected that there was one Cyrus, the Persian, who reduced to obedience a vast number of men and cities and nations, we were then compelled to change our opinions [metanoia, repent] and decide that to rule men might be a task neither impossible nor even difficult, if one should only go about it in an intelligent manner." (Xenophon, Cyropaedia 1. 1. 3.)

They thought one thing and then re-considered and thought another thing. No reference to sin whatsoever. If a man thinks he wants chocolate ice cream, goes to the ice cream store, but while he is there he changes his mind and now wants vanilla ice cream, he has repented.

So all this is to say that we need to examine the context and not assume that repentance refers to sin. I'm thankful that you did this in your survey of the Old Testament.

Now here is where we need the Spirit to help us understand the two covenants in Scripture. Certainly under the Old Covenant obedience to the commandments of God were required in order to be right before God and to have relationship with Him and to obtain the forgiveness of sins and the blessings of the covenant. The terms are spelled out very clearly. Therefore when the prophets call people to repent, we find that in context they are calling the people to turn from lawbreaking to lawkeeping, from disobedience to God to obedience to God. So this kind of call comes up all over the Old Testament as you have shown. Ezekiel chapter 18 is probably one of the best and clearest examples of the call to repent under the Old Covenant - very simple: turn from your unrighteousness to righteousness and live; but turn from your righteousness to unrighteousness and die. It couldn't be more clear. And in fact, it is so severe that if a person turns from his righteousness to unrighteousness and commits any evil, all his previous righteousness is forgotten! That's tough. It becomes even more scary when you notice Ezekiel's usage of the word "all". God requires total and exact obedience, and anything less than that is disregarded. Such is the Old Covenant.

Now this is where the gospel comes in, and this is where the mystery comes in - something that is so radically far above our own thinking that we could never understand nor see it were it not for the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2). The Old Covenant way of being righteous before God was by obedience to the laws and commandments of God. But in the New Covenant a new way of being righteous before God is manifested: it is the way of being righteous before God by faith in Jesus Christ.

"But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." (Romans 3:21-28)

Please read the above carefully. It is the heart and core of the gospel and of the New Covenant mystery. It is so radical that most people totally miss it. What it is saying is so amazing and foreign to our religiously earthbound minds that we cannot accept the simple truth of what is being said. We think there must be some catch or that some word must be redefined to fit our categories. We come up with objections like, "surely the "law" must refer to "the ceremonial law of Moses"", and we miss the whole point of what is being said. If we simply read it (and read it in it's context from chapter 1-5), you cannot conclude that mere ceremonial commandments are in view (see Evidence that "the Law" Includes the Moral Law). What the New Covenant promises and declares is that anyone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ and ceases to seek righteousness by works, that person is justified [declared righteous] before God, and God is able to do this because Jesus Christ died on the cross for their sins and is the propitiation for them. This concept is so mysterious that many stumbled at it (read Romans 9:31-10:4 very carefully). These words, "justification" and "propitiation" are extremely important. Radical? That God would justify the ungodly who do not work, simply because of faith in what Christ has done (Rom. 4:5)? You bet! The Scripture warns that there is no other way to be righteous before God. If you seek to obtain righteousness by works you will of course fall short and be destroyed forever, for God's holy judgment is inflexible and uncompromising; but if you give up all hope in obtaining righteousness through works and turn solely to Jesus Christ for your righteousness, and believe that He satisfied the wrath of God on your behalf at the cross, then you are justified and have peace with God and eternal life with God - a free and totally undeserved gift (Rom. 5:17-19, 6:23). This obviously reveals just how much God loves (Rom. 5:8-11)!

"For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." (Rom. 5:17-19)

Notice it is by the obedience of one that many shall be made [Greek: declared] righteous. That is amazing! It is not by our obedience that we are justified, but by the obedience of Jesus Christ that we who believe in Him are justified! What an unspeakable gift!

Now we can see what repentance is all about in the New Testament. It is in fact a changing of one's mind, but the context is now supplied. It is changing one's mind about the way of righteousness - it is thinking again about how we are justified before God. I thought I had to keep all the commandments to be right with God... then I realized that this way was hopeless and that I was doomed to perish for my sins, and then I realized that Christ had died for me and done all the obedience to make me right with God. All I was to do was trust in Him and not in my own obedience for righteousness. The lights click on! "Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see." Galatians 3:21-24 teaches us this very thing, that God gave the law to show us our need for justification by faith in Jesus Christ alone. My own repentance occurred when I was reading this very passage, and when I suddenly understood that God never gave a law to make us righteous, but that law was given to show us our need for grace (see also Rom. 3:19-20).

And thus Jesus preached: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel." (Mark 1:15) What are we to do? Repent and believe the gospel. That is, change your mind and believe the gospel. There is nothing about stopping your sins here, but everything about changing your mind from non-gospel thinking to gospel thinking. And what is gospel thinking, but that: "Whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:14-16, 36, 5:24, 6:28-29, 35, 40, 8:24, 20:31, etc.)

Of course, there is a whole theology about law and gospel which can be seen by carefully studying the book of Romans, which I would most urgently recommend you do. There Paul explains the purpose of law, the gospel of grace through faith, how the gospel does not ignore or loosen law but gloriously establishes it, and how Christians are free from all obligation to law so that they can now live a life of love and grace freely from the heart. It's all there, you just need to ask the Spirit to give you spiritual eyes to see it because it's so far above our religious categories. It truly is a "great mystery". Be a Berean (Acts 17:11) and find out if what I am saying is true. If you have any questions at all as you read through Romans, feel free to ask me them.

For a detailed explanation of repentance and its usage in the Bible, I recommend you read through Robert Wilkin's dissertation which he wrote for his PhD. You can find it here on my message board.

For an outstanding summary of repentance in the book of Acts, where it is clearly seen as changing your mind to believe the gospel, I highly recommend Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer's article, The Terms of Salvation. Chafer was the founder and late president of Dallas Theological Seminary. Any serious student of the Bible ought to read this.

Well, K----, I hope this is a helpful start. May God give you the willingness to go all the way for the truth, whatever the cost.
Sincerely, your friend,
-Eli

Husbands and Wives

This message was preached on August 18, 2010 at All Saints Church in Logan, Utah. As part of the Ephesians series entitled Grace in the Heavenlies, "Husbands and Wives" answers the questions: How are Christians to live suitably in light of the fact that they are saved by grace and not by their works? How does grace effect our relationships, including marriage?

God's grace does not only save us, it also reigns in our lives and teaches us how to live. One of the most intense grace relationships, which Paul considers at length, is marriage. Learn how wives are to submit to their husbands as the Church submits to Christ, and how husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church. There can be no higher conception of marriage than this! Listen below:

Eli Brayley - Husbands and Wives

Counterfeit Grace

"For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." - Jude 1:4

GRACE VERSUS COUNTERFEIT GRACE

"Brent, what is the gospel? Can you tell me?"

Brent, a 40 year old business man with a pleasant and talkative personality suddenly began fidgeting in his seat beside me as the two of us flew toward Salt Lake City. We had already been discussing religion, and Brent had shared with me how he had grown up in the Dutch Reformed Church but had later converted to Roman Catholicism since getting married. Beads of sweat started to form on the sides of his temples. After several minutes of agonizing silence, he finally confessed.

"I honestly don't know... I can't believe I can't answer that question!"

I then began to share with him the contents of the first three chapters of Romans. Brent listened intently as we discussed the righteousness of God, the wrath of God revealed against the sinfulness of man, the futility of obtaining justification by the works of the law, and the free grace of God that justifies men through the death of Jesus Christ.

"So you see," I said, "only those who put their trust in Jesus alone shall be saved."

No sooner had I said that, Brent straightened up and grimaced.

"No...", he shook his head, "No... I don't believe that. I believe God is more merciful than that. He is far more gracious than we think. Even if a person doesn't believe in Jesus, as long as they just try to be a good person, I believe God will forgive them."

I replied, "But Brent, we just read how in God's sight there is none that are good, not even one. And God's wrath is revealed against all unrighteousness. And furthermore..."

"Yeah, right, I believe that everybody sins, and I know that Jesus died for our sins... I'm not denying that. But I still think that if a person does their best, even if they don't believe in Jesus, God will be merciful."

This conversation is typical of many hundreds of conversations I have had with people about the gospel. The way Brent was thinking is the way millions of people, who profess to be Christians, think about God's grace. I do not fully blame individuals for failing to understand the grace of God as it is in truth, but rather the blame lies to a large degree in the fact that the true Biblical gospel is not being preached in the churches in which these individuals have grown up. This is especially true in the "Bible belt" (areas that are traditionally and culturally "Christian") and in old denominational churches where the gospel, once proclaimed, has been discarded for quasi-gospel liberal alternatives. However, in reaction to this, many well meaning Christians have responded by crying out against this preaching of false grace but have themselves fallen into a pit, which though different, is equally destructive: legalism.

What needs to be seen by these well meaning Christians is that the so-called "grace" that millions of professing Christians claim to believe is actually not grace at all, but is a perversion and a counterfeit of the true grace of God revealed in the Bible. We must see that grace is not the enemy, but counterfeit grace is! Therefore our response to this as the Church of Jesus Christ is not to snap back with an equally graceless message of law, but to stand fast and proclaim the authentic gospel of the grace of God. The very thing that must meet counterfeit grace head-on is grace, not legalism. This is the meaning of Jude's letter, who wrote to exhort the Christians to "earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints" (v.3) against those who were bringing in this soul-destructive counterfeit grace. We must preach the true gospel of grace!


UNDERSTANDING JUDE 1:4

So often we fight the wrong battle because we don't understand what exactly it is we are supposed to be fighting. Jude 1:4 is a classic example of such a misunderstanding. It is often said by preachers: "See here! False teachers sneak into the Church and teach people that grace can be used as a license to sin!" From this verse has come the expression "using God's grace as a license to sin". In fact, the NIV actually translates the verse that way: "They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality..." As does the NLT: "...saying that God's forgiveness allows us to live immoral lives." This accusation of using the grace of God as a license to sin is brought against professing Christians like Brent, and by attempting to oppose what they think is an abuse of grace, well meaning Christians form a new and equally destructive gospel, one which no more preaches grace than "the gospel of Brent".

But this is a mishandling of the Scripture. In fact, there is nothing in the Greek text of Jude 1:4 that even suggests such an interpretation as "using grace as a license to sin", and therefore to fight against this assumed notion is to fight the wrong battle. If we look closer at the actual passage, we shall see that the apostle is not saying that these false brethren are teaching that one can use the grace of God as a license to sin, but that these false brethren are exchanging the grace of God for something which they call "grace" but is actually not grace! Rather, it is lasciviousness (wanton ungodliness). It is not that they are preaching grace but falsely applying it... it is that they are not preaching grace at all. The word in the Greek text used to describe what these false brethren are doing is the word metatithēmi, which literally means to "to transpose, change, or transfer two things, one of which is put in place of the other" (Thayer). This is precisely the point Jude is making: these false brethren are replacing grace with something else that is not grace, though they use the word "grace" and talk about it as if it were grace. They are not misusing the true grace of God to sin. They are exchanging grace altogether with something that is not grace, and therefore it is not grace that is the problem, but counterfeit grace!

Now the question must be asked: What does it mean that they are exchanging the grace of God into lasciviousness? Notice first that whatever it means, the meaning is one and the same as "denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." Now bear in mind that these false brethren "crept in unawares", so that means that they were mistaken for true believers in Christ, and therefore were not obviously denying the Lord Jesus Christ. The denial that Jude is talking about is a far more subtle denial - one that is never openly stated but that must be discerned. And we discern it in their message of "grace".

Grace that is not righteous is not grace. In my conversation with Brent, he stated that God was more merciful and gracious than people think, and that even though people don't believe in Jesus, God will still forgive them if they try their best. Though he called this "grace", this is a perfect of example of exchanging the grace of God into lasciviousness. It is tearing the righteousness out of grace and replacing it with an unrighteous, though sweet-sounding, counterfeit. Such "grace" denies both God and the Lord Jesus Christ, for it tramples the blood of the Savior under foot and perverts the true knowledge of God. Concerning this, Paul declared: "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Gal. 2:21) False brethren, though claiming to believe in grace, make void the cross of Christ by saying that people simply need to do their best to be saved. They say that people do not need to believe in Christ, for God is gracious and merciful to forgive. Thus they unwittingly imply that the death of Christ was not needed and betray the fact that they do not understand nor honor the righteousness of God. They make void the law by not establishing the cross, and they make void the cross by not establishing the law. In this way they change the grace of God into lasciviousness.

Yet ironically, this is exactly the same thing that happens when well meaning Christians react to such counterfeit grace with legalism. They come against false grace with false grace, and preach that people must stop their sins in order to be saved. While fighting against the counterfeit grace that says God will be gracious to everyone "just because everybody is essentially good", they respond with an equally counterfeit grace that says that God will be gracious only to sinners who stop their sins and obey His commandments. Nothing has in essence changed except the size of their works-based standard. They both say that people are saved by "grace" because they are "good"! One group has a low standard of acceptance and the other group has a higher standard of acceptance, but both groups have a standard of acceptance lower and other than the perfect righteousness of God that can only come to us by faith in Jesus Christ! Thus both groups make void the law, nullify the cross, and frustrate the grace of God. The truth is, it is not possible for God to accept any sinner on any basis other than the sacrificial death of His Son Jesus Christ. This is because God requires perfect righteousness. Any grace, no matter how pious-sounding, that does not acknowledge this truth is a counterfeit, changing the grace of God into lasciviousness.


THE GRACE OF GOD IN TRUTH

God's grace can never be separated from His righteousness. God clearly saw all of our sin, despised it, and acted against it by sending His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sin, thereby making the way for sinners to be "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Rom. 3:24) It is in this way only that God is able to be "just and the justifier of those who believe in Jesus." (Rom. 3:26) God gives grace to the ungodly, but not in any lenient sort of way, but in a perfectly righteous way that establishes His very own law. Since only the sacrifice of Christ can do this, only those who put their total trust in Jesus Christ shall be saved - and shall be saved by grace. No one's works, however little or however much, can ever merit forgiveness from God. God's forgiveness can only come to us freely because of the death of His Son or it can not come to us at all.

True Biblical grace is a marvelous thing! God loves sinners so much and so desires to forgive them that He has made an impossible situation possible by the blood of His Son! Grace is righteous undeserved favor, and for that very reason it is amazing. Those who know what real grace is cannot help but be overwhelmed and transformed by its power. I believe that the majority of people who talk about grace have never really known what grace truly is. Only when we grasp the fact that grace comes to us in perfect righteousness, and yet also as perfectly free, will we be changed, for only then does it reveal the wondrous love of God our Savior toward sinners, of whom I am chief.

In closing I shall say again: The only way to respond to counterfeit grace is... to proclaim grace!

About Eli

Listen to my story: USU Religious Studies Club with Q&A
My Experience in Revivalism
Read the Cache Valley Evangelical Statement of Faith

EARLY LIFE

My name is Eli Brayley and I was born in New Brunswick, Canada in 1985. I was born into a Christian family, having parents who are both sincere believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. My earliest memories of life are filled with lots of church meetings and events, happy times of singing with various friends in our home, enjoying but feeling a bit out of place at school, and lots of G.I. Joe wars and Hot Wheels races.

I attended public school and graduated from Fredericton High School in 2003. During those years I developed a love for music, reading and writing. I loved to play soccer. Another thing I loved to do was debate. In retrospect I realize that I have always been passionate about discovering truth and exploring issues people disagree over, believing there are answers to many of the biggest questions of life. Believing in God from a young age shaped the way I thought and lived.

My family attended a large church in the downtown Fredericton area. When I was fourteen years old, our pastor, whom we all dearly loved, suddenly announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer, and this came as a great shock to me. He had served as the senior pastor for seven years and the church had been greatly blessed. To my young mind, it seemed ridiculous that God would want him to die. I had always believed that God could heal the sick, just as the Bible reveals how God performed many miracles throughout history. I truly believed that God would indeed heal our pastor. It made perfect sense to my young mind: God would heal our pastor and glorify His name throughout the whole city! I was simply waiting for it to happen.

Then one day my dad came home with some bad news. Our pastor had passed away. At first this news did not phase me one bit, for I thought: "No problem! God is going to raise Him from the dead!" This is how strongly I believed that God was going to heal him. But it wasn't long until the reality of the situation hit me, and it hit me very hard, and this was the first time in my life I ever wept over anything of any significance. I felt disheartened and disillusioned. Where was God? Hadn't He promised that whatever you ask for in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith? Why then didn't He answer my prayer of faith? Was God lying? Was God even real?

I did not completely lose faith in God, but what little faith I had was brittle and well on its way to being snuffed out. Even though I continued going to church with my family, my heart was not in it, and the next two years of my life, my 10th and 11th grade of high school, were taken up with rock bands, video games, and teenage foolishness. I started pursuing a life for myself without God. I became a regular class-clown who cared little about anything. But then in my sixteenth year God miraculously intervened in my life.

The Atlantic Christian Ashram is an annual 5-day retreat that convenes every summer in the beautiful woods of Berwick, Nova Scotia. Churches from all over the Maritimes gather together for a week of worship, Bible study, fellowship and renewal. Every year a different church is asked to provide child care for the many families with children who will be attending so parents can be relieved to participate and enjoy the retreat. This particular year, 2002, our church was asked to provide that service. Thus my youth pastor organized a group of high school students, and I volunteered to go, not because I was interested in taking care of kids, but because I was interested in spending time with my friends.

One evening, about the middle of the retreat, a friend of mine suggested that we visit a house that was wholly dedicated to 24/7 prayer. I thought it might be a good opportunity to meet girls, so I went. As we approached the house I felt nothing, but the moment we walked through the door and into the large room full of people praying on their knees and crying out to God I was immediately convicted of my sinful state. I knew that my heart was not right with God and that I could not be in such a place without either falling on my face or running out of there as fast I could. I found a little space where I got on my knees and confessed my sins and hardness of heart to Him. I realized that I was the one who was to blame for my callous attitude and not God, and that the Lord was sovereign in all things, even in the death of my former pastor. He has the right to heal or not to heal. I asked the Lord to forgive me and to be a part of my life again. Though I did not hear anything from God, I stood up confident that He had heard my prayer.

When we left the house something amazing happened. Since there are no lights at the campground, it gets extremely dark in the woods, and we had to feel our way back to our cabin through several winding paths (we had no flashlight). As we were going, we passed by two young adults who were behaving strangely. I thought they were laughing in such an unusual and boisterous manner that I quipped something to my friend about them... but he saw differently as he was closer to them when we passed by. "No, I think they are crying," he said. "Should we see if we can help?" Not knowing exactly what to do, we slowly approached them. We did not know at the time, but they were brother and sister, and the sister was trying to calm down her brother who was visibly disturbed and ready to explode. Both were sobbing uncontrollably. After my friend said a prayer for them, without knowing what I was doing I put my hand on the brother's back and commanded the evil spirit to release him in Jesus' name. To all of our surprise the young man immediately slumped to the ground and began to shake until coming to a still. A supernatural peace flooded us. Tears began flowing once again but this time they were tears of joy! We hugged each other, exchanged names, and stood in wonder at what God had just done!

I was completely stunned, and after we went our separate ways I felt like I needed to be alone and pray. So for the second time that night I got on my knees, just off the path, and sat in silence before my God. Though not audibly, I heard God no less speaking to my spirit. He said, "Eli, do you not see that I do miracles? Do you not see that I am in control?" I was overwhelmed by the mercy of God for me. I knew that God was answering one of my deepest questions. Ever since my pastor died I wrestled with the question: does God still heal the sick? Is God even real? It was a tremendous obstacle to my faith. I did not know what this was going to mean, but I pondered it in my heart as my friend and I stumbled over ourselves running through the woods back to our cabin.

My youth pastor's mouth hung wide open as we simultaneously recounted what had just occurred. Not knowing exactly what to do, he said, "There is a healing service at the end of the week... Do you think you should be a part of that?" I didn't want to get involved in anything unless I knew God wanted me to do it. So I prayed about it all the next day. That evening I told my youth pastor that I believed God wanted me to be involved. I asked if my friend who was with me the night before could join me as well.

On the last night of every Ashram there is a healing service when anyone who needs healing is invited to come forward and receive prayer. Eight prayer teams consisting of two people were organized, and my friend and I made the eighth team. They advised that we bring blankets and water as we'd be spending most of the night praying for people. After we sang together and a message was given, people began to line up for prayer. Due to the large amount of people requiring prayer, they placed a person at the head of the line who pointed the next individual to a free team. I remember feeling scared, intimidated and inadequate as the teams were filling up with people. My friend and I were praying desperately for help. I felt like people would not want to be pointed to our team because we were so young (every other prayer team consisted of men and women well over 40, and I was a pathetic-looking teenager with dirty, unkempt long hair down to my shoulders!). I had no idea how to pray and minister to people.

The most extraordinary thing happened when the first person stepped in front of us. Suddenly I believe I was empowered with the Holy Spirit and the only possible way I can describe it is that it was as if a PhD of medicine was suddenly downloaded into me, like in the movie the Matrix. I suddenly felt like I had been doing this my whole life, diagnosing and praying for people. I somehow knew what the person needed even if they told me something else altogether. As we prayed for people that night, my friend exclaimed in astonishment: "Eli! My hands and arms are getting electrocuted!" He felt electric shocks shooting through his hands, but I didn't feel anything. I am certain that many people were healed that night, but one incident stands out to me the most.

A little boy and his sister came forward for prayer. We knew them both from the kids program that week. The boy had brought up his sister for prayer, but his own eyes were severely crossed and he wore big thick glasses. After asking for prayer for his sister, he tagged on at the end, "Oh, and can you pray for my eyes, too?" I remember putting one hand over his eyes and one hand on his heart and saying a simple prayer in the name of Jesus. When I took my hand away I leaned forward and looked into his eyes. He had perfect eyes and I told him so. He walked away with his sister and the next person came forward. I don't think my friend or I even realized what had just happened.

The next morning we said our goodbyes to the kids during our final program. When I saw the young boy I noticed he wasn't wearing his glasses, so I went over to him and asked him, "Where are your glasses?" He said, "I don't need them anymore!" And then it hit me that God had performed an amazing miracle! God had miraculously uncrossed his eyes! I was completely and permanently blown away, and once again fell on my knees in worship to God. He had answered my question forever.

This event when I was sixteen years old totally changed my life forever. There were at least three evident changes that immediately occurred. First, I now had an insatiable desire to read the Bible. I wanted to know this amazing God who worked so wondrously in my life and in others. I didn't like the thought that there were parts of God's Word that I hadn't read (like Ezekiel!). It is God's Word! I started reading the Bible all the time, in the morning, at school, when I was eating, before bed... Nor did I just want to read it, but I wanted to understand it and live it as well. Second, I became more sensitive of my sin. One of the first sins God exposed in my heart was the way I treated my parents. I began to seek how I could actively bless my parents instead of acting the way my society says is normal. I have learned that one of the secrets of a good life is to honor your parents. Third, I suddenly had a desire to share God's Word with others, especially my schoolmates. After the summer, when I returned to school, I was keenly aware that I only had one year left before I would never see many of my friends and classmates again.

I want to say emphatically that it is entirely the undeserved mercy of God that He got a hold of my life and spared me from disbelieving in Him. I know beyond a shadow of doubt that if He had not intervened in my life I would have ceased to believe in God. I would have pursued a life of sinful, self-centered vanity, and I would have gone to hell. The evidence for the existence and power of God in nature is so overwhelming that I truly did not need a miracle in order to believe in God, but in my hardness of heart I was suppressing the truth in my unrighteousness. Had I been allowed to persist in my unbelief, I would have gone to hell without an excuse. But God chose to mercifully arrest my attention.  It is all because of the mercy of God and not because of what I have done that today I am what I am. He did not owe me anything but judgment, yet He showed me mercy.


ZEAL WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE

However, I want to make it clear that at this point in my life, as profound as that experience was for me, I had yet to be born again. It is one thing to believe that God exists and to experience the miraculous. It is quite another thing to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and to be saved from your sins. God was truly at work in my life, but it would be nearly five years later until I finally found rest for my soul in the forgiveness of my sins through Jesus Christ.

From that experience at the Ashram forward my heart's sincere desire was to serve the Lord with my life, though I did not have any idea in what way that would be. In 2004 I enrolled at the University of New Brunswick in the Arts program, hoping to graduate with a B.A. as a history major. Though the longer I was in school, the more restless I felt. During that time I read a biography of the famous founder of Methodism, John Wesley. It was in that book that I was first introduced to the idea of open air preaching. George Whitefield, John Wesley and other evangelists spread the gospel all across Great Britain and the American colonies by preaching outdoor sermons to anyone who would gather and listen to them. Something about this struck a deep chord with me, for I knew that the early Christians open air preached (as seen in the Book of Acts) and it seemed to me that this was an evangelistic method worthy of the urgent message that Christians believe. If people are really going to hell without Christ, how could we not leave the four walls of our churches and take the news of Jesus to those who would otherwise not hear? And shouldn't our evangelism be marked by loving boldness, considering the nature of our message? These thoughts made a deep impression on me, but I still did not imagine that I would one day be open air preaching.

It was only after I was made aware that Christians, indeed many Christians, still open air preached today that I realized there was nothing to keep me back from preaching myself. The first time I ever open air preached I was terrified and almost did not do it. I went to the local Farmer's Market, with a milk crate to stand on, and spent well over an hour pacing back and forth, building up my courage to speak, and then backing off in fear. Finally I left the market in defeat. As I was sadly walking away I saw a large body of people lined up along the sidewalk waiting to buy tickets for an upcoming concert. It suddenly amazed me that I was walking toward the line... and what amazed me even more was that I was putting my crate down right next to line... and what further amazed me was that I was standing up on the crate preaching to the people! After this experience I was so excited to preach in the open air and began doing so regularly in the downtown Fredericton area for the next couple years. It was during this time that I started blogging on Timothy Ministry.

On the eve of my twentieth birthday I had this strange feeling that the next year of my life was about to be entirely new and different. Believing it to be from the Lord, yet not knowing what that would exactly looked like, I went into the new year with expectancy. My studies at the university resumed in the winter of the 2006, and yet two weeks into the semester I felt restless, desiring rather to leave school and enter into full time ministry. However I wasn't at all sure what that would be. My parents were concerned about me stopping my schooling, but they were supportive of the idea if indeed the Lord was in it. Thus I canceled my classes not knowing what to do next.

I had the immense privilege of spending a brief amount of time with Stephen Lungu, the president of African Enterprise, when he visited Fredericton at the beginning of the summer. He inspired me to continue open air preaching and prayed for wisdom and direction for my life. After he left I felt sure that at the end of the summer I should leave home. I felt so strongly about it that I actually told my parents, "Mom and Dad, I believe God wants me to leave home at the end of the summer. I don't know where yet, but even if I don't know by the end of the summer I'm going to buy a car, pack my things in it, drive down the driveway and ask the Lord, 'left or right?'" Thankfully that did not happen! Not long afterward I began corresponding with a friend who was organizing two small ministry teams to travel across the United States and preach on university campuses for the entire duration of the following school year. Right away I believed this was God's will for me. After contacting him he said that he too believed God wanted me to be on this trip. So in September of 2006 I flew to Syracuse, New York, to join one of those teams, which consisted of myself and two other young men, and the three of us spent the next seven months driving across the United States together in a large 15 passenger extended van and preaching on university campuses. That school year we preached on over 60 campuses in over 25 States. We became dear friends during that time.

If you were to have seen me during these years, you would have probably concluded that I was a real Christian, even an exceptional one. I was sincere and zealous, earnestly using my time and energy in what seemed like the cause of Christ. I read my Bible much, prayed much, and preached much. I believed in every orthodox doctrine of Christianity - there is one God, manifested in three Persons; Christ is both fully God and fully man, the promised Messiah, Who was born of the virgin Mary, Who died on the cross for our sins, and rose from the dead on the third day; there is heaven and hell, and forgiveness of sins is found in Him alone, etc. - I believed all these things, but I did not believe in God's grace. I did not believe in it, because I did not understand it, and because I did not understand it, I seldom used the word "grace" at all. My Bible reading was focused mainly on what I thought I had to do as a Christian, and my preaching consisted in calling people to repent of their sins and to get right with God through their own efforts. I was self-righteous, judgmental, and was hoping that I was worthy enough for Jesus to save me and give me eternal life. I didn't know God. Every now and again someone would tell me that I didn't understand the gospel, but I just thought that they were the ones who were in error. I was zealous for God, but not according to knowledge.


PEACE WITH GOD

Halfway through my preaching journey I had a crisis of faith which finally led to me becoming a real Christian. As I said, my preaching consisted of telling others to stop their sins in order to be right with God. But the reality was, I was a hypocrite. I was preaching to others to do something that I myself had not done. I would fiercely denounce sins in others, while all along I was harboring the same sins in my own heart, though I hid it from others. I would preach that only those who obeyed God would enter into the Kingdom of God, but according to my own preaching I myself would not have entered in. I was so lost and I didn't even know it. Just as Jesus said of the Pharisees, I looked good on the outside, but inwardly I was full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

At last, during Christmas of 2006, God annihilated my self-righteousness. One night I became so convicted of my sin that I was absolutely certain that I was heading straight for hell. Terror gripped me as I thought about how hypocritical I was to preach to others. The verse in James 3:1 haunted me: "Be not many teachers, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation." The reality of my guilt siezed me, so that I truly felt that God would do good by sending me to hell. I was a perfect example of someone who deserved hell. If anyone deserved hell, it was me: I knew so much of the Bible, and so much about Jesus, and I had experienced the miraculous, I knew full well that sin was evil, and I was even preaching to others to be obedient; but I, of all people... I was not only disobedient... I was a hypocrite!

Since my hope of salvation had been that if I were good enough, then Christ would save me, once those illusory thoughts of my own goodness vanished, my hope, like a mirage, simultaneously vanished before my eyes. I was left with despair. I lost my appetite, and my body became physically weak from the stress. I did my best to hide all of this from my family. I lost all confidence of being saved because of my own goodness. I thought to myself: "If I am going to be saved, it will have to be because God has undeserved mercy on me!" This is what I wished, but I had no reason to believe God would do it. I began spending the days crying and praying to God to have this mercy on me. "Oh God, please forgive me!" "Oh God, please have mercy on me!" "God, I don't deserve it, but please save me!" "Please, God, be kind and do something for me that I don't deserve!" But God remained silent. This went on for about three weeks, and I was quickly concluding that God's silence meant that He would not do it. He had no reason to. He would do good by sending me to hell, making me an example of His righteous justice.

Then one night, as I was laying in bed, feeling the full weight of my guilt upon me, the first line of the song "In Christ Alone" passed through my mind. "In Christ alone, my hope is found." It very gently but suddenly dawned on me that in all reality my soul's hope had never really been in Christ, but in myself, and that I had always hoped that I was worthy enough to receive eternal life. Another revelation suddenly swept over me: Christ had died for me while I was a sinner... He loved me even though He knew exactly what kind of person I was, and how unworthy I was. I had always professed that I was a sinner, but when I finally realized how bad a sinner I was I despaired that God loved me. That night I realized that God loved me, a bad sinner, and the cross was proof of that. I had never seen this before, even though I had believed in the fact that Christ had died on the cross for my sins; but I had never truly understood the real meaning of that fact, and what it revealed about God's attitude toward me. That night it was as if the Father gently spoke to me, saying: "Eli, you've been begging me to have mercy on you for weeks, and you've been doing this because you don't even know who I am. For if you really knew me, you wouldn't need to beg."

Suddenly I realized what Christianity is all about. Christianity is not about trying to make God merciful. It is not about convincing God that He should forgive and you and give you eternal life. It is not about trying to be worthy of the blood of Christ. Christianity is about believing that God is merciful, made known to us through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins. This is the good news that we are called to believe, and by believing in Him we find rest.

Without any effort, this wonderful news displaced my shame and guilt, and the great burden that was putting pressure on my chest immediately lifted. As the truth of God's grace came in, the fear of hell went out, and I knew I was forgiven. God's forgiving heart toward me was revealed to me from the fact that Christ died for me. I trusted in it and found peace. God counted me as righteous that very night, not because I was a good person, but because Christ had died for my sins, and I trusted in His grace revealed to me through His only begotten Son. This is the good news! "Therefore being justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:1)


UTAH

It is interesting that before I left home to begin traveling and preaching I had a strange feeling that I would ultimately end up living somewhere in the west, even though there was no reason for this to happen.

During our travels two families from Utah began following our updates and took a keen interest in the campus ministry we were doing. In April they drove to meet us when we were passing through Montana (I had already become a Christian by this time) and invited us to come to Utah and preach the gospel in their city. We agreed to come, though it wasn't until the Fall semester of 2007 that I finally made it, for I spent the summer in Victoria, British Columbia, involved in street evangelism. When I came to Utah I had no intention of staying, and every intention of simply passing through. It was here that I met my colleage Brad Scheelke, a dear friend and brother who serves as manager of a Christian literature mission in the city of Logan, and has done so for over 25 years. After the first week of preaching at the university to the 90% Mormon community, we had such a reaction that the front page of the city paper read, "Preacher says: 'Mormonism is not true'"! With so much interest, I felt it would be premature to leave so soon, and we planned an extended tour of multiple campuses in the surrounding area. My initial trip, which was suppose to be only two weeks, ended up being closer to two months, and at the end of those two months Brad asked me to join him on staff at Oasis Books and move to Logan to help with the work of reaching out to the community. Somehow I knew all along that this was home, and that Utah was where God had planned and prepared for me to be.

When I was younger I used to pray to God that I would have nothing to do with Mormons! For some strange reason this was the only group I ever prayed to avoid. I had heard of all the unusual doctrines of Mormonism and based upon that I wanted nothing to do with them. But little did I realize at that time just how similiar I really was to the Mormons. They are seeking to be right with God through their own efforts, and so was I. They do not know God's grace, and are trusting in their own pretended obedience, and so was I. I learned through bitter experience just how like the Mormons I truly was. I believe God was preparing me for ministry in Utah, and was giving me a heart for Mormons that can feel empathy and compassion.

Since moving to Utah in January 2008 and joining Brad at Oasis Books, the ministry has been engaged in rigorous evangelism in the community. Open air preaching, distributing hundreds of books, sharing the gospel one-on-one to hundreds of students on Utah universities and neighboring campuses, handing out tracts, conducting outreaches at local fairs and festivals, teaching and equipping Christians on how to share their faith, and church planting, are just some of the things that are going on by the grace of God. God opened the door for us to film a full season (16 episodes) of a Christian Bible study show for a local television station. Many people who have come to the bookstore have been counseled. Oasis has organized weekly door-to-door evangelism events which reaches different kinds of people from non-Mormons, to bishops and leaders in the Mormon church. We print, publish and give away many tracts, booklets and pamphlets. Bible studies for both youth and adults are held throughout the week. We promote solid Christian books and encourage people to read. Oasis Books provides a safe place for anyone to come and talk, laugh, cry, fellowship, vent, ask questions, receive prayer, and connect with the Christian community in the valley. Most recently we have begun a Sunday morning fellowship where we focus on loving one another in meaningful relationships, expositional preaching, and promoting unity among all the saints in the valley (www.allsaintslogan.com).

At the time of this writing (2010) I am now 24 years old. God alone deserved all the glory for His merciful workmanship in my life; for keeping me back from atheism, and for saving me from the penalty of my sins. He gave me the free gift of eternal life through His Son's death and resurrection, and He will give the same to you. The apostle Paul wrote that "God demonstrates His own love for us in this: that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom. 5:8) Simply believe the good news of who God is. Trust in His love today, no matter how sinful you are. I am thankful to all the people God has used in my life to shape and mold me thus far, and I am thankful to God for His steadfast and constant faithfulness toward me and teaching me more and more the glorious truths of His love and grace. "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Phil. 1:6) The most exciting thing in the whole world is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Truly Jesus said, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10) Thank you, Lord!


CONTACT ME

If you would like to know more about the ministry in Cache Valley, or if you'd like to ask me any questions, you can contact me via email: ebrayley@gmail.com.

Thank you for reading this page. Feel free to write to me anytime, and consider visiting us in Utah sometime. We would love to see you!

Yours in the Lord Jesus Christ,
-Eli