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INTRODUCTION
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“TRUTH, not eloquence, is to be sought in reading the Holy Scriptures; and every part must be read in the spirit in which it was written. For in the Scriptures we ought to seek profit rather than polished diction. Likewise we ought to read simple and devout books as willingly as learned and profound ones. We ought not to be swayed by the authority of the writer, whether he be a great literary light or an insignificant person, but by the love of simple truth. We ought not to ask who is speaking, but mark what is said. Men pass away, but the truth of the Lord remains forever. God speaks to us in many ways without regard for persons.” - Thomas A. Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, 1400’s

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"Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ" (Jude 3, 4).

If the truth of the gospel contained in Scripture is the sole means appointed by God whereby the soul can be saved, then it is that truth alone which is interpreted as God intended that can be appropriated wherein it accomplishes its designed purpose. When we stand before God in the Day of Judgment, the only truth that will be relevant is that which He alone has determined. Since God declares in His Word that we must worship Him in “spirit and truth,” it is of no little consequence that we are found doing so on that Day. There can be no greater folly than the neglect of the soul in regards to its final and eternal state, and it is therefore of vital importance that we be diligent in our pursuit of truth, earnest in prayer, searching His Word, that we might worship Him in the way in which He Himself requires of us. If we rest with a complacent reliance on the words of fallible men, hoping by chance that they are correct in their understanding of the means determined by God whereby salvation is obtained, we do so at the risk of eternal ruin. The consequence of building our faith on any other foundation but Christ, in His true person and character, is the loss of our eternal being. “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11).

When preparing to vote in an election, we oftentimes read the arguments in favor of a proposition and we are convinced that we should vote in agreement with that issue. However, when we read the opposing arguments they can be so persuasive to the contrary, that we find ourselves hard-pressed between the two arguments as to which way to vote. The arguments are based on the same proposition however the foundation on which they build their arguments can be worlds apart. Those expressing their views, whether done in sincerity or in pretense, are zealous in seeking to convince the reader that their view is the correct view. The foundation on which they erect their view is according to an individual’s background, biases, preconceived notions, prejudices, and a multiple of other factors. It may be that the author’s intention in the original document was simply misunderstood or misinterpreted. We the voter then will either accept, without further inquiry, that which we consider to be the better argument, or we look to the document whereupon the arguments are founded and study it for ourselves to find out which view should be taken.

When it comes to opposing views with respect to the saving of the soul from eternal death, we would not think it possible that one would be so careless to risk making a decision based on the sincerity, the popularity, or the convincing way in which one presents his argument. However, it confounds the senses why so many will readily accept a view, taking comfort in the well-being of their souls, without a careful investigation into the original document upon which the view is founded. As in any argument, we will always find opposing views, but never will we find opposing truths.

Therefore, Scripture warns us to “Beware of false prophet who come to you in sheep’s clothing” (Matt. 7:15). In other words, beware of those who come as representatives of God, while in fact they do not represent Him at all. They speak with “great swelling speech” but it is contrary to truth. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). Scripture warns us, not of a few false teachers, but many.

George Whitefield, who played a vital part in the “great awakening,” said in a sermon entitled “True conversion”:

I suppose I may take it for granted, that all of you, among whom I am now about to preach the kingdom of God, are fully convinced, that it is appointed for all men once to die, and that ye all really believe that after death comes the judgment, and that the consequences of that judgment will be, that ye must be doomed to dwell in the blackness of darkness, or ascend to dwell with the blessed God, forever and ever. I may take it for granted also, that whatever your practice in common life may be, there is not one, though ever so profligate and abandoned, but hopes to go to that place, which the scriptures call Heaven, when he dies. And, I think, if I know anything of mine own heart, my heart’s desire, as well as my prayer to God, for you all, is, that I may see you sitting down in the kingdom of our heavenly Father. But then, though we all hope to go to heaven when we die, yet, if we may judge by people’s lives, and our Lord says, “that by their fruits we may know them,” I am afraid it will be found, that thousands, and ten thousands, who hope to go to this blessed place after death, are not now in the way to it while they live. Though we call ourselves Christians, and would consider it as an affront put upon us, for anyone to doubt whether we were Christians or not; yet there are a great many, who bear the name of Christ, that yet do not so much as know what real Christianity is (italics added).

The sum of the matter is this. There is what Whitefield calls a “real Christianity” and therefore by contrast a “counterfeit Christianity.” There is the true cross on which Christ died, and a “counterfeit cross” on which hangs eternal death. I pray that God would grant to the reader, by His grace, that truth which he desires in the inward parts, and in the hidden part, that which makes one wise to salvation (Ps. 51:6). For although we all stumble in many ways (James 3:2), we cannot stumble at the truth of the gospel, for to do so is to procure for ourselves, an eternal fall from which there is no recovery.

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