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Falling Stars! |
OPEN LETTER TO DAVE HUNT
OF THE BEREAN CALL MINISTRY
May 16, 2009
Dear Dave and Tom,
Greetings in the mighty and precious name of Jesus. The FMH Children's Club enjoys listening to your radio program on the Internet every day at lunch time, and we find your ministry to be very helpful due to the knowledge and truth presented through it.
I am writing you at this time because the Lord wants me to respond to a teaching broadcast on your program about how Jesus redeemed us from the power of sin by taking our punishment in the lake of fire (during the final 3 hours He spent on the Cross). I know it is said that Jesus took our punishment for us, but the price He paid was to lay down his life, for "the wages of sin is death". And the death that Jesus died is witnessed by the Blood that was shed: "The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your soul; for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." (Leviticus 17:11).
Jesus became the Lamb of God without spot or blemish because He never sinned - that is - he never disobeyed the voice of the Spirit (no sin) during His lifelong mission. His "meat" was to do the will of His Father (John 4:34), and His Father's will He always did. Amazingly, Jesus said, "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear I judge: And my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." (John 5:30). We see in the Bible how no two healings performed by Jesus were done the same. He received directions from His Father on how to proceed: "Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can doing nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things sover he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."
It's not wrong to seek the voice of the Father, as Brother Dave has warned against, and has said that it is unnecessary to have a "neon sign tell you what to do when you get up in the morning". If we don't get instructions from God, then we're about our own agenda, and we're being self-serving instead of being servants of God. Telling people not to seek God and ask Him to speak and give instructions is to liken him to the dumb idols that that heathen worship: "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: they have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat." (Psalm 115:4-8) We don't have a dead God or one that cannot speak, but on the contrary, Jesus said, "...The words I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63), and "...Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you." (John 6:53) God still speaks, and prayer is a "two-way street": Speaking to the Father, and also listening to the Father.
Jesus' entire life was a walk of obedience, which in a broader sense was his "cross", just as He taught and demonstrated it to be for us: "...Take up [your] cross and follow me" (Luke 9:23). Jesus was actually crucifying His flesh His entire life before He was crucified at the Cross. This is how Jesus "tasted death" for every man (Hebrews 2:9). The verse that follows that one (drawing the meaning from the context) tells us about this "death":
"For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." (Hebrews 2:10)
And He taught us to do the same - that is - to obey the Father in all He instructs us to do ("take up your cross daily"). By this means we can be dead to sin, self, and disobedience, and alive unto God through obedience:
"Though he were a Son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered." (Hebrews 5:8)
Andrew Murray suggests in his book "The School Of Obedience" that the obedience that Jesus "learned" – or experienced - by laying down his life to become a "living sacrifice". And as Jesus was obedient in all things, we are also to be obedient in all things:
"And being made perfect he became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him". (Hebrews 5:9)
So, in these verses we must see that through suffering in obedience, Jesus (and His Blood which opens the way to our salvation) was made "perfect", and our blood can be made "perfect" unto salvation through obedience, too.
Holding to "unconditional eternal security" requires overlooking a great many warnings in the Bible concerning the unbelieving and unfaithful servants, who too often are found "departing from the living God" (Hebrews 3:12). God doesn't bless His children without His conditions being met (Deuteronomy 30:19-20), and God doesn't ultimately save His children without His conditions being met. The "once saved always saved" doctrine is most attractive to those who are continuing in their rebellious and disobedient ways - to those who reject God's prophets who are sent to them - which includes Brother Dave. Dave, please repent of your rebellion before it's too late.
All for the love of Jesus,
Alan Richardson
(See "Dave Hunt Rejects God's Spoken Word" for more on the subject.)
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