I have been a child of God for decades (time rolls on), and have appreciated the voice of People to People Ministries now Bob George Ministries daily radio show over the years, and especially that of Bob George for his never wavering teaching on the New Covenant, complete forgiveness in Jesus Christ, and Grace.
My story of the Christian journey has been quite an experience. Coming out of an early childhood of growing up in the Byzantine Catholic religious system, and then into a marriage where my wife thought there was little difference between Catholics and Protestants, and finally to my spiritual conversion in a bible study where we were looking at Jesus, and I came to the realization that Jesus forgave me of all of my sins. My heart was filled with joy, I was ready to dance the world away, because a great load had been lifted off my soul. I thought God was hacked with me, because I hadn't gone to the confession booth in years. Now, I knew the truth, and the truth did set me free. It wasn't until later, I came to realize, that at that moment in time when I came to believe in the finished work of Jesus, and His forgiveness, that the Holy Spirit came to live in me, and also gave me eternal life at that exact moment in time. Wow, what great news!
This bible study was through one of the Presbyterian denominations, PCA, that are quite conservative as apposed to the more liberal Presbyterian denomination, PCUSA.
After a couple of years at the church, (which was a newer church) the minister thought I might be a good candidate for eldership, along with five or six other fellows. Since the minister was only two years into the starting of this new church, and there were no elders, he wanted us to have a good foundation for what PCA Presbyterians believed and taught.
So, out came a ton of books, including The Westminster Confession Of Faith for study classes. Talk about deep studies, I felt like I was in Seminary school for six weeks. I took everything seriously, all the while comparing the teachings to the various bible verses. I was like a Berean (and still to this day), "Now the Bereans were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." Acts 17:11 You see, I was being taught by the Holy Spirit, and was also listening to numerous Christian radio broadcasts, including People to People Ministries.
People to People and the Real Answers website, and the teachings of Bob George was the one place that I could go to get consistent teaching, which matched up to the bible and what the Holy Spirit had shown me two years prior to this leadership class.
Well, as is typical of my usual self, and being led by the Holy Spirit, I could not be quiet about the total forgiveness issue. Needless to say, I did not become an elder in the Presbyterian church, as I was quite outspoken about being totally forgiven. This resulted in a church trial, where we (myself, wife, and family) actually I was told in no uncertain terms that they did not want me to talk about the forgiveness issue anymore, and if I could not abide by this, they wanted us to leave.
Since I had to do what I felt was right from God’s perspective, I could not agree to being quiet about being totally forgiven and felt like I had to dust off my shoes, shake out my clothes, and move on with my Christian walk.
Recollecting on this time of my life, it always struck me as really strange and quite illogical, that a group of people could say that all your sins have been forgiven, past, present and future, and then in the next breath take something out of context from the bible and build a completely new doctrine out of one verse of scripture, while so many verses of the bible support complete forgiveness of sins. Instead of looking at a single verse in the context of the particular book of the bible, or the situation that was being addressed by the writers of the New Testament, people tend to follow the teachings of man, instead of God.
Many church goers are followers of men, and have forgotten to be followers of God. Unlike the Bereans in the Apostle Paul’s day, that checked the scriptures to see if what was being taught by the Apostles was true; men today would rather believe in man’s teachings instead of God’s truth.
Believers are told today to be proclaimers of the good news of reconciliation. Jesus was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting men's sins against them. 2 Corinthians 5:19
This is great news! Proclaim it from the rooftops. Believe it and receive eternal life. The forgiveness issue has been dealt with by God. Now, people need new life.
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Thank you so much for clearing up 1John 1:9 for me. I was so confused. I am a Christian and believe in salvation through Christ and His death and resurrection. I didn't understand what the need was or how I was supposed to remember to keep asking for forgiveness for sins. Thank you so much for clarifying this for me.
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