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You & Your Thoughts

By Jeremy Myers
18 Comments

You & Your Thoughts

You and Your Thoughts

The Bible teaches that “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

We also read in Paul that the key to becoming who God wants us to be is through the “renewal of our minds” (Rom 12:1-2).

It is for these reasons that Dr. Earl Radmacher wrote this book.

The battle for the mind is the most important battle in the life of any Christian. Most often, we do not even know that a battle for our mind is underway, but our minds are constantly bombarded from every direction, through our five senses, through the spiritual realm, through cultural and social pressure, through memories and imagination, and through a wide variety of other sources.

This is why it is so important to learn how to “take every thought captive” and to learn what the Bible says about right thinking and how to change our minds.

Beginning with the that that we are what we think, Dr. Earl Radmacher invites the readers to take a journey of the mind, and then begin to transform their mind by beginning to think right about God, church, church leadership, and a variety of other topics.

This book is a classic from Dr. Earl Radmacher, and is essentially unchanged from the 1977 edition. It now has a Foreword from Ed Underwood, pastor of Church of the Open Door, Author of The Trail, and blogger at EdUnderwood.com

I have benefited from this book and recommend it for others.

See what others are saying about this book here:

  • Brandon Kelley
  • Michael Wilson
  • Stan Stinson
  • Dan Herford

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books I'm Reading, Earl Radmacher, mind, thinking

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The Spirit-Led Book Launch Team

By Jeremy Myers
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The Spirit-Led Book Launch Team

Some people were recently led to write some blog posts about Dr. Radmacher’s book on the Holy Spirit.

I would say there were led by the Holy Spirit, but really, they were led by a book on the Holy Spirit… (Yes, that’s a lame attempt at a joke).

Anyway, let me issue thanks to the following people for blogging about Dr. Radmacher’s book, What to Expect from the Holy Spirit:

  • Brandon Kelley
  • Brandon Chase
  • Michael Wilson
  • Stan Stinson
  • Tony Vance
  • Bob Bedford
  • Dan Herford

With their help, Dr. Radmacher’s book made it onto two “Best Selling” Lists at Amazon.

Each member of this book launch team has a blog. Just click on their names to go check out their own writings.

book launch authors

If you want to be involved in future book launches, I am now accepting applications. The requirements are as follows:

  1. Have a blog with a minimum Alexa rank of 5,000,000
  2. Have an active Facebook account
  3. Have an active Twitter account
  4. Be willing to write a review of the book on Amazon before the launch week
  5. Be willing to write a review of the book on your blog during the launch week

The next book I want to launch is a book called You & Your Thoughts, which is another book by Dr. Earl Radmacher. I want to launch this in LESS THAN TWO WEEKS!!!

If you want to learn more, just visit my Book Launch Team info page. See you there!

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: book launch team, Books I'm Reading, Earl Radmacher, Holy Spirit, Theology of the Holy Spirit

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Why Jesus Wasn’t Saved

By Jeremy Myers
16 Comments

Why Jesus Wasn’t Saved

Jesus  savesJesus wasn’t saved.

That’s right.

And I have a Bible verse to prove it.

In Matthew 27:42, some of the people who were watching Jesus die on the cross said this: “He saved others; but He can’t save Himself!”

You see? Jesus wasn’t saved. He did not save Himself.

That’s ridiculous, right?

The people in Matthew 27:42 are talking about dying on the cross. They are referring to how Jesus rescued and delivered many people from sickness and even death, and they find it ironic that although Jesus rescued others, He cannot rescue Himself from death on the cross.

And of course, we all know that Jesus could have rescued Himself, but He didn’t. Jesus did indeed die on the cross. He was not saved (from death on the cross).

But does this say anything about His eternal destiny? Of course not! (Jesus always had eternal life, for in Him is life — 1 John 5:11).

Anyone with a little bit of sense understands that in the context of Matthew 27:42, the word “save” does not mean escape from hell and entrance into heaven, or receiving eternal life. The context clearly shows that the word “save” means deliverance from death on the cross.

So in the context, when people say, “He cannot save Himself” they are saying “He cannot rescue Himself from dying on this cross.”

Why do I bring this up?

I have been having numerous online (and offline) conversations recently about various theological topics (baptism, unpardonable sin, women in ministry, etc.), and in these discussions, people will often quote a verse to defend their view, and these verses often includes the word “save” (cf., Matt 24:13; 1 Pet 3:21, 1 Cor 3:15; 5:5; 2 Thess 2:10; 1 Tim 2:15; James 2:14-26).

They read these verses thinking that the word “save” means “deliverance from hell, entrance into heaven, justification, or receiving eternal life,” when in reality, the context indicates otherwise. But when we think the word refers to hell, heaven, justification, or eternal life, confusion and really bad theology are the results.

When Dr. Earl Radmacher used to go speak in churches, he often would open in prayer before he began to preach with these words:

Father, as I preach today to these fine people who have gathered together today, I pray that they would get saved, and I would get saved too. Amen”

He says that he always loved to pray this with his eyes open so that he could watch the reaction of the people in the pews. They would open their eyes and glance around at each other, apparently thinking, “What? Did we just bring in a guest speaker who is unsaved? Uh oh! This church is going liberal on us!”

Then Dr. Radmacher would go on to teach them something similar to what I am teaching in this post. Dr. Radmacher’s prayer did not mean that he thought his listeners and himself did not have eternal life. No, he was praying that they (and he) might get saved from some incorrect thinking about God, or saved from some misunderstanding about Scripture. This is a completely appropriate and biblical thing to pray for!

Dr. Radmacher knew that the word “save” in Scripture usually has nothing to do with receiving eternal life. (If you haven’t already, you should read his book, Salvation.)

The Word “Save” in Scripture

I believe that somewhere between 99%-100% of the uses of the word “save” in Scripture (and it’s cognates: saved, salvation, Savior, etc.), do not refer to “deliverance from hell, entrance into heaven, justification, or receiving eternal life.” Instead, some other sort of deliverance is in view (cf. Matt 8:25). See a post I wrote about the word “save” here.

From the results of my own study, I believe there are only two likely candidates for places where the word “save” refers to receiving eternal life: Acts 16:30-31 and Ephesians 2:8-9. And to be honest, I am not fully convinced about these two either (But I’m not going to explain why in this post).

So next time you are reading Scripture and come across the word “save,” stop and think about what you are reading, and then look in the context to help determine what sort of deliverance is being discussed.

Isn’t this just semantics?

Yes. It is.

And when it comes to the Gospel, semantics are vitally important.

How many of us have told people, “Jesus Saves” or asked people, “Are you saved?” Not only is such a statement or question not found anywhere in Scripture, it is hopelessly confusing to most people. People who have not been raised on Christian lingo automatically think, “Jesus Saves? Saves me from what?”

Don’t believe me? The following pictures poke fun at Christianity, but they show you that the statement “Jesus saves” is confusing.

Jesus saves
Jesus Saves Soccer

When telling others about the offer of the Gospel and how to receive eternal life, use the terminology most often found in Scripture: Jesus gives eternal life to anyone who believes in Him for it.

Thankfully, this offer is backed up by Jesus through His death and resurrection. Jesus was not saved from the cross so that we can have eternal life through faith in Him.

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: crucifixion, Earl Radmacher, Easter, Jesus saves, Matthew 27:42, resurrection, salvation, save, Theology of Salvation

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