Evil cannot be overcome by evil, only by good. We are called to deliver and heal those for whom Christ died, not kill them. It is only when our government commands us to sin that we are to resist the government, and then not by killing our opponents but by doing what good we can and by holding fast our testimony during imprisonment, torture, and death.

How many believers of today are true Christians? How many churchgoers have turned aside from their own life and are carrying their cross of self-denial behind the Lord?

And these fleshly, self-willed believers intend to force the unbelievers to live a moral life? The Scriptures command God's people, not the unsaved community, to repent and turn from their wicked ways! What are we thinking of?

The Lord Jesus taught us that if His Kingdom were of this world His servants would fight but that His Kingdom is not of this world. We are told that we are not fighting against flesh and blood but against fallen lords in the heavenlies. We are informed that the weapons of our warfare are not of flesh and blood but mighty through the Holy Spirit to the pulling down of strongholds.

The Lord is not commanding the unsaved people to repent. He is commanding His own people to repent, for the Christian churches are filled with people who are sinning, who are leading spiritually lukewarm, worldly lives. They do not know the Lord's will. They do not understand the new covenant. They believe in a silly "rapture" that will deliver them from suffering (as though suffering were not one of the characteristics of the Christian discipleship throughout the centuries). They have heaped to themselves teachers to tickle their ears. They have not presented their bodies a living sacrifice. They are in love with themselves.

Now they are disobeying the Lord by running ahead of Him, attempting to set up the Kingdom of God by human means. Surely God has sent a powerful delusion upon us because we do not love the truth. Truly, great suffering is ahead for the Lord's people.

The Definition of Salvation

We have said that salvation is not composed of an accurate understanding and profession of belief in the truths of the several areas of knowledge of the Kingdom of God. "The righteous shall live by faith" has to do with how the righteous live, not with their profession of belief in the facts of redemption. The righteous live by trusting in God and not in themselves, by obeying the Lord in each decision of life.

Well then, if salvation is not a statement of "faith," just what is salvation?

Salvation is, first of all, deliverance from the wrath of God that will be poured out in the last days.

And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. (I Thessalonians 1:10)

After that, salvation is our change from Satan to God. The purpose of delivering us from wrath is to authorize us to begin the transformation of personality that is salvation.

To be continued.