Qualifiers - Can't Throw Them Out

Do you remember Paul Harvey? His long running radio show always ended with these words, "Now you know.... the rest of the story."  It's important to know the whole story and not just bits and pieces.  No one wants to read every other chapter of a novel or watch every third scene of a movie.  You just can't know the truth if you don't see the whole picture.  God's Word is truth but it is only knowable if you don't leave out the parts you don't like or those that are uncomfortable.


Leaving out parts is common these days and one of the easiest ways to do this and still sound like a knowledgeable teacher or preacher is to leave out the qualifiers.  What is a qualifier?  Let's say my son asks me if he can have desert.  I could just say "yes" which would give him free access to the cupcakes without condition or I could say, "Yes, if you finish your dinner."  This, on the other hand, would place a qualifier as a condition to the privilege  of eating the sweets.


I want to put forth a couple of teachings many false teachers put forth using half truths which when examined in light of the whole truth, are nothing but lies:


1) We are all God's children.  (True or False?)


     This is a teaching that sure sounds true and certainly sounds pleasant but what does the Word say?


Truth - All people are God's creation.  We are all loved by him but we are not all his children, part of his family, or heirs to the promise.  We are adopted and enter into his family not by our first birth but our second.  We become children of God though salvation which comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.


John 1:11-13


He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.     


Luke 20:34-36


Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection.


2)  All people will go to heaven because God said "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son." and "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." (True or False?)


     There are a growing number of "Christian" teachers who are teaching universalism (the belief that all people will eventually be saved).  Many use parts of verses or use verses out of context to mold scripture to their liking and to the liking of their hearers.


Truth - There are qualifiers to our eternal salvation.  In the end, some will enter the Kingdom of Heaven and some will spend eternity in Hell.  Let's look at the whole statement that Jesus made in John chapter 3.



<sup>John 3:14-18

14</sup> Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 

Notice that in the false teaching, only verses 16a and 17 are used but all of the qualifying verses are left out. The emphasis with bold letters is for your benefit and obviously not in the original text.

This is by no means the only place in Scripture that Jesus or his Apostles spoke clearly of the division of those who will be saved and those who will be condemned.  Feel free to read Matthew chapter 25 for more of the rest of the story.

Here is the point:  When you hear someone putting forth what they say is the "Word of God" please do what the Apostle Paul urged us to do,
"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." (1 John 4:1)  

That goes for what you read here.  I don't want you to believe me.  I want you to pray and seek the truth.  If your heart is humbled and open, I believe God will lead you to the truth.

Peace, in Christ.

David