The Christian And The Struggle With Truth: In Sin, Salvation, and Santification of the Human Soul

By Charles Scheele

This book is written from the perspective of a pastor concerned for his people, in a conversational style with the layman in view. We live in an age when Christians accept and repeat popular ideas and concepts as truth, because they are popular. Popularity has become the criteria to determine what is truth rather than a simple investigation of the scriptures. This book appeals to the Bible as it examines such topics as why do we sin, what is Satan doing, the nature of faith, the nature of prayer, the nature of a gospel witness, the reason God saves us, the nature of God's judgment, and the relationship between love and truth. The struggle every child of God is involved in is a struggle with the truth. How we respond to the truth, or what we believe to be the truth, determines our responses to life's situations. Step into this book and let your faith, your beliefs, be challenged.
It is refreshing to read a book on the hard-hitting issues that defines the battle that we believers are engaged in. Pastor Scheele has done an outstanding job of answering some of the questions that have plagued man ever since he was cast out of the garden. The answers in this book are not merely one man’s speculation, but are carefully researched responses by God himself as spoken to man through his scriptures. If God’s word is truth, as all Christians believe it is, then this is a must read for all who are concerned about our mission here on Earth, our part in the war that we are engaged in and God’s purpose and will for our lives. In a world of sin and deception, this book is a refreshing breath of truth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Father's Press
• Release date: May 4, 2011

Charles Scheele

Charles Scheele graduated from Pillsbury Baptist Bible College in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Bible and Pastorology. In 1983 he graduated from Central Baptist Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree. He has been a pastor from 1987 to the present. He has pastored two churches during that time, both churches being struggling churches that had almost closed their doors because of the previous pastors' behavior. From 1997 to 2000, while pastoring his second church, he served as a temporary chaplain at Lincoln Hills School, a juvenile prison in the state of Wisconsin. While at his first church he held Bible studies at the Blackwell Job Corps Center. For the last 12 years, while pastoring his second church, he has been leading Bible study groups at the juvenile prison, Lincoln Hills School.

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The Christian and the Struggle with Truth

in the sin, salvation, and sanctification

of the human soul

Charles Scheele

Smashwords Edition

PUBLISHED By: Father’s Press on Smashwords.

© Charles Scheele

Charles Scheele holds the copyright of this book and has granted the exclusive right to publish it to Father’s Press.

First printing, September 2007

Printed in the United States. All rights reserved.

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

The author, Charles Scheele, grants the original purchaser a limited license to copy both apendixes for the sake of evangelism. All other parts of this book may not be reproduced or transmitted by any means without written permission from the author.

All scripture is quoted from the Authorized King James Bible.

Father’s Press, LLC

Lee’s Summit, MO

[phone]

www.fatherspress.com

816-600-6288

Cover design by Charles Scheele

To Marty and Ginger, who first suggested I put my thoughts into print.

To the people at Berean Baptist of Tomahawk, who have been patient with this long-winded preacher and encouraged him in his teaching.

To Mike Smitley, the man God has used to see that this got into print.

To Joy, my faithful companion and supporter in life, whom God has given to me.

To my mother and father, whose desire to live obediently to the scriptures has led me to what I believe.

And most of all, to God, Who is a God in Whom we can stake our lives, Who cannot lie and therefore never changes.

Table of Contents

PREFACE

Chapter 1 THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUTH

IN THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

Chapter 2 WHY DO WE SIN?

Chapter 3 WHAT IS SATAN'S PART IN ALL THIS?

Chapter 4 WHY DOES GOD SAVE US?

Chapter 5 WHAT ARE WE TO DO IN THIS BATTLE?

Chapter 6 THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE

GOSPEL WITNESS

Chapter 7 THE EXPERIENCE OF THOSE WHO

WOULD DARE TO LOVE THE TRUTH,

LIVE IT, AND SPEAK IT OUT

Chapter 8 THE JUDGMENT AS IT RELATES TO

THE STRUGGLE WITH TRUTH

Chapter 9 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN

TRUTH AND LOVE

Appendix A EXPLAINING SALVATION FROM

THE BOOK OF ROMANS

Appendix B EXPLAINING SALVATION FROM

JOHN 3:16-21

PREFACE

The great struggle that all believers are involved in is a struggle between good and evil. But it is not a struggle of good deeds versus evil deeds, or being Christian versus a non-Christian, as is so commonly thought today. It is a struggle between truth and deception. This is where the real battle is being waged. How we think determines the kind of choices we make. What we understand to be true will determine the priorities that we set in our lives.

When it comes to dealing with sin, the purpose of our salvation, the reason for churches to hold services, the importance of the Bible, or even what defines one as a Christian, all these have a part in the real struggle that takes place in our world – the struggle between truth and deception. This struggle, if we rightly understand it, should cause us to place a high value on the book we call the Bible.

There are some things running around in what is called evangelical Christianity that are troubling to me. These troubling things I believe are the result of either a lazy study of scripture, a desire for popularity, or just plain ignorance. At any rate, they express what I call sloppy Christianity with no real concern for truth. Originally, I wrote this as a response to these troubling things and then went through what I had written with my church.

As a pastor it is my responsibility to lead the flock over which God has placed me as a pastor, in the way that He says we should go. This would include what I teach my flock is God’s definition of the truth. On Judgment Day God is not going to ask me if I was popular with the people or the community, but if I earnestly contended for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 3). After all, God has made His church the pillar and ground of the truth (I Tim. 3:15). I believe I would be a failure in the pastorate if I were not faithful to the truth.

Peter, in speaking to the pastors of his day, and by the providence of God, through the Word of God, also speaks to the pastors of today:

The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:[2] Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; [3] Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. [4] And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away (1Peter 5:1-4).

We pastors are admonished to behave as under shepherds under the direction of the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ. This is not a responsibility that we can take lightly.

In writing to the young man Timothy, Paul said, Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee (I Timothy 4:16).

We who are pastors must do like-wise, as must all who have had the responsibility of teaching someone else the things God has entrusted to His people. Do we know what it is we are teaching? Do we know that it is what God is saying in His Word? Do we know that we are being faithful to God in this, or are we only repeating what is commonly said? Do we care? Out of this concern, I wrote this treatise.

I had been troubled by some of the things that I heard taught as coming from the Bible, but had questions about. I thank God that He placed me in a home where Mom and Dad believed the Bible and encourage their children to read it also. It was because of their encouragement that I began, at the age of eleven, to read two chapters of the Bible each night. It was because of this that some of the things I heard being taught as Bible truth caught my attention, for it did not seem to be consistent with what I had read. And as a pastor, an under shepherd, I desire to carefully teach only as I am convinced that it is what the Bible says; always seeking to weigh what I am about to say against the common teaching of scripture.

What are some of these troubling things I find running around in what is called evangelical Christianity? One of these troubling things is what some have called decisionism, that if someone prays the sinner’s prayer they must be saved. Where does it say this in the Bible? Another is that Jesus saves us so He can take us to Heaven. Where in the Bible does it say that this is the great purpose of our salvation? Is this even faithful to Jesus’ definition of everlasting life, which He came to bring us, which is God’s gift to those who would believe on Him? These are just a few of the troubling things I see in evangelical Christianity today.

I fear we live in an age in which popularity or the appearance of success is of more importance than truth in evangelical circles. This leads to a lot of sloppy and careless preaching. This problem knows no denominational barriers, but has infected all, and is a tool being used by the enemy of the truth.

The following treatise is not a full discussion on the subject by any means, but is intended to set us thinking and maybe examine our own relationship to the truth. And hopefully, it may help some who are wondering what it really is all about.

---Charles Scheele, 2006

Chapter 1

THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUTH

IN THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

(Why I write this book)

What defines a Christian? Is it anyone who claims to worship Jesus Christ? And what defines Christianity? Is it any religious system or philosophy that claims to worship Jesus Christ? What is the authority behind your definition of Jesus Christ or Christianity? Why do different Christians do what they do?

I was first confronted with questions of this nature when I was only five years old. It happened through a conversation between my parents that I was privileged to accidentally overhear.

We had been attending the church my father grew up in, and which my grandparents continued to attend. Dad and mom were actively involved in the church, in its leadership, Sunday school, and youth programs. Shortly before that conversation took place between my parents, the church had hired a new pastor. This man, I am informed, had come to the church with new ideas about Jesus Christ, the Bible, and Christianity, that attacked the very foundations of what my parents believed.

My parents were not uninformed as to what Christianity historically was about. My mother was a graduate of a Bible college, and my father had gone to seminary to prepare for the ministry. But in the providence of God they ended up taking over the family farm and became faithful workers in the church they attended. Some of the books they had acquired while in Bible College and seminary, I have in my personal library.

This privileged conversation I was allowed to overhear was a discussion as to what they should do because of the new pastor. I cannot quote the things that were said, but the question being discussed was if they should stay at that church. The issue was, as I remember it, this new pastor did not believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God. He was not preaching the Bible. That is what I remember from that overheard conversation.

My parents continued to attend that church in the morning service, and started to attend other churches for the evening service. Eventually they quit going to that church and joined a small Baptist Church in a neighboring town, becoming as active in it as they had been in the previous church. It was important to them to know that the pastor believed the Bible to be the inspired Word of God. This question dealt with the authority of what we believe. And that one choice would affect me for years to come.

My parents brought us up on the Bible, reading to us from the Bible and Bible storybooks. Family devotions were a regular habit in our house, and faithful church attendance was a must. It was not always easy for my parents to do this as they raised six children and ran a dairy farm. If the church had special meetings during the week, then we just had to do the chores and milk the cows a little earlier so we could make it to the meetings.

As to their spiritual life, God greatly used that to make me what I am today. I can remember many times, as a child, at bedtime seeing dad or mom at the kitchen table with an open Bible before them. They had a practice of reading at least two chapters before they went to bed, no matter how tired they might be after a hard day on the farm. At night, if I was still awake when they went to bed, I might hear dad say to mom, or mom to dad, Did you read your chapters yet? The importance my parents placed upon the Bible and what it said, resulted in dad making another choice that became my introduction to the importance of obeying the scriptures.

After we had attended the small Baptist Church for a couple of years, my father and oldest brother were baptized by immersion in the Baptist Church. My mother had grown up in a Baptist Church, but my father was raised in a church that practiced infant baptism.

My father had gone to seminary and studied to become a pastor in a denomination that practiced infant baptism. My father and all us kids were baptized as infants in that church. I remember hearing my dad and mom, after we had attended the Baptist church for a while, discuss the question of infant or believer’s baptism. My father had become convinced that the Bible only taught believer’s baptism. This was no small step for him to take. It was another lesson never forgotten by a young boy.

When I was about eleven years old, I began to notice a difference between my parents and the parents of my friends. I did not always appreciate being forced to go to church twice on Sunday and again on prayer meeting night, or all week if there were special meetings going on; but go we did whether we liked it or not. Sometimes I envied my friends whose parents did not have such fanatical ideas about church attendance, many of which did not attend church except on Easter or Christmas. And I suppose this could have turned me against religion, or even the Bible for that matter. I clearly saw in my mind that the Bible was the great influence in my parents’ lives, making them the religious fanatics my relatives privately called them. But I did not see them as fanatics, their faith was genuine, Sunday and all week long.

As kids do sometimes, my friends and I discussed the differences between the rules and practices that our different parents held us to. I noticed a consistency in my parents that was not there in the parents of my friends. It was a consistency between the lives my parents lived and the rules they held us kids to. In this, I found a comfort that some of my friends did not know. Again, I came to the conclusion that it was the Bible that made them this way.

Around the age of eleven, I decided to do what my parents did, read at least two chapters from the Bible each evening before going to bed. So I started a habit that has continued up to today. I wanted what I saw in my parents and had come to appreciate, and was convinced the Bible was what had made them that way. This too was a lesson learned by a young boy.

As an eight-year-old boy, I had asked Jesus into my heart to be my Savior. I did not think I was bad enough to go to Hell for my sins, but I was told that I needed to ask Jesus into my heart to be my Savior if I wanted to go to Heaven. So, that is what I did.

For many years I tried to live the Christian life, but was never convinced I would make it to Heaven, even with Jesus in my heart. Many were the times I walked an aisle at church over this concern for my eternal soul. Many were the times I was told I was saved because

I had asked Jesus in to my heart to be my Savior, that all I needed to do was memorize some verses about eternal security and the doubts would be settled.

After I graduated from High School, I went to Bible College. While there I became convinced that God wanted me in the ministry, even though I still was not sure I would make it to Heaven. I did not doubt God’s ability to save me through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but I doubted that I had really received Him.

In the first semester of my junior year, I fell under deep conviction over my sin and became convinced of the lost condition of my soul. God used Romans 1:18 to open my eyes to my true condition, a text I was using in preparing a message for a homiletics class. For a little over a week I feared each day. I feared that I might fall down some steps, break my neck, and end up in Hell. I feared to go to work in the afternoon least I have a car accident, die, and go to Hell. I feared to go to the church I worked at as a volunteer on weekends least I die in a car crash and go to Hell.

What brought me such fear were these words from Romans 1:18: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. The message was the fact that God was angry with people because they know the truth but still choose to do what they know is wrong. It dawned on me that it was not the number or kinds of sins that I had committed that made God angry with me and brought me under His judgment; it was the fact that I knew what was right but would still choose to do what I knew was wrong. It was this choice to disobey what God said that condemned me before Him. Thus, my eyes were opened to the real guilt of my sin, and I learned to fear His judgment.

Why I wallowed in such guilt and fear for as long as I did was because of my pride. I was a Bible college student studying for the ministry and without salvation. Such a condition is not easy for a proud person to digest or admit to anyone else.

Finally, out of distress of soul I cried for God’s mercy and the forgiveness I desired, and God graciously heard my cry. It was then that the message of Romans 8:15,16 became a reality for me. No Bible

verse can ever replace the comfort the ministering Holy Spirit of God

brings to the humbled soul. That which