The Doctrine of Salvation-Unique to Christianity?

Now Understanding the Scriptures [and] the gospel of salvation. Again, along with Dave Hunt, here’s T. A. McMahon.

Tom:  In this segment of our program, Understanding the Scriptures, we’re going over the gospel, the gospel of salvation. Last week we were dealing with the origins of sin. We were back in Genesis and I just want to go over some scriptures for us Dave.

Genesis:1:31And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
See All..., “Then God saw everything that he had made and indeed it was very good.”  So the environment as we mentioned before—what God had prepared for Adam and Eve was perfect in every way. And then he had a condition for Adam and Eve, Genesis:2:17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
See All..., “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.”

Dave:  Can I interrupt there just for a second, Tom? 

Tom:  Sure.

Dave:  The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, some people think it must have been some kind of a magical tree, a special tree. No, it’s—as we tried to explain, it could have been an apple, an orange, a pear, a peach, I don’t know, anything. It wasn’t the tree that was potent and caused them to die, it was that it was forbidden. And it was the sin, the act of eating.

Tom:  Right.

Dave:  That fruit.

Tom:  It had to do with obedience.

Dave:  Right, right.

Tom:  So how did it turn out?  Well Genesis:3:6And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
See All..., “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate and she also gave to her husband with her and he ate.”  So death entered in, didn’t it?

Dave:  Tom, right there you’ve got the whole thing. I mean it’s so amazing—Genesis 3, Genesis 1, 2, 3. It just gives it to you, in essence. I mean it’s history, but this is how it happened and you see what was it that motivated her?  Well she didn’t have to take self assertion training, I guarantee you that. She trampled on her commitment to Adam as her husband, to the God who had created her, who put her in the Garden and who had commanded her not to eat of that tree. This is self!  Self will—well it’s put like this in the Bible: “All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world.” The same thing Satan tempted Jesus with in the wilderness. The lust of the flesh, “If you are the Son of God command these stones to be made bread.”  The lust of the eyes: he took him up on a mountain, showed him all the kings of the world one at a time. “All of this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me.”  The pride of life:  he took him on the pinnacle of the temple [and said], “Cast yourself off, jump off and he said he will give his angels charge over thee to keep thee and when the people see the angels catch you and lower you to the ground, then they’ll worship you.” 

Tom:  Well let’s go back over these items. “She saw that the fruit was good for food.”  The lust of the flesh and that it was pleasant to the eyes.

Dave:  The lust of the eyes.

Tom: Right and the tree desirable to make one wise.

Dave:  The pride of life.

Tom:  Right.

Dave:  Yes, so this you see today. You could be like the gods. This is what Satan said. By the way, it’s interesting, in Isaiah 14, Lucifer says, I will be like the Most High. Of course, it’s the impossible dream as we often say. How many most highs can you have?  Well you can obviously only have one. So this was the origin of polytheism. He did away with monotheism, one true God and now there can be a lot of gods. But he was going to be like the Most High. Now he offers Eve, you read it in the King James, I don’t know what other translations say. But to be one of the gods; like the gods. Now there’s a lot of gods and we can add your name to the list too. You can be one of them.

And of course again, this is what we’ve been talking about in The Occult Invasion. The whole idea of psychic power. If Satan can show man that he has an infinite potential, then he has proved that he really can be a god. That his promise was true. So in essence you see the whole thing, the whole modern world today, all of it’s ambitions are right there.

Tom:  So we have it in heaven. Isaiah:14:14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
See All..., we have it that is, “…you will be as God, be as the Most High.” We have the same offer in the Garden of Eden and then we have it at the end, don’t we?  And isn’t that the lie?  That we will believe the lie that they are gods? 

Dave:  Yes. Yes, so Eve—self was at the heart of it. That’s why Jesus—and one of my favorite writers, Andrew Murray, said this is where self had it’s awful birth and now self rules and reigns. And now we can understand why Jesus then said to his disciples, “Except you deny self, take up the cross and follow me, you can’t be my disciples. And why Paul said, “I’m crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.”  But because Paul said the cross is not just a place where Christ died, but when I believe in him, I accept him as the one who died in my place. I have literally given up life as I would live it. I have died with Christ as well. And now the life that I experience from now on, is his resurrection life being lived in me.

Tom:  Ezekiel:18:20The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
See All..., “The soul that sins shall die.”  Romans:6:23For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
See All..., “For the wages of sin is death.”  And self as you’ve been mentioning Dave, I mean that’s the vehicle of death and destruction. I mean the idea that we can be gods, who can handle that? 

Dave:  Yes, it’s a problem between husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, parents and children, governments, nations, races—selfishness, I want my way!  And until I have abdicated the throne of my life, you see we really did become little gods you know. We’ve got about 5.8 billion little gods running around this world, each one trying to rule over his own little empire. And what one little god wants to do comes in conflict with what other little gods want to do and that’s our whole problem.

Tom:  Yes.

Dave:  So we’re going to have to give up our claim to godhood, to control over our own lives, to being what we want ourselves to be, and we’re going to have to give ourselves back to God and let him be God and obey him. But now you can’t just do that. There’s a penalty that has to be paid for sin. Even though we want to be reconciled to God there’s a narrow way by which we must come.

Tom:  Yes, well let’s move up to that, but just to go back a little bit, we began “it was very good”. We had the good news. Then we had the bad news. Sin, sin entered in [and] separated mankind from God forever. But in Genesis:3:15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
See All... now we have the good news being offered. As some have said, this is the first gospel, the first time the gospel is offered. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.”

Dave:  Now the “you” is Satan.

Tom:  Right. “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Dave:  The seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head. In other words, would do him in, that’s the deadly blow. But the serpent would bruise the heel. In other words, the nuisance factor, or more than that, trying to get in the way, foul up the works, try to frustrate the purposes of God, but ultimately could not. And then the death blow would be dealt by the—not the woman as Catholicism teaches, but by the seed of the woman. It’s very clear and yet you know that Our Lady of Miraculous Medal appeared to Catherine Laboure in 1830 in Paris. This is Mary now supposedly with her head on the serpent.

Tom:  Ah, her foot.

Dave:  I’m sorry her heel on the serpent’s head and that’s not the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here’s Jesus, the seed of the woman. Of course, I think you have the virgin birth there too, foretold. The seed of the woman, not coming about through the union of man and woman, but the seed of the woman will bruise the serpent’s head.

Tom:  Yes, and this is the good news found in Genesis as we mentioned. Genesis:3:15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
See All....

Dave:  And without that, there’s no salvation.