Is Whoever Calls on the Name of the Lord Saved?

Tom: In this, our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we are going through the book of Acts. Currently, we are in Acts 2, and Dave, we wrestled with verses 18, 19, 20, we got to verse 21. Let me read Acts:2:21And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
See All..., and you decide if you want to go back over some of these things. Verse 21 says, “And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Wow.

Dave: Well, that’s what we were talking about. This is a promise from God’s Word. How do I know I’m saved? What is my right to be in heaven one day? Because God promised it to me! He doesn’t go back on His word. He said, “Whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved.” Now, we talked about that a bit in the last hour— I mean, not from this verse…

Tom: Mm-hmm. But we didn’t cover the guy crying out from a foxhole or about to fall off a precipice, did we?

Dave: No, but you know, Tom, I would like to believe it, and I really think it’s true. There may have been many people in the Twin Towers that were killed who’d heard about the Lord in Sunday school or some other way, a radio, or whatever…

Tom: Somebody planted some seeds somewhere along the line.

Dave: …and in the desperation of that moment, they cried out to God, really, and they were saved. I believe that.

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave: I think there were many Jewish people, a lot of them were quoting the Psalms or were quoting scriptures as they went to their death in the gas chambers. There may have been many who died in the Holocaust who cried out to Yahweh, and who were saved, you know. I don’t know, but here it says whoever calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, the Name of the Lord. He has exalted His Word above His Name.

Tom: Dave, I just want to interject this. On our last segment, we talked about Jesus, John:14:6Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
See All..., Jesus saying, I am THE way, THE truth, THE life…

Dave: Right, right.

Tom: No one comes to the Father but by Me. Well, how does that relate to what you just said about Jews during the Holocaust heading for the ovens. Would they cry out to Yeshua? You said Yahweh.

Dave: Mm-hmm.

Tom: To Jesus?

Dave: Well, Tom, let’s go back into the Old Testament. Did everyone back there who was saved, a Jew, one of the children of Israel, did they cry out to Jesus? Jesus said, “Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.” I believe that a Jew, whether in the Old Testament or whenever it may be, in the Old Testament, they certainly had not heard of Jesus Christ, born of a virgin…

Tom: Well, that’s the Greek, though.

Dave: …crucified and died on the cross.

Tom: They knew about the Messiah to come.

Dave: That’s right. So they had their trust in the Messiah and that’s what I meant for the Jews going into the Holocaust. They were crying out to God…

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave: ...I don’t think just in a selfish “save me from this death,” because they know that’s not going to happen, but somehow they are crying out to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Tom: The Deliverer, basically.

Dave: That’s right. And they are relying on Him. Now, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father but by Me,” that’s true. As Peter said, “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” But that doesn’t mean that every person in the Old Testament understood about Jesus, the Name of Jesus, and all the details that we have in the New Testament. Since we have those details and we proclaim them and they are the fulfilment of prophecy, that’s the basis of the gospel today.

On the other hand, a person who knows that he is a sinner, they know that, they know God created the universe. Romans 1: He has written his law in every human conscience, and everyone knows that they have broken the law. I think they are crying out for deliverance from the judgment that they know belongs to them, and those in the Twin Towers I mentioned had heard about Jesus and His dying on the cross and were crying out on that basis. Those going to the ovens, Hitler’s ovens, they knew something of the salvation that God offered through the sacrifices, looking forward to the Messiah, so I don’t think it was just crying out, “Rescue me from this death.”

Tom: Dave, I want to push that a little farther, because I’m sure we have listeners out there saying, what about the Holocaust? Why would God allow that?

Dave: Well, Tom, you have a very interesting…every time I start to say this, I almost choke. I say, “We have a very interesting passage, or a very interesting verse. (chuckles) Well, the whole Bible is interesting—this is God’s Word. But Isaiah 66, I think it’s verse 8, that says, “As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” Now, I don’t know, I’m sure people who come up with a number of interpretations of that –I think it’s referring to the Holocaust. I think that it was the travail of Zion, you know, of Israel, the Jews…

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave: Six million destroyed in the Holocaust that really made it possible for Israel to be birthed as a nation…

Tom: 1948.

Dave: …in 1948. Had it not been for that, the United Nations would never have voted for Israel, but there was a momentary twinge of conscience on the part of the nations of the world. Even Russia, the Soviet Union at that time, voted for this. What are we going to do for these people? And furthermore, they’ve stolen most of the land that the whole world recognized, and you know, we won’t go back over that—the Balfour Declaration, 1917, Paris Peace Conference, 1919, Declaration of Principles of the League of Nations, 1922, and so forth, the whole world recognized all that land called Palestine belonged to the Jews, and it was set aside to be given to them, and what happened? They robbed them of it and when, finally, the land was partitioned in November 1947, Israel was given 13% of the land that had been promised to them. I think they had a conscience about that, too. “We’ve really done these people in—not only the Holocaust, but we’ve robbed them.” So, when it came to “are we going to accept Israel’s declaration of independence, May 14, 1948?”, I think the Holocaust played a big part in causing the nations of the world to allow that…

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave: … to recognize Israel.

Tom: Yeah, but go on to verse 22, “Ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.”

Dave: “Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that He should be holden of it.” Tom, we could spend several months on those verses, but, just very briefly, I love the end of verse 22: “As ye yourselves also know…” and what…

Tom: Peter wasn’t making this up! It was… everybody knew…

Dave: They knew! Everybody knew! It’s interesting. Jesus, when He said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel,” He didn’t say, “Now I want you to get up in Siberia, get down in South Africa, as far away as you can, because the whole basis of this thing is My resurrection, and I know you guys are going to steal my body from those Roman guards and bury it in some secret place. But you’re going to have to pretend that I was raised from the dead, but get as far away as you can, you know, where they can’t check up on it.’

No! Jesus said, “Begin in Jerusalem.” It was a very short walk to that tomb. The stone had been rolled away. It was empty, and although the Roman guards told the truth to the rabbis, the rabbis had them tell the story, “Oh, the disciples came and stole His body while we were sleeping.” Now, how would you know what happened when you were asleep? And if you woke up in time to see them carrying the body off, why, you certainly wouldn’t let them get away with it! It was a foolish story. If the Romans could have produced the body of Jesus, they would have. This was turning the empire upside down. If the rabbis could have produced the body of Jesus, they would have. They all knew that grave was empty. A short walk, go out there, okay. So, I love the way it says it, but we’re going to have to come back and deal with these three verses again next week.