How Should We Respond When Pastors Leave the Faith?

How should we respond when pastors leave the faith? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. We'll be taking your calls for the next 25 minutes or so. So hop on the phone right now. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites. And of course, you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to a voicemail from one of our listeners.

This is Connie. Yes, I have a friend that her and her husband only believe in the Old Testament. They don't go by the New Testament at all.

They go by the laws and everything in the Old Testament. And I just don't understand why someone would do that. Okay, thank you, and I enjoy your programs very much. Thank you.

Well, thank you, Connie, for that call. I'm not familiar with this belief. It sounds to me quite strange. So just embracing the Old Testament and rejecting the New Testament. I don't know if your friend claims to believe in Jesus but doesn't like the writings in the New Testament. They're trying to live according to the laws that were given under the Old Covenant. Doing that really is the denial of the work of Jesus Christ, what he's done. This is why the book of Hebrews was written, for example.

There were people who were going back to the types and shadows, the ceremonies of the Old Testament, seeking to put their trust and their confidence in the animal sacrifices and the dietary laws and all of those things. And the author of the Hebrews says to them quite sternly, don't do that. Now, if you do that, you're trampling Jesus underfoot.

It's as if you don't recognize that he came and accomplished redemption once for all. And so an individual who says, I'm going to go back, I'm going to seek to be justified by obeying laws, Old Testament laws, that person is cut off from Christ. This is exactly what Paul said to the Galatians. You have been severed from Christ.

You are seeking to be justified by the law. You have fallen from grace, he says to them in Galatians chapter five. And so this is a serious thing, sister.

This is a very serious thing. Now, what I love about the Old Testament is it so clearly testifies of Jesus. And so I don't see why your friends would reject Christ if they have a love for the Old Testament.

In fact, Jesus himself, speaking to the religious leaders in the Gospel of John, in John chapter five, in verse thirty nine, he said to them, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. And it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. The scriptures, the Old Testament, bear witness of Jesus. They testify of Jesus. And if we're rightly understanding the Old Testament, we're going to see how it leads us by the hand to Jesus, our Savior. And so these friends of yours just aren't understanding the Old Testament, and they're certainly not understanding the New Testament. So I would say praying for them, maybe sharing John chapter five with them, that would be a good passage of scripture to look at.

Or another place you can go to is Jesus's appearance after his resurrection to his disciples in Luke chapter twenty four, verses thirty six and following, where he points out how the Old Testament bears witness of him, points to him everywhere. And so may the Lord bless you and be with you, and I pray that the Lord works in this couple, these friends of yours. Thanks for your question. Hey Connie, thank you so much for calling in. Thanks for that message, and we will be praying for your friends.

Man, what an unusual situation that is. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and we have a wonderful new book we want to make available to you. This is especially great for you if you have kids or grandkids. It will help them understand the richness of God's creation and how he made each one of us unique and special. Yeah, it's a book by Trilia Newbell, and it's called Creative God, Colorful Us. It's really written for the sort of grade school age. I was just thinking about it. I was going through the book some more this morning.

So wonderful. If you want to have conversations with your kids or your grandchildren about the Gospel, about what God calls us to, about cultural issues, questions that people have, what it looks like for us to relate to each other and to relate with those who are different than we are culturally, this is an excellent resource. There's some cool questions that it asks. It's really interactive, and I think it'll be a wonderful gift for you, for your family, for your children, for your grandkids.

So get ahold of this resource. It's yours for a donation of any amount over at corechristianity.com. You can find out more about the book by going to our website corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Just look for Creative God, Colorful Us by Trilia Newbell. Well, let's go to a voicemail from one of our listeners.

This is from Ursula. My question is, I've always believed that once saved, always saved, and John 10, 28, 29 reaffirms that to me. But I've recently been asked about the falling away apostasy in the church and how that reconciles with once saved, always saved. One is a preacher that is a renowned author and has taught sound authoring for decades. Yet recently, he publicly apologized for having biblical views in the past on homosexuality.

The other is a well-known preacher that teaches that the Old Testament is no longer applicable to us, and then we should only study the New Testament. So my question is, are those that fall away ones that are deceived yet remain saved, or were they never truly true believers to begin with? If he can't be snatched from his hand, then how can a true believer fall away? I stand firm on once saved, always saved. But how do I respond to the question about the great falling away?

Thank you. Yes, and of course, this is something that's prophesied in the Bible. I mean, Paul told Timothy in the latter days, many would depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and the doctrines of demons. To the Thessalonians, he talks about this great apostasy, this great falling away. And there are many that look around us today, and we see people who once professed faith in Jesus Christ, even people who had big ministries who seemed to be used mightily by God, then turning their back on the Lord. And in some cases, it's maybe they just don't teach the things that they used to teach. Maybe they still profess faith in Christ, but false teaching has crept in.

So I think we want to be careful in certain situations. We're not saying, well, this person is a complete apostate, because they might still profess faith in Jesus Christ, and maybe they've gone wrong in some areas, but that doesn't necessarily make them an apostate altogether. Now, if they're rejecting the gospel, if they're saying, no, I believed in the word of God, I believed in Jesus, but now I just reject all of that, I'm going to be an atheist, I'm going to be an agnostic or whatnot, how do we make sense of this? I think a good passage of scripture to go to is in the book of 1 John.

1 John was written because there was this schism in the church, and there were a number of people within the congregation, the body that John is addressing, who had left, who had abandoned the faith, and he talks a lot about the spirit of the antichrist, that great deception, that great apostasy that you've brought up, and he says in 1 John 2, verse 18, Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come, therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

In other words, there's this mixture of sheep with the goats. I mean, it's what the apostle Paul talked about with the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20, where he warned them, he said, I was warning you guys for a period of years, you know, night and day with tears, that after my departure, savage wolves would come in not sparing the flock. Even from among your own selves, people are going to rise up, seeking to draw the disciples away after themselves, and so there are false teachers. Peter talks about this in 2 Peter, who have crept into the church, and, you know, some of those individuals, I think they do apostatize, they turn away, and it's a clear indication of the fact that they did not know the Lord, that they never had experienced the grace of God personally. You see, it's one thing, brothers and sisters, and I want you to hear me, this is so important, it's one thing to hear the truth of God's word week in and week out, to know it, to know it intimately. You can be surrounded by it, but unless you personally embrace it by faith, unless you mix that word of the gospel that you hear, even if you hear it every single week, if you don't mix that word with faith, believing that it's true for you, for the forgiveness of your sins, experience the grace of the Holy Spirit in your life, well, there's a serious issue, and I think that there are people who can go on and on and on in churches, and even teaching the Bible, who have not had that vital experience of the grace of God, and so we're called to receive the gospel for ourselves, to embrace it.

And John says, you know, those, at least there in his context, who had left the church, who were now denying the faith, they were never really a part of us, he says. And so I think that's one passage that you can go to to help you make sense of this question, Ursula. May the Lord be with you and bless you and keep you in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanks so much, Ursula. We actually have a great core guide on this topic. It's called Nine Ways to Know You Are Really a Christian, and you can find that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash free downloads. That's corechristianity.com forward slash free downloads, and look for Nine Ways to Know You Are Really a Christian. Well, Eric called in from Sioux City, Iowa, and he has a question for us, and he wants to know, is the sinner's prayer biblical or unbiblical? Yes, the sinner's prayer, yeah. So, I mean, boy, I'm sure many of us have prayed that prayer, and oftentimes it seems like that's the thrust, you know, as you hear an evangelistic message or there's a crusade or something like that going on, you know, wanting people to make a commitment to Jesus.

Say this prayer, repeat after me, and usually it goes something like, you know, God, I believe you're real. I've sinned. I need your grace.

Please forgive me. And, you know, the evangelist will invite people and say, if you've said that prayer, you know, you're born again. You're saved, and we want to hear from you. Is it unbiblical? Well, I mean, praying and saying, God, I need your grace.

Forgive me. Enter into my life. Enter into my heart. I don't think that there's anything wrong with that. I think the danger that I see, Eric, is individuals who maybe treat that like fire insurance, you know, they're led to believe. If I just repeat these words, and maybe they don't even understand the gospel very well. They just think it's a sort of, you know, incantation, these magic words.

If I do this, I'm good. And the sad thing is I think that there are a lot of people who have gone up, you know, after a church service when there's an altar call or an evangelistic crusade or something like that. And they've said this prayer, they've repeated after the pastor or the evangelist, they've said, God, you know, forgive me, I'm a sinner.

And they think, I'm good to go now. And they've never really become a part of the church. And maybe they've never even really understood the gospel. Now, can and has God used prayers like that?

I think that he certainly has. I think that we just have to be careful that we're not putting our confidence in the words that we pray, but in the God to whom we're praying and what he's done. You don't have to say these words to be saved.

It's not like, you know, they're magic words that save you. What you have to do is trust in Jesus Christ. Believe on him for the forgiveness of your sins. And when that happens, the Spirit of God comes and lives in us, you know, transforming us by his grace day by day, sanctifying us. You know, God doesn't just abandon us there.

He wants to have that personal relationship with each and every one of us. And so I don't, you know, in our church, we don't, you know, invite people up to say the sinner's prayer, that kind of a thing. We don't have altar calls, but we preach the gospel. I preach the gospel and I call people to repentance and faith, to believe in Jesus Christ, because that's what saves us. And so I think that's what pastors should be doing, is making the gospel clear. And as that gospel is proclaimed, the Spirit of God works faith in the hearts of those who listen. You see this throughout the book of Acts. And redeems, saves sinners, whether they say, you know, the words of this prayer or not. And we don't put our confidence in the words of a prayer like the sinner's prayer.

We put our confidence in the one who came to redeem sinners, Jesus Christ. That is so well said. Thank you for that, Adriel.

This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone lines are open right now. We'll be taking your questions for the next 10 minutes or so.

So if you've got a question about the Bible, the Christian life, theology, doctrine, or maybe what's going on in our culture and how your Christian faith intersects with that, we would be more than happy to take your question. But hop on the phone now. Just about 10 minutes left of the program. Here's the phone number to call. It's 1-833-843-2673.

If you want to spell it out, it's 833-THE-CORE. Well, here's a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners. This one is from Lori. First of all, thank you, Pastor Sanchez and Bill, for your ministry. I listen to you every day while I work out.

So thank you for giving me motivation to do my workout so I get to listen to Core Christianity. My question is about baptism. Today my husband and I were in church and there was a baptism. A lady was very nervous about getting immersed. And when the pastor tipped her back, he didn't take her all the way under the water. And I'm sure it was because this gal was very nervous. But it brought up the question of my husband and I, would that baptism be valid because she was not fully immersed?

I think that, I don't know, maybe we're being a little too legalistic, but I just wanted to get your take on that and see what you had to say. Thank you so much again for your ministry and God bless you both. Take care. Hey, Lori, thank you so much.

Glad to hear we can be an encouragement to you. So what we're talking about here is the proper mode of baptism. Does an individual need to be dunked all the way? I mean, if they're not dunked, is that an illegitimate baptism? What about sprinkling water or pouring water? We know some traditions, including the one that I'm a part of, we do that with baptisms as well.

And I think there's nothing wrong with that. I think there's biblical basis for this in the scriptures. For example, just think about in Acts chapter 1 when Jesus told his disciples, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now. How is that baptism in the Holy Spirit depicted? Not as a full immersion, but as the pouring out of the Spirit of God on the disciples. Go ahead to Acts chapter 2 in verse 33, being exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. You oftentimes in the New Testament have the language of washing related to baptism in places like Ephesians chapter 5 verse 26, even the language of being sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. And again, that's what's pictured in baptism, the washing of sinners through the blood of Jesus Christ, the sprinkling of his blood on us. First Peter chapter 1 verse 2, you see this also in the book of Hebrews, this language of being sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 22. In Hebrews chapter 12, I believe it's verse 24.

And so we have that language. And in fact, this has been the case from really early on in the history of the church. There's this ancient document known as the Didache. It was probably written around the same time that the Gospels were written. And it talks about how they were practicing baptisms at that time. They said, look, you know, if there's running water close by and you can go and get dunked, that's wonderful.

But if that's not the case, well, go ahead and sprinkle or pour. Those are also legitimate modes of baptism. You think even of, I mean, just brought up Acts chapter 2 in the day of Pentecost, we're told that 3,000 people were baptized after Peter preached the Gospel. Well, where did they all get fully immersed?

There's a question about that. Was there even sufficient space? You know, you had these ritual baptismals or baths around Jerusalem. You had, you know, the Pool of Siloam not too far away. But it seems like even here it may not have been the case that they were all fully immersed, dunked in water. But perhaps there was a pouring or something else, a different mode. And so the baptism that you saw, so long as it was done with water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit by a minister called to preach the Gospel, I think that you have no reason to question that that person who was baptized at your church was truly baptized.

It's not an issue that they didn't stick their head all the way under. And so thank you for that question, getting into this subject. God bless. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Just a reminder, we have that great book available, so perfect for parents or grandparents to help your kids really understand the whole issue of diversity from a biblical perspective. It's called Creative God, Colorful Us by Trillia Newbell. And you can get that by going to our website, corechristianity.com.

Just look for Creative God, Colorful Us, corechristianity.com forward slash offers to find that book. Well, let's go back to the phones. Lori is on the line from Nashville, Tennessee.

Lori, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, Pastor Sanchez, I appreciate you taking my call. Would you shed some light on verses 6 and 7 of chapter 1, Job?

I'm getting ready to join a group studying Job. So I've read through the first chapter, and it's really disturbing to me when I see that the angels came to present themselves to the Lord, but Satan was also with them. So I wonder, is there a revolving door to heaven that Satan can go from the earth up to heaven and just talk with God? So 6 and 7 of chapter 1, Job.

Yeah. Thank you. Well, thank you, and I'm so glad to hear that you're getting ready to start studying the book of Job there in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. So much to think about there, and I pray that the Lord blesses your study. Job chapter 1, verses 6 and 7. Now there was a day when the sons of God, there a reference to the angels, came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came. Of course, we know that he's an angel, a fallen angel among them, and the Lord said to Satan, from where have you come? And Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it. You know, Peter actually, I think, echoes this verse where he says the evil one goes about like a roaring lion, you know, to and fro throughout the earth seeking someone to devour. And the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? And you just think, boy, thanks, God, for bringing my name into this. You imagine that's what Job was thinking.

But here's what's happening. First, I think what this reveals to us, Laurie, is that God is absolutely sovereign, even over suffering, and certainly over the evil one. I think it was Martin Luther who said the devil is God's devil.

You know, he has him on a leash. That the evil one isn't just allowed freedom to go and wreak havoc. Actually, you think about the ministry of our Lord Jesus and the Gospels binding Satan so that he can't deceive the nations anymore as he once did. And so there is, I think, something unique that has taken place through the work of our Lord Jesus. But one of the things that we see, I think one of the big takeaways here from the book of Job, and especially here this first chapter, is God's sovereignty over our suffering, over even the spiritual battle that we are in. And so we're called to trust in him and to submit to his word and to know that the evil one is not able to do anything that God does not give him permission to do. You ask the question, well, boy, why would the Lord give him permission to do anything? And that's where we have to yield to God's wisdom to know that God is able to work and certainly did work in and through the life of Job and in and through this story for generations and generations to come as people would take up and read it. And so, yeah, it's not that Satan entered into heaven and could just get into heaven as, I'm gonna do a little R&R here in the presence of God.

Not that at all. It's that God was essentially using him for his own purposes in the life of this man. And so, sister, may the Lord bless you. Again, as you continue this study, and what we should all be reminded of is the words of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 6, that there is a very real spiritual war that's taking place right now that we need to put on the armor of God and be committed to prayer because we are in a battle. The evil one is at work, but we have confidence that the Lord Jesus has conquered him through what he has done for us. Thank you for your question.

Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We do get emails, by the way, and you can email us anytime with your question about the Bible or the Christian life.

Here's the number, or here's the email address. It's questions at corechristianity.com. Again, questions at corechristianity.com. Janet wants to know this, Adriel. She says, why is it necessary to pray for a person to be born again if it has already been determined?

Yeah. Well, I believe, Janet, it's because God works in and through the prayers of his people. And we believe that. Yes, we believe that God, I mean, we were, yesterday, on yesterday's broadcast, we had somebody calling in about Acts 13 where it talked about individuals being appointed to eternal life.

We believe that that's true. We believe that God is sovereign, and yet, in his infinite wisdom, the way in which he accomplishes his sovereign purposes in the world is through his people, through their prayers. And this is why men like the apostle Paul said, hey, pray for all people, kings and all who are in authority. This is good and acceptable in the eyes of God, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. He's saying, pray for these people that they might be saved, because God hears those prayers and because we trust that God works in and through the prayers of his people.

Now, there is, again, this sort of great mystery in terms of how this all works. God is absolutely sovereign. He's decreed all things, and yet, his decree is accomplished in and through these, we might say, secondary causes us. We're working, serving, following the Lord. And so, this should also give you, sister, I would say, confidence that when you pray, God is able to open the heart.

If God is sovereign, because God is sovereign, we should pray that he would do what we can't do, and that's open the heart of sinners who are blind in sin. God bless. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar, or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833, the CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program, and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.