Skip to content The Best of UNA: How Can I Know God is Real, Jesus is Alive, the Bible is True & More with Dr. Robert Jeffress May 10 · 36 min ...more
The Best of UNA: How Can I Know God is Real, Jesus is Alive, the Bible is True & More with Dr. Robert Jeffress
May 10, 2023 · 36 min
**Over the next few weeks, we’re re-releasing some of our favorite Unapologetic episodes as a way to celebrate the first year of UNA! This conversation with Dr. Robert Jeffress about his book, How Can I Know?, first aired on December 14th, 2022.
How can we know Jesus is really the Savior of the world? What proof is there that the Bible is true? How do we know Christianity is the correct faith? Can we know for sure we will go to Heaven when we die?
Dr. Robert Jeffress is back for pt. 2 of his conversation with Julia, this time discussing some of the biggest questions we have as Christians based on his bestselling book, How Can I Know?
Julia asks Dr. Jeffress the tough questions: how can we know there is a God? How can we know we are going to Heaven? And, is Christianity the only “right” religion? Together the two dive into Scripture to unpack the answers—sharing their own experiences and salvation stories along the way. If you’ve ever had questions for God or wondered if He’s even real, this honest conversation will leave you filled with hope and ready to share the Good News!
How Can I Know? is available everywhere books are sold! Connect with Dr. Robert Jeffress at ptv.org or by listening to the Pathway to Victory podcast.
Series Unapologetic with Julia Jeffress Sadler May 10, 2023 · 36 min · Unapologetic with Julia Jeffress Sadler
**Over the next few weeks, we’re re-releasing some of our favorite Unapologetic episodes as a way to celebrate the first year of UNA! This conversation with Dr. Robert Jeffress about his book, How Can I Know?, first aired on December 14th, 2022. How can we know Jesus is really the Savior of the world? What proof is there that the Bible is true? How do we know Christianity is the correct faith? Can we know for sure we will go to Heaven when we die? Dr. Robert Jeffress is back for pt. 2 of his conversation with Julia, this time discussing some of the biggest questions we have as Christians based on his bestselling book, How Can I Know? Julia asks Dr. Jeffress the tough questions: how can we know there is a God? How can we know we are going to Heaven? And, is Christianity the only “right” religion? Together the two dive into Scripture to unpack the answers—sharing their own experiences and salvation stories along the way. If you’ve ever had questions for God or wondered if He’s even real, this honest conversation will leave you filled with hope and ready to share the Good News! How Can I Know? is available everywhere books are sold! Connect with Dr. Robert Jeffress at ptv.org or by listening to the Pathway to Victory podcast. ...more Show the full description Show less **Over the next few weeks, we’re re-releasing some of our favorite Unapologetic episodes as a way to celebrate the first year of UNA! This conversation with Dr. Robert Jeffress about his book, How Can I Know?, first aired on December 14th, 2022.
How can we know Jesus is really the Savior of the world? What proof is there that the Bible is true? How do we know Christianity is the correct faith? Can we know for sure we will go to Heaven when we die?
Dr. Robert Jeffress is back for pt. 2 of his conversation with Julia, this time discussing some of the biggest questions we have as Christians based on his bestselling book, How Can I Know?
Julia asks Dr. Jeffress the tough questions: how can we know there is a God? How can we know we are going to Heaven? And, is Christianity the only “right” religion? Together the two dive into Scripture to unpack the answers—sharing their own experiences and salvation stories along the way. If you’ve ever had questions for God or wondered if He’s even real, this honest conversation will leave you filled with hope and ready to share the Good News!
How Can I Know? is available everywhere books are sold! Connect with Dr. Robert Jeffress at ptv.org or by listening to the Pathway to Victory podcast.
Series Unapologetic with Julia Jeffress Sadler
270K followers
Julia Jeffress Sadler is bestselling author, licensed counselor, and the Next Gen Minister at First Baptist Dallas. She's passionate about discussing God’s Word on today’s topics.
270K followers
0:00 God has specifically chosen you to be here at this time and in this place. You have incredible potential, purpose, and calling to push back the darkness and be a light for Christ.0:12 Stand for nothing and you'll fall for anything. It's time to stand your ground. This is Unapologetic. Hi everyone, and welcome to Unapologetic. I am so excited to have my0:24 dad with us today, Doctor. Robert Jeffress. We are talking about how we can know certain things about the Christian faith, how we can know that Jesus is God,0:36 how we can know for sure that we're going to heaven when we die, how we can know that Christianity is the right religion, and so many more questions that so many of us have, and we don't really know who to ask0:47 or what the answer is. I am so excited to interview my favorite pastor today. He was also the pastor at First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, and the host of Pathway to Victory, which is0:59 on radio, podcast, and TV. Please help me welcome my dad, Doctor. Robert Jeffress. Hi,1:05 dad. Well, thank you for having me back again. Appreciate it.1:08 Yes. Okay. Whenever you're coming on the show, I always think about how we used to have ask the pastor, that's everyone's favorite thing. So for years we had to ask the pastor and people would submit1:20 questions and you wouldn't know him ahead of time. It was everybody's favorite Sunday night and people would just ask you, you'd have someone like me asking you questions and some of them were really funny and then some1:32 of them really were close to the heart ones that probably so many people had, but never really vocalized in Sunday school.
1:39 I remember 1 woman asked. She said, doctor Jeffress, if a woman is pregnant when the rapture occurs, will she be pregnant for all eternity?
1:52 And I said, yes. It's called hell. My goodness. Way, you know, you you have some interesting questions.
1:58 Right. Do you remember I didn't tell you I was gonna ask you this. Do you remember kind of a theme of what people usually asked about?
2:06 You know, 1 of the things I heard you say recently that is so true is when it comes down to it, people are interested in issues that affect them. Yeah. The former speaker of the house
2:18 congress years ago named Tip O'Neill said all politics are local. Well, that's true about theology too. When it comes down to them, they can ask these ethereal questions, but what they really wanna know is how
2:30 does this truth apply to me? And I'd say probably the number 1 question people ask is why does God allow evil in the world? Mhmm. Specifically, why does he allow evil and suffering in my world?
2:42 Right.
2:42 I think it was our friend Lee Strobel you've had on the podcast here before. He did a survey, and the number 1 question people said they would ask God if they had an opportunity to was that question.
2:55 So it's 1 of the things we talk about in how can I know? I wrote this book, Julia, because I do believe Christians need to have clear answers, biblical answers to questions. And so I
3:06 took the 7 top questions people ask, and I spent a year using the very best research to answer the question, how can I know the Bible is true? Now I know most Christians
3:18 aren't gonna read an entire book on the inspiration of the scriptures. So I took, you know, from hundreds of books, the very best arguments and distilled them into 30 pages, 1 chapter. How can I know there is a
3:30 God? How can I know there is a heaven? How can I know God is good with all the suffering in the world? How can I know Christianity is the right religion? So I take 7 of those questions and give easy to
3:42 understand answers, and more importantly, biblical answers to those questions.
3:46 We are talking about your book, How Can I Know? While I have enjoyment for all of your books and appreciation for all of them, How Can I Know has a special place just in my life
3:58 having worked with teenagers for so long? And we're all scared as parents by the statistics that it's 80 percent of Christian teens that are raised in church, leave the church and don't come back after they graduate.
4:10 And I really believe just from experience ministry, but also from reading studies, a lot of times it is because their questions haven't been answered. Their parents can't answer them, their churches aren't answering
4:22 them, and then even if their answers, just wanna go 1 step further for how counseling comes in, even if they're answered academically or theologically, maybe there's some kind of miss in how
4:34 it personally affects their lives. You you kind of have the truth of the Trinity and the biblical explanation of salvation without actually
4:45 having the experience of how that transforms your life.
4:49 Take the issue of the Bible. I know we're gonna talk about that. I mean, if your child were to ask you, how do I know this is true? What about all the contradictions in the Bible and the inconsistencies? And they hear
5:00 these things in school. They hear them in Christian schools. I heard it in the Christian so called Christian university I went to, and I grew up in a wonderful Christian home, but I didn't have the
5:12 answers to that. And so I think it's important that parents be ready to share those answers.
5:19 And so I was gonna say, like, we give this book to all the seniors that graduate from First Baptist Dallas and every year I'll have a college student that has graduated and they're like, hey, can I get another 1 of
5:30 those? How can I know books? So I just wanna say like, especially for teenagers, you know, they're probably not sitting around reading tons of books and a lot of people don't like to read. This is a great just reference
5:41 guide, like it's real quick, oh, what's that explanation again? What's that verse again? And I have read a lot of apologetics books and taught them to teenagers and young adults and often they're good, but
5:53 after you read them, you can't really remember. And so I really like just how easy it I understand you're saying, no, you're not,
6:01 but I need it something simple.
6:03 It is very easy to understand. And then also I've given it to a lot of non Christians, people that are searching, maybe they haven't accepted Christ, but they are interested in these subject matters. And they're
6:12 embarrassed to ask the questions.
6:14 They don't wanna be shamed or anything, but how do I really know
6:17 there isn't I haven't know any
6:18 of this. Mean, how do you know? And so
6:21 Let's jump right in.
6:22 Okay. Let's do it.
6:23 How do we know there's God? I'm sure rapid fire.
6:26 Well, I mean, what's the alternative? I mean, the naturalist explanation for how everything we see just think about it. How did it all come into existence? Here's what the naturalist says.
6:37 Nothing times no 1 equals everything. That doesn't make any sense. How does nothing become everything? The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. You have to be a
6:49 moron. That's what the word fool means in Hebrew. You have to be a moron to think all of this happened. And think about just living beings like you and me. Well, the evolutionist says it's the right collection of
7:01 amino acids and energy coming together. I love what 1 person said. How did inanimate material organize itself to contemplate itself? I mean, how did that
7:12 happen? You know, I think sir Frederick Hoyle said the chances of a single cell coming into existence by itself is 1 in a number with 40000 zeros
7:24 behind it, and that's for 1 cell. Mhmm. It couldn't have happened accidentally. Then how do you get multiple cells? How do you have something as complex as the eyeball that even Charles Darwin said couldn't
7:36 come into existence by accident? I think there's evidence all around us that there is a God. Mhmm. But, you know, the fact that we care about evil. Why do we care about evil? Why do we call some things
7:48 good and other things evil? Why don't we take the most horrendous things that are done to other people and instead of calling them evil, call them orange? I mean, what is it that gives us good and evil?
8:00 That sense where we're created in the image of somebody who understands good and evil. So there are a lot of arguments, scientific arguments, moral arguments for the existence of God.
8:12 Mhmm. And we talk about that in the book.
8:14 You know, I'm at the advantage, of course, of knowing your best analogies and sayings, but can you just say for those listeners, because I love it, I've never forgotten it, and everybody I I tell it to loves it. Can you
8:26 explain just what you say about the thief not being able to find the police officer?
8:31 Yeah. The same reason some people can't find God is the same way a thief can't find a police officer. I mean, they're not looking. The bottom line is People want to. Yeah. They
8:43 don't want to. People don't want to acknowledge they're a God to whom they're accountable for. Mhmm. People don't reject God for scientific reasons. Mhmm. Some of the greatest scientists in human history were
8:55 Christians. Right. You know? Don't know that. Yeah. Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, other great scientists. They believed that the world was created in an orderly way that could be
9:06 studied and replicated. And so it's not for intellectual or scientific reasons. It's moral reasons. People don't want to admit there is a God. Mhmm. I heard somebody say 1 time, a man's morality
9:18 determines his theology.
9:20 Wow.
9:21 And I think that's true.
9:22 And something has to give whenever it doesn't add up.
9:25 Right.
9:26 I know. That would happen a lot just with students, unfortunately, that we've seen walk away from their faith. It wasn't that suddenly they'd done this deep study and they came to a different conclusion. It was that they
9:37 decided they didn't wanna morally follow the biblical commandments usually for sexuality.
9:42 And I think that's true. I think it would be wrong to relegate all of it to that because I do think there are some people who experience abuse as a child. Absolutely. And they can't accept that there's god who would
9:53 allow that to happen. And so 1 of the questions we talk about, how can I know god is good with all the suffering in the world? And what can you say to people like that that might remove that roadblock that's keeping them
10:04 from coming to God.
10:06 I mean, just because you're bringing up abuse, because that's almost like exclusively what I worked with for years. I just haven't found that even to be true. Like almost the most difficult things we experience in life,
10:18 like the Bible is clear that God's close to the brokenhearted. Yeah. And so really, just to give people hope that are listening, that's where you are, I mean, some of the most amazing Christians I know that I've had
10:29 really neat conversations with have had horrible experiences, and God was the only way they were able to make sense of it and be able to have any hope and be able to forgive.
10:41 And so just realizing there's really no experience you can have that somehow makes it where you're taken out of being able to experience God. You really experience them in a deeper, closer way.
10:52 You know, people say, well, where was God, you know, on 9 11? Where was God when this happened? Where was God? And they'll give some terrible personal example. And I say not in a flippant way
11:04 at all, but in a very understanding way. He was the same place he was when his son was being tortured Right. And crucified. Mhmm. I mean, God is close to the
11:15 brokenhearted. Mhmm. God is there, and God doesn't always immediately put an end to suffering, but the good news, ultimately, he will put an end to all suffering and justice will be done.
11:27 Mhmm. And then the alternative, of course, is that we are just the victims of random circumstances or of people's actions, and there's no hope in that.
11:36 You know, there was a famous book written decades ago called when bad things happen to good Mhmm. People. It's written by rabbi Harold Kushner, and the impetus for the book was his 13 year old son
11:48 dying of leukemia. And he just couldn't come to grips with that. And his conclusion is there is a God. He would love to help, but he can't help. Oh. He doesn't have the ability to intervene
12:00 in human circumstances. That doesn't give me any comfort at all. I mean, who wants to serve an impotent God like that? I'd much rather believe what the Bible teaches that god is all powerful. There's
12:12 no circumstance in our life he couldn't change in an instant if he wanted to, but he's got a purpose. It's not that he ordains it. It's not that he desires it, but he is able to take the most horrific things Mhmm. And
12:24 work them together for our good and his glory.
12:27 And it is a mystery because some people do try to explain every ounce of this is why this happened. This is why this happened to you and to me, and we don't know. I mean, there is an element that's mystery, but there's
12:39 hope and the truth of knowing there ultimately is a purpose.
12:42 You know, I know this isn't what we were gonna talk about, but I use the analogy of that. 1 night, we were driving your mother and I were driving from Dallas to Wichita
12:54 Falls, and it was in a driving rainstorm, and our lights went out on our car. And, you know, we didn't wanna park because when you would get hit on the freeway, you couldn't see 2
13:06 inches in front of you. And an 18 wheeler passed us, and I thought, what I'll do is just follow the lights on the back of that 18 wheeler, and it'll get me through the storm. And
13:17 I have to say when we're going through the storm of suffering Mhmm. We may not be able to see everything, but there are some lights, some truths we can focus on that we know for sure. God is good, God is
13:29 love, God is all powerful, and He has a purpose He's working out. And if we focus on those truths that we do know, it will deliver us through the storm.
13:39 That is so good. So I want to you know, we're trying to get through as many of these questions as possible, which we
13:46 should I wondered if I was gonna have enough to say about each of these.
13:49 You are. You are. Okay. Jesus is God. How can we know that Jesus is God? And let's also talk about, of course, when people say Jesus never claimed to be God, which is false.
14:00 Well, I think first of all, the way we know he's God is he claimed to be God over and over again.
14:06 Why do people think he didn't?
14:07 Because they bought into the myth out there that Jesus never claimed to be God, that that was something his disciples and overzealous followers added to make a good story a better story. They
14:19 see that in movies like the da Vinci Code and other things, and they get their theology from that. But, you know, for example, I mean, Jesus during his first trial after the Garden of Gethsemane, he was
14:31 arrested, taken to the home of Caiaphas, the high priest, and Caiaphas asked him, he said, I'm tired of being awakened in the middle of the night for this. Let's cut the chase. Are you the Son of God or what? And he
14:43 said, I am. And he quoted a passage from Daniel 7 about the Messiah said, you'll see the son of man coming. And Caiaphas was so angry, he ripped his robe and condemned him to death.
14:55 Caiaphas understood what Jesus was saying. The reason the religious leaders crucified him is not because he told people to turn the other cheek, it's because he claimed to be God. Right. That's why he got himself
15:06 crucified. So don't buy into the myth that Jesus never claimed to be God. He claimed that over and over and over. And I guess this is what CS Lewis talked about when he said
15:18 he talked about his famous trilemma. He said, you can't say that Jesus is just a good man, a good teacher, because he never gave you that option. Jesus claimed to be
15:29 God, and that only gives you 1 of 3 alternatives. Either Jesus was a liar, that is he knew he wasn't God, but he claimed to be. Do you think Jesus was a liar? If he wasn't a
15:41 liar, he was a lunatic. He claimed to be something he thought was true that wasn't and ought to be locked up in an insane asylum. Do you think Jesus was a lunatic? If you don't believe he was a
15:53 liar, if you don't believe he was a lunatic, given what he claims, you have to believe he's Lord. And, of course, the greatest proof, Julia, that Jesus is God is that he was raised from the dead.
16:05 And Paul said in Romans 1, he was declared to be the son of God by power from his resurrection from the dead. You know, a few years ago, Bill O'Reilly wrote a book about
16:16 Jesus, killing Jesus that was a mega bestseller, and he asked me to review a copy. And, you know, I thought the most important thing Bill said at the end of the book was for
16:28 2000 years, Jesus' body has not been found Yeah. And the grave still remains empty. And, you know, that's true. You know, people say, well, somebody stole the
16:40 body. Well, who would have stolen the body? The disciples didn't have the courage to do it, to overtake a Roman guard unit. Even during his trials, they all fled from Jesus. They were afraid to death of being
16:52 associated with him. They didn't have the courage to do it. The Romans and the Jewish leaders didn't have the motivation to steal the body. They wanted that body to remain in the grave, which was why they went to such an
17:04 extent to seal it up. Yeah. And if they had known where that body was, whether the Jewish leaders or the Roman leaders, they would have wheeled that body through the streets of Jerusalem to say, he's not risen from the
17:15 dead. He's right here, and Christianity would have been stillborn before it got off the ground. No. The tomb is empty, and I think that's the greatest evidence for the deity of Jesus.
17:27 Oh, I love that. I do really enjoy hearing the example of because we don't talk about this a lot with the resurrection that Jesus appeared to many people.
17:36 500.
17:37 Yes. After he resurrected, I was just reading the story of Peter and how Jesus came to Peter and asked, do you love me 3 times really to restore him, his biggest shame of denying. But if you look at that, Jesus
17:49 appeared to so many people after he resurrected. And then those people went on to die for their faith because they had that assurance.
17:57 That is 1 of the strongest evidences was the early acceptance of the resurrection message by the disciples. And I used this illustration in the book, how can I know? Just imagine
18:09 that a few days after Ronald Reagan died and was buried out there at Simi Valley that a report started surfacing that he was actually been raised from the dead. And suppose a couple of
18:21 months later, a bestselling book comes out saying Ronald Reagan is alive. How many people would buy into that myth? I mean, it's easily disproved. The witnesses would have been discredited, and most
18:33 of all people would have gone to point to his grave where his body was. But it was within a matter of days that the message started spreading that Jesus was alive. 7 weeks
18:45 after the resurrection, Peter was standing before thousands of Jews and making that proclamation he was alive. And you had Jews overnight changing their
18:56 most cherished traditions, their day of worship, ending the sacrificial system, all these seismic changes, all based on the resurrection. If it wasn't true, it could have been disproved.
19:08 Right.
19:08 Because people were still alive Yeah. That knew Jesus. Right. Right.
19:12 And the new testament gives people who saw him, and their testimony could have been easily discredited.
19:18 Mhmm. I always really enjoy reading more than a carpenter.
19:22 Yeah.
19:22 And Josh McDowell always makes the point, no 1 dies for a lie. So there are of course, and I've heard you explain this too, of course there are religious zealots in every religion that die for their
19:33 faith.
19:34 They die for a lie, but not for something they know is a lie.
19:37 Right,
19:38 exactly. You don't give up your life to perpetuate something you know to be And
19:43 so there's no reason the disciples would have been martyred if Jesus had not been resurrected willingly.
19:50 Yeah. And not only the disciples, but all hundreds of people. And, I mean, it's not just you would have to discredit the testimony of the disciples. You'd have to discredit the testimony of
20:02 millions and millions of Christians since then who have said Jesus changed my life.
20:07 Right, absolutely. So I know that this idea is in there, but I want us just to kind of talk about it because it's not really a clear cut chapter. I wanna talk about salvation, of
20:19 course, how we can know that we're going to heaven. But then I wanna do kind of part 2 of that question of what do people do when they mess up? Because we do all know people who say, used to be a Christian, but now
20:31 I'm not. Yeah. What do we do with that? But let's talk first about how can we know that we're for sure going to heaven when we die. Can we know for sure? Because some, of course, religions would say that you
20:42 can't know.
20:43 Well, again, I think we have to go back to the authority of the Bible Mhmm. And what Jesus himself said. Jesus said and I think the clearest explanation of salvation is in John chapter 3.
20:56 Jesus was talking to Nicodemus. He was a religious man, a Pharisee. He was a righteous man. He did good things. He was wealthy, but he was unsettled about his eternal destiny. And
21:07 Jesus said, you have to be born again. And Nicodemus didn't understand that, and so Jesus explained what it meant to be born again. Knowing that Nicodemus was a Jew, he used an illustration out of the
21:19 book of Numbers in which in the Old Testament, the children of Israel were being bit by the fiery serpents that God had sent to discipline them, and they were dying. And Moses asked for help from God, and God said, this
21:31 is what you need to do, Moses. If you want the people to live, make a bronze serpent, put it on the edge of a pole, stick the pole up, and tell the people if they will simply look at that
21:43 serpent, they will live. Look and live was the message. And Jesus took that, and he said to Nicodemus, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must I, the son of
21:55 man, be lifted up that whoever believes in me shall not perish. And then the famous verse he gave, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not
22:07 perish but have everlasting life. There's 1 thing we must do and that is believe. That word believe doesn't mean an intellectual belief. It means to put your whole faith in, depend
22:19 on, to lean on. When you look once at Jesus, you'll live forever. Moses' message wasn't you have to keep looking at that bronze serpent, keep looking, go around with your head strained
22:30 looking. You look 1 time and you have eternal life. And that's the message of salvation. Anybody who understands that they're a sinner, that they deserve God's punishment, but they
22:42 wholly lean on what Jesus did for them on the cross can have eternal life. And Jesus said that, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me shall not perish but have everlasting life.
22:54 He said it over and over again, belief equals salvation. Remember what Paul said to the Philippian jailer who said, what must I do to be saved? It was believe, not believe and be baptized,
23:06 not believe and be baptized and tithe and join the church. It was believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
23:13 Can you speak a little bit, just contrasting that with the scripture, even the demons believe and shudder?
23:19 Yeah. I think the greatest misconception about salvation is the idea if I just believe intellectually the right things about Jesus, I'll be saved. Well, the demons believe
23:30 that Jesus is the son of God. Remember when they were indwelling the gathering demoniac, they saw Jesus and said, why are you coming to trouble us, oh holy 1 of Israel? They understood he was the
23:42 Messiah. Mhmm. Demons believe, and Satan believes that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world. Mhmm. And, Juliet, even demons and Satan believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. Mhmm. In fact, I
23:54 tell people they believe it more than we do because they actually witnessed it. Right. But no demon and certainly Satan are not gonna be in heaven because they understand the right things about Jesus. That word believe
24:05 means to depend upon, to lean on, to put your whole weight upon. The kind of belief that saves is a belief that says, I believe Jesus died for my sins, and I'm trusting in him to have eternal life.
24:16 I think 1 of my favorite ways that I've ever heard you explain it, I mean, you explain it many times during the year this way, but always at Vacation Bible School to hundreds of children. And it's just such a
24:28 good picture because the Bible says that salvation's a gift. It's a gift from God and you have a box and you have this pretty gift and the idea is you can know that the gift's for you. You can know it's there, you can
24:40 believe it's real, but it's not yours until you personally receive it. And of course, there's not a magic prayer, but we do encourage people in our denomination and
24:51 Protestant religions, we explain it usually that there is a time, a specific time where you say, I want what Jesus did on the cross to count for Well, absolutely there's
25:02 a time. Jesus said it's like being born again. I remember when you were born. It was February the nineteenth 19 80 There was a day, an hour, 12 50 in the morning you were born.
25:14 Mhmm. There was a time the second before that you weren't born. Mhmm. So Jesus said, you're born again. There is a moment you come into new life in Christ, and it's the moment you receive the gift of salvation.
25:26 John said in John 1, but as many as received him Right. To them He gave the power to become the children of God.
25:33 Right, and I shouldn't have really said that all Protestant denominations believe that because that's not true. No. Yeah, I'm sorry, but that is what the Bible teaches. If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord,
25:43 believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. So it really is simple. The Bible says it's so simple that a child can understand it. And we do a lot at our church, of course, to
25:55 really minister to children. Studies show that most people who accept Christ do so before they're 15.
26:01 Is There's a reason
26:02 for that.
26:03 I mean, the older you get, the more baggage you carry with you.
26:06 Right.
26:07 And that can weigh you down and keep you from entering into the kingdom of God. And that's why we don't apologize. We're unapologetic about sharing the gospel with children so
26:19 that they can understand at an early age. You were saved when you were 5 years old. You led your sister to become a Christian, and I was 5 when I became a Christian. Now, you know, I tell
26:31 parents all the time, there are some basic things your children have to understand. Mhmm. Not all children are the same. Yeah. But a child needs to understand that he's a sinner. Mhmm. And they need to understand that
26:42 Jesus died for their sins, and they have to be able to depend upon him for eternal life. Mhmm. But I think they come to an understanding of that much sooner than we think they're capable of Absolutely.
26:55 And I think, you know, we take kind of literally the verse, but don't prevent the little children from coming to me. I mean, that's what Jesus said. And so I know lots of parents who they kind of struggled with, like
27:05 their child came to him and said, I wanna go to heaven. I wanna become a Christian. I don't wanna go to hell. And be like, oh, I don't know if that's a good reason. That is the most natural reason to become a Christian
27:15 is you don't wanna experience punishment.
27:18 And you know, Julia, I give this warning all the time to parents, be sure you speak clearly about salvation. Salvation is not inviting Jesus into your heart. Mhmm. I just tell our people all the time, don't ever
27:30 talk about Jesus coming into your heart. That's not biblical. If you ask a little child, oh, honey, do you want Jesus in your heart? Well, what child wouldn't want Jesus in their heart? That's not what salvation is. It
27:41 is trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.
27:45 And that gift analogy, I mean, that is something that I've done with adults, with children, with teenagers, everyone understands. I just use if parents are like, well, how do I do this? I use anything around me and just
27:55 pick it up, and we talk about it being a gift.
27:57 Well, I think it's a good time to encourage people. We have a children's book called the gift that tens of thousands of parents have used to lead their children to Christ, and they can get that book, The Gift, at
28:09 ptv dot org, our ministry. It's a great tool that you can read with your children. There's a DVD that goes along with it that you can play for your children in which I give the presentation to
28:21 children about receiving the gift.
28:23 That's awesome. Okay, I wanna end today just talking about what so many families are facing and people in the church face. It's someone that they started the Christian life with, or they were there when
28:35 that person professed Christ and they fall away. They say, I'm not a Christian anymore. Is it possible not to be a Christian anymore or what happens there?
28:46 Well, I think the biblical answer is what John says. They went out from us because they were not of us. For had they been of us, they would not have gone out from us. Mhmm. And I do think some
28:58 Christians can have a lapse of faith. Something happens that makes them question. It may be their own disobedience or some tragedy. Mhmm. But I think a true Christian will always come back. And if somebody
29:09 who claims to be a Christian falls away and never comes back, it's just evidence they were never saved. We call that the perseverance of the saints. That doctrine has been changed to once saved,
29:21 always saved. Mhmm. But, originally, it was meant that true saints are ones who persevere until the end. Mhmm. And so I don't think people lose their salvation, but I think there are many
29:33 people who mistakenly think they're saved Mhmm. And they're not. Mhmm. And, you know, Jesus said in Matthew 7 in the sermon on the mount, in that day, the judgment day, many will come to
29:45 me saying, Lord, didn't we do this in your name and didn't we do this? And I will say to them, depart from me, I never knew you. So it's a sobering passage.
29:54 There is a flip side to this that I only really became aware of actually in counseling sessions and that's a lot of people who have professed Christ and they're very anxious
30:06 about if they're really saved.
30:08 And
30:09 I really had never experienced that before because for me, there's always been a lot of peace with that, But it really is a real issue that people face. They're like, I believe this, I accepted Christ at camp.Show more
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Julia Jeffress Sadler
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