02. Chapter 1: The Greats Have it Wrong

Chapter 1 The Greats Have It Wrong

First of all, thank you very, very much for expressing interest in this book! Some of you are going to learn many things about the bible that you may not have known, while for others, this book will serve as a much needed refresher of pertinent facts that may have been forgotten over the course of time. In any case, I welcome you with a sense of joyful anticipation about the wonderful truths from the bible that are about to unfold for you with every turn of a page. Whatever you do, please do not judge a chapter by its name; each chapter contains more than the title conveys. Please do not skip chapters, either, for they interweave amongst one another and, to a degree, complement each other in a way that is advantageous toward your learning. I will repeat many of the same verses from chapter to chapter in an effort to solidify deep within your mind many of the things that Christ says in the bible. My style of instruction involves some minor redundancy because in order for true learning to take place, whether the learning environment is visual, auditory or kinesthetic, the reinforcement is in the repetition of the objective study matter. In essence, the more you are exposed to Christ’s truths, the more apt you are to remember them. The primary purpose of this book is four-fold: 1) to educate you about salvation, i.e., going to heaven, using the King James Version (KJV) of the bible, 2) to show you examples of what the bible says are false plans of salvation, 3) to compare and to contrast the salvation statements of several of today’s top pastors and bible teachers with the salvation statements that are found in the bible, and 4) to allow you to make up your own mind as to whom you will choose to believe when it comes to where you will spend eternity. With these goals firmly in mind, let us now shift gears into some relevant initial material for you to digest, much like an appetizer before the main course.

So, who am I and how did all of this come about? On the night of November 14th, 2006, my mother approached me with the challenge of writing a book about what Christ said about salvation and revealing the false messages being taught by the “great preachers of our time.” She said, “Mike, you need to let people know the ‘real deal’ about what Christ said about eternal life and how to get it.” Immediately, something within me “clicked.” I developed a tremendous burden to tell Christ’s plan of salvation so that no one would be deceived. The dream of this book was born out of that burden.

Well, I think it would serve our purposes better if I start at the beginning. My name is Michael Bowen, I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, at South Fulton Hospital on May 8th, 1969, at 8:43am. I grew up in a loving family and we attended church every Sunday. South Atlanta was (and still is) a dangerous place. As such, my parents sent me to a well-known Christian academy in order to protect me from the influence of a degenerating society, yet they were completely unaware of the psychological and spiritual damage that the staff was having upon a large portion of the student body. A lot of good kids were harmed mentally, emotionally and spiritually at this school. The salvation that they taught was a form of works-based salvation that goes against the plan of salvation that Christ taught us in the bible. Their salvation was based solely upon behavioral changes. Never once did I hear that Jesus died for my sins, was buried and rose from the dead and if I trusted Him alone as my savior I would go to heaven. Instead, we were told that if we listened to any popular music or told lies that it only proved that we were not saved and that we had to turn our backs on those sins and live right if we ever expected to get to heaven one day. It was a stifling, serious, psychologically oppressive, overly legalistic and thoroughly intimidating atmosphere in which most of us were “hammered over the head with a bible” and were in a heightened state of anxiety over the threat of being “spiritually probed” by our stern-eyed, inflexible teachers. I never learned math or algebra because I was too busy rehearsing what I might say if one of the staff decided to launch some form of psychological attack upon me. I believe I developed some irritating learning disabilities in that environment which I attempted to overcompensate for later in life by earning four college degrees.

Nevertheless, a hatred of the bible and anything or anyone associated with religion began to grow within me which later came to full fruition at the age of 21 while taking a philosophy class at a college in Dallas, Texas. This philosophy instructor debated the existence of God one day, and as he spoke, I could not believe my ears. Never before had I heard someone suggest that God did not exist. I, as well as many others, expressed anger toward this man, but for me, it was too late. Satan had planted his seeds in my mind using the tool of Greek philosophy. Before the semester was out I had become a full-fledged atheist. The day I became an atheist is one I will never forget. There was a terrible thunderstorm that day in Grand Prairie, Texas. I was so distraught, so overwhelmed with the idea that all of the pain I had endured at the Christian academy was all because the staff had believed in a non-existent “God,” as well as the pain of being rejected by the lady whom I thought I was to marry, I just began to fall apart on the inside. I mean, after all, God had never answered any of my prayers, I had lifelong friends who betrayed me, I didn’t seem to be going anywhere in my life, I couldn’t stand church and I detested the faith I had been reared in. Basically, everything seemed to be a crisis. So, I gave up. Then one day, after a series of arguments with a person who shall remain nameless, I went outside and stood under the Texas sky during a heavy downpour, rain soaking me completely wet, and lightening crashing all around. I began cursing God. It was on that day, during a thunderstorm in Texas, that I became a bitter, unhappy atheist. So, for the benefit of anyone reading this book who may have found themselves in similar circumstances where they may have walked away from God in total disgust, I just want you to know that I understand what you have been through, or perhaps what you’re going through at this very moment; I know what it means to hate God. I have openly cursed Him in my pain and in my ignorance. That was the year 1991. Let us skip by a major portion of my life and just fast-forward to the year 2001. I was hired straight into management within an international corporation. It was during this time that I lost a great deal of my naturally exuberant personality due to the sheer weight of the responsibilities that my job required of me, and because I was hired directly onto the managing team, I was without a clue of how the business operated. I struggled to learn each procedure. I didn’t know beans about computers. I had no idea how to help the regular workers who numbered into the hundreds out there in “cubical land.” Each day that I worked in that environment, a little piece of me died. My co-workers helped me very little. When I messed something up, it not only made me look bad in front of my peers, it made my boss look bad, too, and it made me feel terrible both as a human being and as an employee. After several months of this agony, a person was hired onto our team who would change the course of my life in two profound ways. Gil was his name, and a very unique individual he was. On casual days, he would wear “Jesus T-shirts.” Since I was an atheist, I thought he was a first-class idiot for doing so, but because he was so full of laughter and because I felt at ease with him, I shrugged off the feelings of anger that “any mention of Christ” caused me. After a year of working at this corporation, our department got some bad news. We were being downsized. I was given the chance to do the same job in Tucson, Arizona, but I declined. Two weeks later I began taking computer programming classes over at the local college. In 2003, I earned my Associate in Applied Science degree in Computer Programming. That degree opened the door to my current job as an AS400 computer operator at our local hospital. One night, in late 2005, I found some articles written by Dr. Hank Lindstrom that freed me from so much of the bondage of counterfeit salvation. I then listened to Dr. Lindstrom’s sermon “How Permanent Is Your Salvation?” After hearing him preach Christ’s plan of salvation and after seeing in the bible for myself what Christ had said about it, I trusted Jesus alone, as my only hope of heaven.

There are some verses in the bible concerning salvation that simply cannot be dismissed or ignored... they simply will not go away. Neither the most stalwart arguments that can be forged against God’s plan of salvation nor the most brilliant minds of learned men and women who may engage in any sort of calculated opposition against the reality or the freeness of God’s gift of everlasting life through faith in Jesus Christ alone can win in a debate because all arguments against the free gift of salvation can be systematically dismantled and utterly destroyed using only a handful of verses. I will prove this very fact for you in every chapter of this book. My hope is that you will draw strength from this book, and to possibly understand the reasons for which I am now so driven to proclaim His truth about salvation. In a nutshell, I will tell you that it is because I have been both an atheist and a victim of today’s false plans of salvation. I am at eternal odds with the false, counterfeit messages of salvation-by-works that are taught from virtually every pulpit today, on every television channel, and on every Christian radio station; however, I am not at eternal odds with the individuals who preach these counterfeit messages. My heart literally goes out to all of them because they simply do not understand Christ’s plan of salvation. They have been lied to by a crafty enemy named Satan, whose sole aim is to take as many people with him to the lake of fire as he can possibly manage to steal away from God using a counterfeit plan of salvation that appears so real, so genuine, and so holy that few ever realize they have been deceived by it. Oh reader, so many of today’s professing Christians who think they are going to heaven when they die are not going to make it to heaven as they had assumed because they’ve been lied to by today’s error-filled gospel messages. Radical? Yes. But I am nonjudgmental toward the bearers of false messages; I am only judgmental toward the false plans of salvation they emphasize as being equal to the plan of Christ. There is only one plan of salvation in the bible; therefore, there cannot be two plans. The religious order of Jesus’ day hated Him, and they hated all who believed in Him. Why? Because Satan hates Him. And Satan hates us, too, both saved and unsaved alike. Satan hates people and wants them to share his punishment with him in the eternal lake of fire. Satan wants to drag as many people as possible with him into the lake of fire because he knows that God loves “people” more than anything else in the whole universe. What better way to do this than to gently deceive people into thinking they’re going to heaven by presenting them with a plan of salvation that sounds so right, looks so right, and feels so right, but each are as different from Christ’s only plan as the night is from the day, and no matter what plan it is, it will not save them, at all, unless they trust Jesus Christ as their only hope of heaven. Quite literally, the greats do have it wrong, but that is no fault of their own. My prayer is that many will see the truth of what Christ says. Reader, you shall soon see that the best lies sound the most like the truth. Satan is to blame, not these good people you are about to meet in my book. Pay close attention to what each pastor or teacher says, and then compare it to what Jesus Christ says. You will then be more informed and better able to decide whether or not you will choose their plan of salvation or Christ’s plan of salvation.