Last week I shared a teaching video from my long time Christian
brother, Pastor Freddy Cortez, of the Church of
Hope in Aliso Viejo, California. It was a part of his
series about hell, that episode discussing "Eternal Hell vs
Annihilationism." This week he continues that series with
a teaching video titled: "To All So-Called Atheist:
Don't Let A Tree Send You To Hell."
Basically Pastor Freddy does not believe there is anyone who is a true atheist, i.e., a person who totally and sincerely rejects the existence of God. That is a contention I have shared many times over the years in my writings. In my opinion there are three kinds of non-believers:
1. The person who knows that God is real, yet never truly understood, or did not believe that heaven and hell are the only two destinations for all people. One being a place of eternal joy and happiness, heaven. The other being a place of eternal punishment and no joy eternally, hell. Many of them convince themselves that "annihilationism" is true - for they believe that gives them an escape from God and eternal hell. Annihilationism is an absolute myth, a false teaching.
2. The person who has convinced himself that God does not exist, when deep down he knows that God is real. Why? Well, if that person admits that God does exist - then he is accountable to the Creator. In other words, this person demands the right to be in total control of his life and circumstances, telling the God he does not believe exists - to stay away.
There is a secular song made popular by Frank Sinatra, "I Did It My Way" - which is the de facto anthem of the secular world. Years ago my Christian brother and Friend, Jun Polistico, was a member of the great entertainment group, the Society of Seven. Jun sang that song as well or better than Sinatra. But when Jun became a Christian believer, he could no longer sing "I Did It My Way" for he knows that only God's way works. Today in his concerts Jun Polistico sings that song, but with improved lyrics, "I Did It HIS Way."
My Friend and Christian brother, Leon Patillo, who once was lead singer, keyboardist, and composer with the Carlos Santana Band - can no longer sing I've got a "Black Magic Woman" - for he and his beautiful Filipina wife are Christ followers. Today in concerts Leon sings I've got a "Born Again Woman."
Do you see the difference? When we become believers we want God to be in control - so we turn it all over to Him and we "Do It His Way."
3. And there is the person who is just too busy living in the secular world, that he just does not have time to learn about God. And most likely, no one has cared enough to tell him about Jesus Christ and eternal life. I call this person the vanilla-flavored non-believer, for he is just happily floating along in the secular waste water.
I really enjoyed Pastor Freddy's message last Sunday, "To All So-Called Atheist: Don't Let A Tree Send You To Hell." I call Pastor Freddy, DMin, the Pinoy Dr. Charles Stanley. Why? Because both are great teachers and pastors. With both it is like we are sitting in their living room and having a conversation about our Christian faith. A good teaching pastor has that ability to make a sermon seem like he is talking to you - not preaching at you.
In his message last week Pastor Freddy really got my attention when he spoke of missionaries going to remote islands and jungles, sharing about God with them, and finding them receptive to the idea of a supreme creator. One of my favorite books in our personal library, Eternity In Their Hearts, by Don Richardson, tells of a Englishman in 1795 visiting tribes in the jungles of Burma - and the natives greeted like a long lost friend.
Imagine that. The year is 1795 and the Karen people in the jungles of Burma - are waiting for a white brother who will come and bring them the book that their ancestors long ago had lost. The book they are awaiting was written by Y'Wa. Does the have a familiar ring: Y'Wa and Yahweh?
You can find this book Eternity In Their Hearts, by Don Richardson, online and I highly recommend it. This book is a great source of information to prepare you to answer a favorite question thrown at we believers by non-believers and even by believers who are not well grounded in God's Word, "If the only way to God and heaven is through Jesus Christ - what about all those people living in remote jungles? Are they all going to hell because they have not heard about Jesus? Would your God condemn all those people to eternal hell? It seem more plausible that all people will go to heaven - or that God is really only a myth."
How would YOU answer that question when you are witnessing? Maybe this book will help prepare you.
I think you will enjoy this message from Pastor Freddy, for it is a sermon, but a teaching sermon - not a foot stomping, hell-fire sermon. Pastor Freddy addresses the issue of a real God, the Creator, and how we can address the issue when non-believers, even those who call themselves atheist, tell us, "God is not real. There is no God!"
Near the end of his message Pastor Freddy shares a story from his mentor from years past, how when the mentor was a young pastor in the Philippines he showed no fear in knocking on the door of a gang leader to share the Gospel - and because he was grounded in God and had no fear, that gang leader received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
About 20 years ago I was at the Riverside County Regional Medical Center in Moreno Valley. Waiting in the lobby, I noticed a young man who looked more like a White Supremacist that a Christian. He had HATE tattooed on his fingers, but he was reading a Bible. I could not resist, saying to him, "I am curious. Your hand says HATE, but the book you are reading says LOVE. Tell me about it."
That began a two hour chat between us. He told me, "I was a White Supremacist, and so was my family. The only music we listened to was Black Music, i.e., Satanic music. One day as I was walking in Riverside a Christian approached me and witnessed to me." That day the young man went from White Supremacist to Christian believer on the street of Riverside - only because a believer lay aside his fear of a hate-filled White Supremacist and, trusting in God, witnessed to that young man.
As we sat in the lobby of the Regional Medical Center talking, we found that we both love the Lord and we both love to write Christian tracts. We began to share with one another - until I heard myself paged. My daughter, Lana, was supposed to pick me up - but, being involved in conservation, I had forgotten to call her.
And that is what Pastor Freddy's message is about today. Do not be afraid to approach that person (his mentor's gang leader, my White Supremacist) to share the Gospel - for it is very likely that God has prepared both you and that other person for this moment. And if you ignore God's timing, that other person may spend eternity in hell. And it will be your fault, for you did not share the Gospel when God had prepared his heart to hear it.
I know you will be edified by Pastor Freddy's teaching in this video. So get a cup of coffee, or tea, sit back and enjoy being taught the Word of God by Pastor Freddy Cortez.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
Basically Pastor Freddy does not believe there is anyone who is a true atheist, i.e., a person who totally and sincerely rejects the existence of God. That is a contention I have shared many times over the years in my writings. In my opinion there are three kinds of non-believers:
1. The person who knows that God is real, yet never truly understood, or did not believe that heaven and hell are the only two destinations for all people. One being a place of eternal joy and happiness, heaven. The other being a place of eternal punishment and no joy eternally, hell. Many of them convince themselves that "annihilationism" is true - for they believe that gives them an escape from God and eternal hell. Annihilationism is an absolute myth, a false teaching.
2. The person who has convinced himself that God does not exist, when deep down he knows that God is real. Why? Well, if that person admits that God does exist - then he is accountable to the Creator. In other words, this person demands the right to be in total control of his life and circumstances, telling the God he does not believe exists - to stay away.
There is a secular song made popular by Frank Sinatra, "I Did It My Way" - which is the de facto anthem of the secular world. Years ago my Christian brother and Friend, Jun Polistico, was a member of the great entertainment group, the Society of Seven. Jun sang that song as well or better than Sinatra. But when Jun became a Christian believer, he could no longer sing "I Did It My Way" for he knows that only God's way works. Today in his concerts Jun Polistico sings that song, but with improved lyrics, "I Did It HIS Way."
My Friend and Christian brother, Leon Patillo, who once was lead singer, keyboardist, and composer with the Carlos Santana Band - can no longer sing I've got a "Black Magic Woman" - for he and his beautiful Filipina wife are Christ followers. Today in concerts Leon sings I've got a "Born Again Woman."
Do you see the difference? When we become believers we want God to be in control - so we turn it all over to Him and we "Do It His Way."
3. And there is the person who is just too busy living in the secular world, that he just does not have time to learn about God. And most likely, no one has cared enough to tell him about Jesus Christ and eternal life. I call this person the vanilla-flavored non-believer, for he is just happily floating along in the secular waste water.
I really enjoyed Pastor Freddy's message last Sunday, "To All So-Called Atheist: Don't Let A Tree Send You To Hell." I call Pastor Freddy, DMin, the Pinoy Dr. Charles Stanley. Why? Because both are great teachers and pastors. With both it is like we are sitting in their living room and having a conversation about our Christian faith. A good teaching pastor has that ability to make a sermon seem like he is talking to you - not preaching at you.
In his message last week Pastor Freddy really got my attention when he spoke of missionaries going to remote islands and jungles, sharing about God with them, and finding them receptive to the idea of a supreme creator. One of my favorite books in our personal library, Eternity In Their Hearts, by Don Richardson, tells of a Englishman in 1795 visiting tribes in the jungles of Burma - and the natives greeted like a long lost friend.
"The year is 1795, and deep in the jungles of Burma hundreds of tribesmen rush out to a clearing to greet a white-skinned stranger. Could he be the one to bring "the book" their forefathers had lost so many centuries ago - the book that tells the secrets of Y'Wa, the Supreme God? Yes!"
The Englishman's guide spoke with the tribesmen (Karen tribe) and then told him, "This is interesting," the guide said. "These tribesmen think you may be a certain 'white brother' whom they as a people have been expecting from time immemorial. He is supposed to bring them a book - just like the one their forefathers lost long ago. They are asking, 'Has he brought it?'"
"They say the author is Y'Wa - the supreme God. They say also that the white brother, having given them the lost book, will thereby set them free from all who oppress them."
And later missionaries were astounded at the way in which God had prepared these people for one of the greatest mass conversions in history.
In the book we read about Pachacuti, the Inca king who founded the city of Machu Picchu, a majestic city fortress built in Peru in the fifteenth century, and the vast empire he built. His story is another example shared in this book of how the concept of a supreme God has existed for centuries in hundreds of cultures throughout the world. Proof that God truly has set eternity in the hearts of men (Ecclesiastes 3:11, "He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts. . ."
Don Richardson, former missionary to the Sawi people of Irian Jaya, believes that God has not only prepared the Gospel for all peoples, but He has prepared all peoples for the Gospel. This book examines dozens of examples of peoples around the world whose cultural background prepared them to receive the Gospel long before missionaries ever appeared.
Richardson suggests that all peoples have a sense of God's existence. The title of the book comes from Ecclesiastes 3:11: "He [God] has... set eternity in the hearts of men" so that they will seek Him.
Imagine that. The year is 1795 and the Karen people in the jungles of Burma - are waiting for a white brother who will come and bring them the book that their ancestors long ago had lost. The book they are awaiting was written by Y'Wa. Does the have a familiar ring: Y'Wa and Yahweh?
You can find this book Eternity In Their Hearts, by Don Richardson, online and I highly recommend it. This book is a great source of information to prepare you to answer a favorite question thrown at we believers by non-believers and even by believers who are not well grounded in God's Word, "If the only way to God and heaven is through Jesus Christ - what about all those people living in remote jungles? Are they all going to hell because they have not heard about Jesus? Would your God condemn all those people to eternal hell? It seem more plausible that all people will go to heaven - or that God is really only a myth."
How would YOU answer that question when you are witnessing? Maybe this book will help prepare you.
I think you will enjoy this message from Pastor Freddy, for it is a sermon, but a teaching sermon - not a foot stomping, hell-fire sermon. Pastor Freddy addresses the issue of a real God, the Creator, and how we can address the issue when non-believers, even those who call themselves atheist, tell us, "God is not real. There is no God!"
Near the end of his message Pastor Freddy shares a story from his mentor from years past, how when the mentor was a young pastor in the Philippines he showed no fear in knocking on the door of a gang leader to share the Gospel - and because he was grounded in God and had no fear, that gang leader received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
About 20 years ago I was at the Riverside County Regional Medical Center in Moreno Valley. Waiting in the lobby, I noticed a young man who looked more like a White Supremacist that a Christian. He had HATE tattooed on his fingers, but he was reading a Bible. I could not resist, saying to him, "I am curious. Your hand says HATE, but the book you are reading says LOVE. Tell me about it."
That began a two hour chat between us. He told me, "I was a White Supremacist, and so was my family. The only music we listened to was Black Music, i.e., Satanic music. One day as I was walking in Riverside a Christian approached me and witnessed to me." That day the young man went from White Supremacist to Christian believer on the street of Riverside - only because a believer lay aside his fear of a hate-filled White Supremacist and, trusting in God, witnessed to that young man.
As we sat in the lobby of the Regional Medical Center talking, we found that we both love the Lord and we both love to write Christian tracts. We began to share with one another - until I heard myself paged. My daughter, Lana, was supposed to pick me up - but, being involved in conservation, I had forgotten to call her.
And that is what Pastor Freddy's message is about today. Do not be afraid to approach that person (his mentor's gang leader, my White Supremacist) to share the Gospel - for it is very likely that God has prepared both you and that other person for this moment. And if you ignore God's timing, that other person may spend eternity in hell. And it will be your fault, for you did not share the Gospel when God had prepared his heart to hear it.
I know you will be edified by Pastor Freddy's teaching in this video. So get a cup of coffee, or tea, sit back and enjoy being taught the Word of God by Pastor Freddy Cortez.
To All So-Called Atheist: Don't Let A Tree Send You To Hell
By Pastor Freddy Cortez
https://www.facebook.com/aicortezjr/videos/10157498584490359/?t=199
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
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