A person needs to believe in the eternality of the promise/person of Christ for everlasting life. You cannot believe a proposition or promise without believing in the person, that is why I put a slash there. You need to believe in the person FOR what is promised, not something else. That is what Zane's message is about. When I was a child of (5) I heard Billy Graham on TV say that a person has to believe in Jesus to get to heaven. Then in the next sentence he said that a person had to turn from their sin, and ask Jesus to come into their life. Then he said a changed life was necessary to get to heaven. When I went to bed that night I tried to commit myself to do those things. I talked to my mother. She agreed, that just believing in Jesus one time was not enough, but that I had to keep believing. I believed her. I later was involved in several churches as my parents took us to several churches during 2 moves. I think I basically held to what is taught by the Church of Christ. See slides 7,8,9 slideplayer.com/slide/5872398/ I also started collecting tracts from the various places and had a whole box of them. They all had different things you had to do to be saved at the end of the tract. As a small child, hearing Billy Graham, and speaking with my mother, I thought that trusting in Jesus, as a lifestyle was how you get to heaven. Tragically, some people say they believe in FreeGrace and then tell people that it is NOT necessary to believe in Jesus' FOR the free gift of everlasting life which can never be lost. Some of their literature says a person needs to believe in Jesus, but they stop there, and don't explain exactly what a person needs to believe in Jesus FOR. Maybe I was stupid as a child, and as teen. I know I was pretty thick headed. I needed to have everything spelled out crystal clear to me. I needed to hear EXACTLY what I needed to do, not a list of things that could possibly save me. I had no assurance of my salvation the next 14 years of my life. I was doing a combination of all the things I heard, so I THOUGHT I was going to heaven. It was not until I was 19, that my lack of assurance of salvation really bothered me. If I would have encountered some of these very well intentioned Free Grace people, who say "You need to believe in Jesus to get to heaven," with no mention of eternal security and then used verses other than those in the Gospel of John, I would have agreed with them. I was speaking to a Youth Ranch leader named Bruce Lynam one evening. I told him "I don't have what you have." I was talking about assurance of everlasting life. At that point there was a real spiritual struggle within me. He told me I had to stop all the things I was doing (i.e. trusting), and just believe what Jesus promised, and reach out and take His gift. It was like a light bulb went on. That is the night I was born again. Again, maybe some of these well meaning Free Grace people who go around saying that you do not need to have assurance of salvation at the moment of belief, were much more intelligent than I was when they believed. Maybe they understood the eternality of the promise Jesus was making, without having it explained as "believe in Jesus as the Granter and Guarantor of everlasting life, that cannot be lost, for all who believe in Him for it. I love these other FG folks and their teaching. However, when I see people struggling like I was, it breaks my heart to see them responding with answers that would have left me still thinking I was saved at age 5. Maybe there are different ways of explaining the eternality of the gift other than the literal words Zane used. I don't know. In evangelizing, I use Biblical language from the Gospel of John. Maybe some unsaved people are able to put together the pieces of the puzzle from passages that don't mention the eternality of the gift. Maybe some people are smart enough to cut through the Satan induced confusion. Growing up, I WAS NOT. I praise God for people like Zane, Bob Wilkin, John Niemela, Richard Seymour, Yank Arnold, and many others who try as hard as possible to CLEARLY explain what Jesus said we need to believe Him FOR, like we see summarized in John 5:24, 11:26-27 and 20:30,31. John 6:47 is clear, "Amen, Amen, I tell you. Whoever believes in Me has eternal life." I actually use Richard Seymour's method in my "Got Everlasting Life" tract. I have John 6:47 on a panel of the tract and I hold it upside down and have people read it. I then ask, "Do you have everlasting life?" They usually say something like, "I hope so," or "I think so." That is exactly what I would have said as a child and as a teen. I then fill in their answer in the verse, and ask, "Is that really what Jesus said?" I wait for a sincere affirmative answer as I ask a few more times. Lets be clear for the sake of thick headed people like me, OK?
