Report from Mexico

January 22, 2008 ESV Acts 17:16 Â¶ Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.

We flew into Mexico City last night at about 11:30pm. It was amazing to behold a city of 30 million people. I have never seen that many lights in all my life. We had no trouble getting into the airport and on to the place that we were staying. While at the airport we were able to speak a word of the gospel to three different people.

Today we left at about 9:00am and headed across Mexico City to a homeless mission. There were approximately 200 people present for the church service. I preached on the â€œRich Young Rulerâ€ out of Mark 10. I got the distinct impression that the people were used to hearing a weak gospel that is followed by the typical raise your hand to be saved and walk to the front to accept Jesus. I was pressing the law of God on them and they started laughing. I showed them from the law that they were liars, thieves, and idolaters at heart and they laughed. I then told them that it was not funny and that they had offended the God of heaven. There seemed to be at least a level of conviction that began to fall upon the place and out of the 200 people there may have been one person who was moved by the Spirit of God unto conviction. Certainly there could be others who God spoke to, but I was only allowed to see the one man.

The situation here is drastically different than in Peru. The people in charge of ministry teach and practice all of the things that I have been completely against. They push for numbers and use weak methods to try to bring about results that only God can accomplish. Today I did not give an invitation, but the pastor later told me that 22 people got saved. Where did he get the authority to pronounce 22 people saved? There is no way possible for him to know whether or not God gave them a new heart. Only time will produce the evidence of whether or not there is biblical fruit that is lasting. The experience was a good one and I am glad that I went, but I was starkly reminded of why I hate a watered-down man centered gospel. There is no power in a gospel that plays upon the emotions of man by using the methods of men.

This afternoon we finally made it to Tepito. It was horrid. It was worse than Sullana. They are worshiping a female goddess who has the appearance of death. She had a skull for a head and it is very demonic. We shared the gospel with several individuals and then we went to the place where the first shrine for Santa Muerta is. There were hundreds of candles burning as offerings unto this pagan woman angel of death. People would offer cigarettes, money, pictures, tequila, chocolate candy, flowers, fruit, and whatever else they thought would work. Out in front of this shrine they had symbols on the ground that you could stand on. One symbol you could stand on would bring death on all of your enemies. Secondly, they had symbols that you could stand on that would bring purification. Thirdly, they had a symbol that you could stand on that put a curse on Christianity. I went into the shrine and started reading the gospel of John in Spanish and people began to make threats against us. We went back in later and begin to pray and ask God to be glorified and people began to surround us and we thought we were going to be beat up. The owner of the shrine was not happy and then a big burly guy showed up in a taxi and was showing off his tattoo of death and I think it was some type of threat upon us. However, God was gracious and provided protection for us and when we were through praying most of the people had moved back away from us.

I want to take a moment and write a few thoughts about the gospel. First, the gospel is a supernatural work of God in which he regenerates and thus enables men to be able to believe. Without regeneration there will be no turning of man towards God. Secondly, Jesus did not make it easy for people to get saved. The woman at the well had to leave a lifestyle of adultery. The adulterous woman had to leave her sin. The rich young ruler had to sell it all. Nicodemus was never led in a sinnerâ€™s prayer. Men were called to repent. Men are not called to go through some man-made method that will supposedly produce salvation. Men are never told to repeat a prayer in order to be saved. Thirdly, Jesus never reported numbers in order to make his ministry look better. Jesus actually had many people turn away from him because his teaching was too hard. Fourthly, the only method that has been left for the building of the church is the proclamation of the Word of God. Paul never mentions how that music program is supposed to be. Paul never mentions to Timothy or Titus anything about demographic surveys. Paul never tells Timothy or Titus how to report numbers to an agency. There are those who would reference Acts and the 3,000 that were saved, but you never find this as a common practice of the church, but rather a demonstration of the power of God in the birth of the early church. Fifthly, salvation is 100 percent God or it is nothing. If man plays a part in salvation then he will have something to brag about when he gets to heaven. However, the testimonies of Scripture are about God doing the saving and no man.

Because of the truth: Pastor: J. Randall Easter II Timothy 2:19 "Our God is in heaven and does whatever He pleases."(Ps. 115:3) "He predestined us according to the good pleasure of His will."(Eph. 1:5) Those who have been saved have been saved for His glory and they are being made holy for this is the will of God. Are you being made holy? Spurgeon says, "If your religion does not make you holy it will damn you to hell."

It’s obvious from your comment that you simply don’t want to understand what I’ve written. Until the resurrection, there are no human forms in Heaven - aside from the 3 told to us in the Bible: Jesus, Enoch, & Elijah. All other saints who have died on earth are in heaven in spirit, awaiting the resurrection of their bodies.

Prayers for intercession are never to be directed to those who have died. That’s a man-made construct, having it roots in pagan religion. We are to ask other saints currently on the planet - those brothers and sisters in Christ within our church, for example - to pray for us. But not to carry our prayers to the Father - Christ is the only Priest in the church and He and the Holy Spirit do what man cannot.

Read the Bible and pay attention to what God has said more than what ye pay to what man says.

“If that were truly “it”, he wouldn’t have bothered to mention it at all.”

That’s a complete assumption on your part that doesn’t fit in with his report. He was reporting on the conversation with that one woman and it was obviously worth mentioning. Every person is important.

[Christ has destroyed death (2 Tm 1:10). Scripture calls the saints in heaven “the souls of just men made perfect” (Heb 12:23), not “dead people”.]

2 Tim 1:10 does not mean that people no longer die physically - it’s obvious that we still drop dead. So it must mean that He has taken away the second death spoken of in Rev 20 and 21.

The “just men” spoken of in Hebrews 12:23 are not dead saints, but all saints - God has given every Christian new life, with a new, perfect spirit (some translations use the word soul) upon one’s new birth in Christ. If this were not the case, a child of God would not inherit heaven when he died. Because God is faithful and makes us new in Christ upon our salvation, we are “fit for heaven”.

But all those saints who have physically died - we call them “dead people” - were alive in Christ from the moment of their new birth and are alive in spirit even beyond death. Of course, I exclude Jesus, Enoch, and Elijah from the “dead people” group because He has risen from the dead and they did not experience death. Everyone else who has left planet Earth died first.

‘tis a sad thing when people proclaiming the gospel are murdered, although we draw comfort from knowing that Christians who die are with the Lord in spirit, in a far better place.

We should thank God for those who are willing to suffer great loss for the furthering of His kingdom and for His glory.

“No Catholic prays “to” the Pope. We pray “for” the Pope.”

Must be nice thinking you are all knowing and “know” that, in all the world, not one single Catholic prays to the pope. Wow. What a gift. Reminds me of Charles Xavier of the X-men or that shocked mother on TV news who “knows” her son could never have killed the neighbor, etc.

Gee, the Bible says “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer 17:9)

You think a “guardian angel” protected her because she wanted no part of the Truth of the gospel? How sad.

“We should thank God for those who are willing to suffer great loss for the furthering of His kingdom and for His glory.”

But you don’t think the Catholic priests, nuns and laity that were slaughtered went to heaven, do you?
After all, they have “works.”

No man knows for certain who is saved - God alone can rightly judge the heart and soul of man. As the letter from James tells us, a person who is born again will have good works. But those good works do not save - they result from having been saved. Horse then cart.

” I told on my way out with heartbrokenness that I did not want her to go to hell, but rather I wanted for her to repent and trust Christ alone for salvation. She said that I was a part of a sect and that she did not want to talk anymore.”

Yet you agreed with this statement on this woman. You really aren’t being consistent here.

Either you believe she is going to hell or you believe that only God judges.

I’ve never known any Catholic to say “works” will save them. No where in our faith does it say that works alone will save.

Christ saves.

And frankly, I believe that the whole email is a lie.

The sentence you quoted does not say that Randall (or I) knows the woman’s destiny - it merely states that he, Randall (me as well) doesn’t want her (or anyone) to go to hell.

Truth is all are hell bound unless born again by belief in Christ, trusting only in His completed work of salvation.

Anyone who thinks they can save them self or help Christ save them does not have “saving faith”. This is what the Bible teaches. This woman’s professed religion reveals that she does not believe in the Lamb of God alone for her salvation, so it is Biblically reasonable to say that - IF SHE DOES NOT REPENT AND BELIEVE - she is hell bound. Same as most of humanity.

” This woman’s professed religion reveals that she does not believe in the Lamb of God alone...”

And I repeat that I do not believe the woman said, “works” to your friend.

Christ saves. The disconnect is that sacraments are in Christ. They aren’t separate. You see them as something apart. The Salvic action of Christ and the sacraments are bound together. Whether you believe it or not is not my concern.

My concern is that the faith is presented without the distortions so prevalent on these threads.

From the RCC Council of Trent, in response to the Reformation:

CANON 9: “If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema.”

Sounds like “salvation by faith and works or your a demon” to me.

All of the proclamations of Trent are still upheld as official doctrine by the RCC.

Where in Revelation is this condemned by God practice revealed as good?

5:8 “And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.” Hmmm. Context doesn’t tell what these prayers are, for whom, etc. Saints is a word that includes all who are born again in Christ and made righteous by Him - be they still on the Earth or physically dead and with Him in heaven.

8:3 & 4 “And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.” Hmmmm. Same discussion as above. No intercession described.

I don’t find anything describing God’s favor of living humans praying to people - on earth or in heaven, nor for humans speaking in any sense to those who have physically died - with the exception of the One who has risen from the dead.

Am I missing something?

Faith and works. I know James and the arguments and it will not rest and will not be resolved yet. It gets tedious contending with those who continue to twist the verses.

Intellectual assent alone will not suffice.

As I said, the sacraments and the salvic gift of Christ are bound together. By not embracing the sacraments, you miss the fullness of Christ.

I’m not going to continue to flog this. Faith and Works are together.

Notice I didn’t say you are going to hell. I simply don’t have God’s mind nor would I ever presume to say that I know. So, I would be careful, if I were you, not to consign people to hell because you think you are right.

I am right. I am right and I know from not only the Church, my bible, and my background, but because the Holy Spirit has led me all the way.

Good night.

” I asked her how she was going to get to heaven and she said, “By good works.”

This isn’t even a full statement. It is faith and works. No Catholic believes works is enough as no Catholic would believe faith is singular.

Faith is not static. As I said, I know James and the arguments and while you believe faith is enough, I say intellectual assent is not.

Faith without works is dead. Yes, I know the rejoinder about “dead” faith, but that is not what it means.

Intellectual assent is even given by demons.

It’s funny - you said “good night” in your previous post and then make another! The RCC sacraments are not in Scripture and not in Christ - more man-made madness adopted by the RCC from pagan religions. The RCC puts traditions of man above the revealed Word of God.

How do you know what this woman said? You arrogantly proclaim what was said in a conversation you had no part in. Amazing. You should be content to simply defend your church rather than pretend to know what an unidentified woman in Mexico City may have said.

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