I can’t figure him out! I don’t get it!
I have this KJV “Expositor’s Study Bible,” with verbose verse-by verse explanations by brother Jimmy Swaggart.
Someone gave it to me a long while ago. I sometimes go to it to see his point of view, and evaluate it against what I feel in the Spirit.
Aaaaagghhh! I am totally exasperated by this poor, confused brother.
How can a man who is precisely right about the New Birth—for all the right reasons—be so off the mark with “saved”, and “water baptism”, and “Church”?!!
Most annoying of all is his repetitive, vehement insistence that “the object of a believer’s faith must be THE CROSS and ONLY the Cross”. This statement continues to completely baffle me. EVERY time that phrase comes up (and it’s way too often in his footnotes interspersed between the text), my Spirit winces. It doesn’t sound right. It doesn’t feel right.
I have continually asked God, with earnest prayer, to reveal to me WHY Jimmy Swaggart says that; and why it’s wrong. (I simply cannot understand his point at all, whether or not it’s true or false. How can one put their faith in that object, when that object merely served to kill the Lord, and Jesus’ sacrifice took place later, in heaven, before the Father, who accepted it, and then sent back the SPIRIT to guide us into all truth, empowering us to live holy lives?) The only right answer (I think) is that our faith ought to be in the power of God, via the holy ghost, and not in the wooden tree that tortured Jesus. It’s what occurred beyond the Cross that makes the difference! Isn’t it?
Swaggart backs up his argument, voraciously, by stating “the source of everything that a believer needs is found entirely in the Cross, and in Christ crucified. If our faith is in anything else, it’s a deception from the devil; a false doctrine. . . and the holy Spirit will not help us.” Only by placing our faith and trust entirely “in the finished work of the Cross” gives the Holy Spirit the liberty to work in our lives on our behalf. He goes on to assert that “the Cross is the only means by which a sinner can be saved, and the only means by which a Christian can walk in victory.” But, even if that were true— HOW do you put your faith in an object that merely tortured and killed the Savior?! First I want to understand Swaggart’s point, then refute it with spiritual truth; but I can’t!
He also writes this: “That’s why Paul kept using the phrase, “in Christ”. .. over and over. The phrase refers to what Jesus did at the Cross.”
No it doesn’t. It refers to those who are born of the Spirit; those who have been crucified with Christ by Spirit baptism, becoming in Him through a spiritual transformation. Am I wrong?!
John, would you take a few minutes to clarify whether or not I am correct or whether I need correcting?
And please tell me what Christians such as Jimmy Swaggart mean when they proclaim such a doctrine?
And. . . Where did they go off the track?
brad
===============
Hi Brad.
There is no pleasure, is there, in trying to make sense out of the senseless doctrines of Christianity? If Jesus had been hacked to death with an ax, would Christian ministers then teach that the only hope of mankind is to put our faith in an ax?
I must disagree with your comment about Brother Swaggart is “precisely right” in his doctrine of the new birth. I know that is not the case. Anyone who teaches sinners to “repeat after me, and get saved” cannot possibly be teaching the truth about the new birth. A person is not born again until Jesus baptizes him into his body with the holy ghost (1Cor. 12:13), with the evidence of speaking in tongues (or “stammering lips”). Brother Swaggart does not teach that.
Pray for him. He is very confused. As for explaining to me what such misguided teachers mean when they say what they say, I simply cannot. The only thing I feel confident of is that they think they are telling the truth, and we should ask God to help them do it, the way He has helped us.
As for where ministers “got off track”, well, the perversion of the faith of Christ began while the apostles still lived, and it has gone downhill since then, just as Jesus, Paul, Peter, and others foretold would happen (2Tim. 3:13). And here we are, trying to help God’s children who are deceived by false teachings. The only thing they feel confident of is that what we are telling them cannot possibly be the truth. Their teachers have assured them of that.
Pastor John