Most people have probably seen the advertisements on television for a free copy of Power For Living. The reason for publishing the book is to motivate people to seek God, which certainly is needed in today’s society. Unfortunately, the book stops short of teaching the truth regarding salvation. The 134-page book is published by the Arthur DeMoss Foundation; it was originally copyrighted in 1983. The copy examined in this article is the April, 1999 edition.
The book begins with a “Read This First” section, which comprises pages vii to ix. It informs the reader that, when some very successful people were asked how they became that way, they answered that it was due to their “personal relationship” with God or Jesus. This is an oft-used, over-worked, non-Biblical phrase. Neither the word personal nor relationship are found in the Scriptures. So what do people mean by it?
The book eventually provides an answer, but chapter one consists of 11 “testimonials”: presumably all of them have this “personal relationship” with Jesus. The list includes professional race-car driver, Jeff Gordon, NFL great, Reggie White, the 1995 Miss America, Heather Whitestone McCallum, classical guitarist, Christopher Parkening, Professional tennis player, Mary Joe Fernandez, professional golfer, Bernhard Langer, New York Yankee pitcher, Andy Pettite, track star Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the “father of aerobics,” Kenneth H. Cooper, U. S. Senator, Don Nickles, and Arthur S. DeMoss, founder and CEO of National Liberty Corporation. This impressive array of talent might convince some they need to have a personal relationship with God in order to be successful.
Others might ask, “Did that ‘relationship’ cause them to be successful, even if they think it did?” If so, how does one explain the enormous popularity of the Beatles? John Lennon once boasted that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ. The Rolling Stones, who after nearly 40 years, are planning another tour, have never attributed their success to God. Mic Jagger is a noted womanizer, and one of their songs is “Sympathy For the Devil.” Obviously, people have gained success without the aid of the Holy Spirit.
Tiger Woods may be the best golfer ever–such is his goal, but he has not credited God with his success (thus far). He has accomplished what he has done by hard work and determination. If the Holy Spirit is credited for these other athletes’ success, how then do we explain someone on his own efforts beating those whom the Holy Spirit is helping? Does it not stand to reason that if God is helping someone, he should be the best?
A number of professional athletes credit Allah for their success. Muslims could easily publish a book with 11 outstanding individuals, listing their accomplishments and crediting Allah for their talents. Should we all, then, become followers of Muhammed?
The former Miss America has concluded that people need to “feel” Jesus and hear him in their hearts (11). When the Muslims write their book and distribute, will it have a prominent Muslim saying that people must “feel” Allah and hear him in their hearts? These comments are nothing more than subjective feelings; they do not constitute proof of anything.
Chapter two, “You Are Special to God,” introduces the subject of sin; it also introduces the subject of paraphrases, which appears to be an inconsistency in this book. On the one hand there is chapter six, “Making the Bible a Part of Your Life,” which includes some excellent suggestions for studying the Bible, such as asking who, what, where, when, and why. But then the author recommends modern translations, which are mostly paraphrases (he uses a paraphrase throughout). He even recommends that the new Bible student paraphrase the Scriptures himself (119). It would be difficult to imagine anything more dangerous than a novice Bible student writing down what he thought a passage meant when he does not have as yet the skill to mentally compare one verse with many others that deal with the same subject. Writing it down will only reinforce his own “interpretation,” thus perhaps eventually blocking out the truth.
The New Living Translation
On page 134 the reader is informed that all “Scriptures” are taken from the New Living Translation (NLT), which this book lists as being published in 1996. Three quotations from this new paraphrase indicate that it may be one of the most dangerous works that ever masqueraded as the Holy Scriptures. Psalm 51:5 (in this perversion, reads: “For I was born a sinner–yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.” The NIV has received enough public criticism concerning their mistranslation that those anonymous souls who worked on this one surely knew better. They are obviously Calvinists, who have no scruples whatever in putting their theology into GodÕs Word. If the Bible does not say what they think it should, they just twist the Scriptures until they achieve agreement. These men have the same character concerning which apostle wrote in 2 Peter 3:15-16.
The NLT also butchers Romans 10:10: “For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved” (40). The New King James has the correct translation: “For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.” As most paraphrases do, the NLT translators have changed the parts of speech to whatever suited their purposes. The Greek word eis is translated “to” twice: one believes to righteousness and confesses to salvation. They have been replaced by affirmations that by believing you are made right and by confessing you are saved. Even a beginner should be able to see that there is a difference between having something and only moving in the direction of having it.
Eis is the same word used in Acts 2:38: people were to be baptized “unto” the remission of sins. Believing and confessing and baptism are all unto the remission of sins–in that order. They all lead into salvation. They all move in the direction of obtaining salvation. Faith moves us in the right direction; so does confession. Baptism not only moves us in the right direction; it is the final step leading to salvation. At that point the blood of Christ cleanses us from our sins (Acts 22:16; Rev. 1:5). The NLT has salvation occurring at the moment of confession, which may be excellent Baptist theology, but it is not New Testament truth.
The third mutilated verse is John 3:16. For centuries (literally) John 3:16 has been translated “should not perish but have everlasting life.” There is an excellent reason why the verse has been translated thus: such is its meaning. The verbs translated “perish” and “have” are both subjunctives. The NLT inappropriately renders the verb “will not perish” (48), which is future, not subjunctive. Will guarantees the result and makes the Bible reader think that if he just believes, he will not perish, which is incorrect (although it bolsters the Calvinistic doctrine of “once saved, always saved”). A believer should not perish, but he may–if his faith does not lead him to repent and be baptized unto the forgiveness of sins or if he later renounces his faith in one manner or another.
Any book that encourages people to study God’s Word ought to use a reliable translation rather than one that is slanted toward Calvinistic theology. New Bible students should be encouraged to have an accurate translation rather than one that reads easily. All who come to the Bible should be interested in truth. They can read the opinions of men later in the form of a commentary. It is dangerous when a commentary passes itself off as Holy Spirit-inspired Scripture.
Salvation
Chapter Three, “How To Get Right With God,” conveys four spiritual laws. The fourth law says that we must “individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord,” which is correct, but we vigorously oppose the means this book provides for “receiving” Him. They quote John 1:12, Ephesians 2:8-9, and John 3:3, which are all great Scriptures. Notice, however, that not one of them is in the context of an actual account of a person becoming a Christian. John 1:12 is from the introduction of John’s gospel account of Jesus’ life. Ephesians 2:8-9 is from a theological argument of Paul’s. Only John 3:3 involves Jesus talking about the new birth, and then they omitted the part about being born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5), which might actually cause one to think of baptism. The final Scripture mentioned is Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (NKJ; they used the NLT). Not only is this not spoken to someone on the verge of becoming a Christian (52-53); in this verse Jesus is addressing those who are already Christians!!!
Talk about using a Scripture out of context! This instance should serve as the dictionary definition. This verse is the one used most frequently through Power For Living as the way one comes to Jesus. The author talks about a conversation with Susan Atkins, one of the Manson gang convicted of murder. According to her, she read all through the Bible and did not find out how to be a Christian until the last book of the Bible when she got to Revelation 3:19-20 (107). What? Did she sleep through the book of Acts? Is it possible to miss, “Men and brethren, what should we do?” (Acts 2:37). Throughout the book of Acts there is account after account of people being converted; how could anyone miss that? In order to think that Revelation 3:19-20 refers to salvation one would have to miss the entire context of Revelation 2-3. These are letters written to the seven churches–not to those outside of Christ wondering how to become Christians.
After giving the four laws, the author states that people must turn away from their sins but then argues that we do not have the power to do so. Why tell someone to do what he cannot do, then? Notice that Peter did not say in Acts 2:38 to those who asked him what they must do: “Repent. Whoops! I forgot. You don’t have the power to do that.” How silly! Of course we have the ability to turn away from sin. The author says not only here (53) but repeatedly throughout the book that we should ask Jesus to take control of our lives. Really? What happens when we sin, then? Did He ignore our prayer and relinquish His control? God does not control us. If He did, then who would get the blame for sin? No Scripture teaches that God has any desire to control us. The correct way of stating the matter is to say that we must submit to His will.
Needless to say, baptism unto the remission of sins is not mentioned at all. How odd that in a book designed how to tell a person to become a Christian the following examples are never mentioned: those on Pentecost (Acts 2:36-41), the Samaritans (Acts 8:1-25), the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40), the household of Cornelius (Acts 10), Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:1-18; 22:1-16), or the Philippian jailer (Acts 16:25-40). In place of the Scriptures the author substituted his own version of “the sinner’s prayer,” which of course is not found anywhere in the Bible (55).
The “Personal Relationship”
Finally, the book gives an indication of what is meant by having a “personal relationship” with God. On page 56 we read that, after asking Jesus into one’s life, He comes and brings “His power with Him.” The discerning reader might ask, “What kind of power does Jesus bring? Do I feel it? What does this power enable me to do?” The answers are not described at this point. The reader discovers what all God does for him in chapter four, “How to Keep on Growing.”
The Christian is urged to pray, which is not surprising, but in the midst of listing reasons that we should pray, such as intercession for another and offering praise to God, we also find a “period of listening as God talks” (70). Say what? Is this, at long last, what is meant by having a “personal relationship” with Jesus: when we pray, God talks back to us? Once again, this is nothing but pure subjectivism. God does not really speak to us when we pray; He speaks to us through the word; that is the only manner in which God speaks to us. The only thing we hear when we pray is our own thoughts.
Apparently, many people think that they and God are best of friends. The author, Jamie Buckingham, cites a person balancing his checkbook as an example of the closeness of the relationship between God and the Christian. He advises him to pray that God show him where the mistake is. One can just imagine this fellow going to work the next day and saying, “God loves me so much and we are so close that He showed me where the error in my checkbook was last night.” These people do not have a close, personal relationship with God; they just have a vivid imagination and a heightened sense of their own importance.
The author further alleges that the Holy Spirit interprets the Bible for the Christian (76). That would be helpful if true; it would save a great deal of money on commentaries. We wonder what would happen if we asked ten people who believe this doctrine to explain to us what the Holy Spirit told them about 1 Corinthians 15:29 (baptism for the dead). Does anyone think they would all recite the same answer?
If the Holy Spirit were going to “interpret” each passage of Scripture for us, why do we need the Bible? Why do we need to study the Bible? Why does He not just reveal the truth to us as we need it? If the author’s “interpretation” of Revelation 3:20 is any indication of the way this process works, the Holy Spirit is not a very reliable interpreter.
Buckingham says we sometimes refer to the Holy Spirit as our “conscience” (77-78). We call it “conscience” because that is precisely what it is. Perhaps the author never heard that small voice of caution or of guilt before he became a “Christian,” but everyone else has. Was that the voice of the Holy Spirit, while we were yet sinners? The conscience is trained to speak up when we violate what we have been taught–Christian or not.
The author goes so far as to say that the single most important truth for the believer is to know that he has been filled with the Holy Spirit (83). Following is a list of things that the Holy Spirit allegedly does.
1. He fills people with Jesus (86) and “makes the presence of Jesus real in us” (84). Whatever this means would be a guess; it sounds intensely subjective.
2. Since the Holy Spirit literally lives inside the Christian, He can control their lives (84). Again, whose fault is it, then, if we mess up? He says specifically that being controlled by the Spirit means “relying on the power of God” to change one’s life instead of trying to do it oneself (86). This theology makes us passive and God active. The only one who gets credit or blame is the one who has the active role.
3. He leads us into all truth (John 14:16-17), which would account for the small voice (84-85). These words were spoken to the apostles, not to all Christians. They were led into all truth (2 Peter 1:3).
4. He provides “supernatural power” (85). The author does not indicate what all this supernatural power entails–whether it is the ability to work miracles, heal the sick, speak in tongues, or raise the dead. The only thing he cites definitely is the ability “to be witnesses of Jesus” (85). To be a witness of Jesus (to see and hear Him firsthand) would require supernatural power. But probably he means that the Holy Spirit helps in evangelism. If it really was the Holy Spirit helping, He would have told them they had the wrong gospel.
5. He produces in us “the life of Jesus” (85). The author cites Galatians 5:22-23 as a demonstration of what he means by this point. This point is true; the Spirit does produce these characteristics–but not directly; He does so as we understand and apply the Word of God to our lives.
Power For Living probably has enjoyed a wide circulation. How sad that many people will end up being deceived by the doctrines that it teaches.