Psalm 28:6 Blessed be the LORD! For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy. 7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.
The last four months have proven to be a tough road health-wise, but in it all, the Lord has dramatically intervened (at least on two occasions) to keep me alive. I have much to be thankful for.
If you have 16 minutes available, here are some of the highlights:
There’s no doubt that the doctrine of election is controversial. Some Christians don’t like it. More than that, some Christians actually hate the doctrine with a vengeance.
Why then would I teach it, knowing this?
Well, firstly, because it is the responsibility of all Bible teachers to teach what the Bible teaches, I teach Sovereign election because the Bible teaches the doctrine. I have no right to say to the Lord, “I know your Word teaches it, but I don’t think the people of God need it.” Such would be sheer arrogance and even treason on the part of the Lord’s herald. No, the solemn charge I have been given (and every preacher has been given) is to preach the word in season and out of season – when it is welcomed with joy by many and when no one wants to hear it whatsoever. Of course, election is not all I teach, but in that it is a Bible doctrine, I do indeed teach it.
Secondly, while it is a controversial doctrine, there is very little in Scripture that is not in some way controversial. The very first verse of our Bibles is controversial, and almost everything else that follows is likewise so. The pastor’s/preacher’s job is to preach and teach what the Word declares, even as he knows ahead of time, not all will embrace the truth he proclaims. He preaches and teaches to please an audience of One. To quote Dr. Steve Lawson, “If He is pleased, it doesn’t matter who is displeased. If He is displeased, it doesn’t matter who is pleased.”
Thirdly, I preach the doctrine because of the great sustaining comfort it brings to God’s people. While some are outraged by it, God means it to be a comfort to the saints, and has revealed this truth for that very purpose. He didn’t reveal it to cause division in the body of Christ. He revealed it because He determined in His infinite wisdom, it would be a blessing to His people to know this truth.
How exactly can this doctrine bring comfort?
Here’s an email I received today from someone I shall simple call “A” (her full name is withheld). Though lengthy, I believe your heart will be encouraged to see the Lord’s great comfort found in this doctrine by this precious saint, in the midst of great torment of soul.
Hi Pastor Samson,
My name is A*, and I wanted to reach out because you have given me such an unexpected gift, and I wanted to thank you. I saw you on Justin Peters’ YouTube channel, and I just listened to your podcast about “Lost loved ones” I have to say, I started crying so hard. I have been very conflicted over a certain situation, and you are the only person who has enlightened me on it.
My brother P* (name withheld) died by suicide 1.5 years ago, and he was not saved. At the time, neither was I. (I’m a new believer, saved out of the New Age movement. My brother & I both went to church when we were young, but strayed in our teenage years.) He was my only sibling, and we were extremely close, so his death completely destroyed my life.
I became suicidal myself, not wanting to live without my brother, and I came extremely close to ending my life. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit saved me in a moment of grace, without me asking for it or looking for it (this is partially why I believe in the doctrine of election, because my salvation was not my choice or my doing.) I had a sudden revelation that the Bible was real (just like that, a full-body flash of awareness that the Bible is real), and I was instantly convicted that Christ is real and Hell is real and Heaven is real, and I had a strong urge to read the entire Bible ASAP.
So that was the good news, but after becoming a Christian, I was grieved beyond words that my sweet, kind brother was burning in hell. He died alone in my mom’s garage (she found him), without the possibility of anyone saving him (either physically or spiritually). And because I now believed that Hell was real, I felt dread beyond belief to imagine my sensitive brother suffering there for eternity. You have no idea how this has tormented me for the past 19 months. I asked many Christians and the people at my church if there was any hope for him whatsoever, and I did lots of research on my own to see if God could possibly have mercy on his soul, after dying as an unbeliever. Was there ANY possibility that my brother was somehow saved? Most people didn’t give me any response whatsoever (I imagined they thought, “he’s burning in hell, but I’m too scared to tell her that”), and my own research also came up empty.
But Pastor Samson, you finally gave me an answer. You are the only person I’ve come across who has actually given a forthright response. I’ve spent HUNDREDS of hours listening to sermons and lectures on this topic, and nobody gave a straight answer. You finally turned on the lightbulb in my head, with your podcast on lost loved ones.
Although I already believed in predestination (I’m an avid listener of John MacArthur & I have his study Bible), I hadn’t thought to apply that to my brother’s situation. (HELLO!!!!) You made me realize that if it was God’s will for my brother to be saved, then the Lord Jesus would have saved him in his final moments. He would have found a way. In your podcast you said, “Absolutely no one is beyond God’s reach, even to the last moment of a person’s life.” Considering that my brother died by suicide, without any hope of resuscitation, you have no idea the hope this has given me. In my own suicidal moments, the Lord intervened and saved my life. In my brother’s case, although he died, there is still the possibility that he was saved before death, just like the thief on the cross.
And even if my brother wasn’t part of the elect, then that would still be God’s plan. Although I can’t understand it with my grieving heart, I can still accept it as God’s sovereign will, because He is supreme, and SOMEHOW it is for His ultimate glory. I will never understand it on this side of Heaven, but at the very least I can accept the reasoning. (When people get mad at the idea of predestination, I think they forget that God can do whatever He wants. He created us, and He can destroy us. None of us deserves to be saved, so we’re lucky if He saves even one person!)
In your podcast, you also quoted the scripture that says, “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “All that the father gives me will come to me.” Those words went straight to my heart, and they changed my life. I’ve heard & read them before, but never considered the context or applied them to my brother’s death. It means, if my brother was meant to be saved, then the Lord saved him. And if he wasn’t, then He didn’t.
But most importantly, it made me realize that my brother had a 50/50 chance of salvation. Either he was one of the elect (in which case he’s safe & secure, and I will see him again), or he wasn’t. But those odds are the biggest blessing to me. There is now a 50% chance that my brother is saved. Before, that chance in my mind was 0. I did not see ANY way that my brother could be saved, because I hadn’t considered predestination, and nobody had explained it to me that way.
Pastor Samson, you gave me a 50% chance of my brother being saved. Do you have any idea what gift you’ve given me? There is hope. I’ve cried so hard over the idea that I will never see my brother again, that there was absolutely no chance of him being saved, and I have been hurting so badly over the idea of his sweet kind soul burning in hell. But now, there is a 50% chance that he is saved, and that I will see him again.
You truly have no idea how much you’ve changed my life. I have cried so hard over this. I’m even crying as I’m writing this, but now it’s tears of hope and relief. I can live the rest of my life on these 50/50 odds. Before, I had a 0% chance of seeing my brother again. I had ZERO hope. I was so miserable, and couldn’t imagine living out the rest of my days with this burden weighing so heavily on me. I was even suicidal over it! But now, there’s a 1 in 2 chance of being reunited with my beloved brother. I will never forget you for this amazing gift you’ve given me. I will also be sharing this with my mom, who is equally grieved that her son is in hell.
And yes, I understand that there’s still that 50% chance that he was not of the elect, but I already lived and grieved in reality for the past 19 months. And having that framed as being God’s ultimate will, I can accept it. It doesn’t make it less painful, but at least I can accept it, as I humbly accept God’s sovereign will regardless of my preferences.
The Bible tells us that there will be no more pain or tears in Heaven, so *even if* I never see my brother again, I know that my eternal soul will somehow be comforted. I can’t possibly understand that now in my brokenhearted state, but I have faith that Christ will wipe away these tears, and the remaining years of my mournful life will be nothing compared to eternity.
Anyway, I know this was long, but I felt compelled to email you because you truly truly have changed my life and my grief. I needed this so much. You have given me hope. A 50% chance is…. a gift from God, honestly. You took me from 0 to 50, from hopeless to hoping. I can’t express my gratitude enough. Thank you for putting this content out there. (I suppose I should thank Justin Peters as well, since I found you through his YouTube channel.)
I have prayed to the Lord Jesus to please bless your ministry in this upcoming year, because you have blessed my life. The next time I’m in Arizona, I will be sure to stop by your church and thank you in person. You have given me the biggest gift. Thank you again, truly.
~A* (full name withheld)
P.S. P* (name withheld) was my older brother, but next month I will officially be older than him. You know how weird that’s going to be? I have been dreading this milestone since he died. But now… it’s not as daunting as it has been. It’s just a little less painful. I’m curious to see how else this new “50% chance” will relieve & alleviate my grief in the future. Thanks again ❤💔
This last Sunday, I was asked to share my personal testimony. You can watch the recording at this link:
https://www.sermonaudio.com/playpopupvideo.asp?SID=1017211718352880
I was thrilled to receive the following email in my inbox on Tuesday afternoon.
Hi Pastor Samson,
My name is __________ (Name Withheld).
We met briefly years ago, and I just wanted to reach out and give my thanks. I hope it’s an encouragement to you.
Almost 6 years ago, you preached a sermon at Apologia Church on Sunday, August 2, 2015.
I was visiting the church then, and the Lord used your preaching to convert me.
A little background on me. I grew up in Phoenix and was raised as a devout member of the RLDS (presently known as the Community of Christ). The church is the 2nd-largest Restoration branch after the LDS, and for quite some time was a formidable “rival” to the LDS. The history is that after Joseph Smith was killed, there was significant tension on who would lead the Restoration. Eventually, Brigham Young takes a sizable group out to Utah, and becomes the LDS. There were other off-shoots, but the 2nd largest group, after the followers of Brigham, were those that stayed behind and waited for Joseph Smith’s son to grow old enough to be prophet and lead the Restoration. That group became the RLDS, and is what I was raised in. It used to be quite large and even now is still worldwide, but it has since dwindled in numbers and become progressive and liberal. Yet, there’s still quite a spectrum within the church, and I was raised in one of the more traditional wings of the church– we grew up using the Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, viewing Joseph Smith as a prophet, etc.
Late in high school, the Lord began drawing me unto him. I began questioning much of the beliefs I was raised with, but at the time saw no need to leave behind my church. I even ended up still going to the church University in Iowa. But during my freshman year of college, the Lord really began wrestling with me. Much of that year was spent in pursuit of what I hoped was salvation, but I still felt I just couldn’t grasp it. That summer after my freshman year of college, I came back home to Phoenix to work for the summer. and much of that summer was spent wrestling as well.
One night, the Lord brought me to intense conviction of my sin. You see, I had been exposed to and heard the Gospel by this point. I had heard that belief in the Lord Jesus would save my soul and make me right with God. I had heard, and in a sense I knew, that my works did not play a role. But I had been so engrained from childhood in this idea that I had to work to earn God’s favor, that I had to work to access and maintain the grace God was offering, that I never realized how significantly it had a hold on me. I had heard the Gospel, but I still didn’t grasp it. One day I would feel like I got it, like maybe I was saved, but then the next day I would feel God’s displeasure and would realize that I wasn’t saved–this salvation I was chasing, I knew about it, but it still felt so far away.
So one night, the Lord broke me and brought me to feel the weight and guilt of my sin. I realized how severe my condition was, how great my sins were, and that my stench reached up to heaven, as it were. I deeply felt God’s displeasure with me and my sin. And I realized, or felt, that there was nothing I could do about it. I would never be able to earn enough favor to outweigh my sins. I could never work my way to righteousness, and in that moment, I felt hopeless. As far as I knew and had understood, I had heard the Gospel, but I still felt this attachment and necessity of my works, so in the light of my great sins and the perfect judgement of God, I had nothing. I spent that night in tears. That night was Saturday, August 1, 2015.
By that time, in my searching I had encountered plenty of broad-evangelical, Protestant, and even Reformed and Calvinistic thought. I knew of the Apologia church because of their work with Mormons, and for whatever reason, I decided to attend church there that next day.
August 2, 2015 I attended Apologia’s afternoon service and you happened to be the guest-preacher. Your sermon was entitled “Justification by Faith Alone.” By God’s grace, and in His redeeming providence, it was exactly what I needed to hear, and just mere hours after I had been brought under real conviction of my sin, the Lord providentially provided the balm to my soul in your preaching. It all clicked. It was as if blinders were lifted off my eyes, and for the first time, I saw. For the first time, I heard. The Lord had given me ears to hear. I realized there was no way I could pay for my sins. But Christ has paid it, and He has done it once and for all. There is no sense of me working hard to earn what Christ has done, or working to keep it. It is finished. Christ’s righteousness, the pardon for my sins, is found in Christ, is found simply by faith in Him. It was during that sermon I truly, for the first time, placed all of my hope and trust in Christ; in what He had done and who He is. I rested upon Him, not myself, and during that sermon I was converted.
So I wanted to reach out and thank you, and hopefully provide some encouragement. Of course, it is not man’s words in preaching that saves souls. But the Lord uses faithful preaching to convert men and women as He is pleased to, and the Lord used your faithful preaching to save my soul.
I’ve thought of reaching out for years now, but never did, for whatever reason. Hopefully this email finds you well and encourages you in your ministry and service to the Lord. I’m not sure how much fruit the Lord has blessed you to see before your eyes from your ministry. I know His ways are mysterious, and that many faithful ministers don’t see much of the harvest for what work they sow. But you can indeed count me amongst those whom the Lord has added to His Kingdom through your service.
I currently live in (city name withheld) Ohio. I got married last year to a girl I went to college with, that was also raised RLDS/Community of Christ, and the Lord was pleased to save her too. It’s been a blessing to be married to someone from the same background that the Lord has also rescued. She’s from this area, so we moved here after we got married. But my family all still live in the Valley, so I get back there when I can.
So thank you again for your service to the Lord and your faithful heralding of God’s Word. The Lord used you to save my soul, almost 6 years ago. I pray many others would be brought to know the Lord through your work, and that you would be blessed to see the fruit of such labors. May the Lord grant you joy in the work as you continue to help the Shepherd call His sheep.
Those who have visited our home may have noticed two of Dr. Sproul’s letters to me framed and displayed on a wall in my home, both of which were very encouraging endorsements concerning the two books I have written. I was very privileged to have a number of meaningful interactions with R.C., one of these was in 2003 at a Ligonier Conference in Colorado Springs. Wishing to let Dr. Sproul know just how God had used him in my life, and knowing that it might be impossible to have enough time alone with him at the Conference with hundreds of people around, I determined ahead of time to write out what I wished him to know in a letter and include it in a card for him, along with the gift of a hundred dollar bill. In the card I wrote, “I thank God for you, sir. Please use this gift towards having an evening meal at a nice restaurant with Vesta.” I signed the card simply as “John Samson” without providing an address.
Before one of the sessions was about to start, I quickly walked over to where Dr. Sproul was seated (on the front row) and handed him the card and with a tear in my eye said, “Dr. Sproul, God has used you greatly in my life and I just wanted to let you know how.” The meeting was about to start so all he could do was smile and thank me, and I then walked back to my seat.
A couple of weeks later, I was more than surprised to receive a letter from Dr. Sproul, thanking me both for sharing the story of his impact on my life and ministry and informing me that he had in fact had used the gift to have a wonderful meal with Vesta at a French restaurant and that they thanked God for using him as He did in my life.
Dr. Sproul had taken the time to track me down by finding my address somehow, and wrote a personal note.
On R.C.’s gravestone the following words can be found, “He was a kind man redeemed by a kinder Savior.” How true that is!
Because Dr. R. C. Sproul has impacted my life so greatly, this interview at the recent Ligonier Conference was especially meaningful to me. Vesta, Buck Parsons and Stephen Nichols reminisce about the man and his message: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUHp1GVtny0
Dave Hanson, a member of King’s Church, wrote the following email to me this week (August 12, 2020):
Hey Pastor,
While in the hospital and now that I am home, I’ve had time to reflect on the last 10 days. I want you to know that Suzanne and I are so thankful that we found you and the brothers and sisters at Kings Church. I actually found your blog about a year and a half and followed that before I first saw you on the dividing line (Dr. James White’s podcast).
I remember the program you had a mask of the Queen of England on your face. I can’t remember why but your sense of humor and your practical teaching won me over. When I found out you had started a church in Phoenix I prayed about checking it out for a few months, because we didn’t think we were being fed properly at the church we were at. This was the best move we have made!
We have grown so much in the last I guess it’s been almost five years at Kings Church, it’s hard to believe it’s been that long – time sure flies. Any way I say all of that to say this, because of all that I have learned over the last five years I was better prepared for this time when God in his providence put me through this health trial. I went in knowing that God is sovereign and in his power, wisdom and love, He would ultimately be glorified and it would be for my good. So I was determined to glorify God in this trial no matter what the outcome whether death or recovery! It was almost death.
On Friday, Suzanne and I were saying our goodbyes as we didn’t think I was going to make it, and I wanted to die at home and not by myself in the hospital. Suzanne started calling people from the church and people started praying and almost immediately my health started to improve. My body was still shutting down and there was damage to my liver but the doctors were able to stop the rejection and I started to heal remarkably fast. While the rest of the patients in my wing suffering from the same thing were miserable and could not get out their beds they were suffering so much, I had no pain, just yellow eyes and skin. I ended up being able to read and pray for our church, listen to sermons, it was just like I do every day at home. My labs kept getting better every day and I got out of the hospital early, and I owe it all to you and the Kings Church family for yours and their prayers, which God in His providence answered, and all the words of encouragement I received.
It’s nice to know we don’t have to go through these tests alone – not when we have a sovereign holy God dwelling in us and with us and the local
body of Christ standing with us. I am so blessed to be part of this fellowship.
Thanks again.
Dave H
Dr. John MacArthur (transcript from a sermon):
The law of the Lord is perfect, comprehensive, sufficient for the total transformation of the whole inner person.
Whenever I preach this (Psalm 19:7), I always think of this one man named Tim Evalina. I was preaching in Sebring, Florida many years ago. And at the end of the message that I gave in this church, he came up to me, introduced himself. He said, “I have to tell you my story.” He said, “My entire family are Jehovah’s Witnesses. In fact, my family is responsible for the leadership of the Jehovah’s Witnesses throughout the state of Florida. My job” – he says – “is, has been for years, to train all the Jehovah’s Witness leaders. I go from location to location to location training them.” But he said, “I have to tell you what’s happened to me.”
He said, “I was driving across Florida listening to the radio in a rental car; and I turned on the radio, and you came on. I didn’t know who you were. And you made one statement. You said, ‘Jesus is God.’ And I said, ‘That’s a lie,’ and turned it off. And then I turned it right back on again because I was curious. And you went on to show from the Bible that Jesus is God. That was on a Monday.” And Grace To You happens to be all over Florida, so if you keep moving you can find us. He said, “I listened five days that week to your program, and all week you were showing that Jesus is God. By Friday I was seriously grappling with that issue, because Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe that.
“Monday was the second week of the series, I listened five more days. Friday I knelt down beside a bed and I said, ‘O God, Jehovah, whom I thought I served, if indeed Jesus is God the Son, show me.’ That night my head was cleared, my heart was cleared, my soul was transformed, and I embraced Jesus Christ as my Savior.
“Now,” he said, “I had a problem, because I was going around training the Jehovah’s Witness leaders. So,” he said, “I had to do some retraining. So,” he said, “I started back trying to tell them all that Jesus is God. I was in odds with my wife, three sons, and my parents and extended family, and everybody in my whole world. I was called on the carpet, tried as a heretic, and excommunicated from the movement.” He said, “My life is transformed.”
You ask the question, “How do you reach a leader in the Jehovah’s Witness movement?” Just let the truth of Scripture do its mighty work. There’s no subtle way to do that. I can’t orchestrate that. He said, “Pray for my family. Please pray for my family.” This has only been a few weeks.
Got a letter from him some months later telling me his wife and all three sons were in Christ, they were redeemed. Serious dent in the JW system in Florida. This is only an anecdote, but it illustrates the amazing power of the truth to do its own work, energized by the Spirit in the heart. I always think of him when I think of that statement in verse 7.
(original source here)
(She was bigger than the Beatles, found the Messiah after her music career peaked – article here)
She read the Bible and knew Jesus is the Jewish Messiah
I was raised in a warm, musical, traditional Jewish family in the heart of a large Jewish community in Hackney, in the East End of London. Our extended family, although not a very orthodox group, was nevertheless totally Jewish in identity and heritage.
I always believed in God
I suppose I believed in God from my earliest days. I took His existence for granted. The State school I attended taught the Bible and I loved the Bible stories very much. However, because my school had a Jewish Headmaster and a large Jewish contingency among the pupils, we Jewish kids had separate R.E. (religious education) classes and assemblies. As a consequence, I never heard of a New Testament or a Jesus until I was around six years of age. One day, a non-Jewish girl came up to me in the playground in quite some distress and blurted out, “You killed Jesus Christ!” I was devastated and confused by this accusation. I had never killed anyone in my life and who was this person with the strange name, Jesus Christ?
My first hit record
At 14, while still at school, I had my first hit record. That led me to go into show business, travelling the world, singing at many famous venues and having more hit songs, including ‘Walking Back to Happiness’. I was carried along by all the fame, meeting celebrities and royalty and didn’t give much thought to spiritual things until the late sixties. At that time, it seemed that everyone was searching for the ‘meaning of life’. I began to visit mediums, clairvoyants and other such folk, on occasion. I also started to read books and magazines about spiritism, Buddhism and all kinds of psychic phenomena. I developed a system of beliefs, over the years, which incorporated a little bit of this, a little bit of that – a smorgasbord of ‘isms’ which, these days, would be called ‘New Age’. To my own way of thinking, I was not remotely involved in anything evil or sinister. I associated everything I believed in with God.
Emptiness
For quite a number of years, I was comforted by what I had discovered. It seemed to fill a void in my life – until I turned 40. A few months after this milestone birthday, I woke up one morning and, to my own great surprise, I found I no longer believed in any of my ‘New Age’ ideas. It’s hard to explain, but my belief in the supernatural had vanished overnight. Try as I might, I could not believe in any of my ‘isms’ any more. This presented a dilemma for me as I had always equated all my beliefs with God. Did this mean that there was no God? I found the whole thing very depressing. For the first time in my life, I had nothing to believe in. My Jazz and Pop career was going well. I was in a relationship with the man who is now my husband. I was successful, but inside I was empty. Looking back, I can see that this was God’s hand.
I met a Christian man
In those days, my musical director was a man called Bob Cranham. He was a Christian and more than once he had spoken of what his ‘Lord’ had done in his life. These were wonderful things, but I couldn’t consider them for myself because I am Jewish. This was the Gentile God blessing His people. In the midst of my turmoil, I called in at his house one day, to pick up some music. Now, neither Bob nor his wife knew anything of my inner struggle. Nobody did. Bob dropped a bombshell that day. He said, “I’m thinking of giving up the music business.” I asked him why. He said, “Because I believe God wants me to be a preacher.” I thought to myself, “Oh dear. He thinks he’s hearing from God.” Here was a professional, sane and sensible top-quality musician, composer, songwriter, producer – and he’s talking about giving up everything. Nothing I could say would sway him. He seemed so calm and sure and so willing to take this drastic step, if, as he believed, God wanted it. I found myself becoming more and more impressed by how real and sincere his faith must be if he could surrender all that for his ‘Lord’. I went home and told my boyfriend John how much I envied Bob. I had many opinions, but Bob had real convictions. I wanted what he had! I guess I was ‘provoked to jealousy.’
Starting to think about Jesus
I started to think about this Jesus constantly. I couldn’t get Him out of my mind. Finally, I lay awake one night and felt that I had nothing to lose. I whispered, “Jesus…?” I didn’t know if I was going to be struck by lightning. “Are you really there? Are you really the Messiah? If you are, I want to know. Please show me.” Nothing seemed to happen in my room that night, but in the weeks that followed, it seemed that everywhere I went, I was bumping into things and people connected with this Jesus. While all this was going on, my band and I came back from doing a concert in Germany. When we arrived at the airport and were saying our farewells until the next gig, Bob, my musical director, handed me a book. I was surprised to see that the cover was a picture of a Menorah (a seven-branched lampstand). The title of the book was ‘Betrayed’, written by Stan Telchin. The sub-title, in effect said, ‘How would you feel as a successful 50-year-old, Jewish businessman if your daughter one day told you she believed in Jesus!’ “How did Bob know I was searching?!” I thought to myself. Of course, he didn’t know. Nobody knew. Continue reading