“‘Can I sell my soul to the devil?'”

Steve Brown:
Can I sell my soul to the devil? The answer to that and other questions on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Key Life exists to communicate that the deepest message of Jesus and the Bible is the radical grace of God to sinners and suffers. Life’s hard for everyone, so grace is for all of us. But there is a lot of confusion about how grace applies to real life, so here’s seminary professor and author, Steve Brown and Pete Alwinson to answer your questions.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hi Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
I can’t wait to hear what you’ll say on that.

Steve Brown:
Our producer said, well, it depends on how much. We’ll deal with that question, by the way, that’s Pete Alwinson. Do check out ForgeTruth.com and you’ll be glad you did. And in the not too distant future, his book is going to come out, Pete’s book, Like Father, Like Son, in an audio version. And, you’ll be glad, we’ll let you know when that comes out. As you know, Pete comes in and we spend Fridays answering questions. And we love your questions. You, if you have a question before you forget it, just pick up the phone and dial 1-800-KEY-LIFE and then record your question, and sometimes we put that on the air. You can write to

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Or you can send your question to Steve, e-mail it, [email protected]. And all of those places, where, are places where you can help us financially, if God moves you to do that. We’ll be faithful with your gift and you can charge it on your credit card, include it in your envelope. And we’ll rise up and call you blessed. And by the way, you can text key life at 28950 and just follow the instructions. And while you’re checking out things on your phone, check out the new Key Life app. It’s really cool. I mean, it took us a long time to get it there. So, help us if he can, if he can’t, we understand. Pete, would you lead us in prayer and we’ll get to these questions.

Pete Alwinson:
Absolutely. Our Father, we do bow before you today, grateful that we can come into your presence so easily. And Lord Jesus, it’s because of you. Thank you for taking on human flesh and becoming one of us, yet without sin. And then living that perfect life. And then, and then taking our curse upon yourself. Lord we recognize today that your crucifixion was horrible and our sins are horrible. And we’re so thankful that you have made the way for us to be washed clean, before the Father. And so we come into your presence. We honor you. We praise you. Lord, we look forward to worship. I thank you for Key Life, and for how Key Life keeps the gospel of grace alive to us, for Steve and for so many behind the scenes that do so much. And then Lord, I pray for our pastors and teachers and for worship leaders for how they lead us into your presence this week and give them grace, give them boldness, to help them to teach us how grace leads us to faith and risk and trusting you. Be with our needs now, as we deal with questions. We trust you and we pray in your strong name Jesus. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Amen. Pete, to the question I talked about earlier. Is there any way one can sell one’s soul to the devil and be eternally doomed?

Pete Alwinson:
Well, how are you going to answer that?

Steve Brown:
You can’t sell, what’s not yours. But, you know, if you’re a Christian answering that, no way.

Pete Alwinson:
Right.

Steve Brown:
And Jeremy, our producer, who said how much, was joking around, because you can joke around, you can’t sell what Jesus has bought with his blood. It’s not yours to sell. It’s settled. So don’t sit around, worrying about it. If you’re a pagan, ask how much, because you know, if you’re going to lose it anyway, you might make some money on it. And I’m being facetious.

Pete Alwinson:
No, I know.

Steve Brown:
Of course not.

Pete Alwinson:
But, but, you know, you’re, you do do raise the important point about God’s work in the world, and about the reality of Satan too. I mean,

Steve Brown:
It really is.

Pete Alwinson:
And, and, and it’s a very serious thing, even as we read history and we both read a lot of history, you’d see a lot of things, the acts of people in history, and some of the explanations for why they did what they did, can only be evil.

Steve Brown:
That’s true.

Pete Alwinson:
And, and how we see that the Bible clarifies that, we are, we need to be saved from the evil one.

Steve Brown:
And frankly, there are things going on right now, in our world and our country that I don’t understand.

Pete Alwinson:
Right.

Steve Brown:
I mean, as a Christian. And having the eyes of Christ, I just don’t get it. And so the explanation is exactly where you’re talking about.

Pete Alwinson:
Yep.

Steve Brown:
It’s satanic, it’s dark and it things, and it turns things on their head. It says things that are good, they’re evil. And things that are evil, that they’re good. Listen, that comes from the pit of hell. And it smells like smoke.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s exactly right. And, you know, those who can make us believe the ridiculous, could get us to do the immoral. And it’s, and, and we are hearing, as you’ve said, a lot of ridiculous things that do not make logical sense.

Steve Brown:
That’s true.

Pete Alwinson:
And, and, and yet people are buying into them.

Steve Brown:
And, and absolutely, and it’s evil. And you, you know, though we have to be careful, we need to recognize that reality. Jesus said to Peter, you be careful. Satan is looking to sift you like wheat. And then Paul says that we should put on the armor of God, because he was looking for somebody to destroy, but don’t forget the battle’s already won. And in the end, you know, they’re always talking about be on the right side of history. Listen to me, and don’t say that nobody ever told you, when you’re on the side of Jesus, you’re on the right side of history.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, that’s great. That’s so important. And we can’t lose hope and too many Christians are getting cynical and losing hope, because of these insanities that are going on.

Steve Brown:
Don’t do it. Hang tough with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Pete Alwinson:
Right.

Steve Brown:
Watch and wait and pray and see what God does. When we pay for health insurance, how can we avoid paying for women’s abortions?

Pete Alwinson:
Wow. I mean, there are some plans that you can avoid paying for abortions to. I suspect many, don’t even know that they are, given the corporate structure they’re in perhaps.

Steve Brown:
And the truth is that sometimes, we need to recognize that we live in a world that’s evil, and you can’t be an outsider to that world. If you’re working for a large company that funds abortions, you gotta either quit, which may mean your family’s going to starve, or you gotta, you gotta get your insurance, because they provide that insurance. Now, sometimes evil is so bad and so personal, and you’re so responsible for it. You have to say, no, I’m not doing that. And sometimes you got to recognize, I remember a friend, an old friend of mine told somebody about a club, he was in this club that was discriminatory toward Jews. And he said, I’ve resigned. And my old friend said, you shouldn’t do that. There isn’t any place you can go in the universe, that is in tinged with sin. It’s everywhere.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
So, you got to say how much and how responsible am I for this, before you make a move.

Pete Alwinson:
Boy. Good point. In fact, I said the same thing to a young man yesterday whose company was using satanic images in, in promoting their company. And I said, and he said, he said, I don’t want to work here anymore. And I said, go talk to your boss, see if you can have some influence there and let them know it’s real and it’s dangerous. And, you know, maybe you will change jobs, but start there.

Steve Brown:
I hope that company doesn’t produce stuff I use. I’m not even going to, I don’t even want to know.

Pete Alwinson:
I know, it’s crazy.

Steve Brown:
Then I’ll have to boycott, and pretty soon you’re boycotting everything, and you have to go out and live in the woods, and cook by camp fire and eat rabbits. This is, this is a question that’s interesting. Is there any, and you got to explain what he means or her, is there any Biblical warrant for the cessationist view of tongues?

Pete Alwinson:
Well yeah, in actuality there is, in I Corinthians 13, some at the very end, some people say at the very end of I Corinthians 13, Paul says tongues will cease, the quiet when the perfect comes, but we’re not sure exactly when that is, that’s the question. And so, there are many in our tradition who do believe in the cessationist view of things, and the supernatural gifts.

Steve Brown:
I’ve never asked you, but I don’t, I, I, I think there’s something to be said for that, that tongues are not as necessary for instance, in our time in the modern church as they were in an earlier time, but I’m kinda leery about telling God there’s something he can’t do, you know, God does as he pleases and he does it right well, and I think sometimes, I one time wrote a book on the Holy Spirit, Follow the Wind.

Pete Alwinson:
Yes. Follow the Wind.

Steve Brown:
And, unfortunately I offended everybody.

Pete Alwinson:
It’s what you do best, Steve.

Steve Brown:
It’s my ministry, man. Ticking people off.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
I said, you know, I said that a lot of people who had spoken in tongues, really didn’t, but it didn’t bother God as much as it did bother some theologians. And those theologians that said there are certain things, God can’t do. That’s probably worse than speaking in tongues.

Pete Alwinson:
Oh man. I think that’s all important to keep in mind. There is some Biblical warrant for it, but certainly no proof for the cessation of tongues. And that’s why we should not make this, something that divides us,

Steve Brown:
That’s so true.

Pete Alwinson:
We can have a good calm, Biblical discussion about it.

Steve Brown:
And I’ll tell you something that may be the most powerful movement of God’s Spirit in the world, is empowered by the Pentecostal experience.

Pete Alwinson:
And right now in the global South, we’re seeing that big time.

Steve Brown:
See it everywhere.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
So listen, however you feel about that particular subject, don’t throw rocks. Take the rabbis comment about the early disciples, you may be on the wrong side of God and that’s not where you want it to be.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. Good point.

Steve Brown:
Is it okay for Christians to get tattoos?

Pete Alwinson:
Well, I notice you’re new one, that ship on your chest there.

Steve Brown:
If I get one, it’s going to be a heart, with an arrow through it, and mother on it. No, I don’t think that’s what the Scripture is talking about. I, you know, I think it’s silly sometimes.

Pete Alwinson:
Well, yeah. And, and my, my read on that in the Old Testament standpoint is that if, if, if, if it was connected to a god, a foreign god,

Steve Brown:
Oh yeah.

Pete Alwinson:
then of course not. And that’s what I see, how that pertained in particular.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, I agree. And I have Christian friends who put Christian tattoos on their body. And I say, that’s crazy, but you go. We got to go. Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.