Half Saved

7 February 2010

Dear Phyllis,

Several years ago a couple of fellows came from the States to help us build a church in Tenri. Roger went back home and said, “There is a strange man in Japan, Bill Cook, that talks about people being half saved. He is a nice guy, but I don’t know what he means about being half saved.” Yes, I use that expression a lot.  Actually, I got it from AW Tozer. He used to talk about the “half-saved cowboy evangelist” I know that is like talking about being half pregnant. I know a person is either saved or they aren’t. But to explain the reason for using that expression there are two factors. The first is a definition of salvation. The second is our human view of a person’s salvation. By our use of the word, there are two different meanings. One is our experience here on earth, and the other is our status in eternity – whether we go to heaven or hell.

Watchman Nee said that there is a difference between salvation and our citizenship in heaven. The correct use of the term should mean our salvation from sin. When the angel told Joseph to “call His name Jesus”, he explained the reason for that was – “for He shall save His people from their sins.” (Mt. 1:21) This is the primary meaning of salvation. My goodness, if there isn’t some salvation from sin what kind of a salvation is it? And yet, where is the man who doesn’t have some weakness? John honestly wrote, “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 Jn. 1:8). Joe Carroll said, “You believe Jesus is the Son of God and He died for your sin. You have accepted Him as your savior and are trusting Him alone for your salvation; and there has not been a significant change in your character and conduct; in all probability you are deceived and still on your way to hell.” That one rocked me.

From our perspective, sometimes it is hard to tell who actually is saved and who isn’t.

Recently I have been listening to some messages by Otto Koning – Bill Gothard’s “Pineapple man”. Otto Koning was a missionary in Papua New Guinea working among naked savages. He said it took him years before he had acquired enough language to communicate with those natives. Before he had made much progress with the language, he had the agonizing experience of being with a badly frightened 12 year old boy, Tada, who was dying. All he could do was hold the young fellow’s hand and tell him to say “Jesus”. The lad repeated “Jesus, Jesus” several times and went out into eternity.

After he had learned enough of the language to be able to communicate the Gospel, the next road block he ran into was that they simply did not believe him. To explain what he was up against Otto used a very helpful illustration. He said, “Suppose a UFO landed in your back yard and a little green man got out. The little green man said to you, ‘If you through away your Bible and everything you have, I will give you eternal life’. What would you do? There is no way I would accept what that little green man said  and throw away my Bible and everything else.” That was the scenario those natives were dealing with when the white man showed up and told them to throw away all their objects of demon worship. How could he prove to them that what he said was actually true?

 As he was desperately praying for some break, one day, the worst man in the village, showed up saying, “From now on I am going to take Jesus’ hand and follow Him”. Otto was shocked and asked the man what made him suddenly change his mind. Baida told him that he had been with about 20 other men wailing for a man who was dying. The man seemed almost gone, when suddenly he sat up and called for his wife to come and wash him. He said he had seen heaven and was going there, but it was such a  beautiful and clean place he didn’t want to go there so dirty. As his wife was washing him, he said, “All that Tuan (teacher) Koning has told us is true. I saw Tada (the 12 year old lad). He is there. Kane and Moto, they are there.” After his wife scrubbed him clean, Sunumi laid back down on the grass mat: with a big broad smile on his face he died. Otto said he hadn’t had any clear converts yet, but Sunumi and the other three that he mentioned seeing in heaven were the ones that he thought might be secret believers.

 

Otto Koning said he was rather skeptical of that weird story, but Baida and all the other 20 who saw that amazing scene were instant converts. Twenty years later Otto was back in that area for a visit. Baida’s two sons were pastors of two churches. Baida met him with his grandchildren. The little boys had never seen a white man before and were frighten when they saw Otto. Baida told his grandchildren, “He is alright. This is Tuan Koning. He is the man who told us about Jesus.” Baida was still faithfully loving and serving Jesus.

Those natives in Papua New Guinea – with their close relationship with the spirit world – have much to tell us about the things of the Lord. One significant thing was the apparent fact that, although Otto was not able to explaining systematic theology to the 12 year old dying lad, by just calling on the Name of Jesus; that was adequate to get him into heaven. And although those early secret believers didn’t have a clear testimony for Christ, yet, somehow, their simple faith got them a place in heaven.  

I have no problem accepting Otto Koning’s testimonies are very valid. But I have some serious questions about some of the major big name Christians in the western world. I say all this because I feel it is hard to evaluate some people's salvation. Orthodox theology certainly isn’t going to get anyone into heaven.

Jesus told us that the only way to be certain you have a seat at the Table at the Wedding feast is that you must have the wedding garment (Mt. 22:1-14). The wedding garment is, of course, Christ. A person must be clothed with Christ – not religion. There are some whose testimony aren’t too spectacular that may be saved. And there may be some well known preachers who may not be saved. That is why – if a person is questionable – I say they might be half saved. And there may be some Christians we will see in heaven who aren’t so real well saved from sin now.

I have a dear Japanese friend, Rody, who is the #1` western cowboy in Japan. I remember the night Rody surprised me with the testimony that he had accepted Christ as his savior. Rody never got established as a church-going Christian. But twenty years ago I stopped by to see Rody one night. He surprised me by saying he was going to America the next month. This was particularly amazing because he had not been to America in many years and I was going to the states the next month for the first time in eight years. I asked, “Where are you going?”

“Denver.”

“Really! I am going to the states and I will be in Denver next month.” We talked about getting together but parted before I got his schedule or he got mine.

Dave was in high school in Hudson, a town about 40 miles east of Denver. When he came down to Los Angeles to meet me, he said, “Dad, the Denver Stock Show is next week.” Man howdy, I wanted to see that! We drove from LA to Dallas and back to Hudson. The next day Dave took a day off from school and we went into Denver to see the Stock Show. The grounds there are enormous. The parking lot alone is so big you have to take a bus to get from one end to the other. There must have been 20 gates. We went into a lobby to buy a ticket. While I walked up to the ticket window Dave was walking around. Suddenly he cried out, “Dad! Rody!!!” Rody had come to the Stock Show grounds with four other Japanese to buy a ticket for the rodeo that night, and they were just going back into town. I bought the seat next to his! Figure that one out. What are the chances of something like that happening? He spent the day with us, and all he could do was shout “Thank You, Jesus!” all day.

A few years later, I was in Sasebo building a church, and Rody called me. He said, “Bill, it happened again.” Rody was in Denver on business and had an appointment to meet a man for supper. The business engagement got cancelled and he had a blank night on his hands. As he was wandering around the hotel wondering what to do, he walked past a room and saw a sign “Christian Cowboy Meeting”. He thought that might be interesting, but then decided that his English wasn’t good enough to go to a meeting like that. He walked back and forth to the door three or four times. Finally he decided to just peek inside. When he opened the door and stepped in, the man up front leading the meeting saw him and came back to greet him. Rody didn’t have his glasses on and couldn’t see the man’s face that distinctly. But the man walked up him, threw his arms around him, and cried, “Rody!” It was a man he had known in California many years ago, who was unsaved at that time. Neither one knew the other one had become a Christian, and that was the first time they had met in 11 years.

I don’t know. Rody is about 3/4 saved. Probably most people wouldn’t be much impressed with his testimony, but I believe he might have just enough of Jesus to get into heaven. I believe the Lord in the most unusual ways has revealed Himself to Rody. Fortunately, the Bible does talk about some folks getting into heaven by the skin of their teeth (1Cor, 3:15). Most of their life will go up in smoke but “he himself shall be saved”.

 I believe the Lord is merciful enough to allow some simple folks in and strict enough to shut some fancy ones out.

Tonikaku, I’ll be looking for you at the Table,     bill