A number of people have been asking me about Dr. Jeremiah. Just this week, I received emails from James and D.E. About a year ago, I received emails from Rick. They all said or implied that he holds to Lordship Salvation.
D.E. is a member of Dr. Jeremiah’s church. He writes, “He says we must believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior. I wonder if he means that Jesus must be believed in for salvation to receive eternal life AND He must be obeyed as Lord in the sense of boss/master?”
Let’s look at the evidence.
Dr. Jeremiah endorsed Ray Comfort’s CBN show The Way of the Master on 7/30/2019 (see here). Ray Comfort promotes Lordship Salvation. That is a strong indication of where Dr. Jeremiah stands. He would not endorse someone whom he believed to be preaching a false gospel.
In a message called “Why Do We Call Jesus the King?” (see here), Dr. Jeremiah tells the viewers to put Jesus on the throne of their lives, but he says that you must first make Him your Savior. “He can’t be your King, unless first of all He’s your Savior…So the question I want to ask you as we close today…Is Jesus Christ not just your King, but is He your Savior? Have you ever trusted Him and asked Him to forgive your sin and to come and live in your life?” (22:48-23:37). He doesn’t talk about everlasting life or salvation that can’t be lost. He doesn’t talk about believing. Instead, he gives a vague invitation to invite Jesus to forgive you and come live in your life. If that is Lordship Salvation, it is pretty mild. That is more decisionism. But it also clearly isn’t Focused Free Grace.
When discussing assurance of salvation (see here), he says concerning 1 John 3:9, “If you say that you are a child of God and you continually sin in rebellion against God, you’re deceiving yourself” (15:10-19). “If you do that, you are demonstrating you don’t have [His] seed within you” (15:55-16:00). That is Lordship Salvation.
At DavidJeremiah.Org under “Becoming a Christian,” he says, “If you repent of your sin, confess and trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you will be saved from your sins!” (see here). In his suggested salvation prayer he says, in part, “I give the rest of my life to serving You…” That is Lordship Salvation. (The same article is found under a blog “How to Become a Christian” [see here].)
Dr. Jeremiah holds to a mild form of Lordship Salvation. While he may be excellent on other doctrines, I encourage you to beware of his faulty view of what we must do to have everlasting life.
Keep grace in focus.
