Today I’d like to share a guest post written by my friend and author Michael Copple whose new book is now available for purchase!
What was the Inspiration to Write Solving the Spiritual Dilemma?
It might come as a surprise what motivated writing the book, Solving the Spiritual Dilemma. The inspiration came from loving the vast majority of people who do not want to read it. Jesus, speaking of Heaven, said:
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. (2 Timothy 3:16a)
What the Spirit tells us in the Bible over and again is that since the first created human, Adam, offended God, we all have followed in Adam’s sin because we have his DNA. Therefore, we inherited this sinful lifestyle that has led to death for all of us.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
The only cure for this sinful condition was the One and Only sinless Man to die on the cross and suffer our punishment for breaking any of God’s Ten Commandments.
Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree [the cross] (1 Peter 1:24a)
He died for all. It is up to us to believe it is so. The result of our accepting this truth is that after we die here on earth, we receive everlasting life in Heaven.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
All mankind will die at least once. And all, believers and unbelievers, will be resurrected to face judgment. Those who continue to reject the Savior will be condemned and suffer the second death which is eternity in the lake of fire which cannot be quenched. (Revelation 21:7-8)
Why write something that will be refused?
Probably because of the same motivation that the Spirit knew would happen when He inspired over forty writers to write the Holy Bible. He already knew most people would not read it, but He went to great lengths to author sixty-six Books that took over 1,500 years to produce, and yet, for all the Books to be in miraculous agreement; absolute truth, no contradictions, error free.
What are other reasons the masses do not want to read the Bible? Many people of the world do not want to be subjected to their Creator’s authority. They just want to go on with their everyday life of doing what feels good, making lots of money, keeping up with the Jones’s, enjoying luxurious homes and vacations—all the while, not realizing this is all temporary—here on earth. The Lord Jesus warns in Matthew 6:19-21:
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
I cannot save anyone. It is God’s Word that has the power to save.
But a deep-rooted reason people are not interested in reading the Bible is because they cannot understand what the Spirit has authored. The verse which made an enormous positive impact for inspiring me to write Solving the Spiritual Dilemma was 1 Corinthians 2:14:
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The natural man is any human being who has been naturally born of a mother on this nature’s earth. In Biblical terms it means this person has not been born again with a new spiritual heart. This verse and the knowledge of what will happen to all the unknowing unbelievers—plus the hope for their salvation—is exactly what prompted the writing of Solving the Spiritual Dilemma.
The unsaved person cannot discern—that is, cannot decipher; cannot understand —what the Holy Spirit has inspired the writers to transcribe.
Upon the moment of believing in God, the Holy Spirit actually indwells the heart of the newly saved individual. The indwelling Spirit is exactly what makes it possible to make sense of what this same Spirit has stirred the writers to record. God’s Words are what have the power to save.
Any individual who has not experienced a life changing relationship with Jesus Christ by simply believing that He is the Savior is bound for eternal suffering. Belief in God the Father and God the Savior is the only way to eternal life in God’s Heaven.
The reason, then, for writing Solving the Spiritual Dilemma, was to explain the simplicity of God’s gospel Message.
To admit guilt and repent, ask God for forgiveness, to forgive others, and to love God Who loved us first. Jesus shed His blood to forgive us, He died so that we could have life in Him Who God resurrected from the dead, He ascended back up to Heaven, and He promises to return to the air to gather us together and to always be with Him.
Now, this was the inspiration for me to write Solving the Spiritual Dilemma – Why is Discernment Key to Receiving Eternal Life.
Interested to know more?
CLICK HERE to read Chapter One of Solving the Spiritual Dilemma.
