EXPOSING THE FALSE DOCTRINE:
JESUS DIED SPIRITUALLY
The question under consideration is: Did Jesus actually become "sin" at Calvary and experience spiritual death? The teachers of the JDS
heresy insist that He did, whereas God's Word states repeatedly that His death was physical. We are redeemed "...through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ..." (Heb. 10:10).
Several years ago when this doctrine first began to be stressed by certain charismatic teachers, I designated this error, for the sake of
brevity, as the JDS DOCTRINE (Jesus Died Spiritually). Therefore, it will be referred to as
JDS in this book hereafter.
Did Jesus literally become "sin" on the cross as the JDS ministers teach, or was He a Sin-offering? Are you aware that the Bible clearly shows that Jesus was a Sin-offering, holy, and pure, just as the Old Testament type foreshadowed?
Did Jesus go to Hell for three days where He was united in nature with Satan who became His master? The JDS Doctrine teaches this error. The Bible, however, states that at death Jesus went to be with His heavenly Father, not to be with Satan in the Pit. As He died He said: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46).
Did Jesus redeem man in Hell or on the cross? The advocates of the JDS Doctrine teach that redemption was accomplished in the Pit! Jesus, however, contradicts this error with His own words from the cross, which indicate that He had completed His redemptive work there, for He said, "It is finished." Whatever deluded men may say to the contrary, these three words stand as a permanent rebuke to the JDS error.
Did the sinless Son of God become unregenerate and lost at Calvary? Did He have to be to be born again and justified from sin as the JDS ministers teach? The JDS position on this matter indicates the enormity of their delusion, for we are told again and again that the sinless Son of God was lost on the cross and had to be born again-in Hell of all places!
Not only is such teaching heresy, but we also find that the JDS Doctrine does not solve the problem of the redemption of sinners, it only creates a new problem: Who, then, died for Jesus to redeem Him from His unregenerate state and provide for His justification? Who provided an atonement for Him if He literally became sinful with sinful humanity?
Did the blood of Jesus atone for sin? This is the central purpose for the sacrificial shedding of blood in Scripture. Here once more the JDS teaching is shown to be totally out of harmony with the Word
of God, although it is in line with the teaching of the religious cults and of Liberalism. One of the leading proponents of the JDS heresy states: "When his blood poured out, IT DID NOT ATONE, it did away with the handwriting of the ordinances that were against us" (Col. 2:14). He then adds that Jesus redeemed man, not on the cross, but in Hell.
Are you aware that one of the central doctrines of religious cult teaching is a denial of the blood atonement of Jesus Christ (See my book: Every Wind of Doctrine)? This statement alone from this "charismatic" minister, stating that the blood of Jesus did not atone, should be enough to alert any Bible-believing Christian to the source of such heresy. Even though the JDS teachers make some reference at times to the blood of Jesus from a seemingly biblical standpoint, nevertheless, they have destroyed its power to cleanse from sin by teaching that Jesus became an unholy sacrifice on the cross.
Again, was it total identification with sinners by Jesus on the cross, or was it a substitution for sinners? The distinction is important. The JDS ministers confuse the identification of Jesus with the human race at His birth with His substitution for sinners on the cross.
If He became literal "sin" and was lost and unregenerate at Calvary, then He would have been an unacceptable offering to God for the sins of others; whereas, if He remained pure and holy, as the Scriptures show, then God could accept Him as a substitute on the behalf of sinners. Only in this way could He fulfill the Old Testament type, whereby the animal for the sin-offering had to be spotless and without blemish. Moreover, the sin-offering was regarded as most holy even after its death.
This, then, is a general outline of what will be discussed in more detail in the following pages.
Why should you be concerned about whether Jesus did or did not die spiritually? Because the Bible shows that your eternal salvation rests upon what you personally believe about the blood atonement of Jesus Christ! It is here-at the cross-not in the pit of Hell, that your salvation either stands or falls.
Those who currently embrace the false doctrine concerning the Atonement are guilty of heresy of the most serious kind. Its seriousness stems from the fact that if one believes this perverted doctrine he will find that in the end he has been robbed of the blood atonement on his behalf.
The Bible is emphatic on this matter. A sinner cannot redeem another sinner, especially if both are lost! One would think that this fact is too obvious to need any explanation. The guilty can only be redeemed by someone who is guiltless, and remains so both during and after the work of redemption. In such a case, the guiltless individual could then act as a substitute, suffering the punishment for which the guilty party is liable. He could not do so, however, if he himself had become guilty by identifying with sin as the JDS doctrine contends.
In this case, the guiltless, who had become guilty by identification, could no longer act as an acceptable substitute. The main thrust of the entire Old Testament sacrificial system, is to show that Jesus was a guiltless Substitute, Who, like the Old Testament type, remained pure and holy both on the cross and after His death.
Finally, it is suggested that the reader observe all the footnotes which will also set forth important information on certain texts cited by some of the JDS teachers. Such information was put in the footnotes when it was believed best not to overburden the discussion with too much detail.
