Isaiah Saldivar Says Miracles Are ESSENTIAL To The Gospel!

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Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to the channel where we bring you Christian commentary about the things that matter.

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As ever, please know this video isn't a sinful attack, but rather a Biblical critique. In today's video, we're going to be talking about a clip from Isaiah Saldívar.

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Now, Isaiah is a hypercharismatic Christian who specializes in deliverance ministry.

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Now, this refers to the type of ministry that is very popular in Pentecostal circles, wherein a charismatic leader casts out demons from people to rid them of their physical, emotional, and spiritual problems of virtually every kind.

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There's a huge emphasis here on signs, wonders, miracles, and individual audible revelations from God.

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Isaiah Saldívar has a pretty massive following, 420 ,000 subscribers on YouTube at the time of recording, and the following clip from his channel is entitled, in all capital letters, mind you,

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SIGNS AND WONDERS ARE REQUIRED. The question then becomes, what exactly are they required for?

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Well, in the clip you're about to see, he explains just why he thinks miraculous works are essential to even preach the gospel.

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Watch this. Now, that's just the first segment of the whole clip, which we will be watching in just a moment, but I wanted to cover this so that we can make sure we understand what his perspective is.

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He made his argument very clear. He says that if you say signs and wonders are not essential to the gospel, you are completely wrong.

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He goes on saying that apparently, the apostle Paul tells us that without signs and wonders and miracles, the gospel is, quote, not full.

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This is echoed in the description of the video, which simply says, again, in all caps, SIGNS AND WONDERS ARE REQUIRED FOR THE GOSPEL.

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Here's why. Again, it's abundantly clear what his position is, but it's important to recognize how extreme it is.

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Isaiah Saldívar is saying that if you just preach the gospel message of Jesus Christ to a co -worker, a family member, or a stranger, you're actually preaching an incomplete message.

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If you simply tell people the good news, that Christ, the Messiah, has lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death, and has risen from the dead triumphantly, and that you can accept

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His sacrifice by grace through faith, you're not actually preaching the gospel if you say those things.

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The implication is that if you are not actually preaching the gospel, then the person you preached it to may not have actually believed the gospel.

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Again, I want you to understand how radical this position is. This also means that if someone preached the gospel to you, and they did not accompany this presentation with a genuine miracle that you saw with your own eyes, then you did not actually hear the gospel yourself.

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Though Isaiah did not directly say this, or call your salvation into question, his message certainly implies that Christians who found belief in Christ outside of charismatic or Pentecostal circles have heard an incomplete gospel message.

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So the first point you need to see here is how fanatical this argument is. But with that said, let's see if Isaiah can provide any serious evidence for such a serious claim.

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Let's keep watching. Here's what the NLT says. They were convinced by the power of miraculous signs and wonders, and by the power of God's Spirit.

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In this way, in what way? By the miraculous signs and wonders. In this way, I have fully presented the good news of Christ from Jerusalem all the way to Lyricum.

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In today's era of Christianity, we've lost the convincing factor. The thing that was convincing people in Paul's day was the signs and wonders.

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So in that clip, Isaiah offers a biblical reference to support his extreme claim about signs and wonders.

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The passage comes from Romans 5, 18 -20, which says this, For I will not venture to speak of anything except what

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Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience, by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the

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Spirit of God. So that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Lyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ, and thus

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I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation.

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So there are a few things that Isaiah got right here. He is correct that Paul preached the gospel.

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He's also correct that Paul took part in signs and wonders as an apostle. But Isaiah's central argument, in fact the entire claim of his video, was not demonstrated at all in this passage.

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Nowhere in the text does Paul say that signs and wonders are required for a gospel presentation.

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In fact, that's not even implied in the passage. But again, that is Isaiah's entire point.

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Signs and wonders are supposed to be essential in all true gospel presentations. But go ahead and read

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Romans chapter 15, and you will soon find that Paul does not say that. But if Paul does not say it, then why did

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Isaiah Saldívar's scripture quotation sound like that? Why did it seem as though he proved his point?

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Well, here's one possibility. Isaiah used the NLT translation, the New Living Translation, which is a more periphrastic translation of the

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Bible. It's less word for word compared to the NASB or ESV, for instance. The NLT renders verse 19 as,

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I have fully presented the good news of Christ from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum.

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But the ESV, just for one example, says, from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ.

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Now, I'm not making the case that either of these is inaccurate, but they are phrased differently.

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Isaiah seems to have honed in on the phrase, fully presented the good news in the

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NLT. And he connects this with the earlier comment in the verse about signs and wonders from verse 19 as well.

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But that is not what the passage is saying. As you can see in both translations here, when Paul says that he fulfilled or fully preached the gospel, he is referring to the geographical area that he preached in.

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He is not referring to the theological combination of signs and wonders with the gospel message.

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That's simply not what he said. The passage clearly says that he preached from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum.

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Thus, the full preaching of the gospel refers not to his gospel message, but rather it refers to the full area in which he preached the gospel.

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At the very least, we can clearly see that Paul did not say anything about signs and wonders being essential to his gospel message.

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And this same author, Paul the Apostle, reminds the church of Corinth directly of the gospel message he preached to them, the one that they were saved by believing.

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1 Corinthians 15 1 -3, quote, Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel

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I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word that I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

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For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the

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Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, end quote.

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This passage is absolutely relevant to the topic at hand. Paul says that he is reminding the

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Corinthians of the central tenets of the gospel he preached to them, the ideas that are of foremost importance to them.

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And interestingly, the only miracle Paul brings up here is the resurrection of Jesus. This is, of course, a miracle that most of the people in the

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Corinthian church would not have seen directly. So here's a question. If Isaiah Saldívar is correct, if signs and wonders are required for every gospel presentation, if the apostle

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Paul explicitly and obviously agrees with Isaiah Saldívar, then how does this all work?

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How is it that when Paul recounted his gospel presentation to the Corinthian church, he did not remind them of any miracles that he did among them?

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And if those miracles are essential to the gospel, then why did they not come up? Obviously, the scriptures do not support the hyper -Pentecostal doctrine that Isaiah Saldívar is preaching.

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The distinct overemphasis, the excess focus on signs and wonders from deliverance ministries should be deeply concerning for discerning

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Christians. It is extremely unbiblical to suggest that something is essential to the gospel when it is not, because the gospel is the most important message we could possibly spread.

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So on this channel, we would recommend that you steer clear of deliverance ministries and hyper -charismatic or Pentecostal movements.

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When it comes to unbiblical teaching in those movements, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I pray that this has been a blessing to you, and please know this.

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I do not offer any of this correction from a high and mighty position. I am nothing but a wretched sinner saved by the grace of Jesus Christ.

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So let's pray for Isaiah and for those with similar beliefs, that they would stop this false teaching by God's grace and turn to the truth of God's Word.

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