Deny and confess. What do these mean?
Deny and confess are complete opposite in meaning. The common Greek word “deny” in the New Testament is the word ‘Arneomai’ meaning ‘to contradict’. ‘Deny Christ’ doesn’t just mean merely to say you don’t believe Jesus was Christ. It does not mean to think or say that Jesus did not exist. Deny Christ means to contradict His Word. You can deny Christ while you are saying that Jesus is God and that He was born of a virgin, that He was raised from the dead. Denying Christ is simply ‘to contradict’ the words that He spoke which would be more than just His actual words in the four gospels. Since Jesus is God and the Bible is inspired by God, all one has to do to deny Christ is to contradict the words written in the Bible by saying that, “God doesn’t mean what He says in the verses of Scripture.”
Deny means “to contradict” and confess (homologeo-of the same word) means “to agree with”. Preachers in the world today are denying (contradicting) Christ. Most of the so-called conservatives (meaning “to preserve established traditions or oppose change”) are not what they say they are. They claim to believe in the inerrant Word of God. When a true believer begins to confront these “conservatives” withe certain verses, they begin to speak contrary to the Word of God, contradicting what the Bible actually says.
When you bring up the verse: Romans 8:29 “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
The first comments are, “Well that don’t mean what it says.” or “That don’t mean what it sounds like it says.” I have had conservatives after I have quoted this verse look disdainfully at me and with disgust in their voice say to me, “You mean to tell me you believe in predestination?”
I’ve had others say to me upon simply reading a predestination verse, comment to me on the reading (without my expanding on the verse), “That’s your opinion.”
This is what it means to deny or contradict Christ. Deny Christ does not mean to say Jesus, as the Christ, doesn’t exist. Deny means to contradict His words, even if at the same time, you are proclaiming the inerrancy of Scripture calling yourself a conservative.
Romans 8:29 means exactly what it says. Has God planned for certain ones to go to Heaven and others to be damned eternally with no hope of salvation? The Bible says so in Ephesians 1:4,5,11 (According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.”), Romans 9:22-24 (What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?), 2 Peter 2:12 (But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed), Jude 1:4 (For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation), Proverbs 16:4 (The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil), Job 21:30 (That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction), 1 Samuel 2:6 (The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.)
These verses are true! One may not fully understand them, but in order to be a believer we must confess (homologeo- agree with them) These verses mean what they say. To say otherwise is to deny Christ.
Preachers in America do not like to believe that we have to suffer for the cause of righteousness and Truth. Jesus, Paul, Peter, and other Biblical writers tell us that this is a requirement to every believer. Jesus said, “If the world persecutes and hates me, they will persecute and hate you.” John 15:18-20. Did they hate Jesus? They (The Pharisees) certainly did. They killed Him because of His words (Matt 23) If we confess (agree with) Christ, we will agree with (confess) these words. We will speak the Truth with such plainness (2 Corinthians 3:12) that men will hate us and desire to kill us (John 16:2). It was not the heathen unbelievers that hated Jesus. It was the “conservative, Bible-believing” Pharisees who killed Jesus. I have heard preachers make such comments as, “We can’t suffer in the 20th century America because this is a Christian nation.” They contradict Christ. (John 16:33 “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.) God said I change not. (Malachi 3:6)
Malachi 3:6 “ For I am the Lord, I change not.” (Change-shama-transmute or duplicate) God does not mutate His Word or have two meanings. America, nor it’s preachers, are not Christians. Christians are like Christ; they tell Truth and are persecuted for it. Preachers in America use all the right terminology, but they do not define the words, read their Bible, and explain exactly what it means (from the original Greek words and culture of the 1st century). If preachers told people that they must deny self, take up a cross daily, die to the flesh, and live for righteousness, they will begin to suffer. But how are people going to take up their cross and deny self when they don’t know what it means?
Let me expand on this word ‘deny’, which means ‘to contradict’. The Greek word ‘Arenomai’ (contradict) has a particular Greek construction. Deny (Arenomai) comes from the word ereo meaning ‘a pouring forth to speak or say’. Placing the a- (alpha) (the 1st letter of the Greek alphabet) in front of a word as a negative particle (called the alpha primitive) negates the word giving it an opposite meaning. Placing the alpha (a-) as a prefix before the word ereo negates the meaning. It translates in the Greek arneomai or deny. Therefore, deny (arneomai) means no pouring forth or no speaking or saying words of our own. To deny self means to spare or crucify ones own words, by speaking the words of another. Solomon put it this way, ‘He that hath knowledge spareth his words.’ (Proverbs 17:27) (This word spareth is the word chasak meaning to restrain, refrain, refuse, or hold back.) To deny self is to refuse one’s own words. It is to cease agreeing with one’s own self by speaking and agreeing with God. Remember that confess is homologeo, meaning to be of the same word or “to agree with”. To deny self is to cease speaking one’s own opinion.
Confess and deny are complete opposites. If we confess Christ as we find in Romans 10:9, we will confess or agree with our mouths and say the words (from Scripture) that Jesus said. We will deny self and cease to say our own words or opinion. To confess with our mouth and believe in our heart means to say the words of God that He has written in our hearts. Matthew 12:34 “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Paul says that God has written His Word on the fleshy tables of our hearts. (2 Corinthians 3:3) The Bible says, as the Jews believed, that the mouth had to match the heart. When we confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts, we cease our own words, denying self (contradicting self). We agree (confess) with Jesus, with our mouths, and say the words He said. John said that whoever denies (contradicts) Christ is antichrist. 1 John 2:22 “He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.” If a man does not agree (confess) with Christ saying the things He said to others, then he is antichrist contradicting (denying) the Word of God. The word anti- in the Greek is the same as the word in English. Anti- means “in opposition to or in place of”. When preachers contradict (deny) God’s Word by saying certain verses don’t mean what they say, then they are antichrist and they place themselves in Jesus’ position. They are in opposition to and “in the stead of” Christ. All a man has to do to be antichrist is merely to say, “We don’t have to deny self, take our cross daily, suffer for righteousness sake, and go through persecution- that was 2,000 years ago. He doesn’t mean that today in America.” A man who says words such as these, denies Christ and he is antichrist regardless of who he is and how righteous he may appear outwardly. When Paul said, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9,10) He was saying, “You have to say with your mouth the same words Jesus said with His mouth.” You must say the Truth God has written in our hearts. The mouth speaks with the heart. His word is written in the fleshy tables of the heart of all His elect family. One who is unwilling to say the words that Christ said is unwilling to say truth and suffer for it. That person is antichrist and denies Christ.
In order to confess (agree with) Christ, God must put a hunger for the Word of God in the heart of all believers. A true believer will have some desire to read God’s Word. A man with no hunger for Truth is no believer.
Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Physical beings hunger for food. If one is a spiritual being, there must be hunger for spiritual food (the Word of God). Without confessing (agreeing with) the words of Jesus, with your mouth (by saying Truth and suffering for it), there is no salvation.
Confess Christ does not mean what men have imagined with their opinion. They have constructed a new doctrine when they say that confess Christ means to say with the mouth, “I believe in Jesus.” That is called lip service.
Matthew 15:7-9 “Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart (understanding) is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines (didaskalis-instruction, learning) the commandments of men.”
Man has made up his own instruction when he reinvents a doctrine (instruction) that is not found in the Bible. Confess does not mean to call up a TV “religious” hotline and say, “I want to confess Jesus as my personal savior.” That is no where in Scripture. To confess Christ is to say the words of Scripture that Jesus said and that is inspired by God.
The world will crucify us daily when we do this. -Graceandtruth.net
