The Biblical Bigfoot; The Scriptural Sasquatch
It’s out there. The Biblical Bigfoot. Somewhere.
They claim it’s out there. They swear it exists. Whole t.v. shows and even television series – oft-times featuring otherwise intelligent, dependable, and reasonable people who are willing to put their very names and reputations on the line to persuade you of its earthly existence – are made regularly and readily available to be electronically piped into your personal and family time and circles, all with one agenda: to provide a case, based solely on shadows and speculation, for the existence of that which has never been physically proven or produced… A Bigfoot; a Sasquatch; a mythical, mystical, ape-like missing link type creature that many adamantly and militantly claim hunts and haunts the deepest and darkest nooks and crannies of the great, mountainous, North American wilderness. And the fact that there is absolutely no hard, earthly evidence whatsoever of its existence; that although some claim there are literally thousands of them out there, there has never been even one dead bigfoot body discovered anywhere; and that there’s never, ever, even once been one single Sasquatch killed or captured despite the decades of research and millions of dollars spent on such, doesn’t dampen the spirits or derail the intensity of the testimony of those who still want to try to convince you it’s out there. And the same thing holds true in the religious realm, when we start talking about the biblical landscape and its textual terrain.
They claim it’s in there. They swear it exists. And whole denominations of otherwise biblically-affluent appearing, pious, intelligent and reasonable religious people are willing to put their very eternal lives and souls on the line, being persuaded of its biblical existence. And like those mentioned above, these too, are made regularly and readily available to be electronically piped into your personal and family time and circles, as well as being found trumpeting their testimony from nearly every man-made denomination on every street corner, all with one agenda: to provide a case, based solely on satanic shadows and sinful man’s speculation, for the existence of that which has never been seen, proven, or produced, from within the pages of the sacred text… The so-called “Sinner’s Prayer” for salvation sake; the prayer supposedly needing to be said in order to have one’s sins forgiven, washed away, and to be saved, simultaneously “welcoming Jesus into one’s heart” at the same time. Subsequently, this so-called “Sinner’s Prayer,” might more appropriately be referred to, as the “Biblical Bigfoot,” or “Spiritual Sasquatch.”
Consider with me for a moment… When the 3,000 sinners were forgiven, saved, and converted to Christ on the Day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2, we see that they heard the gospel, believed the gospel, repented of their sins, and obeyed the gospel – this, by being baptized specifically for the forgiveness of their sins – and were thereby added by God, to His Son’s church (See Acts 2:37-47). They were saved and forgiven of their sins… but there was/is, not a shred nor shadow of Scriptural evidence anywhere there, to suggest or support the theory that any of them were taught to say, or recited the so-called “Sinner’s Prayer” in the process of their being biblically saved. In other words, this shadowy “Scriptural Sasquatch” or “Sinner’s Prayer” as it were, was – just like the supposed North American “Bigfoot” – nowhere in evidence anywhere. And throughout the remainder of the book of Acts, wherein we see everything from individuals, to whole households, to many from whole regions, and what amounts to the amassing of several thousands of examples of biblical conversions to Christ, we see not one shred of supportable, Scriptural evidence, to even remotely suggest the existence of this so-called “Sinner’s Prayer” (“Biblical Bigfoot,” or “Spiritual Sasquatch”) in these thousands of extremely verifiable examples of conversion to Christ and salvation from sin (See, study, and download chart from: http://www.clevelandcoc.com/?page_id=109).
The beloved Apostle, elder, and eventual martyr Peter, who preached that Acts 2 sermon and bound baptism and repentance as the heaven-honored “terms of entrance” into the Lord’s church (Matthew 16:19; Acts 2:38), would also later write as an older man in 2 Peter 1:3 ESV, that God’s “…divine power has granted to all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him…” (Underlining added – DED). In other words, ALL THINGS – EVERYTHING – we need to know about God, Christ, being saved, and how to get to heaven, God has lovingly provided us with, within the textual terrain of His eternal word. As the beloved Apostle John would also echo from within his divinely assigned corner of that landscape of love: “These things [are] written… that you may KNOW that you have eternal life…” (1 John 5:13 NKJV; CAPITALIZATION mine – DED).
To review: God has given us everything we need to know about how to be saved get to heaven in His holy word, the bible. The so-called “Sinner’s Prayer” for forgiveness, salvation, making one a child of God, and welcoming Jesus into one’s heart, is absolutely nowhere whatsoever to be seen therein, anywhere amongst all those thousands of examples of salvation and conversion to Christ we see in the sacred text from Acts 2 forward. If it is, then where is such a prayer found in the bible, “book, chapter, and verse?” If this “Biblical Bigfoot,” or “Spiritual Sasquatch” exists, then where is the unquestionable and unmistakable “body” of evidence found within the sacred pages of God’s eternal, exclusive, and all-sufficient revelation to man? It isn’t there – anywhere. In fact, the fact that there is no “book, chapter, and verse” body of proof of its existence within the textual terrain of the scriptures anywhere – wherein we have everything we need to know about God, Christ, heaven, and salvation – is made readily (even if unintentionally), very awkwardly apparent, by its extremely obvious absence from any and all denominational tracts sadly seeking to convince us it is for real!
But the fact that it is never seen in the sacred scriptures makes it abundantly clear that it apparently has nothing whatsoever to do with getting any lost soul to heaven according to God’s scheme of redemption. This makes it just another cruel, satanic, man-made hoax – a hoax which God will allow to lead untold millions of biblically ignorant masses who choose to continue to believe in its imaginary existence – despite a total lack of textual evidence – into a wild and terrible wilderness based on their belief in its existence, from which there will be no return (Mark 7:5-13; 2 Thess. 2:9-12).
Now please don’t misunderstand. I suppose that it is perhaps possible – very highly improbable and extremely unlikely in my mind, but not 100% impossible – that someday a Sasquatch, might, possibly be found. I am not naïve enough to believe that humanity has already discovered and catalogued every single species our great Creator created some 6,500 or so literal years ago when He formed the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1 and 2). However, should that highly unlikely day of legitimate Sasquatch production somehow come to fruition, it will immediately annihilate this article’s illustration, for one very irreversible and irrevocable reason: Unlike the earthly landscape of the North American continent, every inch and iota, jot and tittle, and nook and cranny; of every letter, in every word, of every line, of every sentence, of every verse, of every paragraph, of every chapter, of every book, of every writer, in either Testament of God’s complete revelation to His creation, being “forever firmly fixed in heaven” (Psalm 119:89), has been thoroughly and repeatedly explored and examined by countless millions over the past several millennia… and this so-called “Sinner’s Prayer of Faith for Salvation,” cleansing and saving the soul of the alien sinner and welcoming Jesus into their heart, simply isn’t there, anywhere, in God’s still all-sufficient plan for man… existing only in the shadow-driven minds of self-deluded and sadly, tragically, still lost souls. (For a two-part audio sermon mini-series dissecting this soul-destroying Spiritual Sasquatch in far greater detail, please see: http://www.clevelandcoc.com/?p=4825).