"And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld [looked upon] the serpent of brass, he lived [was saved by this act of faith]" (Num. 21:9).
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so [on a pole, cross] must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life [be saved by this act of faith]" (John 3:14-15).
The account of the "brass serpent" in Numbers 21 and its correlation to the crucifixion of Jesus is well known. In fact, together with the chronicle of Jonah in the whale as a parallel of Christ's resurrection, these two passages are two of the best now Old Testament "prophetic actions" pertaining to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
However, while the story of the brass serpent is "well known" as pointing to our salvation by faith in Christ's death upon the cross, the fact that this SAME, God-ordained, brass serpent became an idol is not as well known.
"He [Hezekiah] removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it [worshiped it]: and he [Hezekiah] called it Nehushtan [just a piece of brass]" (II Kings 18:4).
You may have heard some teaching on the brass serpent as an idol--teaching that invariably follows the idea of: "Don't make the things God has given you, like your family and home, or other important things like your job and church into idols." While we should not make idols of these things, this type of application of the Jews' brass serpent idolatry is far from what it was actually all about.
To the Jews, the brass serpent represented healing and salvation. Thus, these things were the What and Why of their worship.
(To this day, a snake(s) on a staff is they symbol of healing. This didn't come into being because a snake is a pleasant sight or because snakes have healing powers. Nor is it because the "caduceus" carried by Mercury was adopted as the symbol of the medical profession.
Rome's Mercury, and his caduceus, was preceded and thus influenced by the Greek's Hermes. Who is to say that they were not both inspired by the Jews' earlier and original brass serpent "caduceus." Either way, the Jews' snake on a pole represented healing and salvation!)
The Jews' brass serpent idolatry had two facets: in a) worshiping God's means of salvation they had b) forsaken loving God above all!
Without the above understanding, no Christian leader can properly identify brass serpent idolatry in the church. Nor can they properly apply the scriptures about it. This inability to apply and properly identify brass serpent idolatry within the Israel of God, the Church, has enabled a vast body of salvation worshipers, a salvation cult, to flourish within Christianity today!
This cult MUST be exposed for what it really is: A cult that "worships salvation" and preaches Jesus (the Saviour) only as a means to obtain this idol--salvation!
This cult's members are often heard saying the while they may be "out of fellowship" or have "no current relationship" with Jesus the Saviour, they are still possessors of THEIR salvation! They say they can not lose this salvation and God can not take it back no matter how much they may sin or even willfully blaspheme His name in the future.
And why is this so? Because they profess that THEIR salvation is unconditionally secure and nothing -- NOT EVEN GOD--can take "IT" away.
This cult is the direct antithesis of the salvation-by-works, hypo-security cult known as Catholicism. Its theology of unconditional eternal security is the heart of "fundamentalism" and its practitioners are most widespread among "Baptists"!
In fairness to those Baptists and fundamentalists who haven't adopted this cult's theological philosophy of unconditional eternal security (once saved always saved, no matter what) I've put the words fundamentalists and Baptists in quotes.
However, that doesn't change the fact that "Baptist fundamentalism" is by far the primary (almost the only) pot in which this poison is rooted and growing!
If you're "in" this cult I've just identified, you are doubtlessly shocked or upset right now. Well, that's to be expected because you don't realize that, like all cult victims, you are deceived! But what's worse is that you most likely don't even have the salvation you're so confident of because you have been fed a false understanding of what GOD'S salvation IS and IS NOT.
I've not written this to offend but in hopes of "getting through" to some that they may be set free from several damnable lies:
... the lie that a person can live in sin and still make it to heaven.
... the lie that you can be separated from, or out of fellowship with, Jesus Christ (WHO IS ETERNAL LIFE) and still possess eternal life.
... the lie that "grace" is God's unmerited favour.
... the lie that God can never, under any circumstance, take HIS salvation back once given.
... the lie that if a child of God gets to sinning bad enough God will just "kill him and take him to heaven."
I also want to show that salvation is not a thing but a person (Jesus Himself), to establish the truth about faith and grace, and to demonstrate that a Christian does indeed have security, eternal security. This security is in nothing other (and nothing less) than a personal ongoing relationship with the Savior Himself.
So read on and hear me out--just as you have asked Moonies and Mormons to hear you out. Because if you're in the Salvation Cult, you need to get out for you're in idolatry.