Michael S. Demory
On February 5, 2024, Country Western icon Toby Keith Covel shed his mortal tabernacle and transitioned into the next life. He did not go to heaven as most people today believe, but as all individuals have since the beginning, Toby went to the temporary realm of Hades, where he and all others who have passed await the second coming of Jesus and the Day of Judgment (Matt. 25:31-46; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; 2 Thess. 1:6-8; Rev. 20:11-15; 22:14). As much as multitudes loved his music, in the end he faced the same temporary destiny as every other human being has and will do. The question is, which side of the great gulf did Toby choose? After all, is that not our purpose for having been put here on earth, but to fear God and keep His commandments which is our entire duty (Eccl. 12:13), to prepare ourselves for which eternity we choose to live in? Earth is our testing ground for eternity, and God has provided us with everything we need to prepare ourselves.
Toby was blessed with 62 years to make sure he was following the path God desires that all humanity follow. Yet, like the majority of people in every generation of man, most tend to squander their opportunities, choosing to follow family tradition over God’s will (Matt. 7:13-14, 22-23) or feelings rather than the one true standard (2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:3). In the end, God will judge every one of us individually, whether we chose to follow His gospel or the gospel of men (John 12:48; Gal. 1:6-9).
In November of 2023, Toby was interviewed by Oklahoma City’s News 9 Robin Marsh. They discussed his thirty-year career, his battle with cancer, and toward the end of the interview, his “faith.” Robin told Toby that his battle with cancer was part of his testimony of what he was doing, to which Toby answered,
He has a plan for everybody, and if this is my plan so be it. And if it isn’t, but whatever, if I can be a great spokesperson…but you go through whatever you’re supposed to go through and through that relationship you have to find the silver lining and count the blessings that are there…and my faith let my light shine, you know. Light at the end of the tunnel is the Almighty, it’s not a train coming. You either get on the train, or you get in front of it, but get out of my way.
Robin then asked Toby if he had a Scripture he had clung to. “Is there one Scripture?” Toby then answered her,
I spend so much time when I’m talking about my faith to somebody in my world that might have difficulty understanding it, or, oh you’re talking about the invisible man in the sky. John 3:16 is so simple, you know, you don’t go to church, you cuss, you do this, you drink wine, you…you know, it’s like, it doesn’t say if you do all of these things, you pay this much money, you go to this church this many times, that you go to heaven. It says, “Believeth.” Whosoever believeth would not perish but have everlasting life. That’s all it says. That’s what it says, it doesn’t say who believeth and does this laundry list over here—just believe, that’s the word that you gotta get through to everybody. And what’s so hard about believing? What’s hard is not believing, what’s the result of that? What if I’m wrong and I believe, and it really doesn’t exist? Well, I’m still riding the other train, right? And then once you believe and you start having a relationship, you start getting fulfilled, all of a sudden it turns around and you start to go, ohhh, I see.
So, the newest treatment I’m on, I go to Florida to get a new treatment, I come home the next morning; you get numbness in your feet with chemo, so I’d been off chemo 2-3 weeks, my feet had been numb for months – and I was really worried about my feet. And I go and get this new treatment, and I get up the next morning, not thinking nothing about it I fly back in here and get in bed, and my feet hit the cold floor, and I could feel my feet, and I could feel my sensors firing, I could feel the balls of my feet balancing me, and I went wow. And I have a book that has my daily scripture in it, right? I look down, this is the day, it’s dated, this is what I’m supposed to read this, my morning scripture, and it says, “Now that you’ve chosen the path, the road less taken trust in Me in your direction and My light will shine on you.” That was my scripture for the day, now if I’d a went Tuesday and Wednesday that scripture on that day wouldn’t have said that. But the day I was chosen, and I looked at the scriptures around it and the other days, none of them applied to this day. But this day it said, and I was on, I went to Florida to get a new treatment, come home, overnight I can feel my feet and it made me go wow, this is the best my feet have felt in over a year. Something happened in that treatment, that…and I wondered what my scripture would, and when I opened my little book, I wondered what it was going to say in here, and that’s what it said. I may be talking with the invisible man in the sky, but he’s talking back.
Like so many celebrities, Toby Keith may claim to be a Christian, but identifying as one no more makes him a Christian than does a man identifying as a woman make Him a female! As much as I would love for him to truly be saved, it’s just not possible to claim him as a brother in Christ, for he failed to do more than simply believe. Mr. Covel was a Free Will Baptist, which prides itself in its use of John 3:16 and the verb Believeth. Although Free Will Baptists believe in original sin, they do believe a person can fall from grace (conditional security). They contend that a person is saved by faith alone and kept by faith alone. Thus, Toby’s insistence that God does not require a “laundry list” of things that must be done to go to heaven, except continual faith, is patently false. By taking one text out of context, Toby has made it a pretext. Toby and the Free Will Baptists (FWB), like so many other denominations, have chosen an eisegetical method of interpretation that makes them feel good about their unfaithful life. Paul said, “Whatsoever is not of faith, is sin” (Rom. 14:23). Toby and his poor choice of a church fails to realize that there is much more to faith (belief) than merely trusting. To contend that “believeth” (initially and continually) is the only requirement of God for salvation is to argue that repentance, confession, and immersion in water are to be found only in the “laundry list” of things not necessary. God said all Scripture is profitable for instruction, correction, reproof, and doctrine (2 Tim. 3:16), not just John 3:16.
Just believe—that’s what everybody needs to understand, says Toby and the FWB. The point is, too many people believe that to eternal destruction of their souls, Toby’s included. In all the examples of conversion in the book of Acts, not once do we find a person teaching another about God’s plan of salvation that faith is all there is. Did Philip correct the Eunuch when the man pointed out water to the evangelist, saying, “What hinders me to be baptized?” We don’t find Philip saying, “You’re not understanding God’s plan. Believeth is the only word you need to know and do.” Absolutely not! Philip said to the Eunuch, “If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.” The Chariot was stopped, and they both went down into the water, and upon his born-again experience, he came up out of the water and went on his way rejoicing (Acts 8:35-40). What about the rulers who believed on Jesus? According to Toby and the FWB, they were saved, which means that even the demons are saved due to their belief (Jas. 2:19). Yet, we know that the rulers were not saved just because they believed, for they refused to confess Christ because they feared the Pharisees more than God (John 12:42).
Free Will Baptists, as with all others who say they are not 5-point Calvinists, do not truly understand the doctrine they defend and follow. FWB believe they inherited the sin of Adam, and, therefore, are utterly and completely depraved. But then they contradict themselves and say they believe God gave them a free will to choose their own path. But how can that be? If it is the case that one is born utterly depraved and is unable to know or do anything good due to the inherited sin of Adam (which is not true and against God’s teachings), then by giving man a free will to choose right or wrong, is not God removing His ability to receive all the glory by predestinating certain individuals to salvation, as most Calvinists argue? Another contradiction in the doctrine the FWB is that it is by faith alone, and continued faith alone in the work of Jesus at Calvary, that one is saves. Yet, in their doctrinal statement under “Who Can be Saved,” they say this:
It is God’s will that all be saved, but since man has the power of choice, God saves only those who repent of their sin and believe in the work of Christ on the cross. Those who refuse in this life to repent and believe have no later chance to be saved and thus condemn themselves to eternal damnation by their unbelief.
Apparently, they do not believe in the Law of Excluded Middle that says that a thing cannot be and not be at the same time. So, the FWB says it is by faith alone, yet they say God saves only those who “repent” of their sin and believe in the work of Christ on the cross. Either it’s by faith alone or it’s not by faith alone, which includes repentance! It is logically impossible to be both. Calvinists will do this every time, as will Evolutionists, knowing that most people are not paying attention. Toby certainly did not, as he clearly stated, “Believeth” and that’s all; it’s that simple! But it’s not that simple Toby. There is more to it than simple trusting faith, and God’s word proves it every time to the honest person. Now we are not demeaning Mr. Covel; he may have sincerely believed what he had been taught, but sincerity cannot save a gnat unless it is coupled with an active obedient faith that adds every prerequisite to God’s plan of salvation.
We are sad that Mr. Covel was not a nobleman like the Bereans (Acts 17:11), constantly studying the over 31,000 verses of God’s Word, rather than only one. Toby, like multitudes of other men and women, chose to accept his doctrinal beliefs as truth, instead of obeying God and putting his faith to the test daily (1 Thess. 5:21; 2 Cor. 13:5). If there were a book entitled Famous People in Hell, Toby would be named in it, not because of this article or my beliefs, but because of his own choice not to make absolutely sure he was following the Word of God. Many other famous people I appreciated and enjoyed would be in that book as well. They had their chance, their God-given opportunity to take their testing seriously, and to make sure they passed. It’s not God’s or anyone else’s fault Toby and millions upon millions of others flunked the test; they have no one to blame but themselves. In the end, all God does is grant our choice. Whether we were active or passive in the eternal try-out, it was still our choice. And that’s one thing Toby did believe in, that God gave him the choice to get it right or not. Unfortunately for him, as he said, “He got on the wrong train.”
As for his new treatment in Florida and his daily Scripture reading, God was not providentially picking Scriptures for a particular situation. Could his feet getting better be due to the prayers of righteous men? Possibly. For certain it was the new treatment he received. As a sinner, Toby’s prayers were not heard; they were not in the mind of God (John 9:31; Isa. 1:15). But someone will say, what about the Centurion Cornelius? His prayers were heard. True, but it was under different circumstances. Cornelius feared God, turned away from evil, and prayed to God always (Acts 10:2). His prayers were heard because his heart was open to hearing what God had to say, and then to obey it. Toby’s heart was not open. He was satisfied with his “believeth” only doctrine with no “laundry list” of things to do. He could cuss, drink alcohol, attend worship every once in a while, and so on, which means he did not turn away from evil. Yes, we all start out as sinners, and either we whole-heartedly and honestly seek God’s will, or we don’t. If we are truly seeking God’s will, then our prayers will be heard.
Is there more to God’s plan of salvation than “believeth?” Without a doubt! In John 3:16, Eph. 2:8, and other proof texts for “faith only,” the word faith is not to be understood as being “alone.” Stop and think about that for a moment. We are saved by “grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus alone.” How many “alones” or “onlys” are in the statement? Three. According to the definitions of alone and only, that is two too many because those words mean “solely, without the addition of anything else.” So, if we are saved by grace alone, that eliminates faith, the blood of Jesus, repentance, confession, and baptism. If we are saved by faith alone, that eliminates grace, the blood of Jesus, repentance, confession, and baptism. The Bible never speaks of “faith” alone as part of the salvation plan. As James points out, faith by itself is a dead faith (Jas. 2:26). In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, we are given example after example of men and women who exhibited faith. However, it was not a dead faith, but a living, working faith that pleased God. When we find the word faith, we (that is, those who honestly love the truth) understand that more than faith is necessary, which Calvinists admit by their double standard of saying in one part of the doctrine it’s “faith alone” and then later adding repentance to the mix.
John 3:16’s use of the word believeth is a verb, which is an action word. We hear the gospel, which in the heart of honest men acquires faith (belief) in the promises of God that we can receive, if we are obedient to His will. That faith must then become active (action because it’s a verb). Action that then motivates the individual to repent of his sins (Luke 13:3, 5; 2 Pet. 3:9), confess that Jesus is the Son of God (Matt. 10:32-33; Rom. 10:9-10), and submit to water immersion in order to contact the saving blood of the Lamb (Acts 2:38; 22:16; 1 Pet. 3:21). It is only through such actions on our part that we obey the Gospel (death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, Rom. 6:17; 3-6). Sadly, Mr. Covel chose not to accept God’s plan but instead followed the plan of men—another gospel (Gal. 1:6-9).
We wish Toby had chosen to come out from among the lost and truly be saved, but he did not. Now, he is in a place where there is no R.I.P. but facing eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth. Toby, sadly, is facing the second death, complete separation from God, and any chance to correct his choices (Rev. 20:6; 21:8).
