Belief, Faith, and Salvation
May 28th, 2009
“Without analyzing Eaglewood’s critique, I will state that the idea that a loving God would condemn all but a handful of saved saints to eternal suffering is hard to swallow. It does not sit well with me to say, “They had the choice, and they chose not to believe, so to hell with them!” And what about those that believe and yet do evil out of the spirit of rebellion?”
Luke the problem here is that your assumption here is a false one. First off G_d does not condemn us we are condemned by our own actions. The Word is very clear that each and every one of us has fallen short of the perfection required to be without sin in our lives. There have been only three mentioned in the Bible, Enoch, Elijah, and Yeshua. Both Enoch and Elijah were taken up to be with G_d without dying, and Yeshua died for us. I am not 100% sure on Elijah and Enoch but I am extrapolating based upon the fact that neither one of them died. I have also theorized the these two men might have had such a great understanding of and faith in Yeshua’s future provision that as the Bible has stated it was counted to them as righteousness. With this in mind I believe that if there was another man or woman who lived a life as righteous as either of these men then they too would not die. I have yet to have met such a person. Everyone has some kind of sin in their life even if they outwardly seem to be “good” people.
Lets just sit that aside for now and look at a salvation based upon your works. How do we decide who is righteous and who is evil? What is the standard by which we judge or by which G_d judges? If Mary does 4593 acts of kindness and 4592 acts of evil or selfishness does she qualify because she did more good than evil? Joe does an equal amount of evil and good at 4593 respectively does he get cast out because he has not done more good than evil. The only just measurement is in fact perfection. This is something I have expounded upon time and time again. Through out the OT every sacrifice made to Jehovah was to be perfect “without blemish”. This was a direct consideration to His perfect nature and no less than perfection could be accepted. It was also an allusion to the future sacrifice He would make. The ultimate sacrifice where Perfection Himself was killed so that those of us who were imperfect would have a way to spend eternity with Jehovah in His perfection.
You make it sound like that we are somehow comfortable with the idea that anyone would spend eternity apart from Jehovah. I am not nor are any of the Redeemed that I know other than maybe Vox. I grieve over these people. My own mother is set for this fate. She for the most part is a good person, but she is not perfect. She is also at best agnostic if not outright hostile to my faith. It would be so much better if I could console myself that she would be one of those who could spend eternity outside the “City” knowing that at least she was not in torment because she got what she wanted in living apart from G_d. I am plagued by it, but I can not make the choice for her.
“I know that belief and faith are not the same thing. Is it possible that what separates them is works? We are, after all, the sum of our experiences and actions. What court would judge a man based on his admiration and brown nosing of the judge? Not a just court. I feel certain that God is just.”
The last sentence in your first paragraph and this one tie together. G_d is just. He is also loving and a whole slew of other attributes can be attributed to Him, but first and foremost He is Holy. Our faith has nothing to do with admiration and brown nosing. Our faith is in Him because He will do what He said he would do. Through his sacrifice He has absolved us of our imperfection (sin). It is not earned because we can’t earn it. No amount of works can remove the stain of sin upon our lives. We understand the penalty of our imperfection and we have accepted the gift that G_d sacrificed Himself in our place so that we could spend eternity with Him. All He asks is that we accept the gift. In accepting that gift through faith we are changed. For some it is more subtle than others because our sin nature is more prevalent than others but it is there. A shift towards putting others before yourself is one of those outward signs. Another is a desire to curb our rebellious nature and submit our will to His. That is not to say that our sin nature is gone and at times it wins out. All we can do is repent and move on. Yet I get the feeling the question is aimed at those who claim belief yet commit atrocities like murder. To be honest I do not believe it is possible for a man of faith to sin in this manner. The Bible is clear that a man with a spirit of murder in his heart does not have the Spirit of G_d in his heart. Yet even those are not above redemption. David had blood on his hands and G_d said he was a man after His own Heart.
I hope I have not confused you I have been known to ramble when I write because I write like I think and it can get convoluted in it’s own strange linear fashion.