God says over and over that He loves us. Each person is His creation. He wants each person to know Him. He wants everyone to trust in Jesus and live forever in Heaven.
However, many choose to ignore His calling. Many do not respond to the message of His salvation. They go their own way. God does not stop them.
There are many questions that I cannot answer definitively. I don't know what happens to those who have never heard of Jesus. I don't know why one person accepts the message of Christ while another rejects Him even when they have heard the exact same message. I don't know why it appears that God makes special efforts to see some come to know Him while others get only a cursory message of salvation.
I believe that God knows everything. I believe He knows who will give his heart to Christ. I also believe He knows who won't. He can't avoid knowing these things if He is truly omniscient.
Some have answered my questions by explaining that God will "save" everyone in the end. He will take with Him everyone no matter their religion or belief while on this earth. They make damnation a total rejection of the Holy Spirit. That rejection is a refusal to go with God in the eschaton.
This addresses the argument of those who say that God should open His doors to everyone without any requirements. They think He is unjust to send people to eternal hell. They believe He should let up on some of the requirements. They want Him to let go of some of His holiness to welcome those whose sins have not been washed in the blood of Jesus enter His Heaven. They blame God for their own damnation.
I see this like blaming gravity for your skinned knees. Gravity does not change because someone trips yet they believe that God must change to accomodate those who will not accept His forgiveness given through the death of Jesus Christ.
Of course, those who believe this must see that the martyrdom of the Apostles was either a mistake on their part of an example to get everyone's attention. And, they have to ignore some scriptures too.
But just think, this eliminates the real need to tell others of Christ. It eliminates the financial support of churches. It eliminates the need for missions. It makes things very convenient.
I believe its damned convenient.
2 Peter 3:9 (NIV)
9
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Hebrews 9:27 (NIV)
27
Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,
3 comments:
The Word is God, and God is in the Word. Actually, one can go bonkers, if he sometimes chooses to believe the Word, sometimes NOT. Our identity which we acquired based on the Word, cannot be firm if we doubt the Word. And we cannot truly live out our identity if we believed NOT, fully the Word. It is different in attitude of the heart when we find it hard to obey certain commandments, as compared with, we believe NOT or accept NOT what the Word says. No one can do everything the Word prescribes, because we are perfect NOT, yet; but we are to accept the Word as God’s prescription of what He wants; and what He wants, we are to obey, both as loving Him, and, for our own good.
A believer, or maybe I should refer to it as a follower of Christ, MUST NOT doubt the Word. Doubting the Word is doubting Christ. I would even go as far as saying that if you doubt the Word, even though you have accepted Christ Jesus as your Savior, you are at the fringe; are you truly a believer or follower of Christ? If you are NOT, are you on Jesus' ship heading to Heaven?
If the Word said that entry into salvation is a MUST, then it is a MUST. It does NOT say that it is optional. It does NOT say, and so, we have to take it that we have to. Matter of exception, that is God's sovereignty; that is His business, NOT ours. Ours is to obey the Word; go, do what it says we are to do. He is God, we are NOT.
Look, I don't tell my children everything, but all that are important I tell them, and my desire is that they listen good, and take heed, and act accordingly. When I say, "Son, you take the ferry to cross the straits, to go over to Batam (an island nearby)", he better do that. I did NOT tell to swim the straits, he better NOT do that. In other words, don't be a smart aleck.
We are to follow, NOT create our own; we are to follow what God lays down as steps we are to take, NOT we create or invent our own. Too many people want to create their own version of what is needed by God, and that is the problem. Now, this is despite Scripture warning about adding or subtracting from the Word.
Some argue that it is a matter of interpretation; yes, interpretation is involved, and often times, there are "gaps", in which we have to fill in the blanks, but however we fill in the blanks, we cannot contradict what is already given to us in the Word. We cannot fill in the blanks for a verse or a text, causing it to contradict another clear-cut verse or text. OR we say, the overall counsel of the Word cannot be contradicted. For example, the parable of "Who are the goats and who are sheep" cannot be interpreted as "There you see, good works is all you need, to get to Heaven".
Many people interpret Scripture this way (they are the “you” in the narrative that follows):
I tell you my father has beard, and wears glasses, and before I finish, you go out there on the street, and put in, a man with beard and glasses, and then you say, "I saw your father on the street, and I have pulled him in, here!" Yes, I did say my father has beard and he wears glasses, but there is more, and I did NOT request that he be pulled in, here! I wanted to tell you that his name is called "Salvation Needed". If you want to pull my father in, here, you got to ask the man if his name is "Salvation Needed". One with beard and wears glasses does NOT qualify as my father!
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The Word is like that, this verse here, says something, that verse there says some more thing; this text here, speaks about this, and that text over there, elaborated more, on the same issue, and so on and so forth; and it is NOT necessarily that one verse said it all, although at times, it does. Sometimes back, the Lord gave me a song, and it has in it, "No words can fully describe you..." In a way, the Word is like a jigsaw puzzle (like only, NOT equal; a parable or metaphor); you need to fit together enough pieces to get an idea of what the localised picture is all about; and you need to fit together all the pieces to get the full picture.
The life of a Christian is to be lived like we are in the midst of fitting together the many thousand pieces jigsaw puzzle! Firstly, it is NOT optional, meaning you got to carry on, working at assembling the entire jigsaw. You may get help from others also working on the jigsaw, but each of us has a jigsaw puzzle before us – you fit yours, and I fit mine, but both jigsaw puzzles are the same; it is just that you work on yours, and I work on mine.
If you have tried your hands at putting together thousand pieces jigsaw puzzles, you will know it needs time, it needs perseverance, it needs longsuffering; yes, at times, it is so hard, but at some part, and times, some pieces just fall into place. Now, those pieces that I said, “they just fall into place”, it is NOT that, we sit idle and do nothing, but it is that we have put in some effort trying to figure out a certain theme or pattern, and then when some critical pieces are found, that segment falls into place. The points are that we are NOT to be idle; we are NOT to be giving up, despite the fact that we may NEVER complete the entire jigsaw puzzle. The Maker will give the full picture when the time runs out, but we have to continue to do the jigsaw until then.
You see, in the jigsaw puzzle, we do NOT create, the picture is already done for us, our job is to find those pictures within the pictures and the overall picture; we don’t create our own picture or pictures; we cannot conveniently put this piece here or put it there; and then say, “I say this is correct, then it is correct, no matter, the “nose” is joined to the “foot”!”
There is actually not such a thing as convenience in the ways of God! Convenience is a thing only for those with limits. Is it NOT the case for Man; we have limited time, limited resources, limited this and limited that? But NOT for God; He is limitless; everything is possible with Him; and so, you see, convenience does NOT exist as a thing for God, only for us. So, when we are making decisions concerning what is the right thing to do, as far as what possibly can be what God wants, convenience should NOT be the consideration. Do you think God does NOT know how hard it is for Man which is with limit to function in the ways of Him, who is of no limit? He knows, and just to show us, in action, He knows, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to experience it as a Son of Man. God knows, it is NOT so easy for everyone to piece together the entire jigsaw puzzle, but nevertheless, His directive is that we are to still work on the jigsaw puzzle of life with His help, by His Spirit. And a man, and any man can do with the help of the Holy Spirit, and we begin with the entry into salvation, accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and with that God gives the Holy Spirit to indwell us.
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Christianity is (about) the Word; faith is (about) the Word. Unbelief in it or re-creating of your own version, could rather you to be out of the “race”, you may NOT be working on the same jigsaw puzzle that true followers of Jesus Christ are working on. Don’t do that. Think hard about the mindset of one fitting together the jigsaw puzzle, he does NOT invent his own; he only seeks to assemble that which already there.
It is important but NOT that important, the end result, one quarter-finished, half-finished or 90% done. It is God saying to us, “I show you this, I gave you that, I assisted you there, I reveal that part to you, or what do you do with what I freely given you?” Don’t end up with God having to say to you, “But you have been profaning my grace to you almost all of the time!” It is the heart-attitude that God looks at. I don’t know how else to say it, than to say, “Don’t play punk” with God!
Anthony Chia, high.expressions
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