No, not quite. I have been busy trying to catch up on things I have neglected recently.
There is hope for tomorrow. Hope that we will see God on His throne. Hope that we will sit at the table with Jesus for our feast when we all get to heaven. There is hope that I don't think too many people believe in now.
Our days are numbered here on earth. We live, toil, and die to this worldly abode. The good news (gospel) is that we are eternal creatures, built by God for one function, to enter heaven and live a life prepared by God.
In heaven, we will begin to live a pristine life. We will know happiness unlike we have ever seen. There will be no crying, no sorrow, and no pain.
But, what of those that don't find their way home? What about the people who deny Christ, God, and the Holy Spirit? What happens to them?
For centuries, people have been saying that God saves all of us. They offer as a platitude, "I will never worship a God who would condemn a person to hell." We have all heard that. We have all heard people accuse God of horrible things. What we never seem to hear is about the just God who has to send people who choose to denounce God to hell.
There is justice. God is a God of justice. It is only fair that a man who suffers through this world while praising and serving God get the reward promised them. A worker is worthy of his wage.
In the same light, a person who denounces God as irrelevant, unloving, or non-existent is worthy of the wage he earned. Hell is that wage.
It would not be fair for Christians to live among Christ's love and enter heaven and to allow the others the same privilege without the same commitment. It is fair they be given what they earned.
The next time you hear God being maligned in this matter, you have an obligation to point out this misconception out to whoever is spreading the untruth.
The other problem comes from the group that believes everyone goes to heaven. Some people preach that heaven is the reward for everyone. The mansions prepared are there for the taking and no one must believe to get in.
Both the Old and New Covenants bear witness against this. "No one comes to the Father except through me." "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall have everlasting life."
The world around us is trying to keep people from coming to God by so many different ways. Deception is one primary tool used by Satan to deny us of our gift from God. It is important that we sweep away the deception.
Till then...
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2 comments:
I hear what you're trying to say Allen but we have to be careful when speaking of what we have earned. By it's very definition grace isn't earned, merited or deserved. I don't think any of us wants what we have really earned.
Allen, You wrote:
"It would not be fair for Christians to live among Christ's love and enter heaven and to allow the others the same privilege without the same commitment. It is fair they be given what they earned."
That is the complaint that the workers of the field had when they worked all day long in the heat of the day, and got paid no better than those who worked only an hour. They got paid because the master was good, not because they "earned" it.
That is the whole premise of Christianity. If it were about living good and damning those who "earned" it (which, btw, we all did) then we are no better than the religions of the world who hold the same philosophy.
Christianity is different for that very reason.
Boyd
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