Most of the world developed an idea about God, who is a great Unknown. The thought that He is detached from the world, the Unknowable is very common because He doesn't do things according to our own expectations or imagination.
According to the Stoics - God is utterly detached from the human scene and we cannot influence Him, neither have any relationship with Him. Many still retain these ideas. God is Unknowable and He doesn't care. We want Him to be a sort of a Fairy to fulfill our wishes.
We wonder why isn't He simply visible to us, why isn't He talking to us from heaven with a loud voice so we can clearly see this is God?
Because it is not about seeing but getting to know who He is, how much He cares and how much He is involved in our lives. And it is based on His conditions;
"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." James 4;6
If we only knew how He looks like but didn't care about getting to know His character, His personality, His heart- would that be satisfying for is- just to say;
" Oh, I saw God, He is of that shape, looks so and so." ?
No. God is definitely more than we could see to be able to describe Him. Besides, God is a Spirit and we can know Him by getting to know His character. God made the way to know Him. For those who believe the gospel, there comes His revelation.
He doesn't have to be the Unapproachable One any more.
In a Jewish temple there was a curtain hanging to hide the Holy One. Only once a year the high priest could enter to make atonement for the people.He alone could come near the Holy One, the God who was separated from man.
But we forget that huge curtain hiding The Holy One - was torn down when JESUS DIED ON THE CROSS!
He came into this world where God seemed unknown and removed our own conception of unapproachable God.
Jesus comes to call us to God. He comes with the news that God is not removed from us that He wants us to approach Him, that in fact, this Holy God is friendly to sinners. For this reason the Pharisees were filled with anger when they saw Jesus befriending the common people. But Jesus reveals God, enters the human scene and calls us to Him;
"Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me..." Matthew 11;28
Here Jesus reverses our human ideas of God and shows that God wants you to come to Him. God calls you as a father calls his children home. God seeks you as a shepherd seeks a lost sheep. He calls you in His name ." Learn from Me....you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
"For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Luke 19;10 That is -us- who were lost in this sinful world, and by sin were separated from God.
Somebody once said;" Shakespeare can give you literature, Browning can give you poetry, Kant can give you philosophy, Sartre can give you existentialism,Freud can give you psychoanalysis, Einstein calls you give you science, the newspaper calls you to give you information, the motion picture gives you entertainment, the advertisers- a better living... Everything the world gives you is temporal. Everything Jesus gives is ETERNAL! He calls you to salvation!
What is Jesus cure? " Come unto Me" A call not to join an organization, to follow an ethic, a new teaching, or even a way of life, but this is a call to meet a PERSON, an invitation to come directly to Him and through Him to God. He is the DOOR. He is the WAY. Who else can save you if not the One who demonstrated His power over life and death? The One who died and rose again.
"You search the Scriptures because you think that in
them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
yet you refuse to come to." John 5; 39-40
God desires to be approached. He can be approachable through Jesus. Can anyone hold an intimate conversation with one of the Greek gods or any other man-made gods -statues? Definitely not! But the Father of Jesus Christ offers Himself to us; :" Come unto Me."
Can any of the man-made gods in different religions give you salvation? Definitely NOT.
"No one can come to the Father except through me" John 14;6
And Jesus says;" I will give you rest" The release of sin. The removal of fear. Freedom of conscience. Everlasting life. Jesus brought us the vision of God, the God who desires to be approached. It is not the fear of sin but the love of God which sets men free.
So Jesus calls you He invites you to the eternal God. For this God approaches you in Jesus and invites you to salvation and service. You may come from the lowest of motives. You may only want peace of mind, or rest from your burdens.. Someone once said; " I came looking for shelter. I found a shell. And then in a shell, I found a pearl"
"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation". Colossians 1;15
Friday, February 22, 2013
Saturday, February 16, 2013
All about salvation
Who will be saved?
There is no universal salvation, some will be saved and others lost. The Bible says that the day to separate one from the other will come for sure. This is the day to separate grain from the chaff, the good from the bad, the sheep from the goats. Each person will be classified into one or the other group. The Holy Bible says that in many places. Therefore, I do not accept the thesis of universal salvation. The question is: Are you between the saved or the lost ones?
To emphasize the importance of this issue, I must refer to the parable of the wheat and the tares and the parable of the fishing. We do not have to find our own interpretation of these parables, the Lord explained them to us clearly Himself. Wheat - says Jesus - symbolizes the children of God, and the tares - the children of Satan. The servants wanted to root out the tares and to leave the wheat , but Jesus said: "Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn."
(Matt. 13: 30).
How long will they grow together? Until the harvest. When will be the harvest? When the Lord says it is time for that. That means, while we are on this earth there will be wheat and tares, children of God and children of Satan. If we all were to be saved, the weeds would have to be turned into the wheat. But the Bible says the tares are tares, they are not intended to be saved, but will be collected in bundles and burned.
The same lesson is in the parable about fishing. The fisherman catches the good and bad fish. In the sea there are also bad fish.The sea is the Kingdom, the visible church - and it has also unbelievers ( or fake believers) in it who are like bad fish in a net. The separation does not take place earlier than at the end of the ages( whenever the Lord decides). Then the good will be separated from the bad. Not everyone will be saved.
"Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who commit iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear! (Matt. 13: 41-43).
"Angels shall come forth, and separate the wicked from the righteous" (Matt. 13: 49).
"And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then the King will say to them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world [...]. Then He`shall say to those on his left hand, Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels [...].
Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
(Matthew 25: 32-34, 41, 46).
Our Lord says that the angels will separate the sinful from the righteous, The sheep will be set on his right and the goats on the left. To ones He will say, "Come, ye blessed ones " to the others He will says : "Depart from me, ye cursed ones ." Thus, if there is a separation, not everyone will be saved. The question is are you between the saved or the lost ones?
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
(Matthew 7: 13 - 14). So many are on the broad road and not too many on the narrow.
"But, how God of love - you would say - may take so many for destruction?!
Let me ask you a question: Do you remember from the Bible when God allowed for so many to go to destruction? Yes, there was such a time. It was the time of the flood. Only eight people were saved, and all the others were killed. So many were lost in the waves of the flood.Their salvation was in the ark God told Noah to build but only Noah's family hid in there.
If God had already done so, is it difficult to accept that the judgement will happen again? Do you remember the story of Sodom and Gomorrah? How many people survived? Only three. There were only three righteous people God led out of the city before He destroyed it. All the others were killed. If God judged the wicked ones for the second time, He will surely carry on His judgement for the third time. Unfortunately the vast majority is rejecting the only savior Jesus Christ and so they will be lost.
Why today so many are walking on that wide road that leads to destruction? The vast majority have no idea at all about the Gospel ...
Most people do not have Jesus Christ in their lives. And which group do you belong to?
Many of those who expect to be saved- relying on their own righteousness, not on the God - will be lost
This is the saddest fact, but some of those who confidently expect that they will be in heaven, they will be not there.
Those who deceived themselves, were not looking for the truth but were holding on to Satan's lies regarding their salvation. It is a faith that is rejecting God's grace, relying on your own righteousness, faith without Christ the Savior, when the doors of mercy are closed.
"Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons, and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then I tell them, 'I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness "(Matthew 7: 21-23).
Make sure you are building on the one foundation that is Jesus Christ.
Do you let yourself be deceived by false teachings that are not rooted in God's word. You might have been listening to the Gospel all your life but never received Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You might have been raised in a Christian home, attending Bible classes and were active member of the church but never really received Jesus as your Savior. There is no salvation without Jesus.
There is no universal salvation, some will be saved and others lost. The Bible says that the day to separate one from the other will come for sure. This is the day to separate grain from the chaff, the good from the bad, the sheep from the goats. Each person will be classified into one or the other group. The Holy Bible says that in many places. Therefore, I do not accept the thesis of universal salvation. The question is: Are you between the saved or the lost ones?
To emphasize the importance of this issue, I must refer to the parable of the wheat and the tares and the parable of the fishing. We do not have to find our own interpretation of these parables, the Lord explained them to us clearly Himself. Wheat - says Jesus - symbolizes the children of God, and the tares - the children of Satan. The servants wanted to root out the tares and to leave the wheat , but Jesus said: "Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn."
(Matt. 13: 30).
How long will they grow together? Until the harvest. When will be the harvest? When the Lord says it is time for that. That means, while we are on this earth there will be wheat and tares, children of God and children of Satan. If we all were to be saved, the weeds would have to be turned into the wheat. But the Bible says the tares are tares, they are not intended to be saved, but will be collected in bundles and burned.
The same lesson is in the parable about fishing. The fisherman catches the good and bad fish. In the sea there are also bad fish.The sea is the Kingdom, the visible church - and it has also unbelievers ( or fake believers) in it who are like bad fish in a net. The separation does not take place earlier than at the end of the ages( whenever the Lord decides). Then the good will be separated from the bad. Not everyone will be saved.
"Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who commit iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear! (Matt. 13: 41-43).
"Angels shall come forth, and separate the wicked from the righteous" (Matt. 13: 49).
"And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then the King will say to them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world [...]. Then He`shall say to those on his left hand, Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels [...].
Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
(Matthew 25: 32-34, 41, 46).
Our Lord says that the angels will separate the sinful from the righteous, The sheep will be set on his right and the goats on the left. To ones He will say, "Come, ye blessed ones " to the others He will says : "Depart from me, ye cursed ones ." Thus, if there is a separation, not everyone will be saved. The question is are you between the saved or the lost ones?
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
(Matthew 7: 13 - 14). So many are on the broad road and not too many on the narrow.
"But, how God of love - you would say - may take so many for destruction?!
Let me ask you a question: Do you remember from the Bible when God allowed for so many to go to destruction? Yes, there was such a time. It was the time of the flood. Only eight people were saved, and all the others were killed. So many were lost in the waves of the flood.Their salvation was in the ark God told Noah to build but only Noah's family hid in there.
If God had already done so, is it difficult to accept that the judgement will happen again? Do you remember the story of Sodom and Gomorrah? How many people survived? Only three. There were only three righteous people God led out of the city before He destroyed it. All the others were killed. If God judged the wicked ones for the second time, He will surely carry on His judgement for the third time. Unfortunately the vast majority is rejecting the only savior Jesus Christ and so they will be lost.
Why today so many are walking on that wide road that leads to destruction? The vast majority have no idea at all about the Gospel ...
Most people do not have Jesus Christ in their lives. And which group do you belong to?
Many of those who expect to be saved- relying on their own righteousness, not on the God - will be lost
This is the saddest fact, but some of those who confidently expect that they will be in heaven, they will be not there.
Those who deceived themselves, were not looking for the truth but were holding on to Satan's lies regarding their salvation. It is a faith that is rejecting God's grace, relying on your own righteousness, faith without Christ the Savior, when the doors of mercy are closed.
"Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons, and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then I tell them, 'I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness "(Matthew 7: 21-23).
Make sure you are building on the one foundation that is Jesus Christ.
Do you let yourself be deceived by false teachings that are not rooted in God's word. You might have been listening to the Gospel all your life but never received Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You might have been raised in a Christian home, attending Bible classes and were active member of the church but never really received Jesus as your Savior. There is no salvation without Jesus.
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