Conspicuous absence

[JudaicChristian]

We sometimes hear people saying-"but of all the religions in the world, why should Christianity be more important than any other?"
Let me give them their answer-

Islam - doesn't have the Son of God in it
Judaism - doesn't have the Son of God in it

Judaism does indeed also have son-s of God.

Genesis 6:1
[ Sons of God and Daughters of Men ] When mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them,

Genesis 6:2
the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were beautiful, and they took any they chose as wives for themselves.

Genesis 6:4
The Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterwards, when the sons of God came to the daughters of man, who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of old, the famous men. [Nephilim translated means "Fallen ones." Those [men] who are of a very low moral grade.]

Job 1:6
[ Satan's First Test of Job ] One day the sons of God [men] came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.

Job 2:1
[ Satan's Second Test of Job ] One day the sons of God came again to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them to present himself before the LORD.

Job 38:7
while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Matthew 5:9
Blessed are the peacemakers, because they will be called sons of God.

Luke 20:36
For they cannot die anymore, because they are like [angels/messengers] and are sons of God, since they are sons of the resurrection.

Galatians 3:26
for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Psalm 82:6
I said, "You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High.

John 10:34
Jesus answered them, "Isn't it written in your law, I said, you are gods ?
33"We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."

John 10
34Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'? 35If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken— 36what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'?

 

[TonyB]

Does that help at all? I realize this doesn't cover everything but in all honesty it's almost easier to explain what I don't believe over what I do believe. Anyways, if you have a question fire away.

Yes, it helps and explains a lot.

 

[ivdavid]

Post 1

O Father, please open our minds and hearts to understand Your love for us in Your Son and our Saviour - Jesus Christ. Amen.

I've just skimmed through this thread. And the issue i've comprehended is over why and how Christ is the only means of salvation. This is what i've gathered so far - correct me if i'm wrong. In this post and the following ones, I am going to refer to other religions but I don't have an in-depth knowledge of them. So if there are any misconceptions on my side, I would be willing to correct them as they're pointed out. Let the discussion proceed in a civil and not a caustic tone. I'd request the reader to read through completely before rejecting any argument because I have had to deal with different overlapping arguments at different places. I'll also clearly declare here that my intent is only to share the truth, not try to impose my beliefs on anyone.

Firstly, I think all of us would agree that when we refer to 'God', we imply the All-Knowing,All-Wise,All-Good,All-Powerful,All-True,All-Loving,Perfectly-Just,Absolutely-Holy, Omnipresent Eternal Sovereign Being.

Now, i'm avoiding discussing the atheist's viewpoint for now. But just reflecting, they arrive at it with no just cause and also end up removing all meaning and purpose from life. When there seems to be so much meaning and purpose in all of creation which we see everyday, and if we ourselves are driven towards meaningful pursuits and a purposeful life, then there has to be meaning and purpose for our existence too - and this can be found revealed only in our Creator - the one true God. I'll deal with this later...but for now -

I don't understand the agnostic's viewpoint which claims that there might be a God but that He cannot be known. What does that mean - 'He cannot be known'? Obviously He cannot be known if He doesn't choose to reveal Himself but if God doesn't reveal who He is and why we are here, then it goes against the very definition of God. God cannot be All-Wise and still be the author of confusion. God cannot be All-Good and still be cruel. Do you imagine God observing us as if we were white mice in the laboratory, without revealing to us why we're here and who He is? That's cruel. Do you imagine Him sitting back without taking any effort to reveal truths to us as we flounder about many religions and many concepts of God through our imagination and perception? That's confusion. How can an All-Loving God be so unloving when we seek answers about Him? And how can an All-True God let us flounder about our own concepts of 'true' and false without ever revealing the actual, absolute truth? Compare this with what God reveals through His written Word - the Bible.
Joh 8:32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 14:6 Jesus said to him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me.
God has indeed revealed all truths and meaning through the Word, all creation, His angels, the numerous prophets, His written Word and His own begotten Son who came in the flesh, Jesus Christ. These truths are being suppressed because of our own rebellion against submitting to the Holy God.

To avoid misinterpretation of the previous para, let me state that by revelation from God, I don't necessarily mean a physical revelation. Well, that is going to happen on the Last Day but what I mean here is that God has to reveal meaning and purpose for our lives so that we can have hope in our lives in this world. We must have a roadmap of where we are to go and which way actually leads there. God has indeed revealed all this and more which is to be accepted through faith in Him.
Secondly, satan is the author of confusion - he spawns off the other religions through his deceptions to keep people from going to the one true God. But people hold on to these erroneous beliefs only because they seek not the truth. They've heard and want to continue hearing what their itching ears want to hear. Nobody who seeks the truth can ever be lost apart from Christ.

So agnosticism breaks down to either atheism or an attempt to find the one true God's revelation among the religions of the world that claim divine origins. If agnostics mean that the true God cannot be known from among the religions of the world, then that's just laziness. But if they mean that their concept of God is not that of the one defined above but rather a spiritual life-force that drives our world and our lives, then C.S.Lewis best sums it up......
"...But to be complete I ought to mention the Inbetween view called Life-Force philosophy, or Creative Evolution, or Emergent Evolution....People who hold this view say that the small variations by which life on this planet 'evolved' from the lowest forms to Man were not due to chance but to the 'striving' or 'purposiveness' of a Life-Force. When people say this we must ask them whether by Life-Force they mean something with a mind or not. If they do, then ' a mind bringing life into existence and leading it to perfection' is really a God, and their view is thus identical with the Religious. If they do not, then what is the sense in saying that something without a mind 'strives' or has 'purposes'? This seems to me fatal to their view. One reason why many people find Creative Evolution so attractive is that it gives one much of the emotional comfort of believing in God and none of the less pleasant consequences. When you are feeling fit and the sun is shining and you do not want to believe that the whole universe is a mere mechanical dance of atoms, it is nice to be able to think of this great mysterious Force rolling on through the centuries and carrying you on its crest. If, on the other hand, you want to do something rather shabby, the Life-Force, being only a blind force, with no morals and no mind, will never interfere with you like that troublesome God we learned about when we were children. The Life-Force is a sort of tame God. You can switch it on when you want, but it will not bother you. All the thrills of religion and none of the cost.Is the Life-Force the greatest achievement of wishful thinking the world has yet seen?"
- C.S.Lewis, Mere Christianity

So we see that a spiritual Life-Force breaks down to our definition of God to have purpose and meaning or breaks down to meaningless chance if it lacks purpose and meaning. In the other views of God where even one of the smallest attributes of perfection are removed from God, God just becomes a superiorly abled but nonetheless flawed Being which again cannot be trusted for meaning and purpose - for what meaning is there in a flawed purpose.

I'm not trying to oversimplify things here but looking at it experientially and not from just a theoretical viewpoint, all meaning and purpose and thereby hope is found in a perfect God who has to have revealed His intents and consequently our purpose of existence through one of the religions of the world claiming divine origins.

The only assumption in my argument so far is that mankind has to have meaning and purpose. I haven't justified or proved this assumption because I take it experientially but any objection to this only implies that some actually are fine with their lives being without meaning and purpose - this seems hypocritical because I'm sure(experientially) that they are trying to substitute this lack of meaning found in God with the 'meaning' of excelling in and enjoying this life to the maximum extant possible. A life that is merely meant to be survived and within that objective, to be made best use of, actually lacks overall meaning. If people would rather be epicureans, they're just being the rebels that the Bible talks about - those who would avoid God at all costs so that they can hold on to their imperfections that the Holy God finds abhorring while pursuing and satisfying their lusts. They are indeed without excuse on the Day of Judgement. (Romans 1:18-22)
On the other hand, I believe that it is God who has given us this desire to question our existence and thereby seek God in order to know more about Him, to see His love and grace, to love Him in return and hence derive our meaning and purposes linked to His will.

So, we arrive at trying to find out which of the world religions claiming divine origins is absolutely true. I hope nobody's beliefs are offended but a search for truth always brings up falsehoods that we might have always held on to, but the effort to let go these falsehoods shouldn't keep us from knowing the truth. For it's the truth (Christ) who sets us completely free from all the slavery of sin, deceit and falsehoods. I believe that people follow other religions because they just might be misguided in their beliefs through the deceptions of satan. What makes me so sure that I'm not misguided - not any of my human wisdom but purely God's grace and revelation. I too was deceived by satan's lies, my own self-pride and rebellion until Christ set me free. I have no claim in the discovery of truth - it was pure revelation by grace. I pray that God's grace abounds in all of you who are seeking God. I oft repeat this promise of God -
Jer 29:13 And you shall seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

I know none of what I say about myself and my convictions can be proved or backed up with empirical data. But that's the case with anyone's faith. That's why this post puts forth some arguments of the mind, so you may have something to evaluate that could help build your faith, but you also need to accept these in your heart. May the grace of our God enable you to do so. Else, we're not building faith but rather are vainly philosophizing.

Continuing, a simple elimination process of religions is found in these verses from Acts 5:33-39 -
Act 5:34 Then there stood up one in the sanhedrin, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor of the Law honored among all the people.....[and said]
Act 5:38 ....... For if this counsel or this work is of men, it will come to nothing.
Act 5:39 But if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest perhaps you be found even to fight against God.
So, a revelation from the All-Powerful God cannot die out. This leaves us just the religions that are prevalent today and which also claim divine origins. The ones that I know of are - Christianity, Hinduism(with Personal God), Islam and Judaism. My knowledge is limited here. If there are any other religions/religious beliefs that believe in a personal God, claim divine origins and that are prevalent today, then I'd include them as they're pointed out.
The variants of the above religions are not included here because it's the basic doctrines that need to be tested first and if these are shown to be non-contradictory, then perhaps further exploration can be carried out. Religions like Buddhism are not included because there is no divine origin or revelations of God - so it's by its own admission, a man-made(Buddha) system of beliefs.
Obviously, none of the religions can be intellectualized or emotionalized into truth - so let's just start by searching out contradictions within themselves and with our experiential observations.

I'll continue in following posts....

 

[ivdavid]

Post 2

Continuing from where I left, there's just 2 major divisions - (Christianity,Islam, Judaism) which follow a transcendental God while the other is Hinduism(with personal God) which follows a pantheistic God, who is also transcendental to some.

Another fact to be arrived at is that truth is exclusive.
I can't have 2 different statements saying contradictory stuff and still both being true. With Christianity's statement of Jesus Christ being the only means of salvation, Christianity perches high up on the exclusiveness tree. Either Christianity is false and one/many of other religions are true or Christianity is true and all other - every other religion is either false(Hinduism,Islam) or misinterpreted(Judaism). Since Christianity acknowledges the truth in Judaism though not in their interpretation, we can solely look at Christianity, Islam and Hinduism for the moment.

The concept of suffering reveals a lot of doctrinal truths.
One, it indicates a Just, Holy God who tolerates no evil. The Bible throughout shows how God allows adversities to befall His people to chide and lead them to repentance. Even in our own lives experientially, we have been chastened by our parents with something unpleasant like being grounded to make us learn to do the right thing. We very clearly have concepts of right and wrong and there is the consequence of suffering that deters us from doing wrong while there is happiness, peace and love for doing right. When we willfully violate these teachings, then our wrongs lead to evil and thereby sufferings - to others unfairly and to us as penalty. This is the basic perception of right,wrong,good,evil,joy,suffering that we have as children. But as we grow up, we set ourselves new rules. We permit ourselves certain wrongs having calculated the risk of being penalized. Why - because of our sinful desires, which are so overpowering that we ignore conscience and try to negate guilt with some forced 'justification'. At the same time, we lash out at being made to suffer unfairly because of another's similar indulging in wrong and evil. So we see that we ourselves are the authors of evil and the unfairness in the world on account of our own enslaving sinful desires that we yield to.

Two, suffering and unfairness in this world indicate that this isn't the world we were all intended to live in. For how could we have the concept of suffering if we didn't have the concept of perfect joy and happiness. If there is a concept of perfect joy and happiness just as there are concepts of perfect good, perfect love, perfect truth, perfect life(no death) etc. and if these concepts haven't been realized in this world, then they must be on the other side of our passing away here. This is confirmed by the very coming of Christ and His Gospel or Good News of the coming Kingdom of God.

But this concept of suffering and evil raises an ambiguity in the pantheistic theory.
The transcendental religions clearly state that God is not the author of evil and that man, one of God's creations, fell into sin by his own sinful desires and rebellion. These religions also acknowledge that suffering in the world is on account of the evil perpetuated by man against the will of God. But the pantheistic religion states that this entire world,universe,plants,animals,humans etc. all are actually a part of God and in God - I imagine it to be a spirit God whose form takes these various reality shapes(like mountains, lakes, plants, animals, humans etc.) and who constantly keeps evolving by Himself which in turn is perceived by us humans as real world phenomenon.

The question raised here is how can there ever be evil present as a part or in God. It goes against the definition of God. So, here the pantheistic believers state that there is actually no absolute thing as evil or suffering but all these events are mere evolutionary changes of the pantheistic God. And what makes this seem as evil and suffering are our desires to satisfy ourselves - basically by our egos and our minds. And when these desires are denied us, our mind perceives this as suffering and our ego perceives this as an evil done to us. (I wish somebody could word this better here)
Anyway, this is where I completely lose it. If there is no such thing as evil in this world, then there can't be any concept of 'wrong' either. And if there is no concept of 'wrong' then all we ever do will always be right because we're a part of and in God. Then why would this God give a set of laws or rules or ways of living to be followed called the 'dharma' and expect us to adhere to the 'right' way of living and not the 'wrong' way of living so that our positive karma can take us to a better rebirth while a negative karma penalizes us. If God in His absolute sense, sees no such thing as evil or wrong, then why would He give a set of laws to keep us from doing wrong or evil. And if He didn't give it, then aren't the believers just adhering to a set of man-made rules claiming that it is from God.
To repeat,
1. If we are in the pantheistic God and we perceive evil, how can there be evil in God?
2. If there is no evil at all as seen by God, then why give any set of rules/laws at all - why not let everybody simply evolve in Him?
3. If the laws weren't given by Him then isn't that a contradiction in the belief system of the Hindus?
This contradiction would only throw open again, all the questions of life and death.

To touch upon the three most common questions in man:
1. How are we here? (Past - creation)
Pantheism simply states that God is evolving and humans are only a part of that evolution in Him.
2. Why are we here? (Present - purpose)
Our present purpose is to stop associating with our minds that keep us captive to this world and to start associating with the soul(atma) to perceive the spiritual world. Here I get thoroughly confused on what they mean by 'I'. The question - Who am 'I' - never gives me a satisfying answer from the pantheist believers. Does 'I' refer to my mind or to my soul? So when I commit a sin, would you say that it was my mind that committed it, or was it my soul, or was it that no sin was ever committed but was just perceived so by my mind. If there was no sin committed, then why karma and good and bad? If the sin was committed by I-the-mind, and 'I' die immediately - in their parlance, the mind dies - then where is justice by God? If the sin was committed by my soul, and the penalty is that 'I' should be reborn in this world into a life-form that perceives more suffering in this world as justice meted out to my previous sin, then how is that suffering perceived by I-the-soul - it is only perceived by another mind.
Make sense of this - because I see no way how the mind can be detached from our soul.
3. Where are we going after death? (Future - hope)
The hope is that I-the-soul will never perish. And I-the-mind is expected to rejoice in it because I-the-mind yearned and hoped for everlasting life which I-the-soul is going to live. Where really is hope? This seems the perfect guilt-free theory to let I-the-mind enjoy all the lusts of this world within moderation and with the hope that I-the-soul is not going to be affected by it. Where's the fear of consequence of negative karma and all such stuff? Well, I-the-soul may still be born in this world of suffering - yeah right, which would only be perceived by some other he-the-mind and not I-the-mind! Why should I care?
I want someone else to clarify this for me if I've misunderstood the whole thing but as far as I've got to, it lacks meaning, purpose and hope.

That leaves us with just the one,true God.

Islam, to my knowledge, concede that many prophets of the Bible were indeed sent by God. They agree to Moses having been a prophet. But this is where I'm unable to understand their beliefs - they claim that these prophets were real people who proclaimed the word of God, but that their teachings have been misinterpreted and recorded wrongly by the jews. A similar charge is laid against Christianity when they say that Christ's proclamation of God's word has been misinterpreted and recorded wrongly by the Christians. Then why is their prophet excluded from the same charge. If he claims to have received the truth from God, then so did Moses and why, Christ is God come in the flesh.
Now, I don't have much doctrinal knowledge of Islam but from what I've seen so far, Islam seems to be a rehash of Judaism with a different name given to God and a different Law given to the people. This is where I go back to the definition of God - if God is All-Knowing and All-Wise and All-Powerful, then why would He need to correct Himself by redoing something? He may bring about revelations that are in continuation with what He's already revealed, but why and how can there be changes in them when He is an All-Wise, All-Knowing God?

Finally, between Judaism and Christianity, the Bible shows how Christ is the truth and the continuation of God's revelation to His people.

I don't know if I've misunderstood and misrepresented anything so far but these seemed to be the main points put forth by the proponents of these faiths. I know I've oversimplified all beliefs with just the definition of God and the necessity for meaning, purpose and hope in our lives - but aren't these sufficient? I also know for a fact that these posts aren't going to convince anybody. I've realized that any apologetic work by our own human wisdom never brings in any new believers. Only the power of the Word of God can. All these posts only serve to strengthen one's faith if he's already a believer in Christ or harden one's heart if he's not already a believer. Only the Gospel message can convert people into faith in Christ purely by the grace of God. So my intention in these posts is to cause some doubt in the minds of unbelievers or believers of other faiths as to the validity of their faiths. Does it really have meaning and hope? Is it without contradictions? If it has no meaning/hope or has contradictions, then it's time to look around - and the only one available is in Christ. It would then be absolutely essential for one to evaluate the truths in Christ seriously. I've tried to arrive at only inferential conclusions instead of judgmental conclusions - if I've erred, I'd be willing to correct the error. But irrespective of any flaws of mine, the truth still holds - Christ's Gospel message gives life to all.

The truth in Christ is most visibly seen in God's written Word - the Bible. The Gospel message makes it very clear why we all need Jesus Christ for our salvation into everlasting life in the presence of God. I shall continue in following posts....

 

[ivdavid]

Post 3

Now before stating why faith in Christ is absolutely necessary for every human being and before proclaiming the Gospel message of grace, I'd like to go back to the atheist's viewpoint on God...

The atheists would say my last statement was redundant because by their very definition, atheists do not have a viewpoint on God. But they do. You see, when a Christian makes a statement - 'I believe that the Almighty God does exist', the atheist cannot negate it by saying - 'I believe that the Almighty God does not exist'. Because they are in no position to claim such knowledge nor give any evidence/proof for the same. And they can't appeal to just 'believing' that God does not exist like a believer believes He exists because then they contradict themselves - the very reason they refuse to believe in the existence of God is the lack of evidence; how then can they believe in the non-existence of God without any evidence. So it's pretty clear to all, that atheists cannot refute the existence of God. And I'm not saying they try to either. I'm not making some new discovery, i'm just reiterating their stand on God.

Atheists can't go about acknowledging even the possibility of God's existence because then they break down to agnostics. And from the previous posts, we inferred that agnosticism can either break down to atheism or religion. But agnosticism now cannot break down back to atheism(logical contradiction in definitions) therefore leaving the only other available option - religion. And among religions, only the Judeo-Christian God gives non-contradictory answers and revelations.

So atheists would go about with the statement - 'I do not believe that the Almighty God does exist'. Some actually would insist it this way - 'I do not believe anything at all regarding God' or 'I have no beliefs regarding God'. To them, God and religion is mere superstition. Here, they're just making a statement that says they have no inclination to even entertain the concept of God until convinced with evidence/proof etc. But by saying you don't have any beliefs at all regarding God, you're only implying that you believe He doesn't exist. It doesn't matter how you word it or how you justify yourselves - by not believing in God's existence, you are essentially believing in God's non-existence which as we've seen above, breaks down the definition of atheists.
How can I come to such an outrageous conclusion? Well, consider this. Say, if someone were to come and tell me he saw an alien, i could either choose to believe that aliens do exist or i could choose to believe they don't exist or i could shrug my shoulders and walk away, admitting that there might not/might be aliens out there but i may never know for sure. Even if I were to shut my mind, eyes,ears and walk away after my friend has said this, i still have only the three above choices. I don't have a fourth choice. If I made up a fourth choice that says - I have no beliefs regarding aliens at all - it only means that I've refused to become consciously aware of what belief I have chosen for myself from among the three choices. The fourth choice of ignoring or neglecting is actually just that part of the third choice where I 'shrug my shoulders and walk away' but the atheists don't complete the sentence where they have to 'admit that there might not/might be some truth in it'. There still isn't any fourth choice.
Similarly with respect to God, the first choice is to believe in Christ, the second choice is self-defeating, by definition, to an atheist as seen above, and the third is agnosticism which eventually leads to Christ. There is no fourth choice. We may make up all the illusory choices we want to deny this, but this is the simple truth.
Even if one were to deride a belief stating that it's mere superstition and that you're not entitled to believe it, you're actually holding a stance against that belief wherein you say that you don't believe in that superstition because...because it's either false or it's truth is not known as yet. When you further state that you actually entertain no such beliefs, you're just making a comment on your 'attitude towards the belief' and not the 'belief' itself. This blinding oneself to not acknowledging the choice he's made is mainly to avoid the implication that he has no cause to deny God's existence. Anything done unjustly raises a whole lot of guilt and some form of justification has to happen to avoid that guilt. Even if the justification is flawed deep within, it's accepted as long as it presents some modicum of reason superficially.

This leaves us with just 2 options - 1. Find meaning,purpose and hope in Christ by believing in God or 2. Conclude that there is no meaning,purpose and hope in life and thereby deny God.

But option 2 seems self-contradictory too. How can I even understand what the concept of 'lack of meaning' is if there were no meaning at all? How can I even have the concept of darkness if there were no light at all in the universe? How then can I 'meaningfully' conclude that there is no meaning at all?

Can we then conclude that Christ is all we have? If anyone is feeling uncomfortable in this bottle-neck situation of compulsorily having to believe in Christ, then ask yourself what is so repulsive about Christ that we shouldn't want to believe and trust in Him for everything? Are we actually hating Him without cause?
Joh 15:25 But that the Word might be fulfilled that is written in their Law, "They hated Me without a cause."
But if we want to find salvation and know why Christ is all we've got, then continue reading....

 

[ivdavid]

Post 4

Our Father, we pray to You for Your mercies, grace, love and peace to abound in us. May we accept in our hearts as Lord and Saviour, Your precious Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

[I am new in the Christian faith. I wish the more mature believers in Christ to correct/add to what I've written]

Why Christ? Why do we need a Saviour? To save us from what? Save us to where? Why salvation only by grace? Why justification only by faith?

I've had all these above questions many times in my life and I've either not found any answers or i've superficially accepted them, though I was brought up in the Christian faith. When I asked around and never found answers, I just ignored those questions and accepted the unanswered parts as they were, without understanding. This is what I call 'blind faith' - not knowing why and what exactly you're believing. But God doesn't want blind faith. He wants us to put our faith in Him with all our mind and heart and soul. Plead for God's grace to open our hearts and minds to understand the invaluable truth in Christ.

First and foremost, we need to deal with what we mean by 'faith'.
Faith seems to have multiple usages - I've come across 2 so far -
1. Faith in God regarding His revelations based solely on His nature,merit,ability.
(Eg: authority of His written Word - Bible, His revelation regarding creation which serves in glorifying Him, His promise of resurrection, the revealed truths in Jesus Christ etc.)
2. Faith that our intended act/work is according to God's will, thereby pleasing to Him.
Though Faith is used these 2 ways, they serve the same purpose as we shall see later.

Let's look at the first usage of faith now:
Faith is being fully assured of the truth or realization of a hope, proposition or promise revealed by God, even though there is no evidence seen. And this is fully assured based on the capacity of God as God - His perfection yields to no doubt and requires no other standard of reliability.

This full assurance requires a perfect flawless merit - only that of God can suffice. But all of us apart from God, by nature, put our faith on our own merits or the merits of other human beings. Why would we want to give up the full assurance provided by a perfect God for the probabilistic hope on the flawed merits of man? Anyone putting their faith in God will have unlimited freedom and peace of mind - Why would anyone choose to forego it? Well, that's because faith involves our wholehearted commitment to Christ and that includes surrendering our will to the will of God, repentance from dead works while believing solely in Christ, acknowledging the grace of God with humble hearts and living righteous lives that don't permit the gratification of our sinful lusts.

We come across this restrictive clause often - 'according to the will of God'. You may ask - If everything is to happen according to God's will, then where does one's freewill feature in? Well, here's what I think it is - you have will but it's not free. You have the will to believe or not believe in God. You have the will to do good and to do bad. You have the will to choose to do God's will or your own. But all these are not free - they're still bound within God's will and how much His grace or mercy permits you to do. Any other prospect is impossible because then, God becomes subject to our human will and thereby loses His defining characteristics of being All-Powerful and Sovereign.

You may argue over why God wants us all to do everything according to His will alone. Note, all of us apart from God are fine being in control of our own lives - in fact, that's what we demand. We may even not mind a God who doesn't intervene in our will with His Laws and His call for us to repent our sins. We'd further love a God who'd say that He'd help us achieve our will if only we'd worship Him - not a high cost if we're desperate for the help, but then again, if it comes in the way of our self-pride, then this too is rejected. Basically, man wants autonomy and independence. Just-let-me-be. Are these actually wrong things? No, not in the worldly sense where every man is equal and no one man has any right to lord over another. But autonomy and independence from the Holy God?? The only reason you'd want to get away from God would be to hide your evil deeds from His Holiness. If one wants to be made perfect and enjoy perfect happiness, then it is to God we must all draw near - it is His will that we must all uphold.

You may ask - 'am I then a robot in God's hands?' No - He treats His children with love and affection. 'Then why does He dictate His will to be followed? Can't we learn from our mistakes?' Well, we all do commit mistakes on account of our fallen nature, and God does expect us to learn. But by the very definition of 'mistake', it shouldn't be pre-planned. So we are to keep doing His will and when mistakes happen, then God would see to our correction then. To touch upon 'total depravity' here, the 'mistakes' that we talk about are not to be brushed away lightly. These 'mistakes' are very serious in nature. This is what we call 'sin'. Sin is any act against the will of God. Creation was created perfect by God. But the first man,Adam, disobeyed against the Holy God by rebelling against God's goodness and will and sinned against His Holiness.

This might be hard to internalize, but a perfectly Holy God cannot in the least bit tolerate even the smallest act of disobedience. Even the slightest act of disobedience would be an act of evil because anything that is not in accordance with His Holiness has to be its opposite, evil. To a perfect God who is at 100%, even 99.9999% is imperfection. To a Holy God at 100%, even 0.000001% is evil. And to a perfectly Just God, even the slightest evil cannot be overlooked. This explains the serious fallout of Adam's one act of rebellion. Man died an immediate spiritual death where he no longer could be in the presence of the Holy God. This is when man's 'human nature' was pervaded by sin and rebellion against God, led by the deceptions of satan. God turned man over to his own rebellion and cast him out into this satan-ruled fallen world.

I wonder why the perfectly Just God chose not to throw satan, Adam and Eve in the eternal lakes of fire back then itself for their rebellion. I see two possible answers - 1) God's purpose to create man in His own image according to His will and pleasure would have been defeated, tainting the glory of God. 2) God created man to love him and be loved by him - His love for man prompted God to stall His justice and overlook sin for a time (the time was fulfilled with the coming of Christ).

Anyway, since our human natures are fallen because of sin, none of us are righteous in God's sight by ourselves. All of us apart from God walk in sin, against the Holy God and are deserving of eternal condemnation. But God's grace and love has made a provision for us in Christ, to be saved into a restored relationship with God. God upheld His righteousness with Christ enduring God's wrath on the cross as justice for all the world's sins. This was made possible only by Christ coming in the flesh and living a pure, sinless life - for how can one, defiled with sin, be a propitiation for any other sinner. But Christ lived a righteous sinless life. And He was made to face God's wrath on the cross for each of our sins so we who believe in Christ may be saved from God's wrath on Judgement Day but may pass on to everlasting life in God's presence in the new Kingdom of God.

If we are already deserving condemnation on account of our sinful rebellion, then we're right now as good as dead. But God, purely by His grace and out of His love, has provided a means of salvation in Christ who has faced God's wrath on our behalf. We, who are already dead in sins, are solely relying on God's mercies and grace to pardon and save us now. God's free gift of salvation demands some changes in us - we are to repent from our sins and dead works, turn to God and submit ourselves to the Lordship of Christ who is worthy of all praise and honor. This means laying down our arms and coming into the Kingdom of God, not as enemies of God but as loyal subjects to Christ. This means relying on Christ's will and not on our own - this means to trust and believe in Him for everything and to put our complete faith on His merit alone. We have no excuse to justify our denial of Christ. We truly have no hope but Christ.

Continued in following post....

 

[ivdavid]

Post 5

So we see, we've all sinned and rebelled against the Holy God whose pouring out His wrath on us would be in every way just. But by His grace and of His love, He sacrificed His own Son, Jesus Christ, to die as propitiation for our sins and to provide a means for us to be saved. All of us are at God's mercies and He chooses to forgive all those who put their faith in Christ as the Saviour and who'd continue to believe in Him as Lord and King in the Kingdom of Heaven. This is a free gift of grace and nothing from us can earn us this salvation. We, who believe in Christ through faith, are pardoned by grace and are spiritually restored into an eternal relationship with God. Our sins are no longer remembered by God - the price of which has been paid at the cross. Those who still refuse to accept this free gift, just to hold on to their autonomous sinful rebellion - these are justly condemned to perish in the eternal lakes of fire.

satan wants to keep as many as possible from knowing and loving the one true God. he is the deceiver - he has no power of his own; he derives it only when we choose to believe his lies. satan keeps the world captive with the lusts of the flesh, lusts of the eye, and pride of life of which self-pride is the worst. When the sinner falls prey to these lusts, God is displeased and His majesty is offended. He would be entirely just in meting out judgement on them but His love for them makes Him wait patiently for them to repent and return to Him. God has given the hope of an eternal life in His presence, in the Kingdom of Heaven with Christ as King. He has also provided the means of salvation in Christ. We need to receive it like a little child, letting go of our own selfish will while trusting and believing in Christ. We are hereby justified only by our faith in God and this is the only way we can please Him.
Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Now an unbeliever may ask - why should I put my faith in God to have any of my hopes realized when I'm able to fare nearly just as well on my own. But you see, it's not about what you do, it's about who you put your faith in - yourself or God. If it's yourself you put your faith on, then you're still rebelling against God. This rebellion was the cause of sin entering in and spiritual death of man when he was created perfect. Hence, such rebellion will not be tolerated inside the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is only for those who enter the Kingdom as children, trusting their Heavenly Father for everything. There's perfect love and joy and peace to be found in God and God alone. Why would anyone keep away from such grace? Why would anyone trust in themselves instead of the Almighty God? This world and all its lust is passing away - will these then be worth an eternity lost from God? This world isn't our final abode - this is just the place for us to choose which side we are on. And the time to choose is now. I pray, O Father, please, please open our hearts and minds.

One may ask, why does God choose to forgive only those who believe in Christ and put their faith in Him? Why not others? Why not some other way? Well, it's absolutely simple. This world and all its lust shall pass away and the Kingdom of God shall come in all its glory. There should be no repeat of sinfulness through rebellion or self-pride ever again in the Kingdom of God. And the only way this is ensured is by having loyal subjects to Christ, Lord and King. These people are constantly aware of the mercy and grace of God that allowed them into the Kingdom. These will never rebel nor take merit for what God has done. They wouldn't try to second-guess the Holy God and wouldn't feel that their will has a right to be independent of God's will. These child-like at heart people would love God as He should be loved and in return, will experience perfect joy and love in His presence. Can there be any greater gift than God Himself? One can only imagine how glorious it shall be when we enter the promised rest.

So I reiterate, please surrender to the love of Christ for eternal life in God's glory and revelation. Believe and put your faith in Christ for salvation and for sanctification. The Bible is God's revealed word - let us all meditate upon it. Let us stop relying on ourselves but on God's grace. Let us be declared righteous on the merit of Christ's sinless obedient life and not our dead works.
We are saved only by God's grace through faith.

This faith is, of course, evidenced with works. But works per se do not merit salvation because man is still under autonomous rebellion when he thinks he can earn his way into heaven. Denying God is a great sin - it's treating the Holy, Almighty God with contempt. People may predominantly seem good in our world - but their good works amount to nothing if not done through faith in God. This brings us to the second usage of faith...
2. Faith that our intended act/work is according to God's will, thereby pleasing to Him.
This faith is being fully persuaded that whatever work we intend to do is absolutely according to the will of God.

To touch upon a very common debate of faith and works. I think, all religions except Christianity think that by living out righteous lives according to the Law given in their religious books, one can attain salvation. Some people of the Christian community also erroneously hold some form of this belief. But this is precisely the belief that makes many unbelievers deny God. They ask -
'if all are to be saved only by good works, and we too are able to do them without worshipping God, then wouldn't that just God save us too - if works is the basis, then how are we to be denied salvation? Our refusal to worship God can't be the reason because it doesn't constitute a work - and if you say it does, then it seems dogmatic.'
But the truth is that you are not saved by works but by faith in God. Your repentance from your dead works and your faith in Christ's righteousness is what justifies you and is counted for your own righteousness. Even after salvation, you are to act only in faith. Anything not done in faith is sin.

Apart from God, the reasons for good works may be - calculative, legalism or self-pride. People might do good works to self-preserve themselves in society. It may also be calculative in wrangling out some favor out of God - 'I did so much for You, now it's Your turn'. It may be legalistic where you want to do good works in order to avoid any harm or penalty - either from society or from God. It may be of self-pride or self-righteousness where we even could blasphemously imagine to equal God. None of these 'good' works are done in faith and of love for God. None of this is done to please God. These people haven't surrendered to Christ's rule of love nor have they trusted and believed in God. How then could these works help you get into the Kingdom of God where every believer lives only by grace through faith in love of the Almighty God. But when there is true faith, this is evidenced by works. Anything else, we aren't doing the will of the Holy God.

We then may come back to the question - 'Why does God insist on us doing His will?' Well, that's because God is All-Wise and knows what's best for you and He's All-Loving and wills you to have what's best for you and this is exactly what He asks you to receive by putting your faith in Him and doing His will. By going against His will, you're either accusing Him of being evil in His will or are deriding His wisdom in being wrong in His will. Are you claiming to be more wise than God or holier than God in knowing what's best for you apart from God's will?

And why is faith so important - well, your faith(in both usages) prompts you to acknowledge the glory of God and makes a statement of who you think God is - when you obey God's word in faith, you show how you're willing to trust Him, therein you are honoring and glorifying Him. On the other hand, if you don't act in faith, you're making a statement that you doubt the Almighty God's abilities and this is an affront to His majesty. When you act in faith, you're making sure it is indeed according to the will of God. This seeking of His will shows your intent to please Him. And pleasing Him is an expression of your love for Him. And faith also shows how you're willing to accept His authority and sovereignty and how you trust Him for everything. Truly, your greatest reward is found in God and in His love.

Why would one want to forego love so amazing? Is the rebel in us so stubborn that he'd rather perish denying God's goodness than to gain life and peace in Christ.
We're not asked to submit to a dictatorial tyrant - No - it's about loving a good and just God so much that you're pleased to do His will and put your faith in Him and Him alone.

It's not about man, you see - it's always been about God. It's not God for man - it's man for God.

I end my posts here.... let the discussion continue towards finding the truth.

O God, Hear our humble cry. 'Nothing in our hands we bring, simply to the cross we cling'. Have mercy over us, Father. Let Your love and grace abound in us so that we may give glory,praise and honor to You, now and forever. In Jesus' name, Amen.