Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Eternity (03/10/11)
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TITLE: Eternity Through Salvation | Previous Challenge Entry
By Andrew Charles
03/16/11 -
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It seems like the argument is over. How about those major sinners who are going to church every Sunday? What if there is a man who his sleeping with his father’s wife? This actually is discussed by Paul and he stated even the pagans don’t do this. You can look at 1 Corinthians 5:5 to see what Paul instructed the church to do. He said, “you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus.” Please note this man was still attending church and obviously celebrating Holy Communion. Paul said he would be saved on the day of the Lord. The man didn’t turn to another gospel.
We know that salvation is from the Jews. Is there any reference to this complex situation in the Old Testament? There is a very clear reference in the 13 Foundations of Judaism written by the famous Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides. Maimonides writes in Principle 13, “And even if he did all the sins in the Torah due to desire of the emotions, and from his physical aspect’s conquering him, he will be punished for his sins, but he still has a share in the world to come and among sinners of Israel. However, if he rejects even one of these fundamentals he leaves the nation and is a denier of the fundamentals and is called a heretic, a denier, etc.”
Clearly, in the sense that if we continue to repent for our sins we shall be saved. In this sense we have a great argument for once saved always saved. We can for the rest of our life stay with the gospel that Paul preached and ‘repent’ of our sins and we will be saved. We can see in another proof in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Simply put if you accept Christ as your savior and repent of your sins you will be saved in the end.
We also must believe in Jesus Christ to be saved. The Greek word for faith is pistis and the Greek word for believe is pisteuo. You can notice their similarity. Then we see a verse James 2:17 which say, “So faith in itself, if it has no works, is dead.” You can look at the work believe in the English language and simply interpret it as acknowledge. The word for faith in Greek means reliance upon Christ for salvation. The word for believe in Greek is to put your trust in Christ. Both of these words could be interpreted much ‘weaker’ than the words in Greek that are used actually mean.
In a booklet from the Radio Bible Class located in Grand Rapids, Michigan gives a good description of faith. It says, “This faith, however, is more than mere intellectual assent. The people who say Lord, Lord but don’t obey Christ show that they do not really trust Him as their Savior. In fact, faith that produces no good works is not true faith. Real faith produces a change is the evidence of a genuine encounter with God. True faith always produces good works, but acceptable works are impossible without faith. Faith alone justifies, but a faith that justifies is not alone."
Simply put Christ will never break his salvation promise but we can leave of our own freewill.
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