Category Archives: What is Salvation?
The Words of Jesus, Not Jesus Himself
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: The Words I speak unto you THEY are Spirit and THEY are Life. (Jn 6:63) I am the Way the Truth and the Life…(Jn 14:6) Jesus wasn’t physically the Way … Continue reading
Nothing but the Blood?
There is an old hymn that goes something like this: “What can take away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious fount I know, that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but … Continue reading
Our Righteousness. Filthy Rags?
The doctrine of the church (originating with Paul) is that any kind of righteous works of our own are repulsive to God, and they also don’t count for salvation. If you don’t believe the correct way like the Christians do, no amount of righteous works count in God’s eyes. If you don’t believe all the right things, confess all the right things and belong to the Christian religion, there is not enough good works that you could do to “get to heaven”. In fact, you could even be a good person all of your life and go to hell and be in anguishing constant unrelenting agony for an eternity! You’ve heard the old expression,
- “The path to Hell is paved with good intentions.”
The original idea is probably more like “good works” rather than “good intentions”, since you always hear that good works won’t get you into heaven. In fact, Paul is the one who says this in the New Testament. They use this verse in Isaiah, out of context as usual, to back up their horrendous doctrine:
- “…all our rigorousness are as filthy rags…” (Isa 64:6)
Substitutionary Atonement
This theory makes Jesus into the sacrificial lamb of an ancient Jewish practice in which a lamb (or some other animal) was brought to the priest and was slaughtered — a practice they copied from heathen nations, not commanded by God. “For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices” (Jer 7:22)
Jesus was a type of sacrificial lamb
One problem with this theory is that God never was happy with the practice of animal sacrifice, in fact, he hated it from the very beginning. God did not accept their sacrifices as a expiation (the act of making amends for guilt). God preferred that men repented, forsook their sins and made peace with God directly.
But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. (Jer 7:22-23)
Lamb Of God Part 2
Is one’s sins forgiven and taken away or not?
This is very confusing. Is one’s sins forgiven and taken away or not? It seems that the bible says both. However, even though God and Jesus forgive sins, the bible shows that one must pay for his own sins. (See: Lamb of God Part 1) If there is no demand of punishment for offenses, then how is it that a man must reap what he sows, receive things done in his body whether good or bad, few or many stripes for unfaithfulness whether worthy of punishment or not? Continue reading
Lamb Of God Part 1
If all sins are forgiven then why is a man judged in the next life?
Now you may say, “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life”. That is supposed to mean that the man doesn’t go to hell for the payment for eternity, he automatically gets to go to heaven if he believes — it’s a free gift for believing. So a man can live as bad as he wants and if he believes in Jesus, then he goes to heaven for eternity. Sin all you want, believe in Jesus and still go to heaven and no debts to pay? All debts are forgiven? Continue reading
What was Jesus Sacrificed for?
It is impossible for animal sacrifice to take away sins. This is what Jesus taught. The Jews believed and practiced this cruelty of sacrificing animals for thousands of years which they incorrectly believed to be according to the laws of … Continue reading
Does Jesus Really Save?
People are freed FROM what? They are saved FROM their sins. Saved or freed from the bondage of their sins. If you are in bondage to sin, you are a slave of it. How are people saved from their sins? By hearing and doing the words that Jesus taught.
Most people think that “salvation” is is being saved from the fires of Hell. The truth is that Hell doesn’t even exist — but that’s a story for a different article. Salvation is being saved from your own self — freed from the bondage of sin. Continue reading
The Great Hypothesis
Answer These Three Simple Questions:
- Would you stake your “eternal salvation” on a hypothesis?
- Would you risk “losing you soul” over something you’re not sure of?
- Supposing you live only one life, without a second chance, would you risk your “eternity” based on your beliefs?
Belief is required to be deceived.
Believing something that is untrue is the same as being deceived. It’s alright to believe, but how do you know for sure what you believe is true? Knowing this then, doesn’t it seem dangerous to base your “eternal” destiny on belief?
p>So you see, righteousness is required to enter the kingdom of heaven — according to Jesus. The scribes and Pharisees do get into the kingdom of heaven. But eventually, because of their unrighteousness, they even take longer to get in than the publicans and the harlots. Here Jesus alludes to Reincarnation since some enter the kingdom of heaven before others.
The Lord’s Servant
Many or Few, Countable Words: Periods with an End — Not Eternal
Luke 12:47-48 speaks of the Lord punishing his servants at his return for them with “Many” or “Few” stripes. These words are countable, for example: Many could mean 100 and few could mean 10.
Whether you interpret the punishment as Hell or not, or whether you interpret servants to be believers or not, is beside the point. The point is that the “stripes” or punishment is countable which means that there is an end to the punishment — whatever punishment that is.
Punishment of Lord’s Servant Has an End — NOT Eternal
Christians believe there is an actual place called Hell and that’s where only unbelievers go — for eternity! However, Believers also may go to the same place as unbelievers, according to Jesus. The following verse is an example of just that:
The lord of that servant (a believer) will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. (Lk 12:46)