There are really only two themes in the New Testament about salvation: Grace and Works. When contradictions arise surrounding these two, there will be those who will try to make interpretations to try to explain away the facts, they make it look like they are merely apparent contradictions. The most discrepancies between the two doctrines are impossible to reconcile (though some may try).
One of the most read books in the world, the Bible, of two of the worlds largest religions, contains two extremely opposite views on what is probably the most important issue of their faiths: Salvation! On such an important subject there should be no disagreement at all. Sadly, there is.
The difficulty has arisen because early on in the Christian religion, churchmen and leaders decided to exclude some of the basic building blocks of the Way of life that Jesus began with his followers. With these basic blocks missing, other smaller blocks began to fall because the support has to be in place to keep the whole building from falling down completely!
It’s almost impossible to know exactly who did this and when this happened, but it was a deliberate corruption of the foundation. Fortunately however, in my view, the critical building blocks are slowly being built back into to an edifice that will eventually turn into the kingdom it was meant to be, with God as its king.
The two principal blocks referred to here are Grace and Works, which were supported by a basic foundational block called Reincarnation, that had been a part of the foundation for centuries, until wicked workmen thought it wise to remove this critical foundational block. Removing this foundational block from the structure has made it nearly impossible for people all over the world to agree on whether men are saved by Grace or whether by Works. Worse yet, this corruption of the work of God’s own hands has contributed to the darkness that pervades men’s hearts and lives.
- It’s either one or the other — but not both. It’s black and white, there is no gray area. Even Paul recognized this:
“And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.” (Rom 11:6 )
So Here we Have Two Opposing Theological Doctrines: Grace and Works
Grace and Substitutionary Atonement:
The doctrine that is held up by the concept that salvation is a free gift of God that can only be received by accepting the “sacrifice” that Jesus made on the cross, which states that his blood atonement was a substitution that blotted out all the sins of the world — present past and future. According to the epistles of Paul, there is no amount of good works or righteousness one can do that can save himself, in one’s lifetime. In fact, according to Christology all men live only one life. The Reincarnation of being “born again” into another body is incompatible, they claim, to the Bible.
Supposedly, we are become righteous vicariously by accepting Jesus who is perfect, becoming righteous through Christ’s righteousness in the eyes of God. Each man only lives once and if he gets it wrong the first time, there are no second chances — he goes to Hell for eternity.
This may be the reason salvation has to be a “free gift“: it is impossible to make amends for all of one’s sins in one lifetime. No matter how righteous one is; no matter how many good works one does; no matter what religion one belongs to, if hasn’t accepted Christ he or she is going to Hell in agonizing pain every second for trillions and trillions of years — for ever! This is the doctrine of Grace as taught by Paul.
Works and Reincarnation:
Reincarnation is a doctrine that had been a cornerstone of Christianity for the first few centuries is one in which Jesus himself taught, believe it or not. Jesus taught that to enter into the “Kingdom of God” or “go into Life Eternal” one had to be righteousness, do good works and do the will of his Father. What is obvious is that for one to pay for all of one’s wrong-doings, become righteous and do good works is impossible to realize in only one short lifetime of around 80 years (especially if there actually is no substitutionary atonement).
It would be completely incomprehensible to think that Jesus would teach all this and threaten that one goes along with the Church’s type of teaching or it’s Hell for an eternity! It is evident that Jesus did not teach this.
In fact, he taught that “except you be born again you can not enter into the kingdom of Heaven.” Jesus was obviously speaking literally of being born into another body for two reasons:
First, many times he used the expression “enter into the kingdom of Heaven” when he was talking about salvation (if you will). And at the same time he said that some enter before others, and “the first would be last and the last first”. Moreover, other Gospels that didn’t make it into the Bible (for some reason), still had the teachings of Jesus about Reincarnation — he obviously did teach this doctrine.
In the Gospel of the Nazirenes Jesus says:
“When it cometh from the darkness, it is that he has lived before, and when it goes down again into darkness, it is that he may rest for a little, and there after again exist.” (Gospel of the Nazirenes 37.6-7)
Origen, one of the greatest of all the church fathers wrote:
“The soul has neither beginning nor end. [They] come into this world strengthened by the victories or weakened by the defeats of their previous lives” – Origen, 183-253 A.D.
Real Truth is Freedom
Next: The Kingdom of God | The Kingdom of God: Grace vs Works Part 2