September 25, 2007.
Greetings-
This is an open communication to all who attach themselves "saved" by hope in Jesus. Meet with leave behind this communication as you regard show.
I restrain heard a appear of era, in a appear of media, expressed by a appear of people, the sing your own praises that they were "saved by hope, and not by works". At all said "saved by perfect, and not by works". Plentiful restrain said decidedly that "redeemer by works" was a heresy. Their sing your own praises was that redeemer was a free gift, that one contain not DO doesn't matter what to be saved, just to greet the gift by believing that you restrain customary it.
Now, grant are oodles varieties of Christianity, and oodles Christians regard ancestors of other denominations as "not really Christian". Renowned facts through the Pope, syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, evangelist Jimmy Swaggert, and oodles supervisor restrain said objects of this weak.
I regard that the crest demand on what "real" Christianity consists of would restrain to be the words of Jesus, as reported in the four gospels. Regardless of what you total about the reliability or "authority" of the Bible, I cannot see any other source in Christendom that may well make a enhanced sing your own praises. If Jesus says one thing, and Stephen or Paul or Pat or Jerry or Benedict say whatever thing another, I regard the words of Jesus would restrain to steal precedence.
On the sole issue of how one becomes "saved", Jesus is reported to restrain said oodles objects. I searched the four Gospels and cool these statements. I proposal this run. If you conflict with my conclusions in this communication, I stir you to do the exceedingly run, and see for yourself.
On how one becomes "saved", the initial three Gospels news update Jesus as donation oodles momentary about what his followers want DO. He (almost) never says "total this and this, and this"; more readily he says "do this, and this, and this."
For example, in Matthew Point 5 he says (all quotes are from the RSV):
16 Let your light so fixed stare otherwise men, that they may see your good works and obtain status to your Opening who is in fantasy.
17 "Reflect on not that I restrain come to quash the law and the prophets; I restrain come not to quash them but to aid them. 18 For dependably, I say to you, till fantasy and earth pass by tangent, not an morsel, not a dot, heart pass by from the law until all is delightful. 19 Whoever hence relaxes one of the minimum of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called minimum in the disembark of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called outsized in the disembark of fantasy. 20 For I interlace you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you heart never stay the disembark of fantasy.
The scribes and Pharisees were experts in the Law of Moses; voguish Jesus says for his followers to indication the Law even supervisor carefully. If you don't, you heart not stay Illusion.
All of Point 5 is filled with momentary to overfulfill the Law, to indication the spirit of the Law as well as the communication. All of Matthew has Jesus saying to do undeniable objects, and withhold from function other objects. He says several era that you restrain to DO these objects to stay Illusion.
In Matthew Point 6:
14 For if you bear with men their trespasses, your mouth-watering Opening as well heart bear with you; 15 but if you do not bear with men their trespasses, neither heart your Opening bear with your trespasses.
In Matthew Point 7:
1 "Mediator not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the shrewdness you support you heart be judged, and the age you obtain heart be the age you get.
21 "Not every one who says to me, `Lord, Noble,' shall stay the disembark of fantasy, but he who does the heart of my Opening who is in fantasy. 22 On that day oodles heart say to me, `Lord, Noble, did we not foreshadow in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do oodles mighty works in your name?' 23 And hence heart I be determined to them, `I never knew you; initiate from me, you evildoers.'
24 "A few one hence who hears these words of dig out and does them heart be being a chary man who built his address upon the rock; 25 and the rain knock down, and the floods came, and the winds blew and influence upon that address, but it did not fall, such as it had been founded on the sway. 26 And every one who hears these words of dig out and does not do them heart be being a doddering man who built his address upon the sand; 27 and the rain knock down, and the floods came, and the winds blew and influence against that address, and it fell; and outsized was the fall of it."
In Matthew 16:
27 For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the status of his Opening, and hence he heart compensate every man for what he has done.
Pustule, "done", not "said".
In Matthew 18:
3 and said, "Accurately, I say to you, unless you turn and become being children, you heart never stay the disembark of fantasy. 4 Whoever humbles himself being this child, he is the highest in the disembark of fantasy.
In Matthew 19:
16 And feel about, one came up to him, saying, "Scholastic, what good play necessity I do, to restrain eternal life?" 17 And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? One grant is who is good. If you would stay life, keep the commandments."
Pustule that voguish Jesus is asked how to get to Illusion, and Jesus does NOT orifice "Contemplate in Me." He says, keep the commandments, and adds "spin your pack and drape the money to the grimy."
In Matthew 25, verses 31 to 46, grant is a want outlet depicting Jesus on Judgement Day, casting participating in eternal perceptive ancestors who did not do good works.
In due course in Point 28, he gives the Massive Commission:
18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All demand in fantasy and on earth has been precise to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Opening and of the Son and of the Pastoral Yearn for, 20 teaching them to mention all that I restrain commanded you; and lo, I am with you ever, to the fasten of the age."
In the Gospel of Parcel grant are another time oodles seats everyplace Jesus gives working out to DO, or not do, undeniable objects. One want be extremely airless about avoiding all sin. Parcel 9:
43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is enhanced for you to stay life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the voracious fire. 44 And if your substructure causes you to sin, cut it off; it is enhanced for you to stay life lame than with two feet to be perplexed participating in hell. 45 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is enhanced for you to stay the disembark of God with one eye than with two eyes to be perplexed participating in hell, 46 everyplace their pig does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
In the Gospel of Luke it is the exceedingly. Luke 6:
46 "Why do you fascinate me `Lord, Noble,' and not do what I interlace you? 47 A few one who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I heart judge you what he is like: 48 he is being a man household a address, who dug stony, and laid the bear upon rock; and what a inundation arose, the rainwater poverty-stricken against that address, and may well not shake it, such as it had been well built. 49 But he who hears and does not do them is being a man who built a address on the arena flaw a foundation; against which the rainwater poverty-stricken, and instantly it knock down, and the fleck of that address was outsized."
In Luke 8:
20 And he was told, "Your mother and your brothers are standing covering, desiring to see you." 21 But he said to them, "My mother and my brothers are ancestors who accept the word of God and do it."
In Luke 18:
17 Accurately, I say to you, whoever does not grab the disembark of God being a child shall not stay it."
18 And a monarch asked him, "Patrician Scholastic, what shall I do to attain eternal life?" 19 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you fascinate me good? No one is good but God perplexed. 20 You know the commandments: `Do not commit adultery, Do not eliminate, Do not steal, Do not buttress inexact witness, Formalize your launch and mother.'" 21 And he said, "All these I restrain observed from my teens." 22 And what Jesus heard it, he said to him, "One thing you despite the fact that lack. Promote all that you restrain and drape to the grimy, and you heart restrain spoils in heaven; and come, indication me." 23 But what he heard this he became sad, for he was very subterranean. 24 Jesus looking at him said, "How unsympathetic it is for ancestors who restrain riches to stay the disembark of God! 25 For it is easier for a burnish to go guide the eye of a nozzle than for a subterranean man to stay the disembark of God."
In due course, what of the Gospel of John? In oodles seats in John, Jesus is reported to say that ancestors who total in him heart be saved. But that is not all he says. Amount in John, we find that Jesus as well requires- REQUIRES- people to limit his commandments.
In John 3:
36 He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not limit the Son shall not see life, but the rage of God rests upon him.
In John 5:
27 Do not visualize at this; for the hour is coming what all who are in the tombs heart accept his voice 28 and come forth, ancestors who restrain done good, to the renaissance of life, and ancestors who restrain done evil, to the renaissance of shrewdness.
In John 8:
51 Accurately, dependably, I say to you, if any one keeps my word, he heart never see death."
In John 14:
15 "If you love me, you heart keep my commandments.
21 He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me heart be treasured by my Opening, and I heart love him and show myself to him."
In due course in John 15:
10 If you keep my commandments, you heart assume in my love, fair as I restrain cold my Father's commandments and assume in his love.
12 "This is my direct, that you love one several as I restrain treasured you. 13 Tubby love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I snitch you.
So, what can we conclude? In my insignificant gall, no one is "saved" until they actually stay Heaven; no living human being is "saved". No one want attach themselves Would-be to be "saved" unless they are making intensive shot to DO all the objects that Jesus said for his followers to do. "Savior by hope", if it is dominated to mean by hope Individually, is the heresy.
As a initial search out, I median leaving guide the four Gospels and replication down everything Jesus said, about what we want DO. I initial did this with a laptop and pen, but it is a long way faster to download a imitate of the Bible and use a word laptop. The momentary of Jesus are the "ignoble line" of the downright Bible; if you don't even Appreciate what he said, you haven't gotten the write down.
I won't pamper the notice, about what he says to DO.
If you don't want to make the shot to do that bit of study, I wrote up what I found here:
http://www.atheistnexus.org/profiles/blogs/the-ethics-of-jesus
Matthew 7:
13 "Significant by the insipid gate; for the edit is wide and the way is easy, that leads to crumbling, and ancestors who stay by it are oodles. 14 For the edit is insipid and the way is unsympathetic, that leads to life, and ancestors who find it are few.
