A random collection of thoughts

This being the first post under the religion category I thought it best to lay out what I believe in and how I believe one can be saved.

Simply put I believe that the Bible is God’s word written by men who were inspired by God.  I believe that there is only one road to salvation and that is through Jesus Christ my Lord.  I believe God the father is a God of love for his children (those that have accepted Jesus as their personal savior) but also a God of vengeance and great wrath to those that have rejected his son.

The most straightforward path to salvation is what is commonly known as the Romans road to salvation.  Beginning with Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God“(KJV), in one sentence, this places all mankind in that category of those humans that have “come short of the glory of God” and as I’ll show next are to face the full vengeance and wrath of the Almighty God for all eternity.  Many people find this difficult to understand as they have been taught from childhood that God is a God of love.  Although this is true, as I stated in my previous paragraph, God’s love is for his children who are those that have accepted Jesus as their personal savior.  There is no verse in Scripture where God shows any mercy for those that have rejected his son.  As Hebrews 10:26 says “for if we choose to go on sinning after we have received the full knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins“(ISV).  But not leaving it there the writer of Hebrews goes on in verse 27 “but only a terrifying prospect of judgment and a raging fire that will consume the enemies of God“(ISV).  Although the Bible is full of his love and mercy it is also shot through with his vengeance and wrath and we would do well to take note of it.

Moving forward in Romans we find in Chapter 6:23 “for the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord“(KJV).  The death we find mentioned here in verse 23 is not the physical death of the body but the spiritual death of the soul.  As is mentioned in Romans 14:12 “so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God“(KJV).  We will all face judgment and as is written in Daniel 12:2 “and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt“(KJV).  The judgment of shame and everlasting contempt is further described by Jesus in the book of Matthew as outer darkness were there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  The shocking truth of eternal damnation might best be brought to light from a sermon by Jonathan Edwards nearly 280 years ago titled “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” below is a quote from the sermon on this subject:

“It is everlasting wrath.  It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity.  There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery.  When you look forward, you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all.  You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains.  So that your punishment will indeed be infinite.  Oh, who can express what the state of the soul in such circumstances is!  All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: For ‘who knows the power of God’s anger?’  “

But there is hope for salvation as we finally come to the end of our Romans road to salvation with Romans 10:9 “that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.“(KJV)  I must confess that as simple as this sounds yet Jesus gives us grave warnings in Matthews 7:13-14 “enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there at: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it”(KJV).  As Jesus mentions here and what is given further in Hebrews 10, which I’ve talked about earlier, is a warning that God does not accept simply lip service.  I Corinthians 6:19 through 20 says this: “what?  Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s“(KJV).  Simply put, our bodies are not our own. We are not given a free reign to do as we please as long as we’ve accepted Jesus. A perfect example of the dangers of this is given by Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23 “not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.  Many shall say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?  And in thy name have cast out devils?  And in thy name done many wonderful works?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity“.  This is a sober reminder that God looks at the heart of every individual and not just the outward appearance. A further study of the Word should be done by each and everyone of us. Don’t accept what I’ve said here, search the scriptures for yourself and let God speak to you.

My hope is that I have cleared up any questions you might have toward salvation and that you will seek after the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

May God bless
JB