The Bible is clear that there is only way to heaven:
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Thus, the idea that the plan of salvation includes Christ-rejecting followers of Judaism or Christ-rejecting Muslims (and yes, if you deny Christ's divinity, you are rejecting Christ, even if you do not mean to do so) is clearly wrong and contrary to Scripture.
-TurretinFan
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
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3 comments:
TF,
I made a comment in the post on John Piper's clip where I pasted this verse:
Psa 50:14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High,
Psa 50:15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me."
With what I just read I believe it is "relevant" to paste the next verses now:
Psa 50:16 But to the wicked God says: "What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips?
Psa 50:17 For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.
Psa 50:18 If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers.
Psa 50:19 "You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit.
Psa 50:20 You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son.
Psa 50:21 These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.
Psa 50:22 "Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
Huh? My God would not do that would He?
Yes, yes He would and has!
Jesus taught this:
Mat 10:24 "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.
Mat 10:25 It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.
Mat 10:26 "So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
Mat 10:27 What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
Mat 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Mat 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
Mat 10:30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
Mat 10:31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Mat 10:32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,
Mat 10:33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
Mat 10:34 "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
I always ask the Lord after reading those passages this: "Lord, which is it, fear not or fear?"
He always answers: "Both"! :)
The Greek word for fear is:
φοβέω
phobeō
fob-eh'-o
From G5401; to frighten, that is, (passively) to be alarmed; by analogy to be in awe of, that is, revere: - be (+ sore) afraid, fear (exceedingly), reverence.
Now contrast those words with the words of this Prophesy and consider the word used here in the Greek, translated "fear" in English:
ἀφόβως
aphobōs
af-ob'-oce
Adveb from a compound of G1 (as a negative particle) and G5401; fearlessly: - without fear.
The Prophesy:
Luk 1:67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,
Luk 1:68 "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people
Luk 1:69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
Luk 1:70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
Luk 1:71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;
Luk 1:72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant,
Luk 1:73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
Luk 1:74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,
Luk 1:75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
As we ponder and let sink into our spirit what the Holy Ghost is teaching us, we will develop, in the power and might of the Lord, these "fears"!
Our walk for the Lord will become glorious for Him as we begin walking out these fears to the Glory of the Lord!
If your understanding of Christ is flawed can you still be saved?
Of course, people can be saved with all sorts of incomplete or inaccurate understandings.
On the other hand, anyone who denies (with the Gnostics) that Christ has come in the flesh does not know God (1Jn 4:3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.)
In other words, there are at least some fundamental errors with respect to Christ's nature and person that (as a matter of logic) necessitate that a person cannot have faith in the true Christ.
Trying to draw a bright line in this regard is dangerous. On the one hand, the error of the Mormons in claiming that Jesus was a man that became God clearly places them in the position of not knowing God or the true Christ. On the other hand, the false doctrine of transubstantiation less directly undermines the true humanity of Christ, and consequently is a matter that is less clear.
Certainly, no reasonable person would argue that a mistaken view that Christ was born in 1 AD rather than 4 BC (though it would constitute a mistaken view of Jesus) would be a serious enough error that one would be said not to know Christ.
Some have used the articles of the Apostle's Creed as a bright line test - I'm not persuaded that such a measure is particularly useful.
I hope that helps.
-TurretinFan
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