How long have I reduced God's salvation for us to a free ride ticket to heaven? What was Jesus coming to save us from? What if he came to save how we love one another, or how we see ourselves, or how we love God? Didn't he come so that we might have life and to the fullest? Maybe he came to save us from that feeling of meaningless meandering about this earth. This is why I love Phillipians 2:12 so much now, salvation isn't some cataclysmic event that happens in one moment then is over, in fact the typical "conversion" is really just an introduction to the process of salvation. We are to continually work out our salvation!So what does this make evangelism look like? What if we weren't simply trying to "save them from the fires of hell" but rather "helping them to unlock real life"? Maybe we need to change how we think of salvation.
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What is eternal life? to know God! The only way to know God is to have the broken relationship restored and the only way for that to happen is through the work of Jesus on the Cross. So what is Jesus saving us from: Eternity without God.
I too am reading a book that focuses on grace that includes everyone unless they opt out. Basically we are all going to heaven unless we refuse it. If this is truly the case then ignorance is bliss, so every Christian every where better stop evangelizing, because if people don't know about Jesus they don't have a chance to reject him, thus they will go to heaven.
In the history of the church their has been a focus on life after life instead of the here and now. We live for heaven. Now in reaction to that people are saying that the focus should not be the afterlife but the here and now. Jesus came to give us life to the full now. There needs to be a balance. Eternal life is about knowing God now and after we die, it just so happens that how live today will affect our afterlife.
i agree that we shouldn't focus too much on one life or the other. even separating them completely seems a little silly in ways. but i hope i didn't make it seem like i've been convinced of some unversalist "everyone's in" thought process... it's just that, that idea led me to some other more interesting thoughts.
well... let me see. Evangelism = Worship... Worship = Adequate response to God's Worth/Value... What is God's Value? or another way of saying it is Why is God Worthy? Because of Grace, because he saved us. (Sorry for the 10 cent explanation) But evangelism isn't about us, it's about God.
Good Questions!
One of these days - God himself will post on one of our blogs. I sincerely hope His comments are something to the efect of... "getting warmer... WARMER... keep going".
And BTW - I love that "eternal life" biblically - is something that is a present reality - not something that happens after we die!
I believe I know that book. From what i remember, Its written by a Quaker who suggests that the word of God is written by man and therefore fallible in parts- not quite an underdiscussed topic already i'm sure. Interesting, but scetchy, and worth reading through with discernment I'd suggest. Thought you might be interested in the particular context of that book.
Okay, I just left a really long comment that got totally killified because of stupid blogger beta login. Grrrr!! I MUST REMEMBER TO COPY AND PASTE BEFORE I DO ANYTHING!
Anyway, back onto commenting on your post. This is a topic that I have found quite fascinating lately, as well, and I think that there is a lot that we do not (and probably cannot) understand about the mechanisms of salvation.
Unfortunately, modern-day evangelicalism, if anything, is a move away from a pure relationship with God and towards man-made rules, notions and doctrines that allow us to better package and sell the Christianist message in a comfortable and profitable way, and I think this is not limited just to the fringey or debatable issues, but also to the fundamental things that make Christianity what it is supposed to be.
The Bible, paradoxically, says two things that don't seem to line up with each other according to human understanding. Firstly, that it is through the power of Christ that people are saved, and not by works, nor by anything that we as humans, could do. Then again, the Bible also states that faith without works is dead, i.e. worthless, un-useful and non-saving.
Some (Catholics, for example) try to marry these two ideas into a theology that places as much emphasis on works as it does on faith. Others (Evangelicals) tend to dumb-down the meaning of it all into "Go to church and pray the prayer or you are going to hell" theology, which is also not right. Either way the emphasis is on US - what do WE have to do (or think) to earn salvation?
I, for one, believe that Christ is able to save even those who don't know his name, or have never been taught its proper meaning, based on the state of the heart. Now, I don't believe that EVERYONE will be saved, but I also don't believe that Christianity is the exclusive gentleman's club that most people portray it as.
It is our responsibility as people "in the know" to be constantly exploring deeper truths about God and also ourselves, in order that we not become stale and useless. Through knowledge of Christ we have assurance of our faith, and the eternal home that awaits us, and it is also our job to spread that message so that others can have that same assurance.
One other thing the Bible talks about is the fact that God is our judge and that he will judge EVERYONE at the end. If it was a simple matter of "Christian and non-Christian", why would this be necessary? It is ONLY God's right to judge a person's heart for him. This means that I cannot look at a muslim, or a buddhist, or a hindu, and say "You're not like me, so you're going to Hell!". This is a false statement, and more likely to cause me to end up in the lake of fire than the person I spew it at.
Nice to hear your Ideas Graham
God.
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