can a person be saved on this basis?

[Aaron]

Often in threads concerning the direction of the church today you will run across the idea that people today are not interested in the hereafter, but will come to Jesus if it makes life better today.

Do you think it is possible to truly evangelize leaving out the hereafter?

No.

Then said Christian, Even a babe in religion may answer ten thousand such questions. For if it be unlawful to follow Christ for loaves, as it is, John 6:26; how much more abominable is it to make of him and religion a stalking-horse to get and enjoy the world! Nor do we find any other than heathens, hypocrites, devils, and wizards, that are of this opinion.
​

Pilgrim's Progress
​

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bunyan/pilgrim.iv.vii.html
​

 

[Tom Butler]

Thanks all! Good help!

I'm dealing with a young woman who says she "doesn't want a bloody religion of pie in the sky by and by" but thinks she can "be saved" just by "accepting the fact Jesus loves her and wants her to have a good life."

I tell her as best I know how that I also believe Jesus loves her and wants her to have His best life for her, that isn't saving faith. She is determined to throw out any doctrine of blood sacrifice as barbaric and pagan, seeing herself as too enlightened and too educated for "that stuff."

How would you procede?

Read the appropriate scriptures to her. Tell her this is the only way, and if she can't accept it, you can't help her.

 

[preacher4truth]

Read the appropriate scriptures to her. Tell her this is the only way, and if she can't accept it, you can't help her.

It isn't pie in the sky. All who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. This lady isn't ready to believe. She doesn't seem to think she is a sinner, and wants assurance of salvation her way.

That's a tough situation. I'd spend some time on prayer on that, and seek God to intervene with her situation.


I'll pray for her.

 

[SRBooe]

Leaving out the hereafter?

I suppose I have difficulting understanding that concept.

When speaking to people who are in a sinful rut, living a life full of drugs and poverty, the attention to the Gospel deals a lot with their current suffering. They need a change of heart to lead to a change of life.

While speaking to them, while one can mention eternity in Heaven with the Father, their attention is grabbed by the chance that they can have spiritual help that can change their lives now. As long as the message includes how the world won't change, but the individual can; they may not be misunderstanding.

The listener will focus on the part that is important to them at that moment. Your message may include pearly gates, but that part can get lost in the presentation.

Living for Jesus may not make your finances better, but it will make your life better. That is the side effect that some people look for NOW when all they can see is how miserable their life is. They may want peace and joy in their lives - and that is also part of the Gospel.

I guess I just don't understand how one can witness to the lost without the concept of eternity being brought up. I do, however, understand how that part will not get as much attention from the lost person.

 

[Tom Butler]

We must remember that no matter how powerful our powers of persuasion, and no matter how much scripture we quote, and how much logic we use, it will all come to naught without the illuminating, convicting and drawing of the Holy Spirit.

 

[glfredrick]

Leaving out the hereafter?

I suppose I have difficulting understanding that concept.

As well you should... Who is saying such? No one that I can see.

 

[SimpleMan]

No, someone cannot be saved on this basis. They're not getting the whole truth and I believe that a half truth is a whole lie in disguise. This is classic "ear tickling preaching". Telling people what they want to hear, but it's not the truth. And there are a lot of half truths out there in the world and in our churches. If this world is all that is promised to us and this is as good as it gets, then everything that Jesus stood for was lie. People just want to pick and choose what they want to believe. What benefits them and makes them feel good at the time. Paul clearly wrote that we would suffer here are this earth for what we believe, but our reward would come after we left this world. God's word is a simple roadmap, we're the ones that complicate it.

 

[glfredrick]

No, someone cannot be saved on this basis. They're not getting the whole truth and I believe that a half truth is a whole lie in disguise. This is classic "ear tickling preaching". Telling people what they want to hear, but it's not the truth. And there are a lot of half truths out there in the world and in our churches. If this world is all that is promised to us and this is as good as it gets, then everything that Jesus stood for was lie. People just want to pick and choose what they want to believe. What benefits them and makes them feel good at the time. Paul clearly wrote that we would suffer here are this earth for what we believe, but our reward would come after we left this world. God's word is a simple roadmap, we're the ones that complicate it.

You are responding to something that simply does not exist. We call that a "straw man" argument.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

 

[SimpleMan]

Yeah thanks for the education and definition glfedrick. How much do I owe you for that or is it on the house? Always those people out there using smoke and mirrors to take away from the true subject matter. Jesus had it in his day and it's still going on.