TO BE OR NOT TO BE.
Reading some post on this site reminded me of my previous discussions on other "Christian Sites," from which I was kicked off and ban for good.
And this is why I posted here my thoughts, on "Other Christian Denomination," so very overzealous Baptists would not kicked me out and from this site. Consider me as a stranger and not Christian.
The troubles started when I challenged two major gospels of the Baptists and other Christian denominations. The gospel of Prosperity and gospel of Salvation.
The gospel of Prosperity is evidently false and does not need any introduction or explanation, its doctrine based on greed and lies, more money you give to the church the more you will be blessed that is their slogan and dogma. It is very similar to Catholic church in its past, when they forgave sins for money, the more money you pay, the more sins will be forgiven to you.
But gospels of Salvation is a little bit different. It is not based on money but rather on fear of death and blind devotion to those who promise easy salvation, but not on Biblical terms.
The point I tried to make is that people have to differentiate between general terminology of the Bible and literal terminology, between metaphors and figure of speech and direct reality of the statement.
In every Baptist church I even been, and I had been in many churches and lost account of them, I saw the same thing, church reassuring public that if you believe in Christ, and know that you are save, then you saved. If you believe that Christ is GOD but are not sure if you saved or not, then you are not saved. And of course for this occasion the church already prepared certain order of steps how to save this poor soul right in the church.
The ritual consists of putting a person on the knees before the altar or the pastor, and then pastor and elders will pray for a person, and perhaps will lay also they hands on his/her head, and after this short ceremony they ask him/her if he or she now believe in his/her own salvation, and the answer most of the time is positive, if not, that person will require more "
ironing" until he or she admits and declares that he/she is now saved.
The major word in this ritual is "believing." Believing in what exactly, believing that Christ is GOD?
James 2.19
19.You believe that GOD is One, you do well.
Even the demons believe and shudder. (and they not only believe, they know!)
So, what is "believing"? I never received any logical explanation on this question, and those who argued with me never answered it, but they kept bombarding me with general cliché and typical Christian slogans, but did not answer the question.
The ritual of salvation that church perform is completely not Biblical, false, and extremely dangerous for those to whom it given as a false hope. This is dead end of salvation and not the beginning of it.
I also heard very often in the church another false slogan, "Once you saved you always saved." This can be also challenged with scriptures of the Bible contradicting such statement.
Immediately after declaring my concerns about false hope of salvation that church give to the people, I was immediately bombarded by verses and passages of the Bible mentioning places of the scripture there Christ and His disciples taught and teach about salvation of the soul. All these verses and passages were of course of general nature, calling people to Christ for salvation, which are all true. It all can be summarize in one short statement, "Come to Me and be saved."
But they completely ignored those verses and passages of the Bible were precisely indicated how actually people can obtain salvation, and what they have to do to posses it. I presented them very hard places of the Bible, there salvation of soul must be achieved, accomplish, reach to, which is not easy.
Matthew 19.23-26.29
23.Then
Jesus said to His
disciples,
“Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
24.
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for someone who is rich to enter the Kingdom of GOD.”
25.When the
disciples heard this they were greatly astounded and said, “Then who can be
saved?”
26.But
Jesus looked at them and said,
“For mortals it is impossible, *
but for GOD all things are possible.
29.
And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for My name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit Eternal Life." (Matthew 6.33, 19.29) (Mark 10.28-30) (Luke 18.28-30).
Luke 9.24
24.
"For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for My sake will save it." (Matthew 10.39, 16.25) (Mark 8.35) (Luke 9.24, 17.33) (John 12.25)
Luke 21.19
19.
By your endurance you will gain your souls. (Matthew 10.22, 24.13) (Mark 13.13) (Luke 21.17-19) (John 15.21)
1Peter 2.2
2.Like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk, so that by it
you may grow into salvation,
1Peter 4.18
18.And:
‘If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinners?’ (Proverbs 11.31)
Matthew 7.14
14.
The gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to Life, and there are few who find it.
There is much more passages like these in the Bible but I do not want make my post too big. But my point is that there is another side of salvation, the side of straggle, effort, force, and even suffering. The side that no one really want to talk about in the church, nor to fulfill, because if salvation will so hard to achieve, there will be no parishioners in the church and with it no $. People do not like difficult things, people like short cut and easy way to achieve their goal. Personally I do not thing that salvation, according to those few verses above, will be so easy to obtain.
We have to remember but beside promises made to us by GOD, we also have and our obligations before Him, but unfortunately, people remember only good promises issued to them and not their own obligations, conditions, and requirements.
