Dear editor:
Some propose a question like this: "If you were to suddenly die today and then have to stand before God, and God were to ask you, 'Why should I let you into my heaven?' what would you say?"
If that person had any biblical sense, he would know that he isn't standing before the biblical God; that God would never ask such a question. One's name is either in the Lamb's Scroll of the Lives or it isn't; that scroll is the record of all who grasped the everlasting Salvation of God. The Bible teaches that saints (those born of God) will judge non-saints (1 Corinthians 6:2). Saints will also judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3)!
Then some ask, "What about your thought life? God will judge all of that too, and even your motives!" Yet, no texts in the Bible indicate that either thoughts or motives will be in question in any of the judgments. Only what one says and does that have to do with morality and/or ethics will be judged. The biblical God knows all motives; they just aren't what will be judged.
Others claim, "Man is incapable of keeping all or even most of God's requirements." These same ones will either claim that "We sin all the time" or that "We can't go long without sinning." The Bible indicates no such things. Such claims are indictments against God and not against humans. It is equal to the claim that God doesn't have the power to give humans the ability to walk consistently righteously; yet, the Bible teaches otherwise.
Those who aren't even born of God can consistently refuse to sin; that is why they (and all) will be judged! If they were truly incapable, this would prove a faulty creation! Sin isn't an accident; it is either from imprudence or blatant rebellion (usually the first; rarely the second).
Then some claim that the penalty of damnation is eternal separation from God. Such persons are unaware of the text that states that a damned person "will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb," where "the Lamb" refers to Yeshua (Jesus). Since God is everywhere, separation from God is impossible.
How different is the biblical faith from the denominationally contrived faiths that make consistent righteousness impossible, that completely ignore entire sections of the Bible, concocting forms of righteousness that the Bible never indicated, that invent legalisms to replace the simplicity of biblical faith and righteousness!
What kind of a faith threatens folks into religious conformity, instead of teaching the true character of Yehovah, the gods of Israel, and the true characters of the saints? The greatest enemies of truth are so often the very ones that claim to have the most fervent faith! Saints in the Bible would have been saints in any culture of the world and in any century! Not one biblical saint is religious!
If one were to only just carefully read Genesis.
James Wilson
Hot Springs
Editorial on 09/17/2018