Re: [TruthTalk] Re:The HEART of the matter

[Terry Clifton]

Up to a point, I am in agreement with you, Dave.  When John wrote of Jesus, he recorded something very interesting that we find in chapter five, about the middle of verse twenty-eight.."the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth -- those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation."  Jesus was stating that He had the authority not only to raise the dead, but also to judge them, sending some to Hell and inviting others to live eternally with Him.  From other things that He said in other scriptures, we know that these are not the only things taken into consideration.  You can do all the good works you can do, for as long as you can do them, and still go to Hell if your faith is not in Christ as your Savior.  Evidently one can also claim to be a follower of Christ but the evil pattern of one's life makes a lie of one's  claim and that person is also condemned to Hell.   Those who deny self, follow Christ, shun evil and do good get the reward. Mother Teresa, it was reported at one time, was not sure of her salvation.  How true that is I do not know.  If she did her works out of love for her Savior and her fellow man, she most certainly will be closer to the throne than me, but if she did these works hoping they would save her, she  is begging for a drop of water at this moment and will be forever.  I strongly feel that she did her works out of love, but like you, I am in no position to judge.  We are clearly taught that we are not to judge another's works.  Jesus will handle that without our help, and that is a good thing.  I have an opinion about everyone on this list, but I am not qualified to say who is saved and who is not.  I do not know your heart, or Izzy's, and you do not know mine.  We all claim Christ as our savior.  All we can do without evidence to the contrary is accept one another on the basis of that claim.  It is soooo tempting to say "He or she does not believe as I do, therefore he or she cannot be saved ."  "If they were saved, they would believe as I do", is our pride speaking.  We have become modern day Pharisees.  We have it all figured out. Once we get the beam out of our eye though, we are commanded not to throw pearls to swine or a holy sacrifice to the dogs.  If we do not make a judgment call, how do we tell the hogs and dogs from the Holy?  It is important to know, because if you do what you are commanded not to do, they will turn and tear you to pieces.  It is pretty obvious that you should not go into a Mosque in Iraq and start preaching Jesus and calling Allah a false god.  They would tear the pieces to pieces.  The same thing might happen if you preached against looting in the middle of a race riot.  But where is the line?  At what point can we say this is a hog and this is a dog, and this one needs to hear about Christ?  Do we draw the line at holy underwear?  Does smoking make you a hog or a dog?  If you think you can sin tonight and do penance tomorrow, are you a hog or not?  What if you preach salvation without repentance? Are you a holy because you preach, or are you a dog because you don't mention repentance? It's a good thing God looks at the heart.  Yes sir, a real good thing. Terry Dave Hansen wrote: DAVEH:   Sorry about that, Lance.  I had hoped you would understand the underlying humor in my answer.      To give you a serious answer, let me offer the example of what I perceive to be true of Mother Theresa.  Neither you or I believe that the RCC folks espouse true theology, yet apparently MT was a true Christian due to her love of those who were disadvantaged.  Is there any truer Christian than one who gives her (or his) life to others?  I don't think so.      There are many Christian folk who believe in doctrines that I think are in error.  From my perspective that does not make them any less Christian than one how professes true doctrine, but yet whose works demonstrate no motivation for being a Christian.  There are a lot of goodly (and Godly) sincere Christians in the world who believe opposing doctrines.  It is not for me to judge them as inadequate in the Lord's eyes.  I'll leave the judging to the Judge, and as for myself.....I'll try to worry more about how to treat others with respect even though I may disagree with their beliefs. Lance Muir wrote: I'm not asking you to speak for God, Dave. I'm asking for you to speak within the context of your own tradition.   You may recall my various attempts to address the question 'Who is Jesus?'. Now, whatever the variance within the Christian tradition(s) (I do not consider Mormonism Christian), there isn't simply a 'variance' between you and I.   FWIW, I DO BELIEVE that such as Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and Christadelphians MAY be born from above even through a maze of heretical beliefs (IMO). DAVEH:   How would I know, Lance???   Perhaps Brother Dean can answer that question from his personal experience!      :-D Lance Muir wrote: Is it possible for one to have a true heart connection (be born from above) with God through Christ by the Spirit while espousing beliefs via one's dogma that are intrinsically unreal (false)? -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dave Hansen [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.langlitz.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you wish to receive things I find interesting, I maintain six email lists... JOKESTER, OPINIONS, LDS, STUFF, MOTORCYCLE and CLIPS.