Page 141 … believing in Salvation
Here you announce a pretty bold claim – that, “you don’t understand because you don’t believe in Salvation!”
Ummm – I’m not quite sure where you got that one, my Friend. I’ve never said as much, that’s for sure. Now where we do happen to differ is that you seem to have fallen a bit far into arrogance, and are thereby 100% certain of your own entrance into a post-mortem Paradise, while I merely have a humble faith in The Way of Jesus Christ, and thus cannot ever be certain thereof (and frankly don’t really care whether I get rewarded for my beliefs after I die or not).
After all, if there is indeed a God ruling over us all like you say there is, then it is for that God to decide who qualifies for entrance into His (or Her) halcyon Heaven – certainly not you or me or any human preacher (or even the “apostle” Paul – much less the author of Revelation, for that matter) … So, I think I’m just going to live my life bringing as much Joy & Peace to others as I can, and let everything else sort it itself out after I die … If there is a God and He thinks I should come into Heaven with Him, then I will do so – unless I do so unfairly; unless there are others who have been banished therefrom, in which case I will humbly ask to go to Hell and Care for them instead … For it must be obvious to anyone with even a moderate amount of moral awareness that there is no way that we can truly Love another – that there is no way for any of us to truly follow The Way of Jesus Christ – while we are worrying about our own potential damnation or hoping for our own personal Salvation, much less while feeling absolutely certain of said Salvation in that Hereafter. If God is an enlivenment of perfect Love – and if we are to emulate the same (Matthew 5:48 + 1 John 4:16), then we cannot do so while worrying about (or even fousing upon) our own potential salvation in the Hereafter.
And that, my dear Friend, is why I’m not at all concerned with what God will or won’t do with me after I die … I’m going to live a fully Loving life, and simply accept whatever comes as a result thereof … And besides, if there is a God “up there somewhere” – and if He is a God who is petty enough to damn me to Hell simply for not worshiping Him correctly, then I frankly don’t want to spend even a month with Him anyway – much less an eternity!*
[*Unless, of course, I could somehow badger God into changing His mind and returning to The Way of His Son – Jesus’ Way of unconditional Love & perfect Grace – and thereby freeing all the Souls who have up to that point been unjustly banished to Hell. In such a case I would willingly stay in Heaven to do just that, though at least according to you, it doesn’t look like I would have much success.]
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