Posted on 10/20/2013 11:29:26 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
Once upon a time, Groucho Marx hosted the popular game show, “You Bet Your Life.” At the start of the show, a “secret word” was revealed to the studio audience. If a contestant said the word during the course of the show, a reward would descend from the rafters (a one hundred dollar bill).
Whether we know it or not, we are all, Christians and non-Christians alike, contestants in the spiritual equivalent of “You Bet Your Life.” If we bet wisely, our reward is eternal life. But if we bet foolishly, we condemn ourselves to eternal damnation.
That brings to mind Pascal’s Wager, credited to the seventeenth-century French philosopher, mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal. He famously posited that every human being bets his or her life on whether or not God exists.
“Let us,” he wrote, “weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.”
To put this in terms to which most of us can relate, even if the odds of God’s existence are, say, 1 in 175 million – the odds of winning Powerball on a single ticket – it is worth the wager.
Because, if we have bet on God, and God does not exist, we lose nothing. That is, save for indulging in certain behavior proscribed by God, including sexual promiscuity, idol worship, adultery, homosexuality (and other sexual perversions), thievery, greed, substance abuse, slander and robbery.
But if we bet against the Almighty, and indeed He does exist, we shall be cast into the lake of fire, eternally separated from God. We shall be condemned to place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Where we will be burned with unquenchable fire. Where we will be tormented day and night forever and forever.
Most of us are rationale. So we heed Pascal’s advice.
Even if we are uncertain there is a God, we hedge our bet. We respond to an altar call at some point in our lives. We say we accept Jesus as our personal Savior. We get baptized.
In so doing, we believe we have ensured our eternal security. We believe that, because we went through the ritual of being “saved,” we have a lifetime “Get Out of Hell Free” card. And that we can live our lives as it pleases us – not God – with impunity.
But what if we are wrong? What if this doctrine of “Once Saved, Always Saved,” espoused by many Godly pastors, preached in many purpose-driven churches, is errant? What if it actually is possible for us to forfeit our eternal salvation, to condemn ourselves to hell, by living brazenly and unrepentantly in defiance of God’s law?
That presents a corollary to Pascal’s wager, one that has not been considered by those who profess themselves Christ followers, but who are not truly leading a Christian life.
Let us call this corollary the Salvation wager, in which we weigh the gain and loss in betting on “Once Saved, Always Saved.”
Those who reject the doctrine, who believe those of us whom the Son sets free, must go and sin no more, must faithfully strive to live in obedience to God, have everything to gain if the doctrine is wrong and nothing to lose if the doctrine is right.
But those who subscribe to the doctrine, who believe that, having been saved, they can commit any and all manner of sin and it doesn’t matter in the eternal scheme of things, have hell to pay if they are wrong.
So what might Pascal advise?
That even if it’s more likely that once a person is saved, there is absolutely nothing they can do to lose their salvation, and that even if the odds are, say, 175 million to 1 that the widely-accepted doctrine of “Once Saved, Always Saved” is right rather than wrong, it still is wise to bet against the doctrine.
Because there are many who claim themselves Christians, who think their names have been written in the book of life, who will appear before the great white throne of judgment, who will find themselves sinners in the hands of an angry God.
They will look to Jesus and say, “Lord, Lord,” hoping He will spare them from punishment. But He will declare to them, “I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice wickedness.”
That’s a warning to those abiding unabashedly and unrepentantly in sin. They have bet their lives on “Once Saved, Always Saved.” And if they are wrong, eternal torment awaits.
Isaiah 45:
“Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker—An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’? “Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting? Or to a woman, ‘To what are you giving birth?’”
smvoice already answered the question...Jesus said, 'I never knew you'...
It doesn't say that we are saved now. It says in the day of salvation, God has helped us (which He has).
I have no problem accepting your claim that we are saved now. However, it only reinforces the fact that salvation can be lost. Of course it all comes down to what the term 'saved' really means. And the ultimate definition rests with God. So I place my trust in Him to sort it out as He sees fit, regardless of my current self-declaration based upon someone else's non-Biblical definition.
I think the issue that bothers so many is that we can look at our lives as saved people, and STILL see overwhelming amounts of sin in our lives.
The enemy can use that to beat us over the head with trying to make us think that we aren’t saved after all, or weren’t saved in the first place.
My life was radically transformed when I accepted Christ.
Does that mean I didn’t sin, or struggle with doubt at times?
No. What it means is that in spite of my human weakness, still giving in to temptation, and sometimes wondering if it’s really all true because of hard times I encounter, God remains faithful when I am faithless.
But that’s a far cry from the spitting in God’s face and flaunting it kind of sin that those who believe in eternal security are accused of believing in.
I would actually argue that Christ was in them, yet they never opened themselves up to that relationship. It is the same with the Holy Spirit. God gives us the Holy Spirit, yet many of us never open up a relationship with Him.
Good night, everyone. May God reveal Himself to each of you like never before. Peace up.
My dad was stationed in Gitmo from 1960 through 63 and I was a dependent there. I went to William T. Sampson high school.
But, I didn’t write to talk about Gitmo. Your post is an eloquent statement of faith. It’s difficult for people to accept a free gift. They always think they must return the favor. But, there is nothing that we can do on our own. Nothing, except place our faith and trust in God. He gives us the Holy Spirit as a guide, and his spirit gently prods us for correction.
Paul wrote to Timothy that we should study to show ourselves approved. When we spend time with the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit speaks through those words and brings us into the proper place where we should be. We are told to gather together, and that is so that we can share our faith and subject ourselves to our new family. Scripture tells us that if we see an error in someone’s faith or testimony, that we are to go to him/her and confront them. If they don’t receive it, we take some back up, because the Holy Spirit will do the talking for us and through us.
God is so gracious and generous and loving. He made his plan before the foundations of the earth. We look around us and see desolation in our culture, but God is still gracious and generous and loving enough to have died for us as the penalty for our sin. Sin is not a plural. Sin encompasses the human side which is at enmity with God. It is only through the indwelling Holy Spirit that we can boldly approach the throne and say “thank you Lord, for saving a wretch like me”!
Pray for them.
Act 19:13 Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.
Act 19:14 And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so.
Act 19:15 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?
2Co 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2Co 11:15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
There's plenty of scripture to support it...Simon the sorcerer was proficient at performing miracles but he couldn't lay his hands on people and have them filled with the spirit...
Cornflakes on their way in.....
Provable is subjective. God HAS given us plenty of evidence.
Faith produces action on our part.
Merely saying we believe in something does not equate to getting out of the boat and doing something about it.
Saying we believe and then going out and doing works to prove it, doesn't save anyone either.
True faith will produce works of its own accord.
Any faith that you have to add works to, isn't saving faith.
Chapter and verse?
Projection is an interesting thing, is it not?
How about Paul understood his Savior is also his LORD. The LORD had a lot of demands for him. But Paul could not accomplish the tasks without his vessel being clean. Paul is am example of the obedient redeemed.
AMEN!!!!!!!
All of those sinners were sick and seeking the Great Physian. The parable of the Pharisee and Publican comes to mind.
It says to believe Him who sent me. And what does Him who sent me say about Jesus?
This is my beloved Son, listen to Him.
Jesus said, *I am the way, the truth, the life. NO MAN comes to the Father but through me.*
No it doesn't.
Galatians 3:1-4 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
Romans 8:9 Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
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