Ping!
According to the Bible not accepting Jesus Christ as Saviour is the only sin that will condemn a person to hell.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8,9
I was raised Lutheran, so I haven’t believed in purgatory. After reading the Bible, I’ve changed my beliefs that there most likely is a purgatory.
Re: 1 Cor 6:9-10
I’m very glad that verse 11 follows.
Got to also remember that with the growth and interest in “near death experiences” which shows a LOT of positive near after-life experiences such as the little kid who’s NDE experience became the basis for the famous book: “Heaven Is For Real”.
The crux of the problem is insufficient catechesis. First and foremost, Jesus said to love the Lord, Thy God, with your whole heart, and with your whole mind, and with your whole being. The second is like the first - love your neighbor as your self.
Now, who loves the Lord God and continues to commit serious sins with no sense of repentance or remorse???? How can anyone say they have fulfilled the First great commandment and live lifestyles which are sinful? They commit sins with impunity with no thought about the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross for us.
And, so, these folks are deceiving themselves by thinking God will ignore their sins, For they have deliberately taken the notion of conscience and remorse out of the equation, and substituted the reliance upon God’s mercy and love. God’s mercy in limitless, but Jesus told us that we must repent and change our lives.
We are called to holiness, not to some milk toast concept of “Jesus loves me” so I can do anything I want.
Exclusionary sin can best be described as “holistic”. What this means is that it incorporates three different Earthly judgments before a Heavenly judgment.
Of the three Earthly judgments is first, the spirit or soul of the individual, and how it looks upon the thoughts, feelings and actions of the individual. Second is the impact that the individual’s life has had on others’ lives, the direct consequences of the life. Third is the indirect impact that individual’s life will have on the lives of its descent and the future lives of others.
The judgments of these combine before the final, heavenly judgment, the rules of which are determined in heaven.
Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV)
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
The New Testament Greek word translated as “Sin” is an archery term meaning “to miss the target”. Jesus tells us plainly that the “target” we are to aim for is ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
When we fail to love God in this way, we “SIN”. How do we know when we miss this target? One way is when we do not “love our neighbor as ourselves”. These things done out of self-centeredness are the things and attitudes which we usually label as “sins”.
Discussions (arguments) over what is a sin and the relative weight of that sin occupy far too much of church time, energy and effort.
“SIN” is missing the target of loving God.
“sins” are where our thoughts, attitudes and actions hit when we miss the target. Some of the consequences of these misses (sins) are far more serious than others, i.e. murder, adultery, theft. Various groups award higher penalty points for different sins. Some groups see “hypocracy”, “intolerance” and “greed” as the big bad three, while ignoring or even promoting abortion, homosexuality and theft-by-government. Others see drinking, dancing and “hanging out with the wrong crowd” as the major problems.
Each of these subsets of sins are only symptoms of the main SIN; not loving God with everything within me. I am a sinner not because I commit various acts. I am a sinner because I do not love God.
The result of my SIN (not loving God) is that I do things (sins) that are not loving toward my neighbors. My problem is NOT that “I need to clean up my act.” My problem is that I do not love God.
If I concentrate on loving God, the result is that I begin to love my neighbor as myself.
We all have failed to love God. We all have done wrong or even evil to others. We are all sinners. The Bible says “there is none righteous, no, not one”. We all are in need of a Savior.
This is why God became a man, Jesus Christ, and died to pay the penalty for my SIN (and my sins) by dying on the cross. The resurrection proved that the penalty was paid, death & Hell defeated. In effect, I have won the eternal, celestial lottery. However, if I do not accept that wonderful gift by personally yielding command & control of my life to Jesus as both Savior (rescuer from the penalty of SIN) and Lord (Master, Boss,Commanding Officer) of my life then it as if I had the winning Powerball Lottery ticket for $500 million and I left it in my top drawer under the socks rather than redeem it.
BIG TIME LOOSER!
This salvation & forgiveness is why we are Giving Thanks and why we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the ‘reason for the season’.
Look it simple..the default postion for heaven is not “your in” the default postion is “your out”...to get in you first need to be sponsored by this guy on the membership committed name Jesus..
Title is off putting. More correctly: “I haven’t murdered anyone.” I killed for this country. Am I going to hell for that?
Thank you(!) for showing me another book I need to read: Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul.
To me, one of the serpent's most deviously spectacular accomplishments is convincing human souls that he's not real, and therefore purgatory and the many levels of hell aren't real either.
Otoh, I've also come to know how rough things can be when God lovingly, mercifully teaches and corrects me with the consequences of the errors of my ways, now, during this period of His grace and mercy. I am grateful for those lessons over and over again. I just wish I was an easier, more attentive student.
If fear of God is the path to wisdom, then I've got the right map.
I fear His Wrath and the Judgment of everlasting fire as the consequences of my ego driven, freely willed choices to follow the siren calls of the deceiver.
“I haven’t killed anyone!” is a low bar to set. Especially there are few people who haven’t at least idly considered doing it.
The article promotes a huge stumbling block in he walk of faith. It promotes thinking towards obedience of the law, instead of faith in what Christ provided at the Cross.
It shifts our thinking of Him on the Cross and places sin as our focus.
It now seeks to perform works to avoid sin, rather than living by Faith through Christ.