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And if it is Belief + Works, I sure feel sorry for those accepting Christ at the last moments of their life – not having time left for works.

The Lord has entrusted lots of things to us: money, natural talents, spiritual gifts, the saving truth of the Gospel. He expects us not just to conserve these things but to grow them. In the last supper discourse (John 15) He speaks of the disciples as bearing much fruit. The fact that such an individual was not focused on that particular message at the time of their death, does not rule out that during their life, they may very well have been generous in sharing their "talents" with others.

85 posted on 03/08/2011 2:49:58 PM PST by NYer ("Be kind to every person you meet. For every person is fighting a great battle." St. Ephraim)

It sounds like you are saying the thief on the cross that Jesus said will be in Paradise, made it because Jesus could see the good works he did in his life. I don't think that at all. The Thief “made it” because he truly believed in his heart that the man being crucified next to him was the Messiah.

Talents - shared or otherwise - won’t get one into Heaven. Only God’s sacrifice, only His grace has that power.