PaulSacramento wrote:...Those that do not believe, have not heard the gospel will be resurrected not to eternal life but to judgment and then, IF they are worthy based on the good works and intentions, God will decide if they are to have eternal life...Now, that may not seem such a bad thing except for the fact that NONE are worthy and all our "good works" are corrupted IF our intentions are not pure and who's intentions are pure ?
Who's intentions are pure? That is one of the main things God foreknows. Only God's intentions are pure.
Human beings when left to themselves without any guidance to determine what is morally right create the darkest of tyranny with the noblest intentions. As a student of history and ancient archaeology, I have observed the evidence of non-jewish / non-christian cultures/societies and am struck by the utter brutality of their moral codes. Their codes were based upon strength, stealthy manipulations, quid pro quo ethics, survival of the strong, and the dispensing of the weak. The ancient Greeks with all there high and noble ideas justified taking unwanted babies and placing them in the mountains to die. They exalted the moral excellence of conniving and scheming, sexual perversions glorified, oppression of women and children, the treatment of slaves, are all telling what that their noble sounding moral codes were not pure at all.
Ancient Greek Society.
After looking into the matter more form other pagan societies, Germanic, Roman, Celtic, Babylonian, Chinese, etc and etc one striking theme emerges shared by all is the glorification of power - the powerful dominate the weak.
Why do I bring this up?
Simple, God's intentions are pure and humanity corrupts God's good intentions he has for man as evidenced by the evidence of the corruptness of human nature no human effort can cure (known as the sin nature). All Human moral codes lack any coherent standards for right and wrong. Now, enter Abraham and the ancient Israelites. Before Abraham, God should have wiped humanity off the face of the planet but he did not. Instead he made a nation out of a people to bring his salvation to the world. He gave the Israelites the Law known as the Ten Commandments i.e. Ten Responsibilities midst a time when only the powerful, strong, profane ruled.
Think of the revolutionary standards God gave Moses to the Israelites and to the world such as: Have only one God before you who holds one to account and who alone can forgive. To Honor parents, not to commit adultery, not to slanderously lie to destroy reputations, do not serve idols, don't manipulate God's Name for vanity. Have one day a week of joyful rest before God, stop justifying premeditated manslaughter, don't steal, stop coveting after all manner of things. If we just listen and obey these how wonderful would be the world now? Only Ten as opposed to million of pages of human laws that change daily. Even with this, we can't keep the Ten because humanity corrupts love.
These 10 Commandments were expressions of God's love granting humanity direction on how to live a peaceful fruitful life midst a world's system that had many gods which were used to justify the following things:
1-make idols of conniving scheming wiliness of human nature (Greeks); Power and control (Roman, Oriental, Middle Eastern, European) idols out of warfare, idols of people and ideas, idols of gods that justify actions of: using the name of gods/idols manipulate favor for vainness.
2-No rest from labors, or the land as all must produce for the leader or ruling lord. Old people are a hindrance to the young so death with dignity mandated in many forms. Unwanted babies and peoples justified as worthless burdens should be exterminated.
3-Adultery and sexual sins of all kinds legitimized as normal and natural expression of human love, theft justified to take from those deemed weaker to increase ones strength and position in life. Justifying that the ends justify the means so therefore slanderously lie to destroy reputations is a good thing to do your opposition real or imagined. All manner of coveting is viewed as okay
Look over the list again and you will notice that is how fallen humanity lives and what it teaches our young. Even today, the same actions are prevalent and sought after as norms to abide by.
You see, through Moses and the Ten Responsibilities God’s revolution of light entered the world. Setting the standards used to determine right behavior from wrong behavior. This was an act of God’s love to send rules for humanity to show them how they miss the best God has to offer of their own free volition.
He made a law of sacrifice that basically is summed up as this: His love will provide the means to expunge sin and not just passover it. His laws were acts of love and his mercy. You see, faith works by love, therefore God wants our faith so we can learn to love God faithfully. He desires from his created beings, faith in himself who alone has the answer and the means to restore one back to health, the way they were meant to be from the beginning.
God gave the law to teach humanity how real love acts to instruct true responsibility midst a dark world bent on quid pro quo, power, control, sexual deviance lying/slandering, murdering, conniving, idolizing, making own gods and ways to justify relativistic morality. This world is dark because humanity is dark. However, God sent his law to teach us what sin is and provided a means by which one can be reconciled back to God. The law exposes how callous the human heart is towards each other and the one true God. It teaches us the pain of sin and death. God cared that much not to leave humanity orphans lost in darkness’ rot that he gave us his standards to wake us up.
The High Priest and Levites of ancient Israel were required to work in the temple around the clock seven days a week as God's representatives providing the means to remind the people of God's great love being displayed to atone daily sins. They worked every Sabbath and Holy Day and every Feast. The Priest / Levites worked in the temple, replacing the oil, trimming the wicks for the lamp, baking the showbread and replacing it daily, ensuring the altar of incense was full, sacrificing seven days a week.
But they forgot that these acts were acts displaying God's mercy/love and corrupted them into the means to make deals with God and get away with crimes. They relied on their own works instead of seeing God's love and mercy displayed clearly demonstrating the cost of sin: the death of innocence. They failed to see and hear that only the death of one truly innocent can expose sin, cure it corruption, fully displaying God's love that makes him worthy to return to and give our faith too. Faith works by love.
The law foreshadowed the coming of Jesus, who alone can heal the heart of human beings. Jesus died and exposed what true sin looks like and is on that cross. The 24 hours before the cross reveal human nature at its rawest and reveals what we are really like to each other and God! There is none righteous, no not one the bible declares. Only God is truly righteous. What he did upon that cross averted God’s wrath and pronounced forgiveness in a manner that does not absolve the guilty but extends mercy to the guilty that simply turn to believe in him.
So there is a choice thrust to the world of humanity hiding midst the bushes of darkness. Come out and return to the Lord, or remain dark and know you will be held to account for all the betraying, slander, putting on trial, scheming to justify the murder of relationships - etc, coveting, and the idols made out of people, ideas, lifestyles – etc, the coveting practiced, lack of true mercy shown, your bitterness over being shown up by another, our mocking, justifications of lifestyles that justify death, and glorify exchanging the good for exalting and freeing the bad. No one can hide from these…
The law exposes humanities sin and Jesus offers the cure for sin and cleansing from its hold. The law exposes the hardness of the human heart teaching us the pain of sin and death we cause on all levels. Jesus came to heal this heart so we can give God our entire heart to change. That take faith, a faith in God loving us so much to send forth the means to die in our place to expose our hearts so we can be reconciled to his great love that says - "But if you had known what this means, 'I DESIRE COMPASSION (MERCY), AND NOT A SACRIFICE,' you would not have condemned the innocent," Mat 12:7 NASB
We love God because he first loved us… to give us a law that tutors us on our need for Jesus to heal our hearts from the darkness within. A love that offers a choice and the means to have his heart placed within ours, changing us, sealing us, forever his, when we deserve it not.
The whole world is guilty before God. Therefore, the Rev 20:12-15 White Throne Judgment is about the last and final judgment. The question it begs is this:
how does one have his or her name written in the book of Life? Is it by human good deeds or faith in God's Grace by what Jesus did and how he works thru a person?
Note: Psalms 28:4, Psalms 62:12; Psalms 69:28; Pro 24:12, Pro 24:29; Eccl 12:14; Jer 17:10; Jer 32:19; Dan 12:1; Mat 16:27; Mat25:31-33; Luke 10:20; Rom 2:6; 2Co 5:10
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