Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Debelak
Sam,
Billy Graham makes a key point: Its simple and child-like. I generally take Occum's Razor to the Scripture, through the lens of the central gospel.
I am sure that there are those (I know some) who abuse grace as license to sin. There are still others who sit on the laurels of their cultural faith (shared upbringing) and master a culture rather than pursue a faith (many in the LC). But most Christians who aren't usurping the CHristian message for their own agenda, are attempting, imperfectly, to follow Him.
This desire to follow Him, based on the revelation that He is God and Savior, is the foundation for a Christian life. It is born in humility and continues there. Sure, there is some fear. But, I don't believe God in Christ to use fear as a primary manipulator. That is just my experience. Christians pursue doing what is right because they are motivated by love to do so. But they also fail miserably. And God helps scoop them up, as soon as they return to a prayerful need for a Savior yet again. There is a process, to be sure. But my belief (credence) told God that I wanted to live my life together with Him. Personally, I take no account of my eternal state. Call me crazy. I pursue Christ as my Savior, because He has given me a rich life in Him, even as hard as it can be.
If you told me I had to deny Jesus in order to get into heaven, I'd likely say I don't care about your threat. I don't need the "carrot" to tell you to go pound salt. I won't deny Jesus because of the rich life I have in Him. Not because I might or might not get some future reward.
Thoughts?
Peter
P.S. I'll respond to your thoughtful post regarding Peter's denial soon. Thanks for it.
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Those are some good points Peter. I think the human heart is a mystery and there is a different key to unlock everyone's heart guiding them to love Jesus with all their heart. I think Jesus purposely chose the analogy of saying we should be fishers of men. Different fish require different bait. For me coming to know God could cast me to hell drove me to him, and he eventually showed me how much he loved me so I could love him back. If I never feared him in the first place, I probably would have just lived my life as normal. So I was caught by the fear of hell bait. That's my testimony and it may be different for everyone else. The difference in my case was I already believed in Jesus and the Bible as being authoritative. This method of using fear would not work on an atheist for example who would require other means to gradually unlock his heart for Jesus.
I think that's why hellfire preaching doesn't make sense because it does tend to scare all the fish away. That said, one third of Jesus' ministry was spent preaching on hell, and if you study where he did it, it was usually to his followers and disciples and not when he ate and drank with sinners. Jesus always was merciful and gentle in his contact with the outcast sinners of society. Some churches have the opposite practice. They preach hell to those outside the church, then avoid it all together inside the church. Paul also seems to share the same attitude by telling the Corinthian believers to judge those inside the church and not outside (1 Cor 5:12), presumably because everyone outside is going to hell, but those inside have a chance to avoid it if the unrepentant sinner inside it repents.
That said I agree the best way to ensure a healthy relationship with Jesus is to grow in intimacy with him. If we have a real intimate relationship with Jesus, it will help us have the right heart and motivation for how we avoid temptation and practice righteousness, because we're doing it to please him and because we treasure him living inside of us. I wrote a blog post on this a while back as an answer to someone's question during small group time:
http://nodustybunnies.blogspot.com/2...-if-jesus.html