How to gain eternal life....

by kelsey007 5 Replies latest jw friends

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  kelsey007

  A young man came to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" Note that he did not ask whether he had to believe anything to have eternal life; he asked what he must do.

  Jesus then asked him if he had kept the commandments. The young man said, "I have kept them all; what do I still lack?" Then Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come and follow me." (Matthew 19:16-21)

  Note again that Jesus didn't ask him to believe anything; he just told him what he must do in order to have eternal life.

  How many people do you know who are headed for heaven?

  Saved??

  1. Salvation By Good Works

  "What good deed must I do to get eternal life?" a young man asks Jesus. Even though he had kept the commandments all his life, Jesus tells him: "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven." (Matthew 19:16-21; Luke 18:18-22)

  2. Salvation By God's Grace

  "No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I well raise that person up on the last day." (John 6:44). "...no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father." (John 6:55). "So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses." (Romans 9:16, 18).

  3. Salvation By Faith

  "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, and you and your household." (Acts 16:30-31). Jesus says, "Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life." (John 6:47). "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." (John 3:16).

  4. Salvation By Predestination

  "...all who were destined for eternal life became believers." (Acts 13:48). "And he will send out his angels, ...and they will gather his elect... (Matthew 24:31). "...he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will." (Ephesians 1:4-5).

  You may be saved by doing good works, by holding the correct belief, or by hoping that God may have mercy upon you.

  But if God has predestined you for either heaven or hell. there is nothing you can do about it. So just relax and enjoy yourself - if you can.

  Edited by - kelsey007 on 26 December 2002 21:44:46
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  Undecided

  Looks like a contridiction to me.

  Note again that Jesus didn't ask him to believe anything; he just told him what he must do in order to have eternal life.

  Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, and you and your household." (Acts 16:30-31). Jesus says, "Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life." (John 6:47). "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." (John 3:16).

  Ken P.
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  Windchaser

  This is what I don't get: The Law was supposed to show that no one could live up to God's way of doing things...thus, all the animal sacrifices. Yet this young man said he had kept all the commandments. Was he lying to Jesus? How come Jesus believed him?

  It also pisses me off that we are predestined by God whether we will live in heaven or go to hell. He allows all to be rained on or have sun shine on them, true, and life is a gift, but does anyone else see the unfairness of this? Has God created some people just as stepping stones to the ones he 'chooses'?

  I just don't get the Bible. I really, really would like to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. I believed in him all my life, even pre-jw. But, I am told to believe in a book and a god that confuse the hell out of me. I guess I'm not predestined to live forever. The fact is that it is a serious disappointment for me.
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  Lassie

  windchaser,

  I am confused too. Lately I feel like I am one of those "stepping stones". I live with someone that believes "once saved always saved" and have asked him on numerous occasions: "what is it like to live with a spiritually dead person (only because I have not 'proclaimed' my request to be 'saved' in the face of man)?" I get no real answer. I believe. No, I am not perfect (who is?). I try. I live, I love, I give. I wonder too. If I don't go to "church" am I a bad person?

  I don't go to "church" because the same people that are out the night before are in church acting all righteous the next day. Not that going out is a bad thing, it is just that the stuff that I see these people do when they are out ....(you know what I mean?). My S.O. (Significant Other) thinks so. He thinks all you have to do (if you are "Saved") is to pray and ask for forgiveness and all is well. Here I am a statistic. I am neither hot or cold (something to spit out), yet at the same time I am not committing any crime, but a crime is committed against me. I forgive the grave crime. I ask my S.O: "if so & so that committed this crime against me is "saved" does what he did make it a crime against GOD?" (That is if this person has this "once saved always saved" belief and asks for forgiveness after committing the crime against me (the 'not saved' person) I ask)? My S.O. says, "yes, if he is 'saved' all he has to do is ask for forgiveness." Can you believe that? Here I am trying to do good and there is some maniac out there that at some point in his life got "saved" and can committ all kinds of bad things an all he has to do is ask for forgiveness? "yes" says my ALL ENLIGHTENED and DON'T ARGUE WITH ME S.O (significant other). GREAT! GREAT! I am the doomed one then? YES, SO HE SAYS. Go figure.
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  Mary

  "...all who were destined for eternal life became believers." (Acts 13:48). "And he will send out his angels, ...and they will gather his elect... (Matthew 24:31). "...he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will." (Ephesians 1:4-5)....."

  I don't think this is talking about each individual's entire life being pre-ordained. I think it's talking about about God choosing individuals based on their character, not on the spin of a wheel.............

  But if God has predestined you for either heaven or hell. there is nothing you can do about it. So just relax and enjoy yourself - if you can.

  If God deliberately chose certain individuals to burn in hell without them being able to do anything about it, He'd hardly be a "loving God". Like I said, a person's destiny with God lays on their character and if they want to choose evil or good.
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  NeonMadman

  Of course, topics such as these - predestination vs. free will, the relationship between grace, faith and works, and others - are the stuff that keep theologians at work. Some of these things have been controversial throughout nearly the whole history of Christianity. Predestination, for example. If God knows everything, as the Bible says he does, then he must know whether each of us will ultimately be saved or not. Moreover, he must have had this knowledge for all of eternity past. How, therefore, can it be said that we have free will to choose salvation or not, as, again, the Bible says we do?

  Many theologians have advanced many different answers to this puzzle. It is considered an "antinomy", or seeming contradiction, of the faith. The Trinity is another. How can three persons be God, and yet there only be one God? But the existence of such difficulties does not prove that the Bible is unsound, or that Christianity is false. Really, why should we expect that the things of an infinite God will be fully comprehensible to finite humans? We should be more suspicious of theology like that of the Watchtower, which seeks to explain the difficult concepts of Christianity by limiting God.

  Christian theology has reconciled these seeming contradictions, and many more. But as in so many areas of life, there are varying opinions about how the different teachings should be reconciled. Books by the hundreds have been written to explain different positions on these sorts of issues, and Christian colleges teach courses in which they can be explored in depth. Like anything else, you are free to form your own opinions after considering the evidence. There is a rich depth of knowledge out there to be plumbed.

  But the marvelous thing about Christianity is that, despite the complexities of theology, the essential part - the part that results in salvation - is so simple. Man is lost in sin; because of God's love, the Son of God came to earth as a man. He died for our sins, was raised on the third day, ascended to heaven, and will return to earth in the future. He offers us salvation as a free gift, which we can accept through faith in Him. Once we accept this gift, God begins to work in and through us, to bring us closer to himself, and ultimately to bring us home with Him forever. These basics are the foundation of a stunningly complex structure of belief. The fact that different persons or groups have different ideas about the details does not mean that Christianity is invalid, any more that the fact that Democrats and Republicans have different ideas about how the government should be run means that the Constitution is invalid.