Human Effort In Salvation?

[crakjak]

Originally Posted by stephenroehm

I hope you are right and I am wrong. I hope one day we will both laugh at "my doctrine" as it will be so hilarious to sit back and think about how childish it was for me to have thought that there was an actual lake of fire made of actual fire where those who rejected and rebelled against God went and were in actual agony for an actual eternity. I hope one day, God will sit me down and help me to understand what His Word meant when it said,

Luke 13:23-28 Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out..

Jeremiah 10:10 But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.

John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Ephesians 5:5-6 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

Colossians 3:5-6 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:

Revelation 14:9-11 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

2 Peter 2:4-9 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds
The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

2 Thessalonians 1:8-10 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.

I guess we'll both see in time. I do like the sound of the Gospel you preach more than mine. It's much easier on the ears and is presented as if, no matter how I live now (or in the ages to come), there is still a chance for reconciliation with God. If Satan himself has a chance to be pulled out of the Lake of Fire, which is really just another opportunity God gives us to be purified, I will have that chance, also!

It is easier on the ears and the conscience to hear that the Gospel may even save the devil one day than to hear that there is a real sin to be repented of before physical death, there is a real Cross on Calvary's Hill where real blood was shed, that you must really be born again of the water and the spirit, that there is a coming age where you will either find yourself in a real Lake of Fire or a real Holy Jerusalem, and you will either find yourself in the presence of God forever or away from the presence of God forever.

I hope you're right. Your version is much more pleasant.

Good response. But it is not all peaches and cream, everyone must give up their deceptions, and that is very hard for folks. The refiner's fire while not literal fire, does do a work of refining, and that is not necessarily a walk in the park.

But it is more becoming of the all mighty, who never gives up, whose mercy never fails.

Man has distorted and literalized the symbolic language of the Hebrew and Greek, that was very common and easily understood for those in whose day it was written.

The Word of God, while still containing the revelation of Jesus Christ, has been filtered thru centuries of the Roman state church and Western Christianity.

Eternal life is knowing the Son of God and the Father who sent him, first relationship with him thru the Spirit, then He opens our eyes and ears to see and to hear.