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flameburns623
Guest
To which perhaps this quote from Francis A. Schaeffer is most apropos:
Francis A. Schaeffer:
As for some of the other comments here:
Almost the only Scriptural thing said here. Keep in mind that Hell is our birthright as wanton enemies of God, as lifelong, unrepentant, willful sinners. We have no claim on God whatsover. We have no right to His mercy. We have nothing by which we can demand anything or hold any power over Him. He is the Sovereign One. We are worms, wretches, filth in His eyes because we willfully reject Him. The astounding thing is that He loves us anyhow and deigns to save some for purposes of His own, without respect to merit or virtue in any of us. None of us have any merit or virtue by Divine standards. We are dead to Him already. Your first problem is in assuming that human goodness in some way measures up to God’s standards, that it imposes some sort of indebtedness on God which He must reward.
With birth comes growth. With growth comes fruit. Some growth is not easily visible, just as some plants put down deep roots long before they produce stems, leaves, or blossoms. Mere profession with no fruit as evidence suggests no growth, which in turn suggests no birth. Regeneration is an exclusive work of God, and the affirmation of Christ as personal Lord and Savior is not of itself proof that God has acted in the heart and life of a soul. The SOB who also spends hours of his or her time doing some of the other things you clearly hold up as good things, who is working on his or her SOB-ness, who is involved in a process of change not through their own strength by the leading and the power of the Holy Ghost–SUCH a person may create scandal and offense by the fleshly works they still find themselves prey to, but they are saved by the Grace of God through genuine, God-given faith in Jesus Christ. One might want to be ‘just like’ the ‘arrogant SOB’ in one respect: insofar as he or she is becoming conformed to the image and likeness of Jesus Christ, so long as they are becoming in their own spirits, ‘just like Jesus’.
Does the good Doctor never sin? Never lie, never get angry, never willfully appropriate what is not rightfully his? Has he maintained such a state of perfection throughout his life? If not, he is in active rebellion against his creator. He is justly and condinely condemned for his own sins. His good works cannot atone for his wickedness, cannot give him at-one-ness with God. Only the grace of God through Jesus Christ can do that, but apparently the good Doctor has never thrown himself upon the mercy of the God Who Is There, has ignored whatever preaching of the Gospel he may ever have heard, has ignored the Light of Conscience given him by his Creator, has likewise ignored the Light of Creation. He either never merited the Light of Christ or rejected it.
If you don’t like it, don’t blame God. Blame the Doctor. He’s the one who decided to sin. He is the one who rejected his God. He is the one who is culpable.
