Under pressure

 

One of my favorite passages from the bible is in John 1, where John the apostle is talking about John the baptizer.  He says, “He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him men might believe.  He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.” I like this because for me it kind of takes the pressure off, what I mean is that it reminds me that I myself am not the light, I am not what brings men to repentance, I am not the one who holds them to account, and I am most definitely not the one who is their savior.  I am just a witness; just someone who is so enthralled by the one that is those things that I talk about Him often. 

Its not that I don’t need to be holy or work towards righteousness, but it does mean I can be human and I can be all right knowing that I am human.  That’s one of the great things about the bible and why I like reading it so much.  It is full of stories of people who were used by God but were not perfect in their pursuit of holiness, its full of stories about people who weren’t willing, or educated, or wealthy but all people who despite themselves were used to testify about God.  Like in the book of Acts where we see Peter giving into serious social pressure and excluding the non-Jewish from worship services.  Or where Paul and Barnabass separate thus facilitating one of the first church splits.

I think one of the dangerous things about the system we have built in American Christianity is that we place religious leaders on a pedestal and expect of them to be super holy and super righteous, and because we have placed them on such a high pedestal when they fall they rarely recover.  Which is sad not just because we lose gifted men and women, but because we so shame the grace of God that is the reason we can pursue holiness at all. 

As a community of Christ it is our privileged and responsibility to express grace in our acceptance of one another and of those that have fallen.  In Romans Paul says that we should be characterized by unity, and that unity will only be established when we accept one another like Christ accepted us.  And if you look at how Christ accepted us it wasn’t in our holiness or our righteousness, but it was in our everything that isn’t pretty or holy.  As Romans continues to say Christ accepted us while we were still against Him, while we were still sinners, and while we truly did not deserve acceptance. 

That’s the beauty of the Gospel, love and reconciliation.  That those (being all of us) who couldn’t have relationship with God and could not be apart of His family because of this huge wall (known as sin) that was separating us from Him can now know Him and be loved by Him because the wall is gone, destroyed by the death of Jesus. 

If Christ can love and accept us while we were enemies of God, then I think we can love and accept one another. 

Beautiful Invitation

When you think of the word repent what comes to mind first; an angry street preacher spitting flies into driving cars and carrying a sixteen foot cross condemning the world and spouting STDs as consequences, or do you think of a gracious, benevolent, loving Jesus.  I guess it all depends on who you are and what you know the definition and consequence of repentance to be.  For much of the world it seems that people think of repentance as just a notch above getting fired, something that equals religiosity and the loss of all fun and excitement. 

I’m not sure where these presuppositions surrounding repentance developed but let me be the first to tell you that if you believe repentance to be the beginning of a boring existence your wrong.  When Jesus spoke of repentance He spoke of something beautiful, an act where we stop living in one kingdom and begin to live in another one. 

In fact when we see the word repentance it is generally right after we have just heard something about the kingdom of God.  “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand,” repent for the kingdom of Jesus is about to break lose on the world.  The reason John the Baptizer and Jesus taught this way was because of what they knew the kingdom of God to be, something different, something beautiful, something counter-cultural. 

The difference and the beauty of the kingdom is wrapped up in the lifestyle of its citizens, a people group who have no boarders but exist throughout the world and yet still hold allegiance to one another and Christ above all.  A people group who are following the example of their leader the slaughtered lamb and dying everyday for people who don’t know and don’t love them.  These people put no stock in material wealth but sell their belongings as needed to provided for the needs their communities.  This is the beautiful difference that is the kingdom of Jesus, the kingdom of God. 

It makes sense then why Jesus and John would have taught repentance after talking about the kingdom of God because to repent means to turn.  To turn from the old lifestyle to give up the ways of the word and to live a different kind of life.  Often when we think of repentance I think we think of a prayer and a few choice words that we say to God and maybe it is partially that but it is so much more, to repent is to live differently and that kind of repentance is beautiful and radical.  

I wonder if the street preacher who is spitting flies and spouting STDs knows that he’s ruining the beauty of repentance.  Because he is and what Christ offered looked different it was an invitation to be apart of a beautiful story and a beautiful kingdom that thrived in the midst of the kingdoms of the world. 

More than a forgotten element

If you are at all connected with the modern church and the rhetoric surrounding it you are most likely aware of the discussions concerning what is missing from our present body. Men and women inside the church have spouted many reasons things are not right, a lack of social justice, lack of community, too seeker sensitive. You have probably felt the same thing about the church at one point or another, and maybe you felt that one of the reasons already listed is the missing factor in the modern church. You are probably right the church is missing community, some churches are too seeker sensitive, and even social justice is sometimes neglected; but I am not sure that is truly the heart of the issue. I think if we look into the churches in the New Testament will we see community and social justice, but I think if we look deeper and compare our present church to the original body we will see that what we are missing is much more grave and tragic.

All of us have probably had the feeling something is missing but could we ever imagine the magnitude of what we are truly feeling? I don’t think we have, otherwise what is missing wouldn’t be. I believe (I am not the first to hold this opinion) that what the modern church is missing is the Holy Spirit. I think as Francis Chan calls Him, He is the forgotten God. Can you image that, forgetting the Holy Spirit? If we are just thinking about it, it seems impossible that we have forgotten God, but it seems true. How often do we think of the Holy Spirit as God? How often do we think of Him as a distinct person? How often do we think of Him as a member of the trinity? How often do we meditate on the concept that the Holy Spirit is living inside of us, God in us? How often do we think of Jesus words in John 14:7 when he says that it is for our good that He goes away so that the Holy Spirit might come?

Jesus called the Holy Spirit the comforter and counselor, imagine that! Jesus is saying that it is good that He leaves us so the Holy Spirit can be our counselor and comforter. If I were to ask if you would like to have Jesus standing by your side to comfort you and counsel you, you would respond with a resounding yes! Do we think of our relationship with the Holy Spirit in the same way? If we don’t it is time that we do, because Jesus said we could, and we should.

I always knew the facts about the Holy Spirit but when you truly meditate on Him and all He desires to do, it is mind blowing. I encourage you to spend some time meditating on the Holy Spirit and the role He desires to play in your life.

I believe that if the we were to recognize our need for the Holy Spirit and submit to Him than all the other things we feel are missing would show up in greater supply. The Holy Spirit deepens our love for the lost and for each other, He increases our understanding of God, and because of Him we can have a more intimate relationship with God. All things the modern church is missing.

Think and pray on this, and tell me what you are feeling.

Read these Bible passages and just ponder Him.

John 14,15,16

I Corinthians 2:9-11

Romans 8:16

Romans 8:26-27

Good Friday

This week as most of you know is Holy Week, the time from Palm Sunday to Resurrection Sunday where we worship Christ for the sacrifice He made for us.

Many people dont emphasis this week because they believe we should honor Christ and His sacrifice every week, and I agree, we should. But this week is beautiful, and many people spend more time meditating on Christ now than they will at any other time during the year. Which is a good thing no matter how you look at it, the more we think about Christ's love for us, the more it saturates our hearts and deepens our love for Him. Maybe if we spend more time thinking about Jesus during Holy Week, we will start to think about Him more during the rest of the year. I don't really know, but it seems to me many hearts are tender during Holy Week, I know mine is.

If you feel as I do about Holy Week Gospel Fellowship is holding a few events that you can come to.

Tonight Gospel Fellowship community church will be holding a prayer meeting I would love it if you would attend. It will be an awesome time to come and worship, meditate, and pray with other believers. We take time to recognize our dependence on Christ and on His sacrifice, and we worship Him for making it so willingly. This prayer meeting will be at 7:00pm tonight.

Also this Good Friday our College/High School team will be doing a service, nothing big just a small service to worship and focus on the crucifixion, again I would love for you to come. It will start at 6:00pm and generally ends at 9:00pm.

As always we will be having our worship Celebration on Sunday, this as always is a great place to come and fellowship, worship, and learn. Our service start at 10:00am and generally get over around 11:30am.

Even if you are not attending services through the week, I would suggest taking some time to just meditate and think about what Jesus has done for us so that we can have a real relationship with the Father. He expressed His love for us, we can easily express ours for Him by just thinking about Him more than normal. I am not saying that all He asks of us in return is to just think of Him, but it is a pretty good start.

writer in question

I take a smoke break, the slow burn on a steady inhale and ash emerges gradually, I can hear the light sizzle of paper and tobacco. I am alone for a moment before the deck overlooking Salt Lake City fills up with others taking a moment to drag. I sip my coffee; inhale once more through my nose the smoke fills my nostrils, I flick the cigarette, take another sip of coffee and step inside to return to my computer.

Writing isn’t an easy job, sometimes words flow with ease each one more perfect than the other building the story right. In these moments its is a beautiful job. When I press save, close my computer, and gather up my belongings I feel accomplished and fulfilled. However these days are rare, most the time I force myself to my computer, I explore the internet distracting myself from my endless rat tat tat on the keyboard where I produce a few empty words that seem to only take the story into a world entirely opposite where I hope it to go. I press save shut my computer gather up my belongings step outside and smoke and wonder why I bother to spend so much time in this futility. Half of writing seems to be simply showing up at my computer, sometimes words flow sometimes I drag them out. I never know, that’s why I show up.

There isn’t really a better place to write however than Salt Lake City in the winter, everything is caped in white and the mountains and snow capture pollution and lay it to rest in the valley. Inversions cast a grey screen over the city and everything becomes introspective. Sometimes the sun sneaks out of the grip of the clouds and lets out its rays and all the inversion reflects it back, but when you get a chance to look out at the valley from above everything is on introspective fire. The trees and buildings are all encased in a thick grey red. It makes you feel bad for smoking, but it makes being honest easier.

I was told once to be a writer it’s necessary to go beyond you and be more than honest. To be a writer you have to be honest, each character or essay is intertwining with a piece of who you are, it is impossible to separate the two. Writers however have a threshold of what they are willing to explore with a reader, it seems like so much honesty but its not. When really digging you reach a wall that is hard for writers to cross, behind that lies the major insecurities all the things that writers are not in contact with. To grow as a writer it’s necessary to give that up though. It’s a pilgrimage, and its hard and long to traverse this road. For it to be a worthwhile voyage it must be this way, an exploration into the deep and dark. Readers, characters, and writers must go places they do not want to go, they must travel through the dim to come out a new and changed hero. It’s the writer’s job to make this happen, to except the heavy burden, to go where they of all the rest are most afraid to go. Only than will the characters grow, and only than will the readers be able to except their responsibility to follow where the writer has gone.

Who knows though, I am not even sure if I am a writer. When do you become a writer? Do you need to have written a book before you can be called a “writer” or can someone like me who sits at my computer day after day slaying the dragon be called a writer? I sure hope so, I told my girlfriend I was a writer, that’s why I think she went out with me the first time.

********

I take another smoke break, inhale slowly and listen for the crackle of burning paper and tobacco. It puts my mind at ease, trying to decide if I am a writer or not has put strange questions in my mind, most that have nothing to do with being a writer. Like if that joke about me being flabby wasn’t just a way for my girlfriend to trick me into going to the gym more often. I may never know, I did go to the gym today though.

I’m not just thinking about my girlfriend insinuating that I should go to the gym more, I’m also thinking about Fredrick Buechner, well not really Fredrick Buechner but something that he wrote once. I can’t remember the quote exactly, but it says something about not knowing what a self-authenticating religious experience is because without God somehow how destroying him how would doubt also be destroyed.

I think I understand what Fredrick is saying, but it makes me think of writers going places they don’t want to go in order to grow. I don’t want to be destroyed I want to grow but I am not sure I can pay the price of self-destruction.

********

That’s the thing though isn’t it, going where you don’t want to go, enduring what you don’t think you can handle. Taking the step from honesty to insecurity and simply praying that your vulnerability was not in vain.

********

I think that is what God wants, our vulnerability not our threshold honesty. How else could God reveal Himself to us in a way that would be real and without doubt? It seems He wants us to take that step; He will be our guide on this pilgrimage, and He will lead us where we don’t want to go, but in the end we will have grown. We will be the changed characters, the heroes we were meant to be.

rough draft

This is a chapter that I have been working on for awhile, its unedited and very rough around the edges, and that's why I am posting it. I want some feedback and your editing skills to be put to good use. Thanks for reading and replying, be nice though.
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A new relationship, that’s what it always seems to be about, some form of new relationship. Not the kind where a new person is met and a new relationship created but the kind where old relationships are made new. Everyone wants a chance to form a new one, all the ugly words, backstabbing and betrayal made right and new.

I dated this girl once, who I was totally in love with and she was my half world. I can’t say she was my world because in the end we ended and that’s not the signature of someone whose world revolves around someone else. I want a chance to say something, to go back and take back the arguing the fighting, but it wont happen. I mean I can go and apologize for the things I had said and done and she can do likewise but that does not recreate the relationship its kind of a whiteout that covers the bad words and ugly actions of the story, but if you were to pick at the whiteout then there underneath would be the ugly rhetoric of the story, a story cloned from another story cloned from another story.

And that’s the thing, the truth remains the same, and the relationship will never be the same it will always be compromised, changed, and mutated. No rewriting whiteout exists not for a page or reality.

The past regret is a fire, its overtaken everything engulfed the forest of existence and charred everything. It’s like Yellowstone, when Yellowstone was aflame everything was destroyed, and now people go back and act like it was never there. But it was. And its obvious, rocks and mountains are charred and maybe the greenery grew back but the consequences are still evident flames touched the mountains and their mark will never be removed. The fire of the past is the same, relationships are charred, but the difference between us and Yellowstone is that we melt and mutate. We aren’t gold or diamonds that are refined in fire we are flesh and blood even in our mind and where fire hits and flames arise flesh melts it mutates, and now from the fire emerges not a phoenix but a monster of sorts, a charred mutated you and I that when looked at through the mirror of our eyes will never look the same.

We have all come to live with the monsters though, because no one has ever escaped the flames of the past and all of us now live burned and charred. And we look out over the living corpses in the earth we see people; rude, naïve, compassionate, angry people whatever we see, we see something that looks like us and that’s what we live with. We have never seen anything else, charred mutation is what we know its what we accept its what we like, but is there more? How would we know? Would we see someone not charred as charred because of the perfection of their emotional flesh? Someone who has never regretted or needed the rewriting whiteout, would it be like seeing an alien?

All of this began long ago though; our own ugly stories are just filled verbatim with the same old rhetoric of a past relationship. It all began when someone flicked the cigarette into the brush or got drunk and lit off a bunch of fireworks in the emotional national park of our beginning, then the flames came. The park was burnt and sealed for remodeling and the drunks, who set the thing aflame kicked out, removed, and banned from entering ever again. But in this instance the drunks didn’t just escape with a mass of fines for burning down the original national park, they themselves were caught in the fire, pulled out and bandaged by a rescue crew but never the same the fire was to intense. Now they live with the original insecurities of the burns, they haven’t always been mutated but now when seeing themselves in each others eyes it is evident something changed. The beauty and perfection that defined their relationships in the beginning is gone burnt to a crisp back in the park.

“Adam,” she says “do you still love me?” Tears rolling down the grimacing face overwhelmed by the experience of this mutation.

We all wait hoping the characters will overcome the conflict now thrust into their lives, the fact they were drunk lighting off fireworks in a national parks means nothing now, all we hope is that these two can overcome. The story doesn’t end though it keeps being written and now unfolds in our lives; those of us born mutated and forever charred never knowing perfect, living with the consequence everyday.

The effects are devastating and inescapable. Its evident if your watching, you don’t need to be vigilant just human. We fight a war whether for freedom, nuclear weapons, or oil its all consequence of mutation. Humanity has fallen, has burnt up all the truth and what we experience today is the aftermath.

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What does God think of all of this? In the beginning of it all God creates this beautiful garden, alive with animals and all the vegetation imaginable. In this garden there is no fear or worry of what will come, no fear of past regrets because no decision has yet be made that will bare the fruits of negative consequences, there is just God and His creation. Alive in the glory of love Adam and his cherished Eve live. But one-day drunk on the intoxication of beauty the garden permeates; Adam and Eve set the whole thing aflame, that first and greatest national park. Forever with the scars they must leave this place never to see it again, to live and fight in the real world, something they have never seen.

What was God saying? Where was He when the cunning serpent seduced the innocent Eve? Was God Hiding? Was He afraid His beloved would choose the serpent over Him?

*********

My mind rages with these questions, where is God now? Why don’t I see Him when I think I need to most, why can’t I feel Him? Why am I not able to lay my head on Jesus like John the Apostle? To touch the wholes in His hands like Thomas, or hear Him whisper like Elijah?

It’s taken so long to begin to understand why I am unlike those before. Knowing that Jesus isn’t here the way He was before is not a comfort, because Jesus was not physically in the Old Testament yet Elijah heard God whisper on the mountain, and Moses spoke face to face with God like they were old time friends. I don’t believe I have less of God than these men and women of the Bible, but it does seem we have a different measure of God. That He has localized Himself differently, and now we get to experience Him in a different way, but one day in the end we will get a chance to see Him like Moses did, yet unveiled and free to rest our head on the chest of God, to finally hear the heartbeat that echoes throughout philosophy and the questions of man.


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Where was God when Eve was seduced by the serpent? I think He was watching, aware of the consequences and the fire that would soon be caused. He watched, heartbroken and ready to redeem Eve. To save what would soon be left of Her, to marry her the way Adam would now not be able to do. Not physically marry Eve but marry her and complete her, to save her from choice she had made. He would do this for Adam, for me, and for all the world.

God now begins the most elaborate wooing process in the History of mankind. He chooses a people; He works to ready them for the groom to end all grooms, the groom that would pay the ransom for the captured Eve. God waits at the alter for us, for the bride that is the world to walk to the alter escorted by the Spirit of God. He waits for us to arrive and say, “I do.”

Destiny of the unevangelized

This is half of a paper I wrote for my Theo 350 class, its only half because the other half of the paper deals with the nature of Hell. I hope it is thought provoking and I would love to hear your objections or questions.

Position Paper:

Destiny of the Unevangelized

“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) So proclaims the New Testament, there is only one-way. Epistemologically and Ontologically Jesus as the single way to eternity permeates the New Testament, and spurred the disciples to spread the Gospel around the world. The heaviness of the first few chapters of Romans shows the desolate position of man kind, that despite God’s special revelation of Himself in creation (1:20) and His implementation of His law onto the hearts of mankind (2:15), man has suppressed the truth of God (1:32). Therefore no one is righteousness as it is written “both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; there is none righteous not even one… There is none who seeks for God.” (3:9-11). All are left needy rendered guilty by the universality of sin, but God in His awesome grace has provided redemption through his son Jesus (3:23-24), and only through Jesus are we saved (5:12-21). Furthermore only through cognitive and volitional acceptance and belief in Jesus and only Jesus will we be saved (10:9).

Paul was not alone in his exclusivity of salvation through Jesus; Jesus Himself stated that through Him and only Him would someone come to God (John 14:6) Along with Paul and Jesus the apostle John clearly wrote in his epistle of the exclusivity of salvation through Jesus, and that those who taught different are antichrists (I John 2:22-23, 4:3, II John 9). It seems clear that the bible teaches of the exclusivity of salvation through Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone, but the question remains what is the destiny of the unevangelized?

Often the hardest doctrine for people to swallow is the condemnation of the unevangelized, and rightfully when working through this issue people look to the nature of God for answers. “Could a loving God condemn so many do to, misfortune (i.e. place of birth and time of birth)?” To answer this question it is necessary to look at the nature of God, God knows all He is omniscient, God is all-powerful He is omnipotent, and God is everywhere he is omnipresent. For the issue of the destiny of the unevangelized it is important to focus on the omniscience of God, for if He knows all then He already knows the outcome or the destiny of all. To take this even further if God knows all, then He knows what could have been along with what is; this is often referred to as middle knowledge, and it is essential for God to posses middle knowledge if He is to be God. William Lane Craig writes in his article on middle knowledge and the exclusivity of salvation through Christ

In the first, unconditioned moment God knows all possibilia, not only all individual essences, but also all possible worlds. Molina calls such knowledge "natural knowledge" because the content of such knowledge is essential to God and in no way depends on the free decisions of His will. By means of His natural knowledge, then, God has knowledge of every contingent state of affairs which could possibly obtain and of what the exemplification of the individual essence of any free creature could freely choose to do in any such state of affairs that should be actual.

(Craig, William L. "'No Other Name': A Middle Knowledge Perspective on the Exclusivity of Salvation through Christ")

If God knows all, the outcome and destiny of all and the possible outcome and possible destiny of all, then God knows who will and who would not except the gift of eternal life no matter their circumstances. Those who would not except no matter what the circumstance will often not hear the Gospel because it is only foolishness to them, but those who will believe and except will hear the Gospel of Jesus whether through evangelism or through the providence of God (Gen 20, Daniel 2).

12 Historical Indisputables for the Resurection

No serious contemporary historian will argue the historical existence of Jesus; evidence supporting His 33 years of life is indisputable. His resurrection is another matter entirely, one that has been disputed since the death of Jesus. Below is a list of 12 Indisputables as so titled by Dr. Gary Habermas in his book The Risen Jesus and Future Hope and The Case for the Resurrection of Christ; this list is a set of historical indisputables that support the existence of Jesus. These also work to support His resurrection from a historical and non-biblical point of view.

1. Jesus Died by Roman crucifixion.
2. He was buried, most likely in a private tomb.
3. Soon afterward, the disciples were discouraged, bereaved, and despondent, having lost hope.
4. Jesus' tomb was found empty very soon after His interment.
5. The disciples had experience that they believed were actual appearances of the risen Jesus.
6. Due to these experience, the disciples' lives were thoroughly transformed, even being willing to die for this belief.
7. The proclamation of the resurrection took place very early, at the beginning of church history.
8. The disciples' public testimony and preaching of the resurrection took place in the city of Jerusalem, where Jesus had been crucified and buried shortly before.
9. The Gospel message centered on the death and resurrection of Jesus.
10. Sunday was the primary day for gathering and worshipping.
11. James, the brother of Jesus and a former skeptic, was converted when, he believed Jesus was raised.
12. Just a few years later, Saul of Tarsus (Paul) became a Christian believer due to an experience that he believed was an appearance of the risen Jesus.

Much of the significance of these points is very understandable and can be derived directly from the statement, but there are a few I believe will be beneficial to focus on for the purpose of illumination.

#11: When Christians read the Bible we see the book of “James” and think of the dynamic persona of the author. A Christian dynamo, filled with enthusiasm and passion for the gospel, but at one time James the half brother of Jesus was more a skeptic of the message of Christ then an advocate. I believe this to be one of the most significant statements in the list authenticating the resurrection. At one point and time the brother of Jesus, a skeptic and non-believer, and now after the resurrection a passionate and willing disciple of the savior, what better testimony of the resurrection then a skeptic changed to proponent and follower? And even more so a relative of Jesus, someone who grew up with Him and experienced every worldly emotion and jealously we would at having God for a half brother. Changed from a brother to a servant laying down any negative mental history at the feet of his finale epiphany at, the feet of his savior.

#10: With just a basic understanding of the historicity of the Jewish people we can understand the nature of the legalism that dictates Judaism. Traditions that are still very evident today in the life of Jews ruled and rule their day-to-day activities. These traditions would never be changed for anything short of the booming voice of God commanding them so and sometimes not even then as we see in the life of many Pharisees. The change of the traditional worship service from the day of the Sabbath to Sunday is a change of religiosity that would have required an event that would shake the world of the Jewish people, and noting that the change occurred after the claimed resurrection of Christ leads us to a conclusion supporting the validity of the disciples’ testimony.

What is the significance in acknowledging that Jesus is risen? When we acknowledge that Jesus has risen we acknowledge His divinity, that He was God in flesh and nothing less, and as God He was sinless and holy. We also recognize that Jesus contained two natures, one divine and one human. Jesus was God and man, two natures united as one. He experienced every temptation and struggle that humanity experiences (Hebrews 4:15). He can and does sympathize with the pain of His children, and provides escape routes during our temptations (I Corinthians 10:13). Though He is God and can be Father like no other, and His death was the only possible way to atone for our sin. When we believe that Jesus is risen, we find validity in the totality of the gospel, proof of the resurrection gives sufficient evidence that Jesus can be trusted and we can put our faith in him. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name… (John 20:31)

4 facts to cognitively know

Are you soteriologicly believing in Christ? I'm taking an Introduction to Evangelism class from Liberty University, and below is a list of four descriptive statements/questions to ask ourselves, to see if we "know" whether or not we are "saved." Take a minute to read them and tell me if these salvific statements properly communicate, or lay to rest our soulical questions concering the metaphysics of personal eternity.

Now remember these are statements that we are supposing must be cognitively known in order to be "saved."

1) Do we agree with God regarding our sinful state?
We must be in agreement that our sinful state merits judgment a spiritual and physical death.

2) Do we believe that Jesus is God?
We must believe that Jesus is 100% God because if Jesus is anything other then God, His sacrafice would do nothing to atone for our sins.

3) Do we believe that Jesus' sacrifice was the only sufficent payment that could atone for our sins?
We must believe that Jesus' death was sufficent in totality to pay the penalty of our sin, but we must also believe that his death and sacrafice is the only thing that could atone for our sins.

4) Do we believe that Jesus physically rose from the dead, therby proving that He can conquer both physical death and spiritual death?
To fully accept the gift of God that is salvation we must believe completle that Jesus rose from the dead, and that in doing so defeated the death that we would have other wise inevitable suffered.

Please, tell me what you think of these questions, or of your personal experience with questions like these. Or just tell me of any thoughts you had concerning this... stuff (for lack of a better word). You can comment this blog or email me at jonnydm.18@gmail.com Thank you!