Hollywood has brought another controversial film to the
table, "The Kingdom of Heaven." This is Hollywood's version of
the historical "Catholic" crusades that took place approximately
a thousand years ago.
This is as good a time as any to further the controversy. So in
staying with the topic of religion, I would like to state that I
believe there are only two kinds of religions in the world.
First, there is the religion that teaches one must earn one's
way to heaven. Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Islam, Judaism,
Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Church of Christ, are
just a few of the denominations that belong to the Church of
Good Works. Though their doctrines differ in respect to
definitions of God, faith, heaven, and salvation, they all
believe that mankind is possess some goodness and strive to
better themselves in order to merit heaven, via keeping God's
law, being baptized, or obtaining good karma. This, they hope,
will please their deity in the end, whoever their deity may be.
The central teaching of the Good Works Church is faith plus
good deeds will hopefully result in eternal life." But one can
never know.
The second religion centers itself around the person and work of
Christ Jesus, who is believed by Bible-believing Christians to
be God in the flesh, the Creator become man, the God-man as
proclaimed in the New Testament. The clear teaching of Biblical
Christianity is that we are sinful from birth and this results
in our habitual breaking of God's law. Since our Creator will
not be bribed by our good deeds, all of us remain condemned
before the holy God. But God, who is rich in mercy, made a way
for sinners to be justified in His sight. Individuals must place
their faith in the sinless life, death, and resurrection of
Christ alone. Jesus did ALL the work. And He bids individuals to
trust Him for their eternal state.
The central teaching of Biblical Christianity is that we are
justified by faith in Christ Jesus alone. In other words, faith
in Jesus plus nothing we can do results in our eternal life.
So, are you banking your eternity on your own empty works or
will you you place your faith in what God says in His Word? Take
your Bible and go to the Gospel of John. With a pen in hand,
everytime you see the words, "eternal life" or "everlasting
life," underline those words and than ask yourself two
questions. Who is eternal life for? And what must one do to
receive eternal life? Ask God to show you the answers to those
questions from His Word.
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