God's Salvation

A friend had just read my book, God Makes Us Holy.  Something clicked, so he asked, “What is your version of God’s plan of salvation?”

He was sincere, a true seeker of truth.  Yet for decades, he struggled with this concept.  The problem was his highly conservative upbringing.  Rules restricted and condemned.  Love and forgiveness were absent.  Only the few, who followed perfectly, found salvation.  Everyone else went to hell.

He knew that view conflicted with many biblical teachings.  It rejected God’s compassion, mercy, and forgiveness.  Instead of God redemption saving us, our actions save us.

Through the years, he realized that condemnation condemned himself.  He learned the rules were blown out of proportion because they did not show God’s love.  He learned that forgiving others freed his soul.  Forgiving himself is still a goal, but one much closer than it once was.

However, his preachers still taught dogmatic rules that condemned.  They segregated those who follow a denomination’s ways from everyone else.

What I told him, I will give you.

God loves you.  God loves you so much that He wants you to live with Him forever.  Period.

Reread that statement.  It is God’s plan of salvation.  His own blood paid the price to save the worst sinner.  If you are not worse than the worst sinner that ever lived, then you qualify for His love and heaven.  He only asks that we make the choice to live His way.  It is not difficult, but culturally it is not easy.

God wants us to live a life filled with goodness, because it is good for us, and those around us.

God wants us to discard anger, hatred, lust, and all those thoughts that lead to self-centered evil, because they are bad for us and for those around us.

When bad thoughts enter our mind, He wants us to talk to Him about it, so that we can recover.  He desires that we acknowledge our sin so that we can confess and repent: to God, to “self,” and to those around us.  He will forgive instantly.  He wants us to forgive ourselves too.  We cannot control the response of others.

For us to hold on to bad thoughts and actions, we must justify their continuation.  When they become “normal,” we deem confession and repentance unnecessary.  Self-centered evil slowly kills our God Breathed spirit.  With a dead spirit, we no longer look like God.  Our choices let us become children of Satan.

When others hurt us, physically or mentally, we must work through the emotions and learn to forgive.  Forgiveness is key.  Forgiveness is God’s way.  Forgiveness is not easy for humans.  Yet, holding negative emotions hurts us more than “what happened.”  It hardens our heart (thoughts and emotions) and distorts our relationships with everyone else.  It is bad for us.  Learn to forgive as God forgives.

All the other “requirements” called for in “Plans of Salvation” are ritualistic.

Do not complicate God’s love and salvation with cultural “requirements.”  There is no “one perfect way,” except by God’s love.  Our faith to act is important to God.  Our commitment is important to God.  But, what God wants from us is our love, the reflection of His love.  All other “things” pale in comparison.

Most of the rituals are for our benefit.  I believe that “confession of belief” and baptism are important, but their appearance changes with culture.  They are points in time that redefine “self.”  They are part of our testimony where God cleansed us for a personal covenant with Him.  But, neither forces compliance.  Likewise, their absence does not require God to send good people to hell.

Trust God to save mercifully and justly.  In the parable of the sheep and goats, Jesus said compassion trumped personal beliefs and even knowledge of Him.  No religious restrictions qualified or disqualified salvation.  In the story of Cornelius, God filled the gentiles with His Spirit before they were baptized.  He accepted them before Peter was sent.  The story of Jonah tells us that God has always loved and was always willing to save, even the enemies of His people.  God knows our heart.  His salvation is for everyone willing to live His way.

Still, only His love saves us.

First and foremost, remember what He did.  God loved us first.  Learn to love Him back.  Our soft heart, filled with His Spirit, secures salvation.  Because, God loved us first.

The Pain of Dogma

As you might have guessed, I write biblical exegesis.  That “big churchy word” simply means I spend excessive amounts of time thinking on scripture.  Questions drive this pursuit.  Sometimes, things feel “not right” between what I read and the way I was taught to read a passage.  Other times I wonder why denominations believe differently.  It is my nature to figure out the problem and find a solution instead of ignoring or discarding my heritage of belief.

However, thinking that long means I dissect dogma and find most of it inadequate.

“What is dogma?” you ask.

Humans define things and ideas.  Dogma is the end of a progression of thoughts.  It is not isolated in one religion or even to religion.  Atheists have their dogmas too.  Every endeavor of man is filled with dogmatic beliefs.

“Where does dogma come from?” you ask.

Dogma is not dogma until someone decides it is dogma.  In an ideal state, this is how it forms.  We believe in “something.”  We teach that “something” is good or bad, or simply a better way of thinking.  The next generation agrees and builds upon that teaching.  They emphasize its attributes as good for everyone to know and call that doctrine.  Then it becomes a “must know” for understanding.  Eventually, a future generation says this is the only way to know that “something.”  Once the “something” is no longer questioned, we call it dogma.

However, that is also the problem with dogma within Christianity.  It ends discussion.  It ends thinking.  A concept that should bind us together in unity actually forms division and denominationalism.

“How could that happen?” you ask.

Too many of the concepts called dogma should never have been given that status in the first place.  Traditions turn dogmatic.  They once had a reason, but after a few generations, the people no longer think of them with reason.  They just keep the tradition.  They add rituals to make it more impressive, more “holy.”  Those become dogmatic too.  Nothing wrong in that, except when it is forced on someone else who questions the reason behind the tradition.

Discussions to solve a question develop into arguments about arguments until the original problem is no longer discussed.  Then, one group picks one side of the argument.  Another group picks the opposite side.  Each group believes their beliefs are true; therefore, their adversary’s beliefs are heretical.  The groups become theological enemies.

Corrupt leaders control a populace using dogmatic beliefs.  We must accept dogma without question.  We must plug our ears to opposition or be in rebellion.  We must condemn those who think differently.  If not, our group will reject us.  Ignorance makes compliance easier.  All we need to know is what we are told.

However, not thinking about their covenant with God led the Israelites to worship their neighbor’s idols.  Not thinking of a better solution let religious rituals become more important to salvation then God’s mercy and forgiveness.  Not thinking about the meaning of God’s commandments made people “act right” but not love a neighbor or even parents.

No subject that segregates the body of Christ into denominations should be considered so holy it cannot be discussed.  If there are many “solutions,” then the final solution to the original question is yet to be found.  The reason for the belief is lost in dogma.  We simply stopped thinking.

I pray we find God’s solutions and once again be unified.

Hometown Identity Crisis

What is in a name?  How about your hometown?  The place you grew up.  The area all your family and friends still live.  What is the level of pride there?  How do others view it?

Jesus came from the small town of Nazareth in the region of Galilee near the lake of the same name.  Capernaum in Galilee held a large rabbinical school.  Jesus began His ministry in this area.  Yet, in derision, the chief priests and Pharisees of Jerusalem asked Nicodemus, “Are you from Galilee, too?  Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”  (John 7:52 NIV).

Nicodemus belonged to their council, however he was no longer one of them.  They judged against a “so called” prophet, from which they had not yet heard testimony.  He asked if Law condemned a man of heresy on hearsay, knowing the answer should convict them.  Mosaic Law required them to listen to someone considered a prophet before they rejected the concept.  In Deuteronomy 13:1-5, the proof that God sent a prophet was not about the miracles or proclamations that came true.  It required the prophet’s words to focus the people’s thoughts on God’s ways, not lead them away from Him.

Instead of repentance, the chief priests and Pharisees used ridicule and a veiled threat to move blame onto Nicodemus.  They refused to see their own faults.  However, they were the ones who needed remedial scripture lessons.  In 2 Kings 14:25, the prophet Jonah came from a town called Gath-hepher in Galilee.  Isaiah 9:1-7 proclaimed Galilee would be honored when David’s successor was born.  Strange they forgot these important details.  About five miles away from Gath-hepher sat Nazareth, the place Jesus grew up.

The people of Israel knew and respected Jonah.  They believed the ancient Ninevites accepted his words as truth.  Nevertheless, not even those who grew up with Jesus believed He might be a prophet, let alone the Messiah, because nothing good came out of Galilee.

[Lesson from a new unpublished book by Jo Helen Cox that connects Jesus to Jonah, (no title yet).]