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| February 5, 2009 Believing in the Risen Christ | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 29 2009, 12:58 PM (157 Views) | |
| lightninboy | Apr 29 2009, 12:58 PM Post #1 |
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Believing in the Risen Christ Posted by: Bob_Wilkin Recently several people have emailed me asking about a sentence that appears in one of the prepages of our Journal. Under the title, “Statement of Faith,” this sentence appears: “Any person who, in simple faith, trusts in the risen Christ as his or her only hope of heaven, refusing to trust in anything else, receives the gift of eternal life which, once granted, can never be lost.” That sentence was written about 20 years ago and is flawed for several reasons. As a result, it will be changed in the next issue of the journal, Autumn 2008, which is soon to go to the printer. (Sorry it is late. However, we hope to catch up fairly quickly. We hope to have the Spring 09 journal to the printer in April and in the mail in June.) First, the sentence should speak of believing, not trusting. While trust can be a synonym for faith, it often conveys a sense of doubt that is not inherit in the English word faith (”I’m trusting him to do what he said he’d do. I sure hope he does.”) and it often conveys a sense of commitment (as evidenced by many who use the chair or tightrope illustrations to say that it isn’t enough to believe the facts, but you must sit down in the chair or get in the wheelbarrow). Second, Jesus isn’t our hope of heaven. He is our guarantee of our eternal destiny with Him. Third, heaven is a bit misleading. The believer’s future home is the New Earth (Revelation 21-22), not heaven. While believers who die do indeed go to heaven, that is not where we will spend eternity. We will spend eternity with the Lord Jesus on the New Earth. Fourth, the term “risen Christ,” though accurate, has caused some to wonder if we are saying that to be born again person must believe that Jesus rose from the dead. Actually, the least problematic part of that sentence is the statement that anyone who trusts in the “risen Christ” has everlasting life. That is who He is. The statement doesn’t say one must believe that to be born again. We could also put “the Lord Jesus,” “the Savior Jesus,” “Christ the soon returning King,” “the virgin-born Christ,” “the sinless Jesus,” etc. Of course, we don’t see all those adjectives used of Jesus in Scripture. The main modifier linked with Jesus that we see in Scripture is “the Lord Jesus” as in Acts 16:31. I’m sorry if we have confused anyone with that sentence. It will be revised in the next journal so that it more clearly reflects the message that the Lord Jesus gave us (cf. John 3:16; 4:10-14; 5:24; 6:35, 47; 11:25-27). Comments: 1. Turbo I wonder if there is some way to leave “hope” in the statement? Defined as a confident expectation of a future fulfillment or as seen in Hebrews 6:18-20. Satan has always tried to redefine God’s word but to me “hope” is very clear. It does seem to be used often in the Bible to remind or instill confidence in believers and as such is maybe a growth/sanctification issue but like God’s use of the word believe, hope is also a strong personal conviction. Good luck and I hope you can arrive at a clear statement that will use as many of God’s words possible. February 11th, 2009 at 10:06 am |
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No I will not, No I will not Not go quietly | |
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9:37 AM Jul 11