I did a topic on "Rewards in Heaven" a few months back. Will Billy Graham get the same rewards as me? Will the Saved rapist get the same rewards as me?

 

No one knows what these rewards are, but are mentioned alot in the NT.

 

Were they mentioned a lot in the OT?

So hypothetically you could do anything and everything you want no matter how bad it is as long as you restore your relationship w/ God through Christ before you die?

I doubt it's that easy. God knows your heart. I'm sure everything you do in your life, both good and bad, is weighed fairly. Just saying you're a Christian, and not doing the things a Christian should do, won't get you in the door.

That's good b/c if God issued 10 commandments now I would hope they would be a little different. My issue w/ this is can you rape 100 children, but believe in Christ and earn your way to salvation?

 

If Adolf Hitler would have asked for forgiveness and meant in his heart before he died, in theory, he would have earned salvation.

 

The heart part of Christian salvation is you have to love the people that you want to despise.

God authored the 10 Commandments. Do you believe just because you break man's law (busted for marijuana and taken to jail, public intoxication, etc.) and not one of God's 10 Commandments, you should be able to get in heaven?

 

Don't forget that Jesus gave us some directions on the 10 Commandments and added one.

 

 

Mark 12

The Greatest Commandment

28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.[e] 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'[f] 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[g]There is no commandment greater than these."

 

32"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."

 

34When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

I doubt it's that easy. God knows your heart. I'm sure everything you do in your life, both good and bad, is weighed fairly. Just saying you're a Christian, and not doing the things a Christian should do, won't get you in the door.

 

Salvation and rewards in Heaven are two different things that get lumped together a lot.

Hypothetically, yes.

 

The mystery of God revealed through Christ Jesus...

 

Another thing I've found that people struggle with related to good works is the idea that if your good works outweigh your bad in the end, you'll go to heaven. I'm not assuming you believe this, but many do.

 

The flaw in that logic is the assumption that a perfect, pure, holy God can allow sin to be in His presence. Hypothetically, even if our good did outweigh our bad, we cannot stand before God with sin. Through His work of grace, through Jesus Christ, our sin can be covered in God's eyes...but only through Christ. The Bible says, to paraphrase, "salvation is found in no other name". He casts our sins "to the bottom of the ocean", or as far from us "as the east is to the west".

 

These truths aren't always easy for us to accept or grasp. As people, we want to do and earn things with our own merit. But, when it comes to salvation, the only way is the grace of God through the free gift of Christ.

 

I won't ramble any more...that's probably more than you wanted to hear.

 

:thumb:

 

Another topic that probably deserves it's own thread but I have questions on whether the bolded is true. A few reasons:

 

1) Read in Job that Satan was in God's presence when God asked him to consider his servant Job. Ummmm, wasn't Satan full of sin but there he is in God's presence.

 

2) If God cannot allow sin to be in His presence, is he an all-powerful omnipotent God then?

 

3) Wasn't it Abraham that wrestled with God? Abraham wasn't a perfect person and thus sinless, was he?

 

4) Wasn't God around Adam and Eve after they had eaten of the tree and thus committed the original sin?

 

I wonder if that God could and has been around sin but yet has said that sin will NOT be in Heaven for all of eternity.

If Adolf Hitler would have asked for forgiveness and meant in his heart before he died, in theory, he would have earned salvation.

 

The heart part of Christian salvation is you have to love the people that you want to despise.

 

I agree. Except I would use the word "receive" rather than "earned." :thumb:

Rewards in the Old Testament,? I'll get right on it. But remember we are under a New Law of Jesus Christ not the Law of Moses.

And I should have too.

Another topic that probably deserves it's own thread but I have questions on whether the bolded is true. A few reasons:

 

1) Read in Job that Satan was in God's presence when God asked him to consider his servant Job. Ummmm, wasn't Satan full of sin but there he is in God's presence.

 

2) If God cannot allow sin to be in His presence, is he an all-powerful omnipotent God then?

 

3) Wasn't it Abraham that wrestled with God? Abraham wasn't a perfect person and thus sinless, was he?

 

4) Wasn't God around Adam and Eve after they had eaten of the tree and thus committed the original sin?

 

I wonder if that God could and has been around sin but yet has said that sin will NOT be in Heaven for all of eternity.

 

Its like asking, if God can do anything, can he make a rock so big that he can't pick up?

 

BTW, I obviously meant to type that he cannot allow sin in His presence.

 

I suspect when sinful beings appear before God, He's not revealing Himself in full glory.

 

John says someday we will see Him as He is, because we will be as He is. It would seemd to suggest that "we" have yet to see God in all His glory.

 

Just my two cents...could be wrong.

"Isiah 55:8....God can do/go/ anything/anytime/ he wants and we cannot question him, thats why he is God.

 

God wrestled Jacob, I didn't think he did with anyone else, but I could be wrong. He did have a face to face encounter with two angels at Abraham's camp and then these same angels went to visit Lot.

"Isiah 55:8....God can do/go/ anything/anytime/ he wants and we cannot question him, thats why he is God.

 

God wrestled Jacob, I didn't think he did with anyone else, but I could be wrong. He did have a face to face encounter with two angels at Abraham's camp and then these same angels went to visit Lot.

 

You know I typed Jacob and then talked myself into I was wrong and it was Abraham. Thanks for the correction.

I agree. Except I would use the word "receive" rather than "earned." :thumb:

 

And I should have too.

 

This was meant for Hatz post.

Trying to learn how to post from my phone on BGP and I forgot to bring his post along for the ride.