Given that you understand that man, all men, are corrupt beings, and perhaps that you suspect that the soul, which is the true source of our life, is immortal and will live on after the flesh dies; With these conditions in mind; What is the absolutely highest and most perfect set of circumstances that you can imagine (regarding "life after death")? Go ahead, jot them down, for you will want to compare them to the facts, as communicated by The Sovereign of the Universe, concerning the eternal future of those that believe.


Here's a list to compare your own ideal scheme of things:

1. God has provided for the redemption of all men, no matter how corrupt or evil.

2. Salvation is free, no strings, no conditions.

3. Salvation is easy, painless, and instantaneous. It requires one simple act; Faith in Christ.

4. Once saved, you cannot lose salvation for any reason, no exceptions.

5. The saved will receive, at the resurrection, an indestructable body with everlasting life.

6. The saved will dwell in Paradise, the third heavens...God's Kingdom, forever.

7. In heaven there will be no pain, suffering, anguish, unhappiness.

8. In heaven we will be sinless, and incapable of ever sinning again.

9. The Royal Family (all believers in this age) are "co-heirs" of the universe with Jesus Christ.

10. As heirs of the royal house, we will have unimaginable wealth forever.

11. As Royal Family, we will be higher than angels.

12. We receive 39 spectacular gifts at salvation; Irreconcilable, absolute, eternal.


How's that? Did your list match up pretty well with this one? Just in case there are individuals that feel their ideal situation is even superior to the one provided by God, hold your horses! The entire story is not yet told!

Nor will it be told here and now, for this page is devoted to one proposition; Salvation. There are many, many details concerning the wonderful blessings that come with eternal salvation, but the first priority for any person who has not made the greatest decision in this life, the most critical one, is to here the gospel and respond with positive volition toward the Savior, Jesus Christ.

As for the many other goodies that come with salvaiton, this site is about those things.

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John1:14)

The English translation for the word "gospel" is "good news". That news is that God has provided a way into His eternal kingdom for all that accept His Son as their Savior.

Every human being in exsistence is faced with a choice, the most important decision that we can make in this life. The importance is based upon the ramifications of our choice; eternal damnation or life everlasting in the kingdom of God. There are no exceptions, all men will reside in one place or the other.

The good news is that salvation is FREE!!!

When I say "free" I mean exactly that; Salvation is a gift that requires no sacrifice, no servitude, no change in lifestyle, no regular attendance at a church, not even lip service. It is utterly, unconditionally free. In fact, if an unbeliever pauses to read this short statement, accepts Christ as his savior, then toddles on the rest of his life without ever giving it another thought, his salvation is as secure and certain as the holiest man who ever lived.

There is no work attached to the proposition, no need for us to labor at being good, or any other condition. We are saved in one second, and the deal is sealed at that moment. Once we have it, we cannot lose it. In fact, the spiritual birth is parallel to our physical birth in that way; Once born, it's a done deal! We can't be "unborn". No matter what dastardly deed we may commit, or what heinous crime we may be guilty of, we are destined to live in paradise forever.

And how do we receive this gift of salvation? Two words; Jesus Christ. We simply acknowledge that He is our savior, and in that blink of an eye we are born into God's eternal kingdom.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John:3:16)

If you are a person who has never accepted Crist as savoir, and you stop at this point, tell the Father in you own soul that you accept the gift of salvation, and now believe in Jesus Christ....in whatever woords you care to phase it in, then you can go your merry way with the comfort of knowing that eternity, the life beyond the grave, is no longer an issue you need to worry about. However, I have added some material to the gospel, which is the short and simple message preceding, that bears upon this subject. As a new believer, or a yet uncertain unbeliever, some of the following information may be of interest.

There is a God, make no mistake about that, and He is a God of Righteousness and Justice. There is also sin, and all men are tainted with it. There is a considerable body of doctrine which explains why we are all tainted, and how we came to be this way, but I will not expand on this topic here. Read The Garden and The Old Sin Nature for a complete explanation.

The Justice of God, one of his 10 attributes, demands that sin must be judged because it is an offense to His Righteousness. Because sin is comitted as a result of man's voiltion, we are cupable, or guilty, and therefore accountable. This is an issue parallel to our own jurisprudence, in which a man must pay the penalty for comitting a crime. However, in God's case the principles are somewhat more complex.

Let me explain; It is generally considered a virtue in the human race to be forgiving, to demonstrate largess toward one whom has offended us. Few would disagree. This attitude requires a certain nobility of spirit, to suffer a wrong or injustice in silence, without retribution in word or deed. So, it seems reasonable that if we, as corrupt creatures, can forgive, A perfect God should certainly be willing to, right?

Well, God IS willing to forgive, but it isn't so easy as that, for He is infinite and eternal, which means He is absolute, and this charactaristic of God presents a huge problem. This is an important distinction for us to understand; Man's nature is relative, or changable, while God is absolute, or unchangable. Let me pause and illustrate, by analogy, the difficulty which arises in God's nature where sin is involved and how this pertains to His forgiveness.

Take absolute light, for example. Not just everyday light, mind you, but ABSOLUTE light. It has no darkness whatsoever. If you reduce absolute light by so much as one candlepower, it ceases to be absolute. Thus, an absolute is such that it cannot change, for it is defined by the terms total, complete, inalienable, flawless, unconditional, utter, inviolable. Pehaps you can already comprehend why God cannot just "blow it off", forget it. If He did, He would violate His own Righteousness in condoning sin, and His own Justice in failing to judge sin. In other words, He would cease to be God.

The institution of Law is nearer the absolute holiness of God, for it states an inflexible principle, a rule, and demands punishment for anyone who breaks the it. When the law is diluted, and begins to accept excuses and exterraneous circumstances as the justification for going easy on criminals, or even letting them go free, it's effectiveness is compromised, and so is its' objective; Protection of the innocent, and perpetuation of freedom. Thus, it gradually ceases to be the law and becomes, instead, an instument of tyranny. But this strays from our subject, which is (I remind you) salvation of the human soul.

It is difficult for us comprehend the absolute, but not impossible, for we have principles and dimensions of this existence which are close, but not truly absolute. Take the laws of nature. They are about as consistent as we get in this life, but even they are far short of absoulte. Don't agree with me, perhaps? Ok, let's consider gravity. Here is a natural law which has many similarities to the absolute, but it is nowhere near that. If it were, we would weigh a zillion pounds and be suffocated beneath or own weight in short order.

Remember centrifugal force? This is the natural law which works in opposition to gravity, and we can thank God for it. So, if gravity were absolute, it would be total, complete, unchangable, and we would be crushed, for no power can dilute, minimize, or reduce an absolute.

Being absolute is not a condition we must contend with, and believe me, in this transitory existence it would be a great problem indeed. Every single aspect of our lives, down to the minutae, are relative, so we never think in terms of the irrevocable, unchangeable. God, on the other hand, sees all and does all from this standpoint, and since our very life in eternity, after we depart this life, is totally dependent on God, it behooves us to ponder the ramifications of this principle, as it projects into time and effects us. To fully appreciate the facts, we have to look at things through God's eyes, so far as we are able.

God was faced with a dilemma before He ever even created us, knowing that we would become corrupted creatures. He had to find a way to solve this problem, and He arranged to do just that, because He is not willing that any man perish, but that they spend eternity with Him.

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should have a change of mind." (2Peter:3:9)

He could not establish a system where we could work our way into His kingdom by good deeds of our own, remember, He is absolute, and no act of a corrupt creature is acceptable because the deed assumes the properties of the source. Think of our predicament as parallel to a convicted murderer who makes a genuine effort to change in prison. He begins helping others, volunteers for every humanitarian cause, gives blood once a month, etc, etc. In the eyes of society he is guilty of a heinous crime, and no noble achievment on his part will alter his punishment. The law is clear, and though he makes a genuine, and even spectacular, attempt to change, he must pay the penalty for his crime.

This, then is the quandry which God had to solve, for we cannot do anything to save ourselves, and to add to the complexity of the problem, God cannot come into contact with sin Himself, for the reasons just elucidated; +R can have no contact whatsoever with corruption, PERIOD. So...We can't save ourselves, and God cannot contact sin....so what is the solution?

If man cannot produce the good sufficient to overcome our guilt, and the nature of God precludes any possiblity that He might just overlook the problem, what can be done?

You already know the answer; He decided to send a unique person, a man without sin, to bear the burden of our punishment, and thus, satisfy His Justice. That done, we get off the hook!

Let's isolate, as God did, the specific charactaristics of the person who could act as an agent in man's behalf to satisfy God's Justice:

1. He must be a man. This condition is explained by mediatorship (below), and the fact that the agent must possess the identical nature of the accused. He must be a man in every sense of the word, just like us.

2. The agent would need to meet the qualifications as a "mediator", which was a well established tradition in the ancient world. The mediator must be the equal of both parties in the mediation. So, The Agent must be both God and true humanity in ONE PERSON!

"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;" (1Tim 2:5)

"But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises." (Heb 8:6)

3. He must have God's Righteousness (referring His humanity), and thus, be without sin. For the precise details as to how Jesus was born without sin read The Virgin Birth.

"O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me." (Jn 17:25)

"Therefore, as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." (Rom 5:18)

"For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." (Heb 4:15)

4. He must be willing to sacrifice Himself, and take our place, to be punished for our transgressions.

"And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Phil 2:8)

The final qualification is embedded in the propensity of the creature, both man and angelic, to inevitably sin. This eventuality is unavoidable, for only divine Righteousness is absolute. The final condition, then, is that the man must be given a greater than human righteousness, even greater than sinlessness; He must be joined with God, so that they become one Person, yet retain their individual personalities and attributes. Furthermore, their union must be permanent, inalterable.

In view of the elements of this last condition, then, there is also a qualification for the divine nature of Christ. God the Son must be willing to humble Himself and enter into an everlasting and extremely personal union with a creature that has been made by His own hand; The next verse was spoken by the baby in the manger; obviously the divine nature of Christ.

"Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God" (Heb:10:7)

At age 33 the time came for Jesus Christ to offer Himself as "The Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world". He endured 7 trials, which in itself is an account of suffering we cannot imagine, and in the end, although He was found innocent of any crime by the Roman Governor himself, a man named Pontius Pilat, He was sentenced to die by crucifixion. That morning He was taken to The Hill of Skulls, Golgotha, carrying the cross that He would die upon on His back, and He was impaled through the wrists and feet, then raised to hang until the weight of His body brought about suffocation.

For 3 terrible hours, from noon to 3:00pm, our Lord hung on the cross, and the man who had remained silent through 7 harrowing trials, extreme hunger and thirst, beating and taunting, began to scream with the judgement for the first sin and continued screaming in agony until He died at 3:00. God the Father, to hide the tortured features of His Son, brought a supernatural darkness down upon Golgotha.

Just before He died Christ uttered His final words, "Into to thy hands, O God, I dismiss my spirit".

They carried the body of Christ to a crypt where they wrapped it in white linen, and the Romans, fearing that the legend of "The Messiah" would cause civil unrest, if someone might remove the body and start a rumor that it was revived from the dead, rolled a huge stone in front of the entry into the burial chamber.

Three days later a woman named Mary of Magdalene went to visit the burial site and the following happened:

"In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men (fainted).And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you." (Matt 28:1-7)

The resurrected Christ subsequently appeared in the "upper room", a chamber where He and his disciples often met and dined together. There, He ate supper with them one last time before departing, whence He was taken up to be with the Father.

The scriptures declare that Jesus Christ is the Savior of all mankind, that all who beleive in His Name will never die, but live forever with Him in God's Kingdom.

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John:14:6)

"And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." (John:10:28)

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans:6:23)

"And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life." (1John:5:20)



DISTORTIONS OF THE GOSPEL

There is one very great danger for those hearing the gospel, and this lies in the fact that any dilution of the gospel message, any intrusion by well meaning men, any work attached to salvation, renders the gospel ineffective. The gift of salvation is clearly stated, as I have here, and must be understood as the work of God, and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Any distortion voids salvation. Here are some of the most common malpractices in this regard:

The most common distortion is works. Some religions hold that a person must work for salvation, and this is a lie straight from Satan, himself. Absolutely no work is necessary on our part to be saved. God did ALL the work, in the Person of Jesus Christ, and no amount of good deeds, regardless of how pious or humanitarian they may be, will earn a human being his way into God's Kingdom. The scriptures make this chrystal clear time and again;

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2Cor:5:21)

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit;" (Titus:3:5)

"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the unsaved, his faith is counted for righteousness." (Rom:4:5)

"For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." (Rom:4:3)

Life in God's world requires two elements which we do not have, and can not aquire on our own; His Righteousness and His Eternal Life. Both of these factors are imputed to us at the moment of salvation, which is to say that God gives them to us. Please note the word GIVES! The only thing required of us is FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST, a non-meritorious act of believeing that He was the Son of God, and our Savior. When, in the privacy of our own soul, we think these words, in any order, God gives us Righteousness and Eternal Life.

"Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works," (Rom:4:6)

"And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God." (Jam:2:23)

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom:6:23)

This is absolutely imperative, that we understand, for if any visitor here has been misinformed, and believes that they are working their way into heaven, or that they can confess their sins to a man from time to time and follow some cleansing ritual; those people have probably not been saved!

"For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." (Rom:10:3)

"And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:" (Phil:3:9)

Reformist theology in our country today is rife with catchy phrases that unwittingly undermine the effectiveness of the gospel. Some of these are; Inviting Christ into your heart, a concept that falls pleasant on the ear, but it neutralizes salvation. As corrupted creatures, we have no contact with God except by one and only one means; faith in Christ.

Making Christ Lord is a second fallacy that has gained popularity. Here again, this focuses upon the initiative of the object of God's salvation grace, the unbeliever, when there is no initiative we can take. The answer is the same; Faith is effective for salvation.

A heart belief, not a head belief is an assinine statement that insinuates that we must "feel" something at the moment we're saved, which is nonsense. Salavation is a spiritual phenomenon, and has no effect on the physical. My pastor likes to tell about the guy who came into church one Sunday with a horrendous hangover, and accepted Christ as savior. He felt just as horrible when he walked out, even though he had newfound eternal life. While it is natural for some people to emote when they realize that they have just been handed a ticket to paradise, this is not the result of redemption, but their own response.

Some religions also have ritual mixed in with salvation. Some of these denominations offer a clear gospel message, and yet they turn right around and suggest that you must be baptized, or get up from your seat and traipse up the aisle, or perform some other physical or ritualistic act ALONG WITH faith in Christ. This is tragic, for many people have supposedly been saved under these circumstances, yet they were not saved.

The scriptures refer to these subtlties as "leaven" in the following verses. Leaven, for those who know nothing about baking, is a compound that prevents yeast from having its' "rising" effect, thus the anology to legalism and works preventing salvation;

"Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" (1Cor:5:6)

"Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." (Matt:16:12)

"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:" (1Cor:5:7)

The favorite of the old "hell fire and brimstone" evangelist, repent!, is still around today in many forms. Some of the most popular religions practice the form of repentence in which the sinner is forgiven by donating a generous amout to the church, or otherwise agonizing over their transgression.

Sorry boys! But sins will never be mentioned at the final judgement, The Great White Throne;

"And I saw a Great White Throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them." (Rev 20:11)

In fact, the sentence of damnation will be meted out to those who have relied on their own righteousness for redemption, and thus rejected the salvation solution. As Revelation further tells of the last judgement, the damned are not found in the Book of Life, but their names are inscribed in The Book of Works, or we could say, "The Book of Good Deeds";

"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books [of works] were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books [of works], according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev 20:12-15)

For centuries mankind has been tampering with God's provision to our dilemma, trying to infiltrate grace with man's own inferior interpretations. It is difficult for us to grasp a concept which is utterly without merit on our part, for this world enures us from birth to the idea that all things are gained by hard work and sweat. While this principle is a virtue for a working man or woman, it does not enter into our relationship with God. In as much as He sent His Son to suffer unspeakable agony, and ultimately death, as the ransom for our souls, it should be clear enough that there is no alternative. Were it possible for man to earn redemption, or employ some other gimmick (take your pick), Christ would never have been born.