Note: The following post is from this past June. In two days
Britons would go to the polls in a referendum on whether to remain in
the European Union or to leave.
All religions of this earth apart from Christianity address the issue of either salvation or conditions in a future state of being as directly corresponding to how one lives the present life. In common doctrinal terms it would be described as a 'works salvation.' If one is good, God will be fair and reward accordingly, and if one is not good, God will punish accordingly. This reasoning is natural to the human mind. How could one even possibly question such a supposition? But God's Word to man describes something altogether different. Salvation is by grace (alone) through faith (alone) in Christ (alone)! We ourselves do nothing to merit this salvation...not even our repentance or our faith, for even these are given to us.
Islam is a religion of works along with all other religions. Here one can work and sacrifice and earn and eventually be rewarded. Christianity is mercy given, regeneration extended and only then is one able to even have faith unto salvation. The immediate reward is in knowing that one is forgiven, and knowing the author of that salvation. The works, necessary as they may be, are offered in thanksgiving for even the opportunity to be of use and to bring rightful glory to the author of all that is good.
Certain countries in the West fear Islam and Sharia law being forced upon them, for at the very least their culture would then change,....but there is an even greater fear in these countries....that of a holy God, a fear of God not based on reverence but on pride. If they turn to Him that was the God of their fathers, not only would their cultures change, but the confidence they have in their reasonable religion would be shattered. Consequently they may take their chances with the fast encroaching Islam.
You may profess confusion here... for the West is Christian isn't it? The West is Christendom...not Christianity. There is no holy God on a throne, rather a name and a book lay on some table nearby, and only a vague memory exists, and it is not valued. This is a hard statement but over a century of invention and progress mixed in with world wars and topped with money and an entertainment culture to spend it on have taken its toll. So it is a conflict between Christendom and Islam with Christianity on the sidelines.
England ....your journey was long and arduous, fraught with temptations, many of which you succumbed to, but your victories were many. You gave us a standard of honor that although we rebelled to go our own way we had you to thank for our character and Christian faith. You gave us standards in the faith that still rule the minds of Christians all over this world. You are struggling now in your rebellion to God. May He remember those from your past from what is now the United Kingdom, who looked only to Him, who relied only upon Him, and may He draw you to Himself in humility once again.
Germany....you changed the world. You rescued the Word of God. You uncovered a diadem in 'faith...alone.' You then paid a steep price for turning from Him. May
he give you a Luther to awaken and princes to protect him as He had done before.
To much of Northern Europe, we owe so much to you. You were the heroes and the defenders of olde. It's from your ports that the pilgrims departed, and from your printing presses that the Bible was distributed in the language of the people. May God renew in you a burning faith. May the smoldering embers that must surely be there ignite the parched faith that once lighted the world and rescue you from darkness of the modern mind.
O America....you beacon in the darkness, you harbor in a tempest, you flame of liberty, you haven for the persecuted seeking freedom....you have lost your way, your compass is broken, your sails no longer hold the wind, your flag is tattered beyond recognition, your hull is breached, your cargo spoiled, your rudder frozen as your ice-cold heart, your captain incompetent, your ship's officers admiring themselves in mirrors as an enemy ship pulls abreast and lowers its cannon.
Have you forgotten from whence you came, of whom you always sought guidance, and of whom you relied for your daily bread? Of course you have! That is why you are reeling, why you have no leaders and why your security is compromised. Few of us in America are without blame and I am not one of them. May we read anew the message to the church at Ephesus and harken to its command to return to our first love that we had before we even became a nation unto ourselves. If we now believe that we will be rewarded for our 'good works' then we will be as all the rest who labor in vain, who rely on ourselves apart from faith in Jesus Christ, and whose end will be quick and final.
All religions of this earth apart from Christianity address the issue of either salvation or conditions in a future state of being as directly corresponding to how one lives the present life. In common doctrinal terms it would be described as a 'works salvation.' If one is good, God will be fair and reward accordingly, and if one is not good, God will punish accordingly. This reasoning is natural to the human mind. How could one even possibly question such a supposition? But God's Word to man describes something altogether different. Salvation is by grace (alone) through faith (alone) in Christ (alone)! We ourselves do nothing to merit this salvation...not even our repentance or our faith, for even these are given to us.
Islam is a religion of works along with all other religions. Here one can work and sacrifice and earn and eventually be rewarded. Christianity is mercy given, regeneration extended and only then is one able to even have faith unto salvation. The immediate reward is in knowing that one is forgiven, and knowing the author of that salvation. The works, necessary as they may be, are offered in thanksgiving for even the opportunity to be of use and to bring rightful glory to the author of all that is good.
Certain countries in the West fear Islam and Sharia law being forced upon them, for at the very least their culture would then change,....but there is an even greater fear in these countries....that of a holy God, a fear of God not based on reverence but on pride. If they turn to Him that was the God of their fathers, not only would their cultures change, but the confidence they have in their reasonable religion would be shattered. Consequently they may take their chances with the fast encroaching Islam.
You may profess confusion here... for the West is Christian isn't it? The West is Christendom...not Christianity. There is no holy God on a throne, rather a name and a book lay on some table nearby, and only a vague memory exists, and it is not valued. This is a hard statement but over a century of invention and progress mixed in with world wars and topped with money and an entertainment culture to spend it on have taken its toll. So it is a conflict between Christendom and Islam with Christianity on the sidelines.
England ....your journey was long and arduous, fraught with temptations, many of which you succumbed to, but your victories were many. You gave us a standard of honor that although we rebelled to go our own way we had you to thank for our character and Christian faith. You gave us standards in the faith that still rule the minds of Christians all over this world. You are struggling now in your rebellion to God. May He remember those from your past from what is now the United Kingdom, who looked only to Him, who relied only upon Him, and may He draw you to Himself in humility once again.
Germany....you changed the world. You rescued the Word of God. You uncovered a diadem in 'faith...alone.' You then paid a steep price for turning from Him. May
he give you a Luther to awaken and princes to protect him as He had done before.
To much of Northern Europe, we owe so much to you. You were the heroes and the defenders of olde. It's from your ports that the pilgrims departed, and from your printing presses that the Bible was distributed in the language of the people. May God renew in you a burning faith. May the smoldering embers that must surely be there ignite the parched faith that once lighted the world and rescue you from darkness of the modern mind.
O America....you beacon in the darkness, you harbor in a tempest, you flame of liberty, you haven for the persecuted seeking freedom....you have lost your way, your compass is broken, your sails no longer hold the wind, your flag is tattered beyond recognition, your hull is breached, your cargo spoiled, your rudder frozen as your ice-cold heart, your captain incompetent, your ship's officers admiring themselves in mirrors as an enemy ship pulls abreast and lowers its cannon.
Have you forgotten from whence you came, of whom you always sought guidance, and of whom you relied for your daily bread? Of course you have! That is why you are reeling, why you have no leaders and why your security is compromised. Few of us in America are without blame and I am not one of them. May we read anew the message to the church at Ephesus and harken to its command to return to our first love that we had before we even became a nation unto ourselves. If we now believe that we will be rewarded for our 'good works' then we will be as all the rest who labor in vain, who rely on ourselves apart from faith in Jesus Christ, and whose end will be quick and final.
