Posted on 10/20/2013 11:29:26 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
Once upon a time, Groucho Marx hosted the popular game show, “You Bet Your Life.” At the start of the show, a “secret word” was revealed to the studio audience. If a contestant said the word during the course of the show, a reward would descend from the rafters (a one hundred dollar bill).
Whether we know it or not, we are all, Christians and non-Christians alike, contestants in the spiritual equivalent of “You Bet Your Life.” If we bet wisely, our reward is eternal life. But if we bet foolishly, we condemn ourselves to eternal damnation.
That brings to mind Pascal’s Wager, credited to the seventeenth-century French philosopher, mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal. He famously posited that every human being bets his or her life on whether or not God exists.
“Let us,” he wrote, “weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.”
To put this in terms to which most of us can relate, even if the odds of God’s existence are, say, 1 in 175 million – the odds of winning Powerball on a single ticket – it is worth the wager.
Because, if we have bet on God, and God does not exist, we lose nothing. That is, save for indulging in certain behavior proscribed by God, including sexual promiscuity, idol worship, adultery, homosexuality (and other sexual perversions), thievery, greed, substance abuse, slander and robbery.
But if we bet against the Almighty, and indeed He does exist, we shall be cast into the lake of fire, eternally separated from God. We shall be condemned to place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Where we will be burned with unquenchable fire. Where we will be tormented day and night forever and forever.
Most of us are rationale. So we heed Pascal’s advice.
Even if we are uncertain there is a God, we hedge our bet. We respond to an altar call at some point in our lives. We say we accept Jesus as our personal Savior. We get baptized.
In so doing, we believe we have ensured our eternal security. We believe that, because we went through the ritual of being “saved,” we have a lifetime “Get Out of Hell Free” card. And that we can live our lives as it pleases us – not God – with impunity.
But what if we are wrong? What if this doctrine of “Once Saved, Always Saved,” espoused by many Godly pastors, preached in many purpose-driven churches, is errant? What if it actually is possible for us to forfeit our eternal salvation, to condemn ourselves to hell, by living brazenly and unrepentantly in defiance of God’s law?
That presents a corollary to Pascal’s wager, one that has not been considered by those who profess themselves Christ followers, but who are not truly leading a Christian life.
Let us call this corollary the Salvation wager, in which we weigh the gain and loss in betting on “Once Saved, Always Saved.”
Those who reject the doctrine, who believe those of us whom the Son sets free, must go and sin no more, must faithfully strive to live in obedience to God, have everything to gain if the doctrine is wrong and nothing to lose if the doctrine is right.
But those who subscribe to the doctrine, who believe that, having been saved, they can commit any and all manner of sin and it doesn’t matter in the eternal scheme of things, have hell to pay if they are wrong.
So what might Pascal advise?
That even if it’s more likely that once a person is saved, there is absolutely nothing they can do to lose their salvation, and that even if the odds are, say, 175 million to 1 that the widely-accepted doctrine of “Once Saved, Always Saved” is right rather than wrong, it still is wise to bet against the doctrine.
Because there are many who claim themselves Christians, who think their names have been written in the book of life, who will appear before the great white throne of judgment, who will find themselves sinners in the hands of an angry God.
They will look to Jesus and say, “Lord, Lord,” hoping He will spare them from punishment. But He will declare to them, “I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice wickedness.”
That’s a warning to those abiding unabashedly and unrepentantly in sin. They have bet their lives on “Once Saved, Always Saved.” And if they are wrong, eternal torment awaits.
All -past and present- that have, profess and foster FAITH in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ have their names written in the book of life.
God, on the other hand, has the eraser.
Our salvation is determined by our faith, not by how we live. We do, however (imo), still have the free will to deny Christ after we have received Him and thus give up our salvation.
Our faith and how we live are intertwined
The faithful live very differently from the unfaithful
>>The chances are overwhelmingly high that one will choose the wrong god to believe in. Fortunately, only a few gods - like that of the Christian religion - casts non-believers into a lake of fire for making the wrong educated guess.
No, it doesn’t. They die and go to sleep. Read Revelation chapter 20 and you will see that they are given a chance.
Our salvation is determined by our faith, not by how we live. We do, however (imo), still have the free will to deny Christ after we have received Him and thus give up our salvation.
IMHO, faith has NO value without “Free Will”.
“Our salvation is determined by our faith, not by how we live. We do, however (imo), still have the free will to deny Christ after we have received Him and thus give up our salvation.”
It does not follow, since all those who are given by the Father to the Son, do come to the Son infallibly (John 6:37). Therefore if you once confessed Christ, and then leave as an apostate, in reality you were not given by the Father to the Son, but are, in fact, a reprobate who was “never of us,” and must leave to manifest that you were “not of us.”
1Jn_2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
It’s also worth noting that if you are GIVEN by the Father, that you should have faith in the Son, then your faith did not precede the giving, but was caused by the giving. Therefore, it is as the scripture says,
Joh_15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
The latter part of this verse also explains the necessity of good works, which do not earn salvation, but are the consequence of salvation.
“IMHO, faith has NO value without “Free Will””
It has no value when it comes to boasting about how you saved yourself, and persevered of yourself. The value is in confessing that you are utterly empty in and of yourself to save yourself, and thus, while you are valueless, yet God still loved you despite your works and faithlessness.
2Co_3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
Agreed. That’s why I prefer the term “perseverance of the saints” to “once saved, always saved.”
I will never try to fool God. Hopefully He knows that too.
Deuteronomy 4:19 & Malachi 1:11
Yep.
“Another way of looking at that is by thinking of ‘being saved’ as something that happens after we die.”
Well, not exactly. I think someone actually needs to be saved — become born again, accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, however you want to put it — BEFORE they die. Once you die, it’s too late to make a choice.
I will agree, however, that the manifestation our your decision (whether to accept Jesus or not) “happens” after we die.
So it’s cool if you don’t actually believe in God, well maybe you did once? So you live in obedience to God out of fear, but only to hedge a bet, believing the price small here on earth due to your personal nature. For somebody blessed with a placid personality it would be easy to avoid sin.
But what if you are blessed with a ribald and rebellious nature that wishes to push every envelope? If this person beats himself into submission, he pays a higher price than the placid person. Is this person more or less saved with greater struggle?
A person is born in Saudi Arabia. This man is possessed with a conformist personality. He hedges his bets, and diligently seeks not to offend his fellow man. Does his prayers, makes the haj on his 31st birthday. Obediently beats his wife when she deserves it. Is this person any more or less a sinner than the conformist born in Midland Texas to christian pig farmers who sit as a deacon in the local 1st Baptist church?
Suppose a man is born in the plains of Mongolia. His gods are thunder, lighting, horse. He can’t really be sure but he wants to tame thunder lighting and horse. Is this person any less a sinner?
And now we know what Arminians and Pelagians think that Monergists do every day.
Ephesians tells us we are sealed up by the Holy Spirit when we accept Christ as Savior. No where does it ever say we are unsealed either by Christ or anything we “do” that’s bad.
LOL from a fellow Monergist as my screen name suggests.
Two thoughts.
“Pride comes before the Fall”.
And
This song:
Please set aside the artists more recent shortcomings as it should not diminish the content.
I’ve exhausted every possible solution
I’ve tried every game there is to play
In this search for Christ-like perfection
I’m convinced, I’ve only left my God ashamed
I cry, I wonder can He hear my despair
Afraid to lift my hands, afraid He doesn’t care
And if He answers and I fall again
Can I still be His daughter?
Can I still depend on Him?
When I’m down, I search every mistake
I’m looking for new regrets
Sometimes, I forget, I forget
That His grace is sufficient for me
That it’s deeper and wider than I can conceive
His grace is sufficient for me
My convictions seem to fade with desperation
My hope declines with each and every tear
My sin an anchor and this grace just an illusion
The gavel’s heavy and justice is near
Up comes the light and finds the stains on my hands
Up comes my pride, I hide
I know He won’t understand
‘Cause it’s deeper than deep and it’s wider than wide
Why did I ever doubt? Now, I’m dying inside
His grace is sufficient for me
His grace, His grace is sufficient
Songwriters
KNAPP, JENNIFER LYNN
I don’t understand how those two thoughts are a reply to anything I said.
John 14:6. Jesus declares I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.
Entrance to Heaven is only throught Him and Him alone.
So the poor Mongolian is screwed. If i had been born on the plains 450 years ago, i would have done as taught, worshiped fire, lightning and horse. To bad for me I guess.
“So the poor Mongolian is screwed. If i had been born on the plains 450 years ago, i would have done as taught, worshiped fire, lightning and horse. To bad for me I guess.”
That might still be the case!
“As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
(Rom 9:13-15)
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