I was talking with a non-Catholic friend on the topic of the assurance of salvation and their stance was that of most protestants that I have come across and that is, once you’ve accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, you cannot lose your salvation. As we talked for about 10-15 minutes, we had a mini-debate, he would point out scripture verses in the Bible to try and back his claim and I would do the same for my claim. (As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, it comes down to the authority to interpret scripture, the Catholic church has: Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium to help Catholics to do that and protestants leave it up to each individual reader.)
For some protestant denominations, the stance of the assurance of salvation is called the doctrine of “Once Saved, Always Saved”, some denominations, like that of the reformed tradition have something called “Predestination” where God doesn’t take into account your free will, your salvation is pre-determined, regardless of your actions or choices, but that’s a topic for another blog post.
My friend: “We are humans and God understands our faults and He sent His Son to die on the cross for us. It was sufficient to cover all our sins and save us.”
Me: “I agree with your entire statement there.”
Friend: “Oh… But then where do we differ?”
Me: “That even though Jesus died on the cross for me, He isn’t forcing His love on me. God is a gentleman, He doesn’t force me to love him back. He extends his love and he waits for my response.”
Friend: “Well, Jesus says in John 10:28 “And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.”
Me: “And to that I say, Amen! But that verse doesn’t address the fact that some people leave the loving hand of God on their own. Do you know of someone that has left the faith entirely?”
We went back and forth and it just didn’t seem like the conversation was going anywhere as neither person seemed to budge on their stance. My friend says,”Well, your Jesus seems too uptight, my Jesus is loving and he died for everybody.” With that we went on each others separate ways. This is the usual cop out that happens when we are on the cusp of a breakthrough in the conversation, the “my Jesus versus your Jesus” argument.
Let’s be clear for the people in the back: THERE IS ONLY ONE JESUS. His personality and how he applies His coming judgment is not dependent on the argument between two sinners and how they perceive him. We’ve been given great information to who the person Jesus is and how He will come to judge in His second coming. But to discard the parts of who Jesus is because it may be too harsh on the way you live your life is just plain ignorance.
Some people just gloss over the fact that in Matthew 24 (the Olivet Discourse) Jesus is telling them that judgment is coming down on Jerusalem in this generation (in Jewish tradition, a generation is 40 years) so if we figure it was about 30 A.D. during this statement and the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D. Jesus prophetic statement there is spot on (30 A.D. + a 40 year generation = 70 A.D.) Now keep in mind that this is the SAME Jesus that John speaks of in Revelations that is coming in Judgment on Jerusalem. Some bible scholars say that the apocalypse (revelation) of John is the long version of what Jesus described to the apostles in Matthew 24. Why do they say that Jesus is coming in judgment? Here are some clues:
- Revelations 1:7 – “Behold, He is coming on the clouds”
- In Jeremiah 4:13 & Daniel 7:13, God is described “like storm clouds He advances” or “coming on the clouds” and it was in the context of coming to JUDGE!
- Revelations 1:14 – “Eyes of fire
- Daniel 10:6 – “Eyes like flaming torches”; God appeared to the prophet Daniel to prophesy about how He was coming to destroy the Prince of Persia!
- Revelations 1:16 – “Two-edged sword coming out of His mouth”
- John is combining two Old Testament verses here.
- Isaiah 11:4 – “Judging with the rod of His mouth”
- Leviticus 26:25 – “I will make the sword, the avenger of my covenant, sweep over you.”
- John is combining two Old Testament verses here.
These are just a few of the various clues given to us in the book of Revelations! There is nothing wrong to say that Jesus is our brother or friend; nothing wrong with the visual that He is gentle, kind, and loving. BUT… Do not be mistaken to say that he is not also ALMIGHTY GOD coming to judge! Jesus tells us He is:
- The Alpha and the Omega
- The First and the Last
- A Lawgiver
- A Judge
The point of this post isn’t to scare the “hell” out of you. It’s just to remind you that we will come face to face with Jesus one day and He will either say “well, done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21) or “I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23). I don’t want you to be disappointed in the fact that in your personal relationship with Jesus, YOU were the one making up characteristics about Him that aren’t accurate. Expecting Him to be one way and it ending up another. The majesty and grandeur of the ‘King of Kings’ and ‘Lord of Lords’ is lost when all we expect from Jesus is a high five for a job well done but not the kick in the pants when we fall short of who He expects us to be as Christians. As always, I will be praying for you.
Gentleman, it’s time to be real men of faith.
Disciples At The Ready 