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Salvation free Gift?

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dattaswami

Member
A Christian devotee, Anil Antony, asked Me some questions just now. He asked whether the salvation is a free gift of God and not based on the work. This is the climax of foolishness. Even in the worldly affairs, a selection board sits and filters the deserving candidate to give the gift. If anybody in this world gives a free gift without seeing the deserving qualifications, people will call him as a full mad person. Do you treat God as mad person, who is wiser than the wisest in this world? Jesus asked His devotees to go to villages and propagate His knowledge. Even today the Christian fathers wander all over the earth and they are propagating the divine knowledge by constant lecturers. Is this not work? If salvation is a free gift why should they work? How much divine work Jesus carried on? In Hinduism you can support free gift by saying that a soul might have done lot of good work in the previous birth and the gift may appear as free gift because the soul did not perform any good work in this birth.

But Christianity does not believe the re-birth and therefore such possibility of explanation is also ruled out here. His another question is that Christianity encourages the praise and prayer of the Lord for certain materialistic benefits. He asks whether such prayer is correct. The answer is that such a stage is not incorrect but it is a lower stage. The LKG class is the beginning of school education. You cannot say that LKG is class is not correct. It is correct but it is lowest. The first step is true but does the lowest step exist on the ground. If you take the case of Jesus, He is in the highest step. He also praised and prayed the Lord but never asked anything for himself. He asked anything only for the propagation of the fame of the Lord. The lowest step is certainly better than the pit, which is lower than the ground. Thus the beginner is certainly better than the atheist, who does not believe God at all. Even though the beginner is selfish, atleast he believes the existence of God.
At the Lotus feet of Shri DattaSwami
Anil Antony
www.universal-spirituality.org
[email protected]
Universal spirituality for world peace
 
Katzpur

Katzpur

Not your average Mormon
dattaswami said:
A Christian devotee, Anil Antony, asked Me some questions just now. He asked whether the salvation is a free gift of God and not based on the work. This is the climax of foolishness. Even in the worldly affairs, a selection board sits and filters the deserving candidate to give the gift. If anybody in this world gives a free gift without seeing the deserving qualifications, people will call him as a full mad person. Do you treat God as mad person, who is wiser than the wisest in this world? Jesus asked His devotees to go to villages and propagate His knowledge. Even today the Christian fathers wander all over the earth and they are propagating the divine knowledge by constant lecturers. Is this not work? If salvation is a free gift why should they work? How much divine work Jesus carried on? In Hinduism you can support free gift by saying that a soul might have done lot of good work in the previous birth and the gift may appear as free gift because the soul did not perform any good work in this birth.
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I couldn't agree more. Salvation is a gift because Jesus is under no obligation to give it. He gives it willingly, not grudgingly. But, He gives it only to those individuals who, by their faithfulness, have demonstrated that their faith in Him is genuine. C.S. Lewis described the relationship between faith and works as being like the relationship between two blades of a pair of scissors. Neither blade is at all effective when used alone. Anyone who claims (as some Christians do) that salvation that requires effort on our part is an afront to Jesus' Atonement really has a pretty poor understanding of the overall plan. I don't believe we can be saved without the gift Jesus gave us (redemption from our sins), but He said himself that He doesn't give it to every Tom, DIck and Harry who happens by shouting, "I believe!"
 
Scott1

Scott1

Well-Known Member
Katzpur said:
Salvation is a gift because Jesus is under no obligation to give it.
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Amen little sister! :D We don't deserve it, but yet our Savior humbled himself to die on the Cross for all.
 
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