Thursday, 01 November 2007
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Lately I've been so saddened by churches and religions that have all these rules in order to get to heaven. I don't mean to offend anyone... but I was talking to a lady who used to be Lutheran the other day. She said her church believed that the way you got to heaven was by being baptized as an infant. She just became a Christian and was so excited that the "missing piece" had been found. She's been religious all her life, but always felt something missing... and it was salvation.
I've done a lot of reading about the Amish... they seem to believe the way to get to heaven is to follow Ordung and the Bishop's rules. Otherwise you'll go to hell. They completely miss the point of salvation.
But this also goes into Christian churches. Women must wear skirts a certain length, don't cut their hair, no make up, be slaves to their husbands no matter how he may abuse her, No TVs, no Christmas Trees, don't celebrate Christmas at all, don't even think of sipping an alcoholic drink, spank your children... rules, rules rules. If you don't follow these you aren't really a Christian.
It realy bothers me because that is NOT how to get to heaven. Salvation is through Jesus alone... He alone knows your heart and knows if you are saved. He will work on you through the Holy Spirt to teach you what His laws are. Why are we, as Christians, SO judgemental of one another? How can we say that one person is going to hell if he isn't following our rules? It's not up to us. And the sad thing is, a lot of times those many, many rules drive people away from the Lord. For a new Christian these are all so overwhelming and to have to change every tiny thing at once or risk loosing your salvation can be so daunting. Where's the grace? Where's the mercy? Thankfully people do not get to decide who is going to heaven or hell... only God knows our heart. Only God can decide based on whether we are truly covered in Jesus' blood. How many people miss salvation because they are too busy trying to keep up w/ all the rules their church teaches or because their church preaches a completely wrong way to get to heaven?
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Comments (6)
However, a lot of these so-called rules are not meant to be kept in order to gain salvation, in many instances they are coming from a desire to be kind to new christians and members of the body that are weak in one way or another. For instance, a lot of the Christians that I know that wear only dresses do it because it is less revealing (or can be!!) for those people who have a tendancy to lust after a woman's body that is in skimpy clothes!! In other words, they are trying to major on modesty because of the lack of it elsewhere in our society. We all have weaknesses in different areas, a lot of our societal rules are meant to combat them or at least keep the problems down to a minimum. It is often a sign of respect! and love, rather than legalism or works based religion.
Just a thought, love and blessings!
Thanks for bringing up this discussion! We just had a series of messages that included this theme. It has not changed since the Old Testament - the pastor's point was that in Jesus day the hot topics were rules for Sabbath and divorce and circumcision and such. It is difficult to "judge" a person's salvation or level of "spiritualness" so by making lots of rules, we think we can tell who the sheep are and who the goats are. Jesus told us there will be lots of people in churches who "He doesn't know" and won't be going to heaven. (Also in Sunday School we were looking at the parable of the sower, and that it was better to leave the weeds than pull them up and pull up good plants with them). I think it also comes from our insecurity and unbelief - we can't believe it is that "easy" to get eternal life so we think we need to add to the list, just to be sure we are going to heaven.
For me personally, I previously I saw mature Christians and I wanted to be like them, so I thought unconsciously that I needed more "rules" or to improve my discipline to show that I can do what they do because that is easier than doing all the work with Jesus for Him to make me what I need to be. Right now I am going through the Beth Moore study Breaking Free which is about freedom in Christ and last week it was about believing in His unfailing love for us - tough stuff!
Thanks for helping me focus back on the relationship!
Also wanted to ask, "HOW CAN I PRAY FOR YOU TODAY?"
I agree with your post...though, the Lutheran woman really didn't have a true understanding of what Lutherans actually teach about salvation and baptism.
As for judging another's heart, no--no one can do that but God. We can see the visible church all around us (all denoms)--but we cannot see the "invisible church"...otherwise known as the Holy Christian Church....that is for God to see alone as only God can see the heart.