Microsoft Word - ChristianityNotReligionBkMSS.doc

(WallPaper) #1

Father but through Me” (John 14:6). This is not
exclusivism; but it is a singularity of life option. “There is
no other name given among men by which a man must be
saved” (Acts 4:12), declared Peter in the first sermon of the
church. No one is excluded or “cut out,” for all men
universally, without discrimination, are invited to make the
either-or decision to receive Christ’s life. “God is not
willing that any should perish, but that all may come to
repentance” (II Pet. 3:9). “Whoever will call upon the Lord
will be saved” (Rom. 10:13).
Jesus did not say, “I came that you might have
ideological options presented to your human reasoning with
the assumed autonomous ability to accept, reject, or merge
these in exclusivism or inclusivism, and thus to be
contented with your choice.” What He did say was, “I came
that you might have life, and have it more abundantly”
(John 10:10). “I am that life” (John 14:6). “He who
believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not
obey the Son shall not see life” (John 3:36). “He who
believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:26), i.e. shall not
experience the “second death” (cf. Rev. 2:11; 20:14). The
issue is life or death! “The wages of sin is death, but the

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