Ephesians 2:8-9 – What is the object of saving faith?

A song that I really despise is Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.”  I don’t even know if that is the name of the song, but I’m sure anyone reading this will know the song I am talking about.  Usually if I mention a song, I’ll add a Youtube clip of the song to the blog, but in this case, no, no I will not!  I don’t know the song well enough to even begin to tell you the context of the chorus, but it seems like what is called fideism, which is essentially faith stands alone apart from reason or philosophy.  Faith trumps all.  Just believe.  Just have faith.  Faith in faith.  But what’s the object of the faith?  Don’t stop believing, Journey?  Don’t stop believing in what?

Worst Neeson movie I have ever seen.

I watched the worst Liam Neeson movie, The Grey, in a movie theater.  I know anyone else who has shared this experience is probably cringing right now.  That movie – that movie – oh man… it was bad.  In a holy crap we are all about to die talk around a fire, the one character in the bunch who seems to believe in God, although we don’t learn which God, he seems more like a Deist, because God forbid there is a strong Christian character in a Hollywood movie, tells Neeson’s character, “What about your faith?  You got to have faith. You can’t lose faith”  I wanted to puke – Faith in what?  Faith in whom?  “Just don’t stop believing?”  And most people probably have no problem with this, because they don’t realize that who, or what, we have faith in matters!  Pluralism has made all beliefs co-equal and co-valid.  The sincerity of your faith doesn’t matter!  It’s the dependability of the object of your faith!

A famous saying that emerged from the Reformation is “By grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone by Scripture alone with glory to God alone.”  This is pulled from Ephesians 2:8-9.  However the word Christ, or Jesus, is not found in these two verses.  Christ is implied, and to the implication comes from the rest of Scripture.  Enjoy looking these verses up and I pray that the Holy Spirit will create, work, sustain, and strengthen faith in your life!

Ephesians 2:8-9 (New International Version)

8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.

Faith in what, or whom?

Galatians 2:21

Romans 4:5

Romans 3:21-24

Romans 3:28

2 Timothy 1:9

Hebrews 11:6

Galatians 2:16

Titus 3:7

Andy Wrasman4 Comments

Signifianct Discoveries From Studying Other Religions #1

After studying Hinduism and Buddhism a high school student wrote the following response to a “gimme” essay question: Explain the most significant piece of religious information that you’ve learned so far this semester from this class and how it has impacted you.  Here is one reply I received:

The most significant piece of religious information I’ve learned thus far is Hinduism’s lack of exclusivity.  It is truly a religion based on whatever works for the individual.  This though struck me in particular when we were watching the HowCast on Youtube on how to conduct your own Hindu rituals.  The number of options presented in how to complete even just one ritual were overwhelming.  There are no lines drawn anywhere and really no specific guidelines for worship.  It is their belief that all paths will eventually lead to Brahman that is disconcerting given all the contradictions put forth by nearly every other religion.

Here is the video the student references in his answer:

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There is a plurality of Gods – So says Joseph Smith.

Mormonism differs from Orthodox Christianity on the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity, but how does it differ?  From the horse’s mouth, I mean the Prophet Joesph Smith’s mouth:

Sermon by the Prophet—The Christian Godhead—Plurality of Gods.

Meeting in the Grove, east of the Temple, June 16, 1844.

“I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and that the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a Spirit, and these three constitute three distinct personages and three Gods. If this is in accordance with the New Testament, lo and behold! we have three Gods anyhow, and they are plural: and who can contradict it?”

“Many men say there is one God; the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are only one God! I say that is a strange God anyhow—three in one, and one in three! It is a curious organization.”

“John was one of the men, and apostles declare they were made kings and priests unto God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It reads just so in the Revelation. Hence, the doctrine of a plurality of Gods is as prominent in the Bible as any other doctrine. It is all over the face of the Bible. It stands beyond the power of controversy. A wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein.”

“In the very beginning the Bible shows there is a plurality of Gods beyond the power of refutation. It is a great subject I am dwelling on. The word Eloheim ought to be in the plural all the way through—Gods. The heads of the Gods appointed one God for us; and when you take [that] view of the subject, it sets one free to see all the beauty, holiness and perfection of the Gods. All I want is to get the simple, naked truth, and the whole truth.”

There you have it from Joseph Smith’s own mouth, there is a plurality of Gods.  He denies that Doctrine of the Trinity, that God exists in three persons with one divine substance, or essence. 

Here is the link to the sermon: http://byustudies2.byu.edu/hc/6/24.html

From Good Ole Brigham Young University.

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Joseph Smith and the Trinity

Do Mormons believe in the same God as Christians?  This is a topic that many Americans are speaking about right now since Romney is a Mormon.  Christianity Today ran an article on the differences between Orthodox Christianity and Mormonism: The Real Differences Between Mormons and Orthodox Christians.  

From this Christianity today article I found a link to one of Joseph Smith’s last sermons:

Sermon by the Prophet—The Christian Godhead—Plurality of Gods.Meeting in the Grove, east of the Temple, June 16, 1844.

Judge for yourself if the Triune God is represented by Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, or not.  How is it different?  How is it the same?  Does Joseph Smith say Orthodox Christianity’s Doctrine of the Trinity is accurate to Scripture?  Or does it say the Trinity’s teaching of three persons with one divine substance is a “curious organization” that is wrong and inaccurate with Scripture?

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Contradict Movement – First Animation!

I saw a Go Animate video put together by a student for a class project.  It got me thinking, maybe I can make a Go Animate video for the Contradict Movement.  I managed to make a Jesus character and a Buddha character.  I wanted to share a lot of verses from Jesus’ own mouth, so this was a great way to do it.  About 95% of everything the Jesus character says in this video is all “words in red!”  That’s what I like so much from this video.

If the verses I have quoted in this video are all true, and I firmly believe they are, they are the best news anyone can hear!  There is life after death, death has been swallowed up in victory.  Jesus is our all sufficient Savior and he loves us all, so much, that he innocently died in our place, like a an exchange on death row!

The downside, the side that brings me tears, is that if the verses quoted in this video are all true, and I firmly believe they are and that there is historical proof that they are, then all must repent and call upon the name of the Lord to be saved.  Apart from Christ there is no salvation is what these verses claim, so it’s great that our savior is revealed, but they also reveal the depth of our sinfulness, we must be in Christ to be a new creation, to have eternal life.  Many are not.  Many actually believe that it doesn’t matter what we believe as long as we do good.  But all of us have fallen short of God’s standards and we aren’t good in his sight, no matter how much we serve the poor.  The only way to be seen as good in the eyes of the Lord is to have the righteousness of His Son, which only comes from faith in Christ.  Don’t fool yourself – yoga leads to death, the eight-fold path leads to death, the five pillars lead to death, observing the Laws of Moses leads to death, and so on and so on.  For it is by grace we have been saved, through faith, and this not of ourselves, for it is a gift, so that no man may boast.

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