What about the drunk on skidrow,Or the drug addict,or even the millions of aborted babies or the family member who died without having any intrest in religion? Are they lost forever because God never called them in this life?
All Who Ever Lived
After Christ returns, at the end of the Millennium, all mankind will be gathered before Him to be judged (Rev.20:12-15). All who ever lived will be resurrected as flesh and blood human beings (see Ezek.37). At that time they will be judged according to their �works.�
Matthew continues the judgment scenario: �All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides His sheep from the goats� (Mat.25:31-32). Read the whole account (verses 31-46). What is the CRITERIA OF JUDGEMENT that Christ will use to determine who will be SAVED, and enter His Kingdom, and who will be CAST into GEHENNA?
The ones who fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, visited the sick, and those in prison, will be told: �COME, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world� (verse 34). They will continue to live and be taught the full truth of God � the things they did NOT know or understand in their previous life! They will learn the FULL TRUTH of God, and will accept it and obey it, and when God�s time comes, they will become immortal spirit sons of God, like those of the first resurrection.
Among these will be the ancient citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah, who did not understand (Matt.10:15). Small children who died, never really having had a chance for salvation. Perhaps even children who had been aborted by their parents, who would have been viable human beings, if given a chance to live. All these who did not deliberately, presumptuously, willfully REBEL against God, knowingly, but who lived the best they could, overall, according to their conscience, will be given a true opportunity for salvation!
This would include the Thief on the Cross who said to Christ, �Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom� (Luke 23:42). Christ said to him, �I say to you, today [referring to the day He said it], you will be with Me in Paradise� (verse 43). In other words, he will come up in this Great White Throne Judgment, and be among the sheep, who will be resurrected back to mortal life, in the Kingdom of God, Paradise, and will be taught the truths of God and the way of salvation, and be allowed to live out their lives, at the end of which they will be translated into immortal, glorified sons of God.
Isaiah says of that time, at the end of the millennial reign of Christ, �For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; the voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
�No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; for the child shall die one hundred years old, but the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed� (Isa.65:17-20). Isaiah continues of that halcyonic, tranquil, day of salvation � �They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, and My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands� (verses 21-22).
But to those who did NOT DO these acts of compassion and mercy on their neighbor, those who deliberately lived lives of EVIL, wickedness, cruelty and brutality to their neighbor � who were guilty of deliberately, premeditatedly lying, stealing, rape, murder, and gross iniquity � He will say to them: �DEPART from Me, you CURSED, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels� (v.41). When they remonstrate, saying they were innocent, they never failed to do these things to HIM, He will answer them: �Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me� (v.45).
�And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the RIGHTEOUS into eternal life� (verse 46).
True Righteousness = True Love of Neighbor
What is the conclusion of the matter? �Righteousness,� in God�s sight, is, by definition keeping God�s commandments. David wrote, �All Your commandments are righteousness� (Psalm 119:172). Those who love God, and who love their neighbor, and show it by their deeds, are RIGHTEOUS in spirit, even if they are ignorant of technicalities or other legal aspects of the Law.
The apostle Paul declared this clearly. He wrote, �Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
�Love suffers long, and is kind; does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil [keeps no accounts of evil]; does not rejoice in iniquity [lawlessness], but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, endures all things. Love never fails� (I Cor.13:1-8).
Or, as Paul told the Romans, �Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another HAS FULFILLED THE LAW. For the commandments, �You shall not commit adultery,� �You shall not murder,� �You shall not steal,� �You shall not bear false witness,� �You shall not covet,� and if there is any other commandment, ALL ARE SUMMED UP IN THIS SAYING, namely, �You shall love your neighbor as yourself.� Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore LOVE IS THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW� (Romans 13:8-10).
True righteousness only comes from God. Our best effort is as filthy rags to our Father. So they are unacceptable. If you think you can do something that pleases God....check which God you are worshiping.
The same as All...The LORD comes for the Sinning, Broken an Lost...it is not for us to compare one to another for judgement...but to compare judgement unto ones self.
True Righteousness = Washed in the Blood of Christ, Who is our righteousness. :peace:
James 2:19 "You surely believe there is only one God. That's fine. Even demons believe this, and it makes them shake with fear." Demons have a reaction to believing, we should also.
On the Romans Road: Romans 10:10 "God will accept you and save you, if you truly believe this and tell it to others"
I believe if there is an honest conversion, a new-birth experience, there should be evidence of such in the person's actions.
James 2:22 "Now you see how Abraham's faith and deeds worked together. He proved that his faith was real by what he did."
Righteousness, as I see it, is about "being" not "doing". Either we are in covenant/relationship with God or we are not; it's positional...if that is a word. :glow: Having said that, if the Holy Spirit is living in us He will motivate us to testify, give, help, share, love your neighbor, etc. Those things will not get us into heaven, but are acts of obedience to God's Word and His Spirit.
John 14:15 "Jesus said to His disciples: If you love Me, you will do as I command."
John 13:34-35 "But I am giving you a new command. You must love each other, just as I have loved you. If you love each other, everyone will know that you are My disciples."
I believe it is completely possible for a person to be born again and not live a life of faith and righteousness and peace with the Holy Spirit...thus the term carnal Christian. I believe that the person who does not follow the leading of the Holy Spirit is quenching the Spirit and is probably a miserable, unhappy, unsatisfied, carnal person who may very well be addicted to all sorts of things.
