I am posting chapters from my sister's book, "The End is near. End Time Bible Prophecy Anyone Can Understand." E.A. James. Available at lulu.com
Continued from previous post..
Salvation vs.
Deeds
Satan,
his angels, and those whose names are not written in the Book of Life will have
their deeds judged by the saints in heaven.
Jesus has already judged who is and who is not to be saved, so why are
we going to judge the works of those who are not saved? We can speculate and come up with a twofold
answer. First, the punishment for their
deeds must fit the crime. Adolph Hitler
was responsible for the murder of millions of people, but Joe Schmuckatelly
down the street simply did not believe in God and he never killed one other
human being. Do they deserve the same
judgment? Of course not. Judgment occurs…so that each one
may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done,
whether good or bad. (2 Cor. 5:10)
The
second speculative answer as to why the saints are allowed to judge the world
is to satisfy questions we may have. For
instance: Why isn’t that TV preacher
here in heaven? When we look at his
deeds we see he was not a servant of God, but instead he was a greedy and power
hungry megalomaniac. He did not have a
personal relationship with Jesus; he used Jesus’ name to advance his own
agenda.
Not everyone who says to
Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of
My Father who is in heaven will enter.
Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your
name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many
miracles?” And then I will declare to
them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” (Matt. 7:21-23) (Emphasis supplied)
Salvation vs.
Deeds
The
question now arises: Why are salvation
and deeds two separate things? This is a
topic that has been debated for thousands of years, and we will not settle the
matter here in this book. But we will
try to put it as simply as possible so we have a basic understanding. Salvation is a gift that we receive
freely: we can do NOTHING to earn
it. …the free gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom.
6:23) So how do we receive this free
gift? It says in John 1:12, But as
many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even
to those who believe in His name. Jesus
said …This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has
sent. (John 6:29)
When Jesus was crucified, one of the criminals
being crucified next to him asked Jesus to remember him when he came in his
kingdom. Jesus replied that the criminal
would be with him in paradise. (See Luke
23:42, 43) This man was a criminal, and
he was such a bad man that the death sentence had been passed against him. So how could Jesus simply say yes, you will
be in heaven with me? Because this
criminal believed that Jesus was the Son of God and said he wanted to be with
him.
That is all that is
required to be saved: believe that Jesus
is sent of God to save you and ask him to be in your life. Suddenly your name is written in the Book of
Life and heaven is yours. …he who
hears My word, and believes Him who sent me, has eternal life, and…has passed
out of death into life. (John 5:24)
