August 30, 2012
For Us
A fellow believer is
struggling with whether or not she can support Mitt Romney for President
because she feels his religion is a cult. I view Mr. Romney as a person of
faith, although he and I do not share the same faith. I’m reminded of the disciples
wanting to stop a man from driving out demons because he was not “one of us”. Jesus said, “Do not stop him. No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next
moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us
is for us.” There are some areas of doctrine where Mr. Romney is not one of
us, but I have seen nothing indicating that he is against Christ. (Mark 9:38 NIV)
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Gail;
-----Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you. Do we forget why Christ died? Do we forget why He was born in the first place? Why shouldn’t God have just cast the whole lot of Adam and Eve and everything He had created into the fires of Hell the moment Eve determined to bite that apple? He didn’t because He has a work to do which necessitated every one of us right down to the next to last one of us be erroneous to one degree or another. There have been extraordinarily good people. Jesus, of course. But He is the one of us who is not erroneous. Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Joseph and Moses and Elijah and Daniel were all pretty good folks. We’ve seen good people other than in the pages of the Bible, too. Confucius was a good man, and so was St. Francis and Sister Theresa and Ghandi. It doesn’t take a certain religious conviction or theological knowledge to make a person good. It takes a certain faith to make him immortal - saved, that is. Nor does it take a certain religious conviction to make a person evil. Tomas de Torquemada, Inquisidor General of Aragon, wasn’t exactly a sweetheart, although he was a Dominican. He wasn’t evil because he named the name of Jesus. He was evil because he was erroneous, like the rest of us are too. And that is why Jesus died. We are all erroneous.
-----So the Bible is quite clear that whoever calls upon the name of Jesus Christ will be saved in spite of our erroneousness. And yes, even in spite of the magnitude of it. For we are not saved by being good. We are saved by God. I love asking Mormons what exactly saves them. “Why! Jesus Christ saves us,” they reply. Oh really now! They know His life, His death, His resurrection and many details of all the stuff we also know. Yet we like to respond, “Oh! But he isn’t the same Jesus as my Jesus!” I am very glad our new life depends upon our calling on His name and not on our knowing certain things certain ways. If any two people start comparing notes on any topic whatsoever, differences begin to emerge. Big differences and little differences, both. So what degree of difference from “your” Jesus does it take to make “his” Jesus invalid? Or maybe, what degree of difference from “my” Jesus does it take to make “your” Jesus invalid? I am so glad God’s Spirit moved Paul to write, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If any one imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if one loves God, one is known by him.” (I Cor 8:1b-3) I am so glad the Mormons can be erroneous and yet be call on His name. That means I can still call on His name even though I, too, am erroneous. There are matters other than knowledge which invalidate “one’s” Jesus.
-----Besides, we’re not voting for Mitt’s or Barack’s salvation. Neither are we voting for the head elder of the Church of America. We happen to be voting for a man to preside over the administration of our government, a quite local affair, universally speaking. A quite temporal affair, too. He doesn’t have to be President for eternity, so why should we even worry about the truth of his eternal destiny? The term lasts eight years at most. And since the US of A isn’t going to save my soul, I don’t think I really need to worry about the President squaring up Jesus just right. I only need to worry about his being a basically good man. Mitt is. Barack hasn’t lived up to even that. Easy choice. Unless “good” doesn’t count either.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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