11/22/99
Faith and Works
It is interesting that many people associate Jesus with passiveness and even most Bible thumpers believe that work is not necessary to salvation, but Jesus himself spoke with different emphasis.
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matt 5:16
“For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” Matt 16:27
“Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” John 4:34
“I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” John 9:4
“I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.” Rev 2:23
Then Other Apostles spoke likewise:
“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Phil 2:12
“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
“If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, “Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
“Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” James 2:14-17
“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” James 2:26
I find it interesting that most Bible believers as well as many non Bible believing New Agers are in the same camp on this philosophy. Despite these clear words in the Bible many of the religious believe that all they have to do to inherit the earth, eternal life or whatever is to just have faith in God and Jesus and they will carry the ball and take care of everything.
Many (not all) of the New Agers, on the other end of the spectrum, who often despise the religious ones do the same thing. They think that all they have to do is have faith or make peace with the soul, Higher Self, God or whatever and everything will be done for them. They think that if God wants peace, we’ll have peace. If God wants war we will have war, but at least we’ll have peace within ourselves.
I think the two camps should shake hands and admit they are in the same belief system, only the vocabulary is different.
The days of Jeremiah are interesting to consider because the people of Jerusalem had a philosophy very similar to many of the “faith only” people of today. Many of the spiritual teaches of that time claimed to be channeling or talking to God or high entities and all received the same message. What was that message? They were supposed to think peace, talk peace and believe the words of the teachers without question and all would be well. Their city Jerusalem would be secure because they were the chosen people under the umbrella of God’s protection.
Then this obnoxious guy named Jeremiah received some soul contact and had a true vision of the situation. He saw that if the people did not take some protective action along with their belief that they would be destroyed. He thus went among the leaders and the people and taught. Here is a sample of his words:
“Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD. They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.
For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?
“Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.
“The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.” Jer 23:16-20
Then Jeremiah told them very clearly that unless they changed their ways and listen to the true inner voice of God, instead of the outer voice of teachers crying peace that they would be destroyed.
Jeremiah was made fun of, derided, called a troublemaker, false prophet, disturber of the peace reviled against and finally killed.
Yet all of this disbelief in the results of their works and their belief in peace did not help them any more than it helped the United States and Europe prevent World War II by talking of peace only, but having no works.
The deceived and the false prophets were astounded when they witnessed the Babylonians invading their land, stealing the treasures of their sacred temple and tearing it down. They firmly believed that God would never allow such a thing, but here they were witnessing it with their own eyes.
Many of the people were killed, the most useful taken captive as slaves and the rest scattered to the four winds of heaven.
Even though this type of calamity has happened time and time again to the peace with no works people, including the time of Atlantis, each new generation seems to believe that they are somehow special, that they are new and improved and that because of their enhanced spirituality that they are going to be protected by the divine power in a way that past generations were not.
One of the main reasons the scriptures of the world and especially the Old Testament was written is to give us the lessons of history in the hope that the mistakes of the past are not repeated.
The sage who stated that “he who does not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them,” spoke correctly. Unfortunately, this is often quoted by people who are paying little attention to history.
I will leave you with one question.
What mistakes are we (the world, your country or individually) making today that is a repetition of the past? What mistakes have we learned from history and seem to be correcting?
Copyright by J J Dewey
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