How happy you would be when your child empathizes with you and shares sincere love with you! It is the same with God who is Light. He wants us to walk in the Light and share intimate fellowship with Him as His loving child. Those who walk in the Light can share lovely exchanges with God forever, so we need every effort to come forth as His true children who can understand His heart and share everlasting lo ...
[Special] What does ‘outside the gates of salvation’ imply?
The God of love sent Jesus Christ as the Savior and the Holy Spirit as the gift so the believers in Him can receive salvation and have eternal life and follow the way to heaven. We can check whether we are inside the gates of salvation through these verses: “So then, my beloved… work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” (Philippians 2:12) and “Do not quench the Spirit… abstain from every form of evil,” (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22).
1. Those who do not believe in Jesus Christ even after hearing the gospel
Acts 4:12 notes, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” This is because no other is qualified to be the Savior except Jesus Christ who was raised from the dead. John 3:18 writes, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” God’s Judgement has not yet taken place and non-believers have not been sentenced to eternal death in hell. Anyone who believes in the Lord can come within the gates of salvation.
2. Those who involuntarily go to church without faith or seek their own benefit
There are people with no faith who are compelled to go to church, and some others go to church for their own benefit. Such people do not make any effort to believe in the living God. They judge and condemn sermons as false if it does not align with their thoughts, knowledge, or worldly theories. Despite their long years of churchgoing, these people cannot repent, nor receive the Holy Spirit, nor attain spiritual faith. Sometimes, they bring difficulties to the church or hinder God’s kingdom. Some people regard the church as a place for social activities or for mental health relief. Some others attend church solely to receive monetary blessings. Still others simply recognize it as one type of religious activity. People cannot acquire faith to be saved if they intend to receive material blessings in the church rather than to gain salvation and enter heaven. No matter how long they attend church, they remain outside the gates of salvation.
3. Those who fail to have faith due to the lack of the knowledge of truth or have lost faith after a period of time
Some churchgoers have no concept of the importance of casting away sin and remain in lukewarm faith. Many of them think salvation has nothing to do with action of following God’s Word and they don’t know heavenly dwelling places and rewards will be different depending on each one’s measure of faith. In these times sin is rampant and it is not easy to meet preachers who teach the truth correctly according to the Bible. It is even more difficult to realize the truth in the Bible on one’s own. Many churchgoers end up focusing on their lives in this world instead of prioritizing the eternal kingdom of heaven. It’s difficult to have true faith without spiritual experiences even if they are taught the truth. Heaven and hell do not seem real to them because they have no realization of heaven and hell; and their faith doesn’t seem to grow, leading to weak or absent faith. In the face of trials, they sometimes stumble and end up further away from salvation. They cannot but stay far away from salvation if they have distortions of the truth.
4. Those who have faith and the knowledge of truth but continuously sin and fall away from salvation
There are people who clearly know the gates of salvation and have spiritual experiences but sin again and again come to fall away from salvation (Hebrews 6:4-6, 10:26). They used to lead a fervent life of faith after accepting the Lord but in the middle, they committed a grave sin and lost the fullness of the Spirit. Then they take the world again and become imbued with sin, unable to repent. If they stay at that same condition, the faith for salvation eventually disappears and the Holy Spirit may become quenched. It’s so important to guard our heart in the truth with the power of the Holy Spirit and get rid of sin to the point of shedding blood to not follow old worldly habits or seek the world again.
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