Dying Daily to Self

I have determined that I will begin everyday that I am able posting something on this site that honors and glorifies God and His Holy Son, Jesus. I have spent the last three weeks in intense study, because we have had a cult established in our little town and I feel that someone needs to stand and preach the truth. The cult, and I call it this because it has some semblance of truth while being a lie. The truth is that Jesus died for all, that any who would will be saved. The lie is that whether or not you choose to follow Christ you will be saved. While those who profess this false doctrine use Scripture, they have picked a verse here and there, either out of context with the passage or isolated within other verses that further reading will show the truth as being contradictory to their teaching. The examples are endless, but let me point out one, universalism tends to make much of the word "all" in certain verses. I will not debate what the original Greek meaning of the word, because I am no Greek scholar, however, I will state two points that should be obvious to the most casual reader. First, with a few exceptions, the epistles of the Bible are addressed to believers, and as such, verses should be interpreted in the context of being written to those that have received Christ as their savior. When we read Scriptures we should keep in mind that the author was writing to Christians with two thoughts; first keep the believers following Christ and second evangelize the world, as we all were commissioned by Christ to do. Second, while Christ did die for all, even He said that not all that cry "Lord, Lord" will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, even if they do great works in His name(Matt 7:21,22). If even He says that not all are going to heaven, where does the justification for this false doctrine come from?

The true draw of any cult or false teaching is that it plays upon the desires of the person. While our desire should be that all we know and see would go to heaven, placing our faith in a false hope does not get them there. If we believe that they are going to heaven, no matter the condition of her soul, we have no unction to witness for Christ.

I will close this post with this hypothetical question that was posed to me. If an unsaved 22 year old died, while driving drunk, in a car wreck why should he be eternally punished for only 22 years worth of sin? The answer is this: if God knows the number of the hairs on our head, then He knows the number of our day's on this Earth. His love is shown every day, His Word is preached all around us. How many times did the 22yo reject Christ in those same years? We have a personal responsibility to know Christ. If we do not accept that responsibility, then we have chosen our eternal destination. We choose, God does not put, us in Hell. Yes, Virginia, there is a Hell, but that is another post.