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1/ Do you get the reward of salvation for living a good life? …This question would certainly confuse some people from other faiths and religions. It can also be confusing to those who are not schooled in Biblical Christianity.

— We are told clearly in the Bible, Ephesians 2:8-9  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,  (9)  not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ~ Surely that should settle the issue… except we need to read on for the following verse elaborates on our salvation. … (10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. 

— The fact of receiving salvation from our failures and sin depends on us choosing to turn away from those sins and follow Jesus. You are saved by the sacrifice of Jesus taking your place and paying the penalty of death, only if you accept Him as the new Lord of your life. For that truly indicates the abandoning of your old sinful ways.

— If Jesus is Lord, you will try always to do what He has called us and taught us to do. THAT IS WHERE THE GOOD DEEDS COME IN.

— Living a good life is a response to your free gift of salvation, and the Lordship of Jesus. THEY DO NOT EARN YOU THE REWARD OF SALVATION.

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2/ Why do we need a body in the next life? …Why not be happy as a spirit being?

— If you think about it, a spirit being, like what we call ghosts, would have its advantage in our material world. We could disappear at will, we could not be physically hurt, and if we go by our current understanding, it would be very difficult to get rid of us.

— The problem with this thinking is that it stays in the material and temporal realm.

— It would be better to try to see things from a perspective that strives to grasp God’s perfection.

READ:

Genesis 1:10  God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 

Genesis 1:12  The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 

Genesis 1:16-18  And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.  (17)  And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,  (18)  to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:21  So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 

Genesis 1:25  And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 

Genesis 1:29-31  And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.  (30)  And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.  (31)  And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Can you find in these verses, a repeated phrase that expresses God’s thoughts about His physical, earthly creation?

— I would ask that you step out of our limited, mortal, and earthly mindset to glimpse what that repeated phrase about our world’s creation actually conveys.

This statement “God saw that it was good” made by a God who is perfect and holy means so much more than what we flawed and fleshly human beings can fully comprehend…

— If you read about the New Heaven and the New Earth that God is preparing for us, then you will understand why remaining in a spiritual realm is not considered GOOD ENOUGH for us by this same marvelous and perfect Creator God. (Isaiah 11:1-9; & Revelation 21:1-8)

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3/ What about cremation? (Is it acceptable for a Christian or not?)

— This is an issue NOT ANSWERED IN SCRIPTURE. (It would seem that the various types of disposing of earthly remains of the human body are left open to different cultural practices…)

Some want to use Amos 2:1 as an argument against it… “The LORD says, “The people of Moab have sinned again and again, and for this I will certainly punish them. They dishonored the bones of the king of Edom by burning them to ashes.”

— This was a cultural way of showing disrespect to an enemy. It probably involved their belief in the resting in peace of their enemies soul, and certainly was sent as a message to the nation that he served.

— It does not speak of the modern-day practice of cremation.

On the other hand, some use 1^st Samuel 31:8-13 as an argument supporting cremation… “The day after the battle the Philistines went to plunder the corpses, and they found the bodies of Saul and his three sons lying on Mount Gilboa.  (9)  They cut off Saul’s head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers with them throughout Philistia to tell the good news to their idols and to their people.  (10)  Then they put his weapons in the temple of the goddess Astarte, and they nailed his body to the wall of the city of Beth Shan.  (11)  When the people of Jabesh in Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,  (12)  the bravest men started out and marched all night to Beth Shan. They took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall, brought them back to Jabesh, and burned them there.  (13)  Then they took the bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in town, and fasted for seven days.”

— Again this does not speak of God’s call for the cremation of the body, it was simply a brave act to stop any further display of disrespect to their fallen leader’s memory.

Both these arguments display a critical aspect we need to recognize to properly study God’s Word, the Bible… The writings found in the Bible cover centuries of mankind, in fact, multiple millennia.

— Therefore, we MUST NOT judge the practices of the cultures written of in Bible times, by the mindset and practices of our modern generations. If you do you will certainly lead yourself and others into improper interpretations and confusions of scripture.

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4/ In heaven will we have to stand in the lines of the billions of believers if we want to see Jesus? …This is a good example of how we put our earthly restrictions on a HEAVENLY GOD.

— I would ask, “How can God hear every prayer made by Christians on the earth today?”

— It comes out of a God-factor that mankind cannot grasp because of our limited humanity. The word that covers this is God’s omnipresence, it means “present everywhere at the same time.”
— So this same All-answering God is also an All-meeting God…

 

…If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to comment on the links provided. I will keep our conversations strictly private, and you won’t be put on a contacts list unless you wish to be. And I do pray God’s blessing on you in all your contemplations. …KK