He was resurrected to life. He was buried and was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures He appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to to more than people. We must decide to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. When we take this step, He adopts us into His family. God has set down laws, in the Bible, for them to follow, so they know that going against these laws is sinful. Salvation — law Christians have various beliefs about how to achieve salvation.
Christians believe that the Bible is a guidebook to salvation. It means the words they utter involve ideas, thoughts, and discernment. What things do the living frequently think about and do? They are able to engage in human activities and fulfill their duties. What is the nature of what they do and say? It is that everything they reveal, everything they think, and everything they do is done with the nature of fearing God and shunning evil.
To put it more aptly, as one of the living, your every deed and every thought are not condemned by God or detested and rejected by God; rather, they are approved and commended by God. This is what the living do, and it is also what the living should do. The living are saved by God; they have been judged and chastised by God, they are willing to devote themselves and are happy to lay down their lives for God, and they would gladly dedicate their whole lives to God.
All the living people created by God have become dead people, and so God has lost His testimony, and He has lost mankind which He created and which is the only thing that has His breath.
If God is to take back His testimony and take back those who were made by His own hand but who have been taken captive by Satan, then He must resurrect them so that they become living beings, and He must reclaim them so that they live in His light. The dead are those who have no spirit, those who are numb in the extreme and who oppose God. They are foremost those who do not know God. These people have not the slightest intention of obeying God; they only rebel against Him and oppose Him and have not the slightest loyalty.
The living are those whose spirits have been reborn, who know to obey God, and who are loyal to God. They are possessed of the truth, and of testimony, and these people alone are pleasing to God in His house.
Fully saving man from the influence of Satan not only required Jesus to become the sin offering and bear the sins of man, but it also required God to do even greater work to rid man completely of his satanically corrupted disposition. And so, now that man has been forgiven of his sins, God has returned to the flesh to lead man into the new age, and begun the work of chastisement and judgment.
This work has brought man into a higher realm. All those who submit under His dominion shall enjoy higher truth and receive greater blessings. They shall truly live in the light, and they shall gain the truth, the way, and the life.
For you, you who are still of your old self, it is true that you were saved by Jesus, and that you are not counted as a sinner because of the salvation of God, but this does not prove that you are not sinful, and are not impure. How can you be saintly if you have not been changed?
Within, you are beset by impurity, selfish and mean, yet you still wish to descend with Jesus—you should be so lucky! You have missed a step in your belief in God: You have merely been redeemed, but you have not been changed. In the work of the last days, the word is mightier than the manifestation of signs and wonders, and the authority of the word surpasses that of signs and wonders.
The word exposes all the corrupt dispositions buried deep in the heart of man. You have no way of recognizing them on your own. When they are laid bare before you through the word, you will naturally come to discover them; you will not be able to deny them, and you will be utterly convinced. Is this not the authority of the word? This is the result achieved by the work of the word today. Therefore, it is not through the healing of sickness and casting out of demons that man can be fully saved from his sins, nor can he be made fully complete by the manifestation of signs and wonders.
The authority to heal sickness and cast out demons only gives man grace, but the flesh of man still belongs to Satan and the corrupt satanic disposition still remains within man. In other words, that which has not been made clean still pertains to sin and to filth.
Only after he has been made clean through the agency of the word can man be gained by God and become sanctified. However, without being made clean or changed by God, he remains as corrupt man. Within man still exist filth, opposition, and rebelliousness; man has only returned to God through His redemption, but he has not the slightest knowledge of God and is still capable of resisting and betraying Him.
Therefore, when man has been redeemed, it is nothing more than a case of redemption in which man is bought at a high price, but the poisonous nature within him has not been eliminated. Man that is so defiled must undergo a change before becoming worthy to serve God. By means of this work of judgment and chastisement, man will fully come to know the filthy and corrupt essence within his own self, and he will be able to change completely and become clean.
Only in this way can man become worthy to return before the throne of God. All the work done this day is so that man can be made clean and be changed; through judgment and chastisement by the word, as well as through refinement, man can purge away his corruption and be made pure. Rather than deeming this stage of work to be that of salvation, it would be more apt to say it is the work of purification.
In truth, this stage is that of conquest as well as the second stage in the work of salvation. For all that man may have been redeemed and forgiven of his sins, it can only be considered as God not remembering the transgressions of man and not treating man in accordance with his transgressions. However, when man, who lives in a body of flesh, has not been set free from sin, he can only continue to sin, endlessly revealing his corrupt satanic disposition.
This is the life that man leads, an endless cycle of sinning and being forgiven. The majority of mankind sin in the day only to confess in the evening. This way, even though the sin offering is forever effective for man, it will not be able to save man from sin. Only half the work of salvation has been completed, for man still has a corrupt disposition. Only thus can man gradually be changed from this point onward.
In the last days, Christ uses a variety of truths to teach man, to expose the substance of man, and to dissect the words and deeds of man. These words are all directed at the substance of man and his corrupt disposition. In particular, the words that expose how man spurns God are spoken in regard to how man is an embodiment of Satan, and an enemy force against God.
In undertaking His work of judgment, God does not simply make clear the nature of man with a few words; He exposes, deals with, and prunes over the long term. These methods of exposure, dealing, and pruning cannot be substituted with ordinary words, but with the truth of which man is utterly bereft.
Only methods such as these can be called judgment; only through judgment of this kind can man be subdued and thoroughly convinced into submission to God, and moreover gain true knowledge of God. This proves that a person can act upon the commandments of the Law. In reality, there is no divine commandment which cannot be acted upon. Is adultery such a thing that cannot be avoided? Are theft, burglary, lying, murder, backbiting etc. Of course not! If one fears God Almighty in their heart, they can certainly avoid them.
Why is this case? This is because one is not embarrassed to admit this for he knows that the laws of the penal code are made by people, who are after all mortal and therefore one is not overawed in their response to them.
However, with regards to the commandments of [religious] law, because one has God Almighty in mind, he therefore answers with humility and meekness. Now we turn to the matter of humankind inheriting sin and thus it being impossible for any person to be free from sin. This too is a false notion. If humankind inherited sin, then where did Adam as inherit it from? If he incurred it upon himself, then why can we not accept that the rest of mankind also incurs it themselves?
Hence, if humankind inherited sin, then one cannot be held accountable for it. For example, a person is of illegitimate birth. Because he is not at fault, his mother is.
Therefore, nobody deserves punishment for what they have inherited from their parents, and if nobody deserves punishment for this, then everyone has the potential to attain salvation, because they are not at fault. They [Christians] claim that sin is inherited, therefore no one can attain salvation.
However, if it is believed that sin is not inherited, but rather is brought upon each person himself [by his own actions], this doctrine of Christianity would thus prove to be completely unfounded. When we say to Christians that man himself commits sins, they respond by saying that the sins committed by man are avoidable. But the sin that was inherited cannot be forgiven except through a belief in the atonement. Yet we see that this too is completely false.
The sin which is supposed to have been inherited was committed by Adam as , and the proposed punishment for this was,. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.
Otherwise, there is no evidence to show that inherited sin is forgiven through a belief in atonement. Because it is impossible for Christians to explain how a serpent can believe in atonement, its punishment can never be averted. That leaves man and woman. But to this day, no Christian woman has been able to escape these [labour] pains, so how can one accept the concept of atonement to be credible?
Similarly, the punishment handed to man cannot be forgiven by a belief in atonement. Hence, if the punishments of this world cannot be removed through a belief in atonement, how can they be forgiven in the afterlife? According to Christianity, these are the signs that one has attained salvation, yet no Christian has been able to show this through their practice. And so atonement has been proven false, and when atonement has been proven false, its result, namely salvation, in turn has also been proven false.
Wait here and stay awake with me. It is clear from this that Jesus as was forcibly put on the cross. However, this means that the body should have survived — since it was not prepared to be crucified — yet it was the body that received the punishment. Therefore, this alone is not sufficient proof [of atonement]. And until there is evidence to back a claim, it cannot be accepted. When the Christians are unable to present any argument for their claim, they criticise us by saying that we also believe in the concept of sacrifice.
However, when making this criticism, they overlook the difference between the sacrifice of an animal and the crucifixion of Jesus as. When we sacrifice an animal, we do not claim that it bears the burden of our sins and is being sacrificed as punishment for those sins.
On the contrary, we say that in this way, we are giving up some of our wealth in order to attain the pleasure of God Almighty, with the hope that He will forgive us our sins. Let me state this more clearly. Any sacrifice that we make is from our own wealth. Secondly, we give up part of [our wealth] for the sake of God Almighty.
Thirdly, we place our trust in God Almighty that because of this action of ours — which we have carried out for His pleasure — He may forgive us our sins. However, none of this is true regarding the crucifixion of Jesus as. The one who offers the sacrifice is the one who benefits from it, not anyone else.
It was the Jews who sacrificed Jesus as , and it is said that they will enter hell. Yet the Christians claim that as a result of this sacrifice, they will be the ones attaining salvation. The Jews were the ones who placed Jesus as on the cross, not the Christians.
Hence, the Jews are the ones who should benefit from this sacrifice. But Christians assert the exact opposite: that by affirming belief in his death, they will attain salvation. Thus, the method of attaining salvation presented by the Christians is one that is wrong in every respect.
Of course, the method taught by Islam is free from any doubt and uncertainty. I have mentioned that Islam has ordained the commandments of the divine law so that by following them, man could achieve contentment and avoid trouble. This is similar to the way in which the railway system operates. That is, whoever arrives at a station on time and purchases a ticket will subsequently be able to board the train and arrive at his destination. But on the other hand, it will be extremely foolish if someone cries and moans that it is too much trouble to board the train and reach their desired destination.
It is the same principle in regards to the divine law. The divine law would only have been a curse if its commandments had caused man trouble or pain. However, there are no commandments in Islam which instead of benefiting him, cause him harm. Is theft such a laudable act for it not to have been forbidden? This is the case with all the commands. The divine law is a guidebook.
But God Almighty has blessed humankind by informing us of this Himself. The Christians have deemed this blessing of God to be a curse, whereas God Almighty has been Merciful to His servants by revealing the secrets to the commandments of the divine law. This is because one does not possess the capability to come to the correct conclusion about everything, and this is why God Almighty has taught [these commandments] Himself. If it had not been this way, then one would have had to undergo much pain and suffering, and would have done things that would have not only grieved, but also harmed him, and one would have failed to adopt certain practises which would have helped and benefited him.
Not only has Islam explained the things that harm or benefit us, it has also taught us the way to act on the good and avoid the bad. We see in the world that simply making a person aware of the dangers and harms of something is not always enough to prevent them from carrying it out.
This is because until one experiences the consequences of that action, its harmful effects will remain concealed from them.
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