Articles
Why Is Salvation Meaningless To So Many
WHY IS SALVATION MEANINGLESS TO SO MANY
“Salvation” is a concept about which few people in our society are concerned. Before one can be concerned about salvation, they must believe they are in danger and in need of salvation. Many believe that man is wholly flesh and that when they die there is no afterlife and therefore no danger.
There is more fear about polluting the planet with plastic straws and cow flatulence than consequences for sins.
Why is that? What has changed to bring about such indifference to spiritual matters in a society that formulated a legal system based on their deep conviction that sinning had both earthly and eternal consequences?
I believe that what we are seeing is the natural effect of actively destroying faith in a real, powerful, righteous, living God. Unbelievers have effectively taken over Government and outlawed any mention of God which would acknowledge His existence. God is only allowed to be viewed as a mythological being, a fairy tale, the product of man’s imagination rather than the creator of the Universe and all life in it.
They have taken over the word science and imagine its library of accumulated knowledge to be the divine oracles of man's future world of perfection. This belief that man with his scientific oracles will eradicate all of man’s problems is certainly flawed. For, with all the oracles of scientific knowledge, man is no closer to resolving the problems that ravage this world due to sin. The world has the same problems today that it did thousands of years ago. Accompanying this humanistic religion is the belief that one of the biggest causes of this world's problems is FAITH in an outdated and fanciful God and His religion. Hence the evangelistic efforts to destroy the credibility of our Faith.
How did those of this worldly religion of Godlessness gain such power?
By the silence of good men and woman of Faith. The children's spiritual upbringing was often neglected. The children were not trained with a firm belief in an almighty God and in the hope of eternal life. When there is no faith or hope there is an empty spot left in the heart. That empty spot will be filled with something. Where faith in God should have resided and protected the heart, there was a void.
1 Peter 1:3-5 (NASB)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
When the heart is not guarded by faith in God, Jesus and an eternal heavenly home, it will become corrupted by doubts and unanswered questions. The void left in the heart, where faith should have been planted, will be filled with unbelief.
1 Peter 1:23-25 (NASB)
23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.
24 For, "ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS, AND ALL ITS GLORY LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERS, AND THE FLOWER FALLS OFF,
25 BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER." And this is the word which was preached to you.
But what if the word is not preached? What if a neighbor provides an opportunity to say something and we do not speak? What if our children are untrained in the ways and promises of God? It is hard to blame the government if we Christians have failed to open our mouths and teach.
Romans 10:13-15 (NASB)
13 for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."
14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?
15 How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, "HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!"
Proverbs 22:6 (NASB)
6 Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (NASB)
6 "These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
7 "You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.
Deuteronomy 11:18-19 (NASB)
18 "You shalltherefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.
19 "You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up.
It is obvious that a generation has arisen which shows no reverence to spiritual matters. It appears that the children of this generation do not know about God, Jesus, eternal promises or judgment to come. There is nothing new under the sun. This has happened before:
Judges 2:10 (NASB)
10 All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.
I hope we do not find comfort in the fact that this has happened before. Rather, may we be motivated to serve God zealously day after day with a fervent evangelistic Faith, which rushes forward into the battle presenting faith as the only path to eternal life and deliverance from the judgment to come.
1 Peter 3:15 (NASB)
15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do (or say- NN) nothing." Edmund Burke (1729-1797)