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Mardie MacDonald Fund

"Dazzling! Breathtaking!"

Misunderstanding the Bible

Common misbeliefs about the Bible
- Will being good get you to heaven? -

A typical trait of angels is that they sing.
The Bible says that the earth is flat.
The Tree Of Knowledge of Good and Evil was a bad, bad tree.
Sarah snickered because she didn't believe she'd be a mom.
Jonah was gobbled up by a whale.
Satan is God's counter-pole. Darkness and fire belong to Satan.
In the Bible black stands for bad and white stands for good.
A true story is something that actually happened.
The Bible is the Word of God
The Bible is infallible
If you're good, you'll go to heaven. If you're bad, you'll go to hell.
God destroyed the Tower of Babel to punish the builders.
During a duel with Satan, God wrecked Job just to make a point.
Jesus was born in a stable; ox, donkey, and the angels sang!
Astrology is always wrong.
Hand palm reading is always wrong.
Jesus was a Jew, from the line of David
Jesus had nails through His feet.
Jesus asked God to forgive His executioners for crucifying Him.
Jesus was very poor
Thomas was a heinous unbeliever, made a fool of by Christ.

Salvation
Salvation is probably a bigger mystery than love; no one really knows how it works but it's pretty much on everybody's mind in some form or other. You know with great certainty when you are either loved or saved, but you can't teach either getting loved or getting saved to someone else. We are, however, not completely at a loss. In both arena's there are some valuable tips to be given:

Ephesians 2:4-10, Titus 3:4-7.
Salvation comes not from good behavior but from God's love. Salvation can not be earned, only given. Good behavior is the result of salvation and not the cause of it. It may even be the purpose of it.

1 Corinthians 3:14-15.
Salvation does not depend on what you produce or leave behind. If what your have produced during your life is valuable, then it's valuable for all of us. If what you've done with your life sucks, then whatever sucks will be done away with and you yourself will go on cleaned up and straightened out. That is, if you're saved to start with.

Something we learned from Socrates:
If you want to be rich, you're not (rich). If you want to be happy, you're not (you're unhappy). If you want to be wise, you aren't. So, if you want to be saved, you aren't.
If you are rich, you'll do something with your money. If you are wise, you're acting wise. Hence, if you are saved, you're not obsessed with salvation, but you are investing your own salvation in the betterment or even salvation of the people around you. (See the Book of James, especially chapter 2).

Sorry, no deal.

This is where the Bible differs in opinion with pretty much every major current in every major religion: Good behavior is not salvific; you can not earn or even wing your way into heaven. No way.

Salvation is a gift from God, and good behavior (when there) is a consequence of salvation, not a cause of it.

Salvation is a deep and difficult concept, but it basically comes down to you having some kind of application in the everlasting Body of Christ. That Body of Christ is even more deep and complicated, but that one comes down to a firmly interlinked group of people, like the cells of a body that together make the whole thing work. Being saved and being part of that Body is the same thing. If you're not part of that Body, it means that you have no real function in the grand scheme of the universe. And that means that you will be edited out, like a very nice but irrelevant chapter of a great novel.

People that are keen on 'good behavior,' are usually very self-absorbed, checking themselves constantly on whether they're still up to their own standards. And if they heed someone else, it's usually to criticize them for not being like them. A partaker of the Body of Christ is remarkably unmindful of him/herself, and tries to figure out what someone next to them might need to function (as a consequence, not as a cause of their inveteration).
The key word to salvation is not behavior but application. Get applied into something that won't quit, and you won't quit.

And besides, how does one define 'good behavior'? One would need a big law-book on universal justice to figure that one out. The Bible compares the Body of Christ to a real, single human body. And a real human body produces stomach acid and prowling white blood cells and sweat and tears. The mental equivalents of these traits are probably not looked favorably upon by your average bystander, who likes to see 'good' behavior. Meaning: it's probably not recommendable to be either average or standing by.

When Jesus said, "I am the light," He wasn't speaking in vague riddles. Just as it is impossible to cross the light-speed barrier, so it is impossible to go to heaven on your own. The invitation that is extended to everyone of us, is to get on board with Jesus, and He'll take you to warp 10.

People have been trying to figure out for ages what it is that you have to do to get on board with Jesus, but that's the same question as before. There's nothing you can do. Except for wanting it really, really bad. If you want it - really, really bad - that's when you'll find yourself right there.

Surrender to the knowledge that you don't know what's going on, but that there is a God who does, who is personal and intimate, and who will lead you on if you let Him. Always be aware that you are not your own, but that you belong to a greater good for everybody. Let your own going to heaven no longer be your objective. (1 Cor 10:24)