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My previous entry on Romans 10 answers a direct question that many have for Christianity… can someone who is not a Christian go to Heaven?  My thought has always been that God holds us accountable for what we know.  Well, I believe I have been taking the wrong approach.  

I have often prayed to God that those who are not Christians would somehow be able to go Heaven, not despite their evil, but because it’s clear from their actions that goodness means a lot to them, and because I see the wonderment in their lives of what God has made and blessed them with… whether they acknowledge it as such or not.  I have prayed this, knowing how foolish a prayer it really is, …

 1Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
Verses 1 and 2 are how I feel about a great many people I know, particularly many Jews and even many Christians.  They have what appears to be a relationship with …

 30What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. 32Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the “stumbling stone.” 

33As it is written:
   ”See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble
      and a rock that makes them fall,
   and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”
Knowing the definitions of righteousness put forth in the Old Testament, this makes perfect sense.  Recalling all the countless times it …

Romans 8
Life Through the Spirit
 1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to …

 8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  

 11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of …

One of the primary criticisms of Old Earth views of the universe stems from the introduction of death into the world.  According to a young earth perspective, God created the world perfect, and in that perfection there was no sin, and therefore no death.  Death was introduced by Adam’s and Eve’s disobedience in the garden.  Therefore, because death was not in the world before the fall, evolution would be impossible, because the theory of evolution is based on fossils that are thought to have died long before the fall.  If the reasoning is correct, then this contradiction is clear proof that evolution is a fallacy, that the earth is young, and God truly means to communicate that in scripture.  It is …

Recall these verses from Romans 5: ”12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law.”  Paul is drawing a distinction between legality and morality.  This is an important distinction for those who lived before the law, because even without a law to break, there was still sin.  There may have been no law upon which to base punishment, but sin was still in the world.  After all, “14 …death reigned from the time of Adam …

The other day, I finally hit on what Paul was talking about in earlier Romans chapters when he said “a new righteousness”.  He was talking about “redeeming” righteousness.  That is, righteousness that redeems your soul, as opposed to righteousness that does not, I suppose?  Well, in Chapter 5 of Romans, Paul finally goes into detail about exactly what he is talking about.
 1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
On the surface, it doesn’t seem too much …