Rick Warren: Salvation and Eternal Life

Rick Warren, author of Purpose Driven Life, and Senior Pastor of a mega church. Many theologians were uncomfortable with his Biblical doctrine and in a recent interview with Reformed Theologian John Piper he reaffirmed his belief in the Bible.

He agreed that Jesus is the only way to salvation. He said "Jesus said no one comes to the Father but by me. I (Jesus) am the way; not a good way, not the best way, not one of the ways, not a nice way. I am the way, the truth and the life."

Among other subjects, Warren also believes heaven is a real place. He said "I don't believe it (heaven) is a state of being. I believe it is a real place."

There are people saying Warren is a universalist, but he denied it. He said "I believe in a literal hell. Jesus believed in a literal hell," he stated. And once you're in, you can't get out, he affirmed".

Warren was passionate about winning souls for Jesus and he turned emotional acknowledging that millions a year will go into erternity with Christ and without hope.

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Is Christ Suffiicent?

Pastor Samuel Surendran( picture ) is from Excel Point Community Church in Penang. Excel Point was started by him some 14 years ago and now it is a church of about a thousand members.

Pastor Sam preached on the above subject referring to Matthew 16:13-20. He said this is the question all of us must answer. Specially when we face troubles, "Is Jesus sufficient for me?", we may ask. In most cases we will be anxious to fix the problems ourselves, but he urged us to stay focus on Jesus.

The place where Jesus brought his disciples to, Caesarea Philippi was significant because it was a wealthy region,and answering this question can be difficult for many people.

Pastor Sam's own testimony was powerful. He started his church with only 4 people and without any money. He had to work as a lecturer until the church could stand on his own. Looking back, he saw how God has guided him and provided for him and his church.

His advice is no matter what happened, we must stay focus on Jesus and on one else or anything else.

Many in our church were encouraged by his message and also his passion for the lost. May our Lord bless him, his family and his congregation.

Francis Chan: Erasing Hell

Influential former Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Church, Simi Valley, California has written a new book, "Erasing Hell:What God Said About Eternity and The Things We Made Up" to counter Rob Bell's controversial book Love Wins. Bell's book promotes universalism which says all human will reconcile with God eventually and hell is not a physical place. This is not what the Bible taught us and people are trying to gain acceptance of the public to say what they want to hear. If all human can be reconciled to God eventually, they don't even have to accept Jesus as their Savior. But in John 14:6 Jesus said no one can come to God except through Him. This seem clear to me.

Francis said his book helps people to check the evidences and they have to decide themselves. He said we cannot afford to be wrong about heaven and hell.

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Jesus the Only Way to God

The Pew Forum's US Religion survey found that 57 percent of Evangelical Christians agreed to this statement “Many religions can lead to eternal life.” This result is disturbing coming from so called Christians. I believe many Christians outside USA also subscribed to this view. But Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Christians are suppose to be followers of Jesus, and if we do not subscribe or accept His statements, than we cannot call ourselves Christians.

Charles Colson (picture),founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries commented on this issue and said he was disturbed by this survey result. He said "If nearly six out of ten Evangelicals don’t believe the most basic tenets of the faith, it’s no wonder the Church is losing its influence over the culture. Because what we believe affects how we live."

Jesus is the only way to God is non negotiable for a Christian, and Colson said this is the basic tenet of Christianity. A true Christian must subscribe to this tenet.

Heaven Not "Sky Stuff"

Anglican Archbishop Dr.John Sentamu of Yorkshire was asked what he thought of Stephen Hawking's comment that “there is no heaven or afterlife” and that it is all “a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.” The Archbishop said heaven is not the "sky stuff" that Hawking made it to be, he got the message wrong. He said “Heaven is not just some kind of place for retired Christians where they’re going to be enjoying their retirement,”Heaven is where God’s will is being done. In fact, the Lord’s Prayer talks about ‘your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." So God is very much on earth as He is in heaven".

The Christianity faith is not just about heaven. Christians are to follow Jesus' footsteps and be Christ-like in our daily living.

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Stephen Hawking : No Heaven

Professor Stephen Hawking is a famous British Physicist. At age 21 he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. He is on wheel chair, and could not speak.

In a recent interview he said "I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark."

There are many people like him who do not believe in God. However,research has shown that believing in God is part of being human ( Read the previous post ). Christians believe in God because God created us in His image, and He is the one who has given us this natural tendency to look towards Him. We are created to seek after Him, and to worship and praise Him.

Hawking said the brain is like a computer is too simplistic because we know that our brain is far greater than any computer. It has power beyond any computer too, and all these abilities are God given.

There are also many cases of people who returned from the dead and testify to witnessing heaven and afterlife. Most of these testimonies have similar scenarios and these people do not know each other before they died. Therefore, these must be true.

It is insulting to hear that those who believe in heaven and the afterlife are afraid of the dark! Hawking is dead wrong!

Christians believe in afterlife, in fact eternal life if we are followers of Jesus.

John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life". RSV

Belief in God Part of Human Nature

A recent Oxford University study found that it is human to belief in God. It is part of being human. Some say we are hardwired to believe in God. This is a scientific study and it is not just someone's opinion. In fact, many years ago I read in Time Magazine which had a similar conclusion.

If you observe many societies around the world, you will find that most of the people had some kind of belief in a great Being. Of course,there are people who do not believe that there is a God. Many of these people just feel that they can stand on their own and they do not need any "God" in any situation. Yet many studies found that believing in a God is good for us physically and mentally.

Certainly we Christians believe in our Almighty God, the One and Only God of this Universe.

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