You've seen em before. Maybe one wis thrust intae yir hand by a guy a the mall, ir maybe you were hangin wi Us Behind the Counter, an one wis left beside the register. Possibly, you've given em oot yirsel.
They're usually aboot three by six centimeters, an they're made oot a paper. On the cover is printed a title, somethin like "Are You Saved" ir "How to get to Heaven". Open it oop, an inside you'll find somethin like this:
You are a sinner. You need forgiveness for your horrible life, but you are not worthy of it. The Bible says, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23). And, "As it is written, there is none righteous; no, not one." (Romans 3:10)
Because you are a sinner, you do not deserve God's love. You deserve death. The Bible says, "For the wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23)
Furthermore, you must accept that you cannot save yourself from your sins. The Bible says, "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." (Romans 5:6)
To pay your debt as a sinner, you must spend eternity in hell. "Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." (Revelation 20:14) But you can get out of this debt! Despite the fact that you deserve Hell, you can still be saved! How?
The Bible says, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). That's right, Christ died for you! Christ said, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
Yes, you deserve to die. But instead, God sent His Son to die in your place. The Bible says, "He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)
To be saved, you must confess that you are a sinner and ask Jesus Christ to save you. You must repent of your sins and accept Jesus into your heart. The Bible says, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Romans 10:9) And, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Romans 10:13)
These tracts usually end wi a prayer for ye tae say, an a address tae send donations tae, an a copyright notice.
Sounds pretty convincin, doesnae? God sent His son, an all thit believe are saved, an aw thit are nae saved burn forever. Period. God set oop laws an commandments, an even if ye were born oan a island ay the South Pacific an never heard the laws, ye hud tae follow um. But nae one ever did, an sae when God judged everyone by thit standard, by the laws He set oop, nae one passed, and sae we aw got tae burn. But by acceptin Christ, we escape the judgement, an are saved. Right?
Wrong.
Many yonks ago, me Da, one Laird Chatten Madden IV, he left me wi three things: one dogeared version ay the Holy Bible, and a penchant fir writin in half-inscrutable, nearly incomprehensible, unfathomably annoyin bad dialects (the third thing, I will nae get intae right now; suffice tae say it involves a ten-thousan yonk awld curse an twelve tons ay an ancient Egyptian potted meat food product). Wi these two tools, me Bible an me brogue, ah will try tae git tae whae Jesus hud tae say aboot this Fundamentalist "Plan of Salvation".
First ay awl, it's worth pointin oot thit in the generic tract above, the author often begins quotes by sayin "The Bible says...." This is important.
The "Bible", thit is, the quotes, are mostly the words ay Paul. Nae God, nae Christ; Paul. Specifically, the quotes come from letters Paul wrote tae various churches across the land. Centuries eftir Christ got crucified, a bunch ay Christian got together and said, "Hey, we dinnae have nae book, nae doctrine, an we wants one." An, fir reasons ah dinnae understand, they decided tae take these letters thit Paul wrote, along wi some other stuff, and put em awl together an said those things they picked oot, they were words inspired by God, words infallible an absolute. Thus wis created the New Testament.
Never, nae once, did Christ ever say, "Many years after I die, I want my followers to get together and create the New Testament out of these letters this guy named Paul is gonna write, and these words should be considered absolute gospel." Never.
Therefore, ah have a hard time believin thit just because Paul said it an the early Christians approved it, it must be so. Ah holds the words ay Paul wi the same esteem thit ah holds the words ay Billy Graham, Huston Smith, Pat Robertson, Martin Luther, Mother Teresa ir even Jim Bakker (remember him?). Good; probably; great, maybe; but spoken by humans, an therefore fallible. Let's face it: the disciples could nae ever get it right when Jesus wis right there beside them. He wis constantly havin tae correct them, tae teach them. If they could nae git it right then, then why oan earth would they, eftir his death, suddenly start gettin it right, completely, utterly, right? And Paul - he never even met Christ!
Fir thit matter, never, nae once, did Christ ever instruct his disciples tae write doon his own words ir teachins.
Number ay teachins Christ wrote doon: 0. Number ay teachins he instructes his disciples tae write doon: 0.
Sae, ah have a very hard time acceptin the words ay Paul an the other New Testament authors as gospel. Ah hold even the words that Matthew, Mark, Luke an John claim Jesus himself spoke as suspect, since Jesus never told them tae write down his own words. An, in the above tract - in the "Plan of Salvation" - only one (one!) part, one quote, is directly from Jesus Christ. Oot a ten quotes, only one is Christ's. Hmmm...
Ye dinnae think this could mean thit maybe, just maybe, this whole Plan ay Salvation has almost nothing tae do wi what Christ actually said, an is mainly just things made oop by sinful, ungodly, unenlightened mankind? Ah dinnae ken. Let's see whae Jesus has tae say aboot the idea thit either ye be a Christian an go tae heaven eftir ye die, ir be a Buddhist/atheist/Hindu/etc an burn in hell fir eternity.
"If any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not. For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." (John 12:47)
Whae? Whae?!?! Is Jesus, then, sayin thit there are people who will hear the words ay Christ, an nae believe, an Jesus will nae judge them?
Yes. Thit's exactly whae he's sayin.
Sae, who, then, judges these non-Christians? God? Nae. "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgement unto the son" (John 6:22). Sae whae, then, judges these heathens?
"He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the words that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." (John 12:48)
The words thit he hath spoken judges them? Whae words?
"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." (Matthew 7:1) Thit is, they will be judged by whae ever standard they used to judge others. Hmmm... reminds me a this thing ah heard a once, somethin called "karma"....
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God," said Paul. Whae did Jesus say? When asked why he hung roond wi the drunkards, the thieves, the sinners (the sort a people nae self-respectin fundamentalist would be caught dead wi), Jesus answered, "They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but the sinners, to repentance." (Luke 5:31) This implies thit there must ay been righteous oot there, somewhere; perhaps this is why Jesus did nae go tae the Buddhists?
The Fundies say thit only they will go tae heaven. But there are many Buddhists, Hindus and yogis, tae name a few, that, although they do nae call themselves Christians, recognize the Buddhahood/divinty/enlightenment ay Jesus, an consider themselves an ally ay those thit do call themselves Christians. Whae does Christ have tae say aboot them? "He that it not against us, is with us." (Luke 9:50)
The law, 2 parts. Kingdom of heaven here, now. The condemnation is of their own making: Jesus said accept me, or wallow in your own cripe; God doenst condemn; you condemn yourself. The Fundies say heaven is afterlife; the fundies use the OT to justify shite.
Sae, whae aboot the one, lone quote ay God ay the tract? "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." This is oft quoted; rarely, however, is the one thit follows: "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through him the world might be saved." Sae, if Christ does nae condemn, who does? The next verse says, "He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
Sae, we condemn ourselves. And whae does thit mean? Does thit mean thit non-Christians, eftir dyin, go tae burn in hell fir awl eternity? Nae.
Fir next, Christ say: "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved."
Obviously, when Christ speaks ay believers who will not taste death, who will have eternal life, an nae-believers perishing, he is nae speaking literally; ay know ay nae immortals, Christian ir otherwise. He speaks metaphorically, just like when he speaks ay "light" an "darkness"; nae is meant tae be taken literally (even the Fundies have tae agree thae nae only Christians have light, an everyone else lives in darkness; ay know ay several atheists who pay their light bills).
Whae Christ is sayin is, the choice is yirs, an ye decides. God does nae condemn ye tae nothin; by choosing tae live in the "darkness", in a world wi nae morals, nae beliefs, ye condemn yirsel. Whae, if anythin, Christ meant by the actual, literal afterlife, I dinnae ken; obviously the Kindgom ay Heaven wis nae meant tae be somethin eftir death, since Christ told some ay the discpiles thit they would nae die before it wis established. Heaven is somethin right now, right here, oan earth, in this life, an ye kin choose whether or nae ye want tae find it.