Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Amazing grace

Dr. Sam Storm is [rightly] annoyed:
Every so often one comes across a statement of such colossal theological ignorance that something needs to be said. There it was, in the June 11, 2007, issue of Time magazine. Bob Berens of Troy, Michigan, is quoted as follows: "Jerry Falwell is now in a better place, side by side with the angels - and homosexuals, people with HIV and feminists, who, he has surely learned, have as much right to eternal happiness and salvation as he does."

Yes, Jerry Falwell is now in a much better place. Yes, he's side by side with angels. Whether or not homosexuals, people with HIV, and feminists are with him is not mine to know. But of this I am quite certain: no one who is there has a "right" to be. Mr. Berens couldn't be more wrong: Jerry Falwell has not learned that he or anyone else has a "right" to eternal happiness and salvation. ....

That any are in heaven is not a matter of "right" but of grace. I have a "right" only to that which I am owed, and God owes me nothing but eternal death. I am confident that Jerry Falwell is indeed in heaven. I hope and pray that some day Mr. Berens will join him. Then all of us who know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior can together shout and sing of the sovereign, saving mercy of God poured out on hell-deserving rebels.
And C.S. Lewis on "Yearning for Heaven."

Source: Enjoying God Ministries: Mercy or Right?

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