What Can I Make the Bible Say? Works Salvation Part 2

#2: “So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but one, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments,” Matthew 19:17.

This passage has likewise been utilized to teach that works are necessary for salvation, since it comes from the lips of our Lord. The one who approached Him was a wealthy young man, who seemed to have invested interest in the prosperity gospel; that is, the richer one is the more God is blessing him. Christ’s answer contained numerous points worth considering but the main thrust of the message devastated the rich young man. His riches were a hindrance that prevented him from entering God’s kingdom. Why? “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share,” 1st Timothy 6:17-18.

What Can I Make the Bible Say? Works Salvation Part 1

To clarify once more before we continue our topic, I am henceforth only going to concentrate on the Christian church and the heresies within it. This by definition disqualifies all non-Christian sects and cults. Any denomination that places the Bible as a secondary source of authority/revelation disqualifies itself from being considered part of the Christian pale. Examples would include Mormonism, which places the Book of Mormon, and other teachings by Joseph Smith and Brigham Young ahead of Scripture as far as authority is concerned. Likewise with Roman Catholicism, which places tradition and a host of extra-biblical writing on par (or ahead of) Scripture.

What Can I Make the Bible Say?

There is much amiss in the Christian church today. There are rampant doctrines within the church being passed off as biblical, yet they are anything but. Despite their unblibical (I would go so far as to say anti-biblical) doctrines such teachers employ the Bible to enforce their views. To that end I would like to explain my reason for an apologetic regarding this topic; you might say it’s an apologetic for my apologetic. Most false teachers, or teachers who errantly hold false doctrines, migrate toward a select count of Scriptures that favor their point of view. They tend to ignore context, both within the passage they lift the verse from as well as the overall theme regarding that particular topic as found throughout Scripture as a whole.

The Holy Spirit in Ezekiel

We press on to the prophet Ezekiel. In Ezekiel chapter 1 we are introduced to the “spirit” in the wheels that directs both the wheels and the four mighty beings, apparently cherubim, that are revealed to the prophet by the riverside. The wheels were full of eyes, suggesting omnipresence, and the spirit dictating the direction of the cherubim likewise suggests God’s divine control over His creation, even the angelic order. We see this language again in Revelation 4:6-8, again in regards to the mighty cherubim surrounding God's very throne, that they are "full of eyes in front and in back...around and within." Their nearness to God and their ministry are both intriguing and mysterious.