Thank God humans don’t decide who’s saved

Mr first day of posting at CGR was interesting. I started a thread which I mentioned yesterday, and I think it raised some great questions. Click here to read it.

What was somewhat disturbing were the Christians that in some way questioned my salvation. I knew this was going to happen, really the whole reason I started the thread was to see how many people would say those things. While no one explicitly said, “Steve, you are obviously not saved” several people implied it, including this quote from one poster

“He breathed life into me, and not into any animal. That is what sets me apart from animals, and to give credit to evolution, is to say that God created both animals and me in his image, which is not truth found in the bible, and to deny the truth is to deny Jesus. Which is to deny Salvation.”

There were a couple of that said similar things, although that one was the most explicit. And I should emphasize that most people said that believing in evolution would in no way affect my salvation. Really, the way I worded the question was somewhat awkward. I think the best discussion was about how we read the Bible, and I really should have framed it in that context. The real conflict for people was not whether I believed in evolution or not, but whether I believed the Bible or not.
So I came away with a lot of great questions from the thread, that I won’t explore here but hope to talk about some day. Here are a few off the top of my head-

• How should we read the Bible?How can one reject the literal translation of one passage, but accept another? What does it mean to read it “literally”?
• What are the “essentials” for a Christian? What is necessary to believe in order to be saved?
• What philosophical issues are raised by evolution?
• What does evolution tell us about God?

I look forward to thinking about, and responding to some of these questions!

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