"Judgment through the scriptural law"
Letter to the Editor:
GOD’S MESSAGE, January- March 1995, p. 4
I ENJOY READING THE articles that you publish in your magazine. However, there is one thing I would like to clarify with regard to your belief concerning salvation and the last messenger. I read that the last messenger started his divine mission around 1914. This means the people whom he was able to convert to the Iglesia Ni Cristo will be fortunate enough to inherit God’s promises.
My question is, will the people who lived before Felix Manalo’s time be saved? We know that there was no Iglesia Ni Cristo prior to his preaching. What about well known people, like Jose Rizal whom we know had done good deeds? Will he be saved, too?
Alfonso C. Santos
Pangasinan, Philippines
Editor’s Reply:
Some people believe that it is sufficient for men to do good deeds and perform charitable acts in order to be saved. This belief is prevalent in our time. But does this conform with what the Bible teaches? Absolutely not. The Bible says:
“He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” (cf. Titus 3:5, New International Version).
Salvation, therefore, is God’s mercy to man which cannot be attained by good deeds. In relation to this, we need God’s messengers. They are the only ones having the authority to preach God’s words. They are the only ones entrusted with the ministry and the word of reconciliation (cf. Rom 10:15; II Cor. 5:18-20).
But what about those people who lived before the last messenger’s time? Will they be judged according to the law? The Apostle Paul wrote that:
“All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law” (Rom. 2:12, NIV).
He also wrote in the same letter that:
“Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them” (Rom. 2:14-15, Ibid.).
God will judge those who lived apart from the law by the law written on their hearts and their consciences also bearing witness. As what the Apostle John wrote:
“For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things” (I Jn. 3:20, New King James Version).
However, ignorance of the law excuses no one.
Thus, in our time, men will not be judged by the law written on their hearts but by the law taught by the messenger of God.
Consequently, when men have already known the law written in the Holy Scriptures but still disregard it, God will judge them by the law written in the Bible, not by their hearts and consciences.
Note: Some words and phrases are in bold & italics for emphasis.
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Please note, we only read and respond to messages that do not contain hate speech or insults...
“Do not let unwholesome [foul, profane, worthless, vulgar] words ever come out of your mouth, but only such speech as is good for building up others, according to the need and the occasion, so that it will be a blessing to those who hear [you speak].”
(Eph. 4:29, Amplified Bible)
“Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious; love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. It is not rude; it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked [nor overly sensitive and easily angered]; it does not take into account a wrong endured.”
(1 Corinthians 13:4-5, Amplified Bible)