Random Thoughts of the Day

Does God care what we believe? I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Let's talk about important things, like Jesus and Salvation.

Questions:
If salvation is by faith:
1. What does God want you to believe?
2. If you don't believe exactly what he wants you to, will he still have mercy on you?
3. Does God judge the heart more than content of belief?

I truly believe (in the James sense of the word) that Jesus came to earth to die and pay for my sins. Someone else believes that Jesus came to earth to conquer death so that we may live, neglecting substitution and propitiation. Their beliefs may be in error, but because of their faith and reliance on a salvation from God, can not God give them salvation, because of Jesus' death. A better question: Will he?

Isn't faith a firm reliance apon beliefs rather than adherance to a set of doctrines? If this is true, isn't there overlap between the two? Will God honor reliance on wrong beliefs over adherance to correct doctrines? If so, to what degree? It seems obvious that God will not honor those who claim Allah as their God. But what about those who believe Jesus died to pay for their sins, but didn't rise from the dead. Will they go to heaven?

What is troubling is not that I think God will somehow cheat an person who is honestly seeking him out of knowing him. It is simply that I am conflicted in the message I am trying to portray.


A thought on God:

We were talking about curved space in class yesterday, and this thought came to mind: In curved space, an infinite distance can be described like a circle. If you follow the circle around a sphere, you can go on forever, even though the circle is contained entirely on the surface of that sphere. And the thought came: I wonder if that is what time and the universe are like to God. We can't comprehend infinite time or distance, yet for him, it's simply all wrapped up in a sphere; he can see the beginning, ending and never ending all at once while we transgress our flat path on a closed circle.