 | Nabil Seyam is director of the Board of Administration of the Islamic Society of Wichita and Co-Founder of the Annoor Islamic School. He was the recipient of the Leader of the Year in 2002 in Wichita and most recently was the recipient of the Community Servant Award by the University United Methodist Church in 2003. Dr. Seyam was selected for the Community Servant Award because of his active role in peace-building and multiculturalism throughout Kansas. He is an adjunct instructor for Pittsburg State University and Wichita State University. He is married and has six children. He can be reached at (316) 630-9222 , by e-mail at nabil@seyam.org, or visit his website at www.seyam.org |
***image1:left***QUESTION: I accept the fact that there is a hereafter. I am sure also about which of the two places I want to go. My problem comes when I hear some clerics say that all you have to do to be saved is to accept Jesus Christ as your savior and have a personal relationship with him; and others who say that regardless of what you've done insofar as accepting Jesus Christ as your savior, if you die in the state of grievous sin, you will go to hell. Why are there so many different opinions on something so serious: spending an eternity of happiness vs. spending an eternity of punishment?
ANSWER: I was once trying to explain the Christian Gospel to some college students when one of them, a Hindu student from India, stood and almost shouted: "Stop ! That is dangerous! If you tell people that they can be sure they are going to heaven...then they will live like the devil for the rest of their lives." His logic was good, but he hadn't heard the whole Gospel. One cannot preach salvation by God's grace alone without the assurance that a change in the nature of sinners occurs when they entrust themselves to Christ. One is "converted", i.e. changed. The Bible calls this "rebirth" or "regeneration" (Titus 3:5), "new birth" or "born of The Spirit" (John 3:3-8), and becoming "a new creation" (II Cor.5:17).
This change in moral personality results from genuine repentance, trust and submission to Jesus as Lord. All this is contained in the Biblical word BELIEVE. It is not simply agreeing with a set of teachings. Phrases which the New Testament writers use to illustrate this conversion are: "participate in the divine nature" (II Peter 1:4), and "turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God." (I These. 1:9). A clearly changed life is expected as evidence that a person has actually entered into a saving relationship with God. There are frequent warnings of a false or inadequate "belief". II
Cor. 13:5 says to "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not know that Christ Jesus is in you
-unless, of course, you fail the test?" If Jesus lives in me, it should be obvious. Ephesians 2:8-10 says: "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith -and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- NOT BY WORKS, so that no one can boast. For WE ARE GOD'S WORKmanship, created in Christ Jesus TO DO GOOD WORKS, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
The questioner may well be puzzled because the Christian conversion is often inadequately -or incompletely- presented. An "easy believism" makes God's gift of salvation sound like a gift you can take home and file with your other fire insurance policies. But the Biblical descriptions call for REPENTANCE. This is: (1) an acknowledgement of my sinful, helpless condition....a rebel against God's rule in my life....spiritually bankrupt; (2) belief that God is loving and has paid for my sins in the suffering of Christ on the cross; (3) a desire to turn from all sin, welcome God's Spirit into my mind and obey and please God. Such a repentance leads to a major lifestyle change which progresses
into all areas of life as the months and years go by....a new birth followed by a new type of life. And this new life is promised to persist right through physical death. A "life insurance"? Yes! But you do not have to die to start collecting and enjoying. Jesus said he came to give "fullness of joy". And this is available now: "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Rom.10:13/
But that doesn't fully answer your question. "Suppose I commit some "grievous sin"? There have always been some Christian teachers who are unwilling to say that Christ's death covers my sins past, present AND FUTURE! Jesus promised: "My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand." (John 10:27-28) Sin brings pain and punishment, but not banishment. This is what it means to be a son or daughter of God. St. Paul celebrated this in Romans 8:38-39: "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord".