Salvation Unrevealed

In yesterday's post I presented Finch's Salvation Equations. As a reminder, here they are again:

1. Faith + NoWorks <> Salvation
2. NoFaith + Works <> Salvation
3. Faith + Works = Salvation

By way of clarification, I do not intend these to be as set in stone as, say, Maxwell's Electromagnetic Equations (which I have on a t-shirt; it says, "And God said: [four vector equations, some involving partial differentiation] and there was light." I love this shirt!) My equations are simply the best solution I have found to the multitude of salvation formulas presented in the New Testament. But I freely admit that I do not know with certainty what the Bible teaches as being required for salvation. Further, I do not believe anyone else does either, and thus do not and cannot know with certainty that they are saved.

Proof That No One Knows With Certainty That They Are Saved:

1. When a saved person is asked, "Are there any people in the world that truly believe they are saved, but are in fact lost?", the answer is "Yes!"
2. Response to the saved person: "Then perhaps you are one of those people."
QED

I am being a bit facetious here, but my point is that most people who know with certainty they are right with God also believe that there are others who know with as much certainty as they, yet are lost. These people negate their own case for certainty with such beliefs.

I grew up as an only child with parents that respected the Bible, but rarely went to church. My mom would have gone more, but did not drive, so was dependent on rides from family and friends. As a young adult, I was quite certain that the Bible was strictly the work of men, not God. Later, I came to believe that the Bible was the word of God and accepted Jesus as my savior. But within two years, I was beginning to doubt. This was a result of studying the Bible more deeply and questioning those things I did not understand or made no sense. Over the following five years, my faith faded away to be replaced by Deism (the belief that there is a Creator God, but he is not necessarily the God presented by any religion, and may in fact be an impersonal God). I now consider myself an agnostic (I freely admit that I just don't know if God exists). There are aspects of the Universe that scream to me "I was created!" Yet, there are other aspects that scream "I am eternal, not created!" Which screams do I listen to? In case you don't know, the correct answer is "BOTH!" Hence, agnosticism.

I will speak more of these screaming voices in future posts.