Main news for 17 August 2007

Through the prophet Jeremiah God addresses His word to the people of Israel. His indignation is caused by the fact that people who do not keep the commandments, and are not trying very hard, come to the temple and think that everything is fine with them, because they belong to the people of God. God categorically objects to this idea of "collective salvation," when individually everyone is a sinner, but together they are "saved."

Does it not seem to you that in the two and a half thousand years since then this idea has not disappeared? Does it not happen that we think the most important thing for our salvation is to get into the "right" church, to be in it "like everyone else," and then one can not only call oneself a sinner but continue to be one? There is no need for personal faith, for a personal relationship with Christ, for deep repentance and striving for holiness. There is no personal responsibility for one's deeds and thoughts, because salvation belongs to us by the fact of belonging to the church. But from God's point of view everything is the other way around: our belonging to the "right" Church, to the Body of Christ, is determined by our personal relationship with Christ and our personal responsibility before Him.