Today I read Philippians 2 which has one of my favorite verses in all of the New Testament in it. That would be verse 12 where Paul tells the Saints to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. I think the reason I like this verse so much is because it lets us know that our ultimate fate is in our own hands.
We have talked about the false doctrine of predestination where some believe that God has decreed everything from the beginning and no matter what you do you are either saved or you are not and you can't change it one way or the other. If predestination where true, why would Paul tell us to work out our own salvation? It doesn't make sense and I would have to say if I believed in predestination, I could only conclude that Paul did not understand the doctrine. A very egotistical point of view in my opinion considering Paul was an Apostle.
Paul understood the doctrine just fine and the false notion of predestination, as we have discussed, has been perpetrated by the devil to lead the children of mankind astray. What Paul means by his statement, is that we our responsible for our own salvation, nobody else. Jesus Christ prepared the way for us, but I more look at that as He unlocked the door and is keeping it held open and we have to choose to go through it or not. Our salvation is up to us an no one else. There are people that can help. There are people that can make it easier on us, but ultimately, no one can do anything about it us. That is why I like this verse so much, because it teaches the truth and it does not jive with several of the false doctrines out there. If they want to believe what they are preaching, then they have to completely ignore this verse. Which I think some of the Christian beliefs do just that and ignore several other verses besides. Of course they probably accuse the LDS church of doing the same thing not understanding that any verses that appear to contradict our beliefs were changed centuries ago and Joseph Smith has corrected them to their original form.
God is not the author of confusion. He wants us to return to live with Him again. He wants us to be happy, hence why He does not force us to do certain things or come back to live with Him if we truly don't want to. We can choose eternal happiness, eternal mediocrity or eternal unhappiness, the choice is ours and always has been. Heavenly Father loves us enough to let us go if that is what we desire. Be sure you are making the choice you really want to make. Until tomorrow.
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