No representation without salvation

may children kiss both sides of his face, Cal Thomas is 33 years of age.

FArnaz MAnsouri, go to On-Success for audition emergency room.

"No representation without salvation "

NO.

The fact that the infantile religious rants of Cal Thomas are spread in 500 publications does not speak well of the intelligence of the readers of those pamphlets - and of the education system that produces them.

an interesting title.

I thought the whole point of christianity is: no salvation without representation. Isn't the christian god so pissed off at humans that unless you go through jesus' representation he won't love you enough to save you from hell.

Oh wait, perhaps god loves you even without representation. You might worship a god that loves and does not condemn his own creation to eternal damnation if they don't choose the right name to call him by. But then there would be no point of worshiping jesus and the edited mythology around a potential life, what do you call that, the bible, yeah that's it. You might even worship Truth with telling truth that it must be in this book or that.

OK, never mind, worship a book, make up stories, and seek representative religion.

hariaum

Great post, Cal. A nice, succinct summary of the issue.

bob52

You wrote, " When you die, you will be dead. Deal with it."

I suppose by this you mean more than your physical body is dead but that there is no more you, so to speak.

Just how do you "know" this?

Actually, this is merely your opinion because if it were true there is no way that anyone could ever "know" it, is this not true?

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

Typical of these idiot cults. Can't any of you recognize cult language? If you believe there is a Jesus or an Allah or Zeus or a Shiva, you are delusional. When you die, you will be dead. Deal with it.

To the liberal, the Bible speaks directly to our beliefs about government.

Read Romans 13 in its entirety. There is no need for me to make a further comment. The Bible stands on its own. It does not need a mere man to make additional comments about something as plainly stated as Romans 13.

I do ask the people who are endlessly badmouthing government, a government "of, by, and for" the people, do they know what they are doing?

The Christians living in Iraq at the time that we decided to attack Iraq have a different view about our religious views. Our "Christian nation" has managed to help form a government in Iraq that persecutes Christians, something that didn't even happen under Saddam Hussein. Our "Christian nation" has aided and abetted the Christian-hating nation of Saudi Arabia. If my memory serves me correctly, the vast majority (15 out of the 19) of 9/11 hijackers were Saudi citizens. Go figure!

After reading a few posts here, I had another thought. I have read and taught the New Testament book "Revelation." As hard as I tried, I could not find one reference to where all those who were condemned went to Hell. There are clear references to the anti-Christ and Satan spending an eternity in a fiery Hell. Let's take Armageddon. What happened to the many who were obliterated? The Bible refers in both Old and New Testaments to the destruction of many human beings. Yes, there are many references to the final judgment. Is it possible that the parable of the seeds holds a clue? Some seeds existed but never produced a viable plant. Is it possible that without a viable plant, the existence of the "seed" is in doubt?

I still have one question for those whose fixation is on abortion. When God said to destroy all in the Old Testament as it regarded the taking of the Holy Land, it would only stand to reason that there were pregnant women along with their unborn fetuses who were destroyed. The Bible makes reference to the unborn being killed in their mother's wombs without comment. Life and death happen. The Bible is very clear about this.

It is time to sit down and discuss in charitable terms the true gospel, the Bible, and so forth. No one living can presume to know the mind of God. I know too many people, especially on the radical right, who "know" and "speak for" God. These people bother me because their actions are anything but Godlike.

Cal Thomas is also only half correct. There are many liberals and conservatives who live their Christian faith each and every day. These are the people who have been marginalizied by the exptremely partisan sniping that we see today and that is given the most press.

First of all, we can stop demonizing "conservative" and "liberal." It was Hitler after all who demonized the liberal,democratic politics and the established government of his day. The overt racism and "call to arms" in our own country today seems to have its antecedent in the post World War I era of Germany.

With due respect, the "conservative" rightwing nuts shout out "liberal" as if it is a threat against America. In reality, were it not for the liberals in Jefferson's time, there would be no America as we know it today. We would still be under the crown of England.

Today's conservatives are illogical, historically ignorant, and lazy. They seem to want everything their way, regardless of political reality as demonstrated at the ballot box. What kind of America do you think we will have if the modern-day conservatives have their way? They already threaten to remake the Supreme Court in their own image. From my perspective, liberals are much more tolerant, flexible, and independent than are conservatives. Liberals understand what "liberty" and the "pursuit of happiness" really mean.

As of this point in time, conservative means a politics of fear and liberal means a politics of hope. Conservatives push a deficit spending agenda fueled by tax cuts that mainly benefit the wealthiest among us and then dare Democrats to balance the budget without raising taxes. Conservatives push fees, not taxes.

New Testament theology is firmly based in a moderate to liberal tradtition. Jesus was a "flaming liberal" in His day. It was the conservative wing that crucified Him. Why do you think that the conservative nuts have tried to label Obama as "Messiah"? In reality, the conservative of today is in your face with their lies and half truths. If one dares to speak to these things, he is unpatriotic. We are living in perilous times.

"In the book of James, the Apostle says "Faith without works is dead." But the opposite is also true: works without faith is equally dead."

Tell that to the family that just received a bundle of food and clothing from an atheist.

Let's turn your statement around; Cal Thomas sees no purpose in helping others unless he is payed off with a bribe of eternal life.

Anyone else feel that way?

To the religious left, government is supposed to have a major role in these things, but the biblical model calls upon the church -- which is individual believers -- to do these works. Government cannot and should not share Christ with anyone. That is the work of those who know Him and who have had good works performed for them, most especially the greatest work of a transformed life.

--

To call this statement ambiguous would be an understatement, in my opinion. In fact, I have no idea what it means, and would be very grateful for clarification by its author.

Certainly, Mr. Thomas is not in a position to condemn the injection of politics into religion, since no one does more of this than he. So what is his position on politicizing religion, which is what this controversy is about to a significant extent. Beck condemns only people who associate religion with political positions inconsistent with his own personal agenda. What does Mr. Thomas think of that?

Cal Thomas

You wrote, "Feeding a hungry person; clothing a naked person; visiting someone in prison without sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ is fruitless."

Maybe in your eyes but have you ever heard the story of the Good Samaritan?

You also wrote, "That person, if he or she dies without faith in Christ, will still be destined for Hell, no matter how well-fed, clothed and comforted by visitors."

You seem to put "faith" in God above God.

"My ways are not your ways, My thoughts are not your thoughts", sound familiar?

"Vengeance is Mine", vengeance meaning judgement.

"Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned", condemned meaning liable to judgement.

The Judgement, "Father forgive them, they know not what they do", them meaning us, ALL OF US.

Do you think that Jesus is "The Saviour" or as some have asked in the past, "Should we look for another?"

Is it not written, "Faith will go, Hope will go but Love will remain"?

"Whatever you have done to the least, you have done to Me", sound familiar?

What are referred to as "The Beatitudes", refers to our attitudes and actions to our fellow human beings, not to our "faith" in God.

You spoke of "hell", have you ever experienced "hell"?

God does not fit into any "box", even if one uses the bible to construct the aforementioned "box".

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

King David's written legacy to his son and heirs is to me a constant question of conscious from a dying Nobleman, "Will you forget about the poor ?". So that, this concept of being concerned with poor is Judea-Christian in nature and also is carried in all Abrahamic religions such as the word "Zakat" from Islam.

I questioned the so-called Christians on Faith-Based programs which can be a form of Federal welfare subsidies just like Corporate Welfare. Basically that deal is a question of oversight to me. I always liked working with Catholic charities as there as a strong sense of independence and self-reliance in doing charity work.

Let us face the facts. JC did not heal rich kids. He worked among the poor. His charity work was on behalf of the starving masses. He himself proclaimed that the masses sought him out for the bread of earth yet his deal was to offer the bread of Heaven from the Father. I like that deal better as it has to do more with obtaining the Spirituality wealth of life rather than a new Cadillac.

Social Justice and equality are not the same argument to me as a developed modern society ought to afford transportation to everyone that needs transportation but that does not mean a new Cadillac for everyone. A complaint of Cuba's socialized medicine I heard is that sop is to pull teeth rather than to fill cavities. I don't really know how true that statement is in reality.

Mr. Thomas said - Government cannot and should not share Christ with anyone.

What conservatives seem to forget is that 'government' in the USA is the collective will of her people. We fashioned and ratified the founding documents. We live them out daily. If America is as the conservatives assert a Christian nation, then her government should promote and display Christian ideals. The most important is the 'least of these' ideal of social justice. Conservatives want it both ways. They advocate for the government to abolish abortion, while having similar abortion rates in the Churches. However, they don't want the government to help the sick or feed the poor because it is the Church's job. Inconsistent.

Hey, Cal. Where have you been?

Seems like you did a real disappearing act over the past couple of weeks, while the questions on offer had to do with the Vatican's cover-up of child rape by ordained priests.

Since you weren't in there defending that most heinous of villains, the pope, may we conclude that you've had a change of heart on the question of papal infallibility?

Or are you just embarrassed?