Saturday, April 27, 2013

Come what may...

Come What May

This is a very well done movie, the acting is superb, the pace is really smooth, and the story just draws you in.  With that kind of intro you are probably expecting this to be a positive review, brace yourself, this is not.  With all of the positives of this movie, it has many serious, and minor errors which I wish to explore with you. 

OK, we start with one of the most glaring things, a lot of talk about purity and standards, but, no practice.  First off, the girl, I forget her name, claims she is guarding her heart for marriage, then she chooses a guy to be her partner in school, she knows that she will be spending hours with this guy, alone, excuse me but is there something something wrong here?  How is this going to help her remain pure? Second, this guy is always pushing her standards, always trying to see what she will let him get away with and so on.  She is supposed to be remaining pure but she sleeps on the couch with the guy?  What?  Get real.  She speaks of not giving her heart away yet it is very obvious she has given it away to this guy.  OK, this is a really nice christian girl and she likes the guy's Mom who believes in the opposite of everything that this girl does.  The girl was claiming to be preparing to be a homemaker and wife yet she was training to be a lawyer, how will she ever have time for being a homemaker?  One last thing on the girl, she serves sugary junk to everyone she likes, she acts like she likes them, but you kind of start to wonder ;).

Now for the boy.  A perfect example of manhood, just the kind of guy I'd want my sister marrying...  He is not a leader, he has no conviction about much of anything.  He bends his beliefs to fit the situation.  He pushes the girls limits constantly, always testing her limits instead of respecting them.  To tell you the truth, in spite of him reading a Bible at the beginning, I didn't even know whether he was a Christian or not.

In the end the Mom becomes good, but never gets saved.  Very disappointing in a Christian movie.  You have an emotional experience and become good. What about salvation?  You do not get to heaven by becoming good and nice.  You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. 

The only real bright spot in the whole movie is the boy's father, a really nice guy, with firm enough convictions to lose his job over them, he really seemed to be saved, though it never said so.  That is one really hard thing with this movie, you get the impression it is a Christian film but really the script does little more than have references to praying, and occasionally someone is reading the Bible.  This is a Christian movie, where is the gospel message?  I don't think every Christian movie has to have a conversion scene or sermon in it, but you can still get the gospel message across in subtle ways, and for sure don't skip opportunities to throw a conversion scene in there like this movie does.

Well there you have it, my take on Come What May, if I missed something let me know.

Once saved, always saved?

Once you are saved, can you lose your salvation?  To put it shortly, yes, you can.  You can indeed be saved, then fall away.  You can lose your salvation.  In this post, I'll provide the proof from the pages of scripture, that yes you can lose your salvation....

Let us start with I Corinthians 9:26-27: "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:  But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection:  lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."

Here Paul speaks of himself, the Apostle Paul being cast away possibly, if he does not keep his body in subjection.  More on this later, let us get on to another verse.

I Corinthians 5, Paul is speaking of a Christian that is in gross sin, and in verses 4 and 5 he tells what should be done to this person: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."

Paul speaks of delivering this person to Satan so that their body gets destroyed, so their soul will still be saved.  Basically what I get from this is that this person will die prematurely so that perhaps it will prevent them from continuing in their sin and eventually denying Christ.

Now for some more verses:  Revelation 3:14-16, Jesus is speaking to the Laodicean Church:  "And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Behold, i stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

This church is lukewarm, they are still Christians, and Christ is rebuking them and telling them to repent, yet, he is also telling them if they do not repent, he will do away with them.  In other words if they do not repent they will be damned.

A common thread we see here is that when a Christian sins and continues in sin, they will lose their salvation.
As you sin you grow further and further from Christ, then finally you deny him altogether.  I know this first hand, I've been there, when you sin enough and long enough, you will deny Christ, I did.  It is painful, but folks, it is true.  When you sin you become guilty, and if you do not repent, it will drive you further into sin, and away from Christ.