Brian,
Thank you for writing. Having reflected for many years as engineer,
scientist and Christian, I think it hardly likely that I shall
experience a change of heart along the lines you suggest. Regarding the
Lord's Gospel, I believe I understand it reasonably well: Salvation by
grace through faith plus a willingness on our part to be taught and
sanctified by him - not 'nothing', as you suggest. We read in Jn.1:12,
"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become sons of
God...". Some, alas, fail to exercise that power; their lives remain as
before because they resist the process of teaching, testing and
sanctification that the Lord, in love, desires to impose on them.
Clearly, this demand for obedience is 'something' rather than 'nothing',
is it not?
Now, concerning teaching, I take it that you are numbered among those I
referred to in my last paragraph to Pim, i.e. you accept much of the
Lord's teachings but baulk at others. Not to mince words, you are in my
view being constrained by a pitifully weak theory to follow this 'pick
'n' mix' option. I again draw your attention to the first of the Ten
Commandments, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Can you really
not see that evolution is being deified and given pride of place by its
followers? Why do you think the Lord warned us to judge a doctrine by
its fruits? If one were to follow your logic, this caution should be
passed over as irrelevant because it has no direct bearing upon
'Salvation by grace'.
Brian, I suggest you examine again the credentials of this 'millstone'
that you carry around with you. Accept the Scriptures as
divinely-revealed truth; after all, as man, our Lord did; and, as
Creator, he should know for he set it all in motion!!
Vernon