If salvation is works then the thief on the cross with JESUS won't have been able to be saved because its not like he got down from the cross & started to feed the sick poor etc. that comes out of the faith of belief your works not dependent on it for salvation but fruits of it.
Please consider for a moment that the thief on the cross next to Jesus did have another opportunity to do good works...in his next human lifetime and every other one since then.
Jesus said "
Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in PARADISE" (
Luke 23:43).
Please note well Jesus did NOT say to the thief that he would be with him in heaven, or that the thief was "saved" after a moment of reflection when facing the end of that human life. Has anyone actually made it to heaven? Not according to Jesus.
John 3:13 AND NO MAN HATH ASCENDED UP TO HEAVEN, but he that came down from heaven, [even] the Son of Man which is from heaven.
For any who may
mistakenly believe that heaven and paradise are interchangeable terms, please consider that three days and three nights after the crucifixion, the resurrected Jesus plainly stated He had not yet ascended to His Father,
Who art in heaven (
Matt. 6:9).
John 20:17 Jesus saith unto her,
Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and [to] my God, and your God.
Clearly paradise and heaven are two different places. Paradise is where each of us receive our "life review" at the end of each human lifetime, before having all the evil we've done erased, so that we're sent back here with only the good (works) we've accumulated during all of our previous lifetimes. That way, each soul (spirit-Being) is in the exact place they have earned the right to be, in eternal time.
There is no such thing as faith without works, so anyone claiming they can do whatever evil they wish, and then ask for forgiveness at the last moment, is only bringing evil and destruction upon themselves (Gal. 6:7).
James 2:17-26
2:17 Even so
FAITH, if it hath not WORKS, is DEAD, being alone.
2:18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and
I will SHOW thee my faith BY my works.
2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils (liars) also believe, and tremble.
2:20 But wilt thou know,
O vain (worthless) man, that FAITH WITHOUT WORKS is DEAD?
2:21 Was not our father justified by WORKS, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar (and God made him your example -
Sura 16:123;
60:4)?
2:22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and
BY WORKS was faith (trust in God) MADE PERFECT?
2:23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed
ONLY God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.
2:24 Ye see then how that by WORKS a man is justified, and
NOT by faith only.
2:25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by WORKS, when she had received the messengers, and had sent [them] out another way?
2:26
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD also.
We were created and sent here to learn to
DO GOOD WORKS (
Eph. 2:10). And it is by our works that we all
will be judged.
Matthew 16:27
For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his WORKS.
Revelation 20:1-15
20:12 And I saw the "Dead", small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another Book was opened, which is [the Book] of Life: and the "Dead" were judged out of those things which were written in the Books,
according to their works.
20:13 And the "sea" gave up the "Dead" which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them:
and they were judged every man according to their WORKS.
20:14 And death and hell were cast into the "Lake of Fire". This is the second death.
20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the "Lake of Fire".
"Good works" are
NOT what everyone imagines in their own minds to be good (
Deut. 12:8); good (Godly) works are what God says is holy, just and good in His Perfect Law, containing His Statutes, His Judgments and His Commandments..
Deuteronomy 30:12-15
30:15 See,
I have set before thee this day
life and good, and
death and evil;
30:16 In that I command thee this day to love the "I AM" thy God, to walk in His Ways, and to
keep His Commandments and His Statutes and His Judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the "I AM" thy God shall bless thee in the land where thou goest to possess it.
30:17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
30:18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, [and that] ye shall not prolong [your] days upon the land, where thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.
30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that]
I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
30:20 That thou mayest love the "I AM" thy God, [and] that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for
He [is] thy Life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the "I AM" sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob/Israel, to give them.
Idolatrous Roman Catholicism and her harlot daughters (Protestantism) do not teach nor keep God's Law, which should leave no doubt that choosing between one or the other is a false dichotomy, as both lead to The Fire. We
MUST come out of the churches with their man-made doctrines, and learn to obey God
only (
Acts 5:29).
That is
The Way. There is no other (
Matt. 7:13-14).
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