1.I do know that they are men, not women, as the majority of the Christ rejecting world portrays them. So much for ERA.
2.Doctrinal point-regarding God's purpose concerning human beings(notice "beings', not "doings"):
The LORD God is not making angels of human beings. God can create in holiness and sustain in holiness millions of angels, and He has done so(Psalms 68:17, Deuteronomy 33:2, Daniel 7:10, Hebrews 12:22, Revelation 5:11)- creatures who have never sinned. He calls them His "holy angels"(Mt. 25:31,Mark 8:38, Luke 9:26, Revelation 14:10), and His "mighty angels"(2 Thessalonians
1:7).
But God never speaks of grace in connection with angels. Grace is a
loving pardon and favor shown to lost, guilty, law-breakers, wretches and helpless criminals. Grace can never be anything else.
The reason most will "miss" heaven is that they want to be angels, instead of saved sinners. God has already declared this race("in Adam"-1 Corinthians 15:22) to be lost("guilty"-Romans 3:19), and that all are sinners(no exceptions-Romans 3:23); that there "is no difference"((Romans3:22), that there "is none that are righteous"(Romans 3:10), but He has purposes of grace toward us, i.e., although utterly undeserving of any favor from Him and being guilty, yet He will freely pardon, justify, and give eternal life to any member of this lost race who is willing to be made the object of His charity as an utter beggar and criminal.
For God desires to display His own attributes of grace-His ability and
nature to forgive offenses, pardon insults, pity misery, cleanse impurity, save sinners, redeem outcasts, crown beggars, glorify wretches, bestow blessing where cursing and wrath would be the necessary, deserved, and the expected outcome!
However, men rebel at this treatment-scripture calls this "...the way of Cain...."(Jude 11)- the modern term for this is "religion"-man presenting his works as his basis for his acceptance with God. They refuse charity, forgiveness, mercy, and grace because, although sinners, they wish to go to heaven as angels. Man's pride resists admission that they are fallen, degraded, guilty, filthy, rag-covered, lost, and wretched. Man refuses to admit that the human race is a ruined race-irreparably, un retrievably ruined, and under judgement; exposed to the wrath of God, "...by nature the
children of wrath...."(Ephesians 2:3); and travelling to doom. And unless by absolute sovereign, divine intervention, no one would be saved. Notice the question that every person should ask themselves:
"...Who then can be saved"?
And recall the answer the Lord Jesus Christ gave:
"...With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible"(Mark 10:26,27).
The gospel of the grace of God is the end of religion-the final posting
of the "closed" sign on the "sweatshop" of the human races' never ending struggle to think well of itself(pride). For that, at bottom, is what religion is: man's(often well intentioned) dim-witted attempt to approve of his unapprovable condition by doing odd jobs he thinks "some important Something"("THE UNKNOWN GOD"-Acts 17:23) will thank him for. Religion is thus a loser- a strictly fallen activity. Religion has a failed past and a bankrupt future. There was no religion in Eden and there won't be any in heaven. And in the meantime, the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day(1 Cor. 15:1-4-the "good news"), and is telling you to "knock it off right now"("...every mouth be stopped...."-Romans 3:19).
The question is, will you present the sacrifice of a sincere effort to be
moral and religious(just as Cain did), or accept the God-provided sacrifice for all sin in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, as Abel did? Will you notice that the LORD said "...when I see the blood...."(Exodus 12:13), and not "...when I see your behavior and good works"?
Scripture's constant unifying theme is that regeneration, and the whole transforming work of redemption, are accomplished solely on the ground of the sacrificial blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and his resurrection 3 days later; and if these statements of scripture are rejected, whether that rejection come from the pope, a priest, a nun, a minister, a "reverend", a pastor, a bishop, an elder, a so-called "biblical expert", a "theologian", a "professor", a "philosopher", or extra-biblical authority(for example, the "Book of Mormon", the Watch Tower Society of the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Catholic Catechism............), the discussion can never be one of interpretation of the scriptures, but it becomes a question of the authority of the testimony of the scriptures.
