Soteriology Origination

More war has been waged among Bible believers over the doctrine of salvation than any other aspect of theology. Surely a subject as important as eternal redemption cannot be so __________ in Scripture as to provoke so much controversy. The problem is ______ Scripture; it never is. The problem is ______. We insist upon the final answer to every question even though we are ____________ of perceiving the mind of God with complete accuracy. We inevitably find ourselves describing God in human terms and attempting to place Him in a box of ________ construction. The problem with placing God in our box is that He does not ______. This is because of His _________________ as well as our ignorance. (Isa. 55:6-11) God’s person exceeds our comprehension. God’s thoughts exceed our intelligence. God’s ways exceed our perception. This will always be true because we are not and never will be ______! We do not know everything and are not intended to know everything. (Deu. 29:29) We are bound to that which is ___________ in Scripture. The Bible says what it says and means what it says. It does not mean what we ________ it says. Every attempt to press Scripture into the mold of human reason inevitably _________ the teaching of Scripture and inevitably produces heretical thinking. The sooner we realize that we cannot resolve all the paradoxes, untangle every Gordian Knot, and enjoy the absolute precision that we crave, the sooner we will be willing to leave the ________________ of God with Him!

God has revealed just what He wants us to know about heaven and hell God has revealed just what He wants us to know about heaven and hell. He paints a picture of heaven that leads us to the _______________ of being there for eternity. He depicts hell with all of its awfulness so that we can understand the necessity of ____________ its final and eternal judgment. If we struggle with the balance of theological concepts along the way, it behooves us to be less ___________ about our understanding of those concepts. This much we can be sure about. Salvation from sin (original and personal) is not of ________ origin. Jonah stated the ____________ in the context of his deliverance from the belly of the great fish. (Jonah 2:1-10) Salvation was not an _______________. It was the plan of God before the fall of man because Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.(Revelation 13:8) In fact the entire scheme of things is as ____________ as God. (Mat. 25:34; Heb. 4:3; Rev. 17:7,8) While this may be problematic for us, it is completely in keeping with who God _____ and consequently with what God _______. We are finite creatures who must live within the ______________ of time. God is eternal and dwells in an eternal __________. We see past, present, and future as distinct events. He sees all three at once. (Acts 15:18) Hence, we must understand that God has always intended the salvation of men and did so long _________ creation.