Ashraf Schneider – Salvation – Part 2

			As salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Peace, blessings and mercy be upon you all. Welcome back
to my page. In this latest series of videos, we are unpacking the notion of salvation. And in part
one of this series we work towards familiarizing ourselves with and exploring the concept of sin. In
today's video, we're going to focus on going beyond the fundamentals of original sin, and personal
responsibility and accountability, and focus on the nitty gritty of salvation. Essentially, we'll be
asking the question, what opportunities does God provide for me to be saved for my sins? What
methods does God provide me for absolving myself of the sin in his eyes? And what are the for lack
		

			of a better phrase, terms and conditions of my salvation? Now, in contemporary Christianity, the
vast majority of Christians reject any sort of terms and conditions out of hand in favor of a poleon
notion of salvation, in which Christ blood cleanses you of both the sins you've inherited, and the
sins you've since committed yourself, as we discussed in part one, this Polian notion of salvation
places the responsibility of sin outside the salt, remember the concept of original sin and
inherited sin. And it is precisely because poor conceived of the entire human race as Dan by
default, that his creation of a means of salvation through the blood of Christ becomes paradoxically
		

			ideologically necessary because it presumes that God has given us no other recourse to seek or ever
earned his forgiveness, which as Judaism and Islam, both teachers simply can't be the case ready to
explore how Jews and Muslims seek forgiveness from their sins. In contrast to how Paul suggests
Christians go about it. Essentially, Paul was the first to suggest that the death of Jesus Christ
was a blood sacrifice offered by God for man's salvation, thereby comparing the death of Christ to
the slaughtering of a sacrificial lamb. Paul uses this comparison to attempt to justify his
misguided notion that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. One need only
		

			look to the Torah, or even the gospel to learn that this is fundamentally untrue. For no similar
declaration of salvation being exclusive to or solely dependent on bloodshed exists. On the
contrary, as saya chapter one, verse 11, to 20 reads as follows the multitude of your sacrifices,
what are they to me, says the Lord, I have no pleasure and the blood of bulls and lambs and goats,
when you come to appear here before me, who has asked us have you this trampling of my codes? Take
your evil deeds out of my sight. Stop doing wrong, learn to do right, seek justice, defend the
oppressed, take up the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. Come now, let us settle
		

			this matter, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
Though they are red as crimson, they shall be like, well, in this first chapter of Messiah, God is
speaking to and about the people of Judah and Jerusalem who have become a sinful nation. He goes on
to criticize them for the hypocrisy and spurns their offerings of blood sacrifice and the
performance of Rituals by way of which they mean to appease him because God says, despite these
empty symbolic gestures, they continue to persist in rebellion in rejecting their blood sacrifices
and their rituals. God affirms that there will be no absolution from the individual responsibility,
		

			sin and wickedness in the shedding of blood. Rather, he urges the people loaded with guilt, to take
the evil deeds out of his sight, and stop doing wrong, learn to do right says God, and thereby
promises His people his forgiveness of their sins, not through bloodshed, but through earnest
repentance, submission, and perhaps most importantly, demonstrable reform. This is not the only
reference the Torah makes to salvation without bloodshed. Over the course of its revelation, several
prophets offered similar sentiments, including to do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the
Lord and sacrifice, I desire mercy, not sacrifice and acknowledgments of God rather than burned
		

			offerings, and so on and so on. In Jeremiah chapter seven, verse 21, to 22, God decreed outright
that he desired not sacrifices, he commanded not our fathers when he stretched forth his hand to
bring them out of Egypt to offer burnt offerings to him, but only to obey his voice. It appears then
to be far more accurate to say that there is no salvation without submission to God, sincere
repentance and demonstrable acts of reform, then to suggest, as Paul does, that there is no
salvation without bloodshed, more specifically, that there is no salvation without the blood of
Jesus Christ. As always, I find it useful to look at what the man himself had to say about the
		

			matter. So what did Jesus have to say about salvation and God's forgiveness of our sins while in
Luke chapter 18, verse 18 to 20
		

			into a prominent ruler asks Jesus, Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus
replied, Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. If you want to enter into life,
keep the commandments. And when Zakaria agreed to give half his wealth to the poor, and four times
as much to those who stole from Jesus replied, This day is salvation come to this house. These
recorded statements stand testament to the notion of salvation being dependent on submission to God,
repentance, and the performance of righteous acts as opposed to ongoing rebellion. No way that Jesus
suggests that the salvation of these or any men, women or children was dependent on bloodshed. As
		

			Paul suggests, Jesus describes his own mission of prophethood as having been sent to call the
sinners to repentance, he does not claim to have been sent to die for the sinners, or to absolve
anyone of this sentence. No, he claims only to have been sent to call those who have transgressed
against themselves by sending to repentance and promises that there's more joy in heaven over the
one loss center who repent and returns to God than over the 99 others who are righteous and haven't
strayed away. Really, we need look no further than the Lord's Prayer to ascertain Jesus's teaching
on forgiveness. In teaching his disciples how to pray to God, he teaches them to seek repentance in
		

			prayer by asking God to forgive us of our sins, as we forgive those who transgress against us. When
people have wronged us and ask sincerely for our forgiveness, and we can observe their remorse and
they demonstrate active reform. We don't withhold our forgiveness from them until they have made a
blood sacrifice, completed a ritual, or otherwise bought our forgiveness, right. So why would God
the simplest answer usually being the right one is God doesn't. The Quran teaches that those who
have transgressed against themselves by sending need not despair for the mercy of God, Indeed, God
forgives all sins. Indeed, it is he who is the Forgiving, the Merciful. However, as James in chapter
		

			two verse 24, and chapter two verse 26, expresses, a man is justified by works and not by faith
only, For as the body without the spirit is dead. So faith without works is that also, therefore,
while God will forgive Manson's he will not do so by virtue of faith alone. God requires of us to
demonstrate remorse and reform, to be justified by works and not by faith only. We must according to
God, repent and believe and do good deeds, if we hope to enter heaven. So, while I can certainly
understand while Paul's doctrine might be attractive, after all, wouldn't the test of life be much
easier if all we had to do was believe and thus be absolved of all our wrongdoing? I cannot help but
		

			conclude that his notion of salvation through the spelling of the blood of Jesus Christ is misguided
at best and deliberately blasphemous and contrary at worst, as our comparison of the Torah, gospel,
and Koran have shown, all three revelations state categorically that man should seek forgiveness of
his sins from God by repenting and reforming and then God will not unjustly withhold His forgiveness
from those who sincerely seek forgiveness, change their ways, and call upon Him to show them mercy.
Ultimately, this life is not supposed to be easy, for it is a test that we are all undertaking to
demonstrate our devotion and submission to the Almighty, and God will not be cheated. He is the old
		

			seeing, and the All Knowing, and though he, in his infinite wisdom, has seen for to offer us His
mercy. He has also made it abundantly clear that there are no Get Out of Jail Free cards, we are all
going to be held responsible for our actions, good and bad, righteous and sinful on the day of
judgment, and by then it will be too late to seek forgiveness. For the opportunity to demonstrate
sincerity through a form will have passed. I encourage you to make the most of the time you have
been given. Whether you're Jewish, Christian, Muslim, agnostic, atheists are Buddhists the sick,
there is no downside to a world filled with people trying their best to do good. Who knows we may
		

			even succeed in making the world a better place. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my
viewers, as always, for your kind words and comments, and your engagement with my content. If you
have any questions about any of the content I've shared with you today, I look forward to connecting
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