Wrong DBT. "Reward "would be earning your acceptance with God due to YOUR good works. The only thing God owes you or can reward you with is punishment for your sins. Since His Son was nearly beaten to death in extreme torture, then nailed with spikes to suffer the torments of everyone's sins, He was rewarded with the death we deserve. He offers not only a full pardon, but forgiveness. Free for the asking. Only a fool would turn that down.
Pascals Wager is flawed for a number of reasons. Morally, Ethically, what it says about the character of God, etc...
What if someone is fallable, incapable of good works, exploitative, selfish, greedy, yet has great faith in Jesus?
Or someone who has no 'faith in Jesus' yet is a great humanitarian, engaged in helping those in need and is doing their best to build a better society?
The former is saved while the latter burns in hell?
Exactly right. Works don’t save anyone, only believing in Jesus Christ sacrifice for your sins and resurrection will save you.
So you see this as being moral and just? Saving an arse*hole because he has 'faith in Jesus' is preferable to saving a humanist who strives towards a higher standard of morality?
"All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." That starts with me. None of us are worthy of God's kindness.
I was directed to this O.T. Proverb. 20 "Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?" And... "Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?"
We can compare ourselves to others who appear morally inferior just as we could search and find others who seem to have holiness. However, the proverbs still apply. God doesn't grade on a curve. It's pass or fail. He said to a "holy" man,
"He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
That says nothing about the morality of salvation based on a belief held without sufficient evidence: faith... that saving an arse*hole is preferable over a decent human being because the latter has an inquiring mind that questions, not simply believes. So, I guess that the god of the NT values compliancy over both reason and justice.
