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Originally Posted by bearbear
Those people were calling him Lord, Lord, Lord. They were doing many works for him that Jesus commanded they do (eg Matthew 10:8). These aren't even lukewarm Christians, but they're out on the streets doing mighty works in Jesus name. Yet they were deceived into thinking they had a real relationship. They misunderestimated Satan's ability to deceive. I wrote a whole article on this 
http://eternityinourheart.com/heart
Here is a related testimony of a Ugandan pastor who had a ministry of 4000 and thought he was saved because of his works. Yet God told him he would be one of those in Matthew 7:21-23 if he didn't repent. God told him he had self ambition and was lusting after women in his ministry in his eyes, so he repented. Now he travels the world preaching the need to repent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tsrCVvkn6U |
Not to lay it on thick, add injury to hurt, and cause you, Sam, more fear and loathing but:
Fear based Christianity does work. For example it's likely fear drove the First Great Awakening in the mid-18th c.
Here's a quote from Jonathan Edwards, one of the movers of the first great awakening :
From "
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," by Edwards
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"The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string; and justice directs the bow to your heart, and strains at the bow: and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood."
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