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Transcript 391A — Can Our Pious Actions Save Others?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Hello. A friend and I were discussing the way of God, and she was telling me about the Lady of Fatima. And she said that if people didn't gather together and pray the Rosary, then the world wouldn't be saved. Would you give me your opinion of this? I'll take it over the air.
HC: All right. Fine. Thank you.
The question that is posed is really of this nature. Is there something that we can do in order to save the world? In other words, is there a certain action that we can take that will save the world, some work that we can do, whether it has to do with the Rosary or whether it has to do with the steps to the altar, or whether it has to do with candlesticks, or whether it has to do with any other thing that we might consider to be holy, whether it has to do with being baptized or whether it has to do with partaking of Communion, or whether it has to do with anything at all? Is there something that we can do to guarantee the salvation of the world?
And of course the answer must be no, absolutely nothing can we do. The work of saving the world, or saving those in the world that God intends to save, is God's work altogether. It is God's work. He is the one who does the saving. Now His method of saving happens to be working through those who are children of God, those who faithfully bring the Gospel. If I, however, don't bring the true Gospel, God isn't going to be frustrated in His work to save those whom He plans to save. He'll raise somebody else up. God is not going to be frustrated by any human being. Those who are to be saved, whom God has elected from before the foundations of the world, will be saved. That's guaranteed in the Bible.
So it doesn't depend upon our work. There are those who say we ought to really begin to pray for revival. Well, that's a notable idea. It would be far better if we would pray that individually, not looking at the other person, not looking "out there" or at that other congregation, or whatever, but that we would begin to pray and repent in our own life that we would be more faithful to the Word of God, that we would examine our priorities insofar as what is the authority of the Word of God, that we would examine our priorities insofar as the time that we spend in the Word of God, and so on. This is where repentance has to begin. This is where prayer has to begin. It's right with me.
And if someone else is going to do it, so that there are two of us, wonderful! Then there are two of us doing it. And if this might rub off on a third person, so that three of us are doing it, wonderful! But let's let it begin with me. This is where there is going to be a change.
Unfortunately, we are living in a time in which we're very near the end of time, I believe. And I say "unfortunately" only in this sense: that the Bible teaches that as we approach the end apostasy will increase and rebellion against God will magnify, and the church will grow cold. "Most men's love will grow cold." And so we can pray and pray and pray and God's program will not change.
Now that doesn't mean our prayers are fruitless. God wants us to pray. God tells us that we are to pray. But we're always going to pray, "Lord, Thy will be done." And if it happens to be that His will is that we're near the end and the Gospel is gradually going to be pinched off, and God is going to let the church grow increasingly apostate, then so be it. We have to live with that, because this may be God's program. And according to the Bible, this is God's program, if indeed we're right near the end of time.
So we pray principally that we, individually, personally, might stand firm in the faith, that I might stand faithful, as the towers fall all around me. If the pillars of the church finally begin to show up as being not quite as solidly built upon a foundation as they might be, so that many of them fall for other gospels and so on, that's a tragedy. That's terrible. But that is something that they have to talk to God about. I have to make sure that in my life I am remaining faithful. This is where we really have to make the examination. Don't you think?