PRINCIPLE OF SALVATION

Ignore Initial Hurt Usually the best way of avoiding great harm from mischief-makers is to put up with initial hurt. For, if one does not, it will set off a chain reaction in which things will go from bad to worse. Instead of having to bear a relatively small hurt, one will then be subjected to much greater suffering. base their lives on the teachings of God, and may truly call themselves followers of the prophets; these are the ones to whom the prophets gave good tidings of eternal blessings in the next world. The situation changes, however, as time passes. For the generations that follow, religion becomes a kind of national heritage. Tidings which had been given on the basis of faith and righteous actions come to be considered to be the result of ethnic affiliations. People reckon that they have a special relationship with God that others do not enjoy: one who belongs to a particular community is sure, they begin to think, to be saved, notwithstanding the standard of his faith and deeds. Paradise is for us, hell for them, they think. But God does not have a special relationship with any particular community. He has regard solely for man’s thoughts and deeds. In the Hereafter, people will be judged according to their deeds and character, and not on the basis of the group to which they belong. o