Posted on 08/11/2020 7:12:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Oh this thread is going to be fun....
Then they are not Christians.
I can have works that survive judgment because I’m saved.
No one can be saved because of their works.
Now that I’m 75....I’m really working on doing good....hoping that God will just look at my recent behavior.
Is Christianity supposed to be about fear mongering or the teachings of Christ?
They could just read the handbook that’s readily available.
Yup. Popcorn time.
We can look at our society, see Romans 1:18-32 on display everywhere and understand that the diagnosis therein, that people have refused to retain the knowledge of the Lord, is confirmed.
Being mean and nasty most of the time but accepting Christ as your lord and savior versus being generally nice and generous but having some doubts abut Christ.... It’s a simplification, yes. Still there are those who are generally not very nice but confess their sins and ask for forgiveness, and there are those who will help others whenever they see others needing help, don’t lie, nice to be around yet are atheists or at least agnostic. If you are honest about God you know that he will take the kind and helpful over the mean and nasty no matter what they believe.
ahm . . . Good luck with that.
Quick. Tell that to the Roman Church
You should be counting on God to look at none of your behavior abd only at Christ. That is the only way to be saved
Really neither answer is right. You can't earn your way into heaven by "confession of sin and acceptance of Christ as [your] Savior" any more than you can earn your way into heaven by good works.
God has to pick you first. (In other words, Augustine was right and the semi-Pelagians were wrong.)
The study is rather suspicious to me. If you give someone a multiple-choice question and all of the answers are wrong to some extent, you can't really learn much by their attempt to pick the "least wrong" answer.
Phrase that question properly, but I agree that it is likely that people are believing that all one has to do is “be a good person,” to get to heaven.
If in the sense of “moralistic therapeutic deism,” those folks have slim to no hope (not presuming on God’s knowledge and intentions) getting into heaven.
A caveat is always the fact that one who believes in Jesus is one who believes sincerely and that His commands are God’s commands to be followed by one who is a believer in Him.
But the difference is that, not simply the actions that are “good” can get one into heaven on their own merits. That is not possible.
See my post immediately above for a correct and orthodox “Roman Church” answer. The II Council of Orange is still dogma.
If you know God at all you know that is not true. The only way to salvation is to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and receive His righteousness. All our works are as dirty rags
“Less than half of U.S. Christians expect to experience eternal salvation because of their confession of sin and acceptance of Christ as their Savior”
Big surprise coming? Matthew 7:22 “22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you:”
Christ and the teachings of the Bible do say there are dire consequences for not believing in the true Christ, repenting your sins and trying to live a life that follows the laws of God. I guess for some that could be called fear mongering. Lots of information in the Good Book that says it much better than I do!
There's a sense in which that's true, if you infallibly define "good person" the way God defines it. >:-)
Most people in our culture think "good person" is the same as "nice person" and "love" is the same as "approval". I don't think those are God's definitions. I wonder how many of us -- if we could read about them in a total vacuum, not knowing the text or knowing the person, but from complete blissful ignorance -- would truly consider Jesus to be a "good person". He certainly wasn't always nice, nor always approving.
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