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.
They could just read the handbook that’s readily available.
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.
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.
“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:”
There’s always been a division of ‘Grace,’ and ‘works,’ within the Christian community.
That’s a reason for many throughout Christian history doing one thing in their private life and doing a ‘good’ public deed. They believed/believe that the ‘good’ they do will outweigh the sinfulness of their nature.
It’s not just the Catholic Church, either. I was raised Catholic, so I was on the inside of that issue. ALL the religious institutions have folks within them that have believed/followed this false belief. Many, many of the large buildings, be they medical or religious or financial are built on the flawed premise of doing good deeds as a way to even out the sinful nature.
Unfortunately there are many who treat the Church as a social club rather than focusing on what to believe and why to believe it.
Ephesians 2:8 “For it is through grace you have been saved.”
He’s not that kind of God. He is only here to solve the most important problem in our lives. It is up to us to parlay that solution into solutions for all the other problems. He doesn’t stand in front of us every hour. As humans there is a place to find Him. We will most assuredly find Him there whenever we need Him.
That mindset sounds curiously like the medieval practice of buying indulgences which was one of the factors in bringing on the reformation. History is sometimes a circular timeline.
So they’re really Buddhist?
There are two extremes in this. There are those who feel/think what the title of this thread says, and there are those who think that all one has to do is ask God for forgiveness - and they can then do what they want and still go to ‘heaven’.
Personally, I think the reality is somewhere in between, but that’s just me. Doing good works is necessary, but not sufficient. Grace is necessary, but also requires our ongoing efforts to do right in the world and to try to be better human beings. Asking God for forgiveness is not a ‘get out of jail free’ card for life no matter what you do from that point on. We all have a duty to work hard to do right and better ourselves spiritually.
Good works are not a requirement to get into Heaven, but if you have truly been born again, good works will come from you.
John 14:6
...that whosoever BELIEVETH IN HIM shall not perish, but have everlasting life”.
No mention of works in that promise. Works may result in rewards, but do not impart salvation.
Church folks and God’s folks ain’t the same. Church folk goes to church. God’s folk are the church.
That 33% figure has held true for nearly a century. It is strange, in view of Jesus' adamant statement, "Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God". Pride gets in the way of truth.