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ORIGINAL: JstAnotherSub

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ORIGINAL: DarkSteven

Ah, the classic divide between faith and works.  Jews believe that salvation is through works - what you do.  Many Christians believe that salvation is through faith- what you believe.  The idea is that your belief determines your actions.  Unfortunately, many of them figure that they have faith, so what the hell - and then they act in completely unChristian ways.

thank you so much for posting that.  for over a month i have tried to figure out what was different and positive about the jewish funeral and shiva i attended.  it was all so joyful and uplifting, rather than the "if you want to see them again, you better get to the altar and repent" stuff i am used to as a baptist.

that made the lightbulb go on above my head.  their actions spoke so well of them.

1. An individual with faith in Christ and his teachings will "do good works" or "be good" as a result of his/her beliefs.  They grow out of love and compassion.

2. An individual who is uncertain in their faith may do "good works" or "be good" in an attempt to assure their place in Christ: not understanding that this is not how it works, or what God demands.

3. An individual who wishes the best for their fellow man (regardless of their religious beliefs) may do "good works" or "be good" to accomplish or satisfy their own moral code.

4. An individual who wishes the praise and admiration of his/her fellow humans may do "good works" or "be good" in public to achieve that aim, regardless of their beliefs. 

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ORIGINAL: DomYngBlk

Are you saying then that Jews are inherently "better" than Christians? I think there are a few folks in Palestine that would argue the point.

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ORIGINAL: rulemylife

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ORIGINAL: kdsub
What we are as people is often determined by our upbringing. If raise in a religious home you will be more likely to be religious. If raised in other circumstances you may be less likely to be religious.

I would disagree completely.

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ORIGINAL: LillyoftheVally

I am going to struggle to frame this as a question, I was having a chat yesterday about christianity, I don't know how it got there, I made a joke and they joked back that I must be CofE. I had assumed that meant they went to a progressive church.

However, it got a little deeper and a couple of things came out, the first was the idea that you had to live by the bible, I asked how with so many contradictions, you could know which part to believe. One of the people I was talking to is homophobic and racist. This to me should be the opposite of what you come away from the bible from, and yet it is fairly gendered its hard to know which is the right thing. Even more shocking to me was the belief that both of them had that unless you believed in god and where christian you would go to hell, that means regardless of how good you might be unless you believed the specific doctrine then you are off to roast.

This shocked me because I really didn't know people believed that, I guess it was in the back of my head but not something I had thought about.

So I guess the question is, which is more important being good or the reason you are good, of course it will throw up the question of 'what is good' but thats fine.

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1. An individual with faith in Christ and his teachings will "do good works" or "be good" as a result of his/her beliefs. They grow out of love and compassion.

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ORIGINAL: vincentML

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1. An individual with faith in Christ and his teachings will "do good works" or "be good" as a result of his/her beliefs. They grow out of love and compassion.

Sadly, this was not manifested during the long, dark history of militant European Christianity in its dreadful persecution of the Jews, not to even mention the Conquistadores in the new world.

I wonder how you reconcile such abysmal history with your theology.

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ORIGINAL: LillyoftheVally

I just wanted to thank firm for his answer, it cleared things up for me :)