Is salvation really a free gift? I have heard many Christians say that salvation is free and that all that is required is that you receive it. If this is true, then why does it matter whether you receive it in this life or whether you receive it after bodily death, when you and Jesus could open the gift together?
Isn't it true that the Christian religion actually does not teach that salvation is free but that salvation is obtained through the act of faith? And doesn't this explain why Christians believe that salvation is no longer offered after bodily death--because at that point, faith would no longer be necessary and therefore could no longer be earned?
If faith is required to be saved, then doesn't salvation become an earned commodity? Or do Christians believe that faith itself is a gift?
Is it possible that Christians are very confused about what they believe when it comes to these doctrines of salvation and damnation? Many Christians I know reject the doctrine of predestination and election that I discussed earlier. They state very emphatically that they do not believe in the Calvinistic god, the kind of god who eternally torments people for not having what he alone can give them. Yet, at the same time, these very same Christians tell unbelievers that they will pray for them, and when a person does "accept Christ", they pray and thank God for the conversion. Isn't praying that God will "draw someone to himself" or thanking God when a person becomes a Christian an indication that the one praying believes that it is God who changes a person's heart and not the person himself? And if you believe that God does the converting and that faith itself is a gift, then how is your god any different than the Calvinist god since it would then be obvious that your god does not give this "gift" to all?
2006-07-05
11:19:16
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13 answers
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asked by
Mahfuz R
1
in
Religion & Spirituality