Christianity is a belief based faith were actions mean little.
Isn't Christianity just a get out of hell free card? Do what you want just believe in Jesus.
Martin Luther said the greatest acts of the greatest men are mortal sins. So what is the point?
2006-06-09 04:03:24 · 20 answers · asked by Quantrill 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Good point, but the answer is not really.
Many Christians have mistakenly been taught that simply believing in Jesus' existence, God, Jesus was the son of God, and finally that Jesus died for all of our sins will get you into heaven! What a joke!
It's not enough to believe and have faith, you must also live a Godly or Jesus-like lifestyle. Most self-proclaimed Christians don't do this.
2006-06-09 04:14:03 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 2⤋
Because it's not what you do that gets you into heaven. Even with good works, you can't buy your way into heaven.
Think about it like this, there is nothing you have done or could ever do to make God not love you.
However, you can't just keep doing the same old sinful things and go on like it's OK. You will have to answer for this come the judgment time.
People who have a real experience with Jesus do change. So if a change never takes place, it is safe to say that they probably never sincerely accepted Christ as their personal savior.
Get it, a real Christ experience = change in life, some instant, some gradual.
No change = no real acceptance of Christ in your life.
Regardless of what people say, they may not really be a Christian. I might say I 'm a lumberjack, but that don't mean I really know how to cut down trees properly.
2006-06-09 11:15:18 · answer #2 · answered by Vincent Valentine 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Some "PEOPLE" take the easy way out, and many may claim to be Christian, just as many claim to be atheist. A true faith "Christian" walks in the path of Jesus Christ. Some may faulter, and all of them fail at some point or another, the wonderful part is that because of our faith, and our ability distinguish right from wrong, we are forgiven. The simple fact is the people who knowingly sin, and do it often, are NOT Christians.
2006-06-09 11:13:23 · answer #3 · answered by mslorikoch 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. Believers can't live a Perfect life free from sin especially without God. Being a "good moral" person just isn't enough. The point is: only you believe otherwise. Christians actions speaks louder than words. Choose life or death. We choose life.
2006-06-09 11:26:49 · answer #4 · answered by Pashur 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Interesting question, and a good one. The thing is, saving faith is not simply a matter of forgiveness. It also means a change of nature that comes because repentance is more then just "I'm sorry" but sorrow to the point that it means turning from the sins, and committing to let God lead your life.
And what's more, it's not just forgiveness, but a very change of nature. God not only comes to dwell within us, but there is a new spirit born within us, a new creature, who longs to do God's will.
Ezekiel 11:19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
20 That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
It's not just being forgiven, it's being born again:
John 3:4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
As Eerdman's Handbook to the Bible notes
"God's forgiveness is "big" enough to deal with any amount of human sin. Does that mean Christians have an insurance policy to go on as before? What an absurd idea! Becoming a Christian means identifying ourselves with Christ. . . . There is a complete break between the old life and new as if we had actually died and been reborn."
"Those who preached faith, or in other words a pure mind, have always produced more popular virtue than those who preached good acts, or the mere regulation of outward works."
- Sir James Mackintosh
We can't see that inward change, only God alone, and He knows who is truly saved. Yet we aren't saved by works, and if we were to die the moment we were born again we would go to Heaven... it is perfectly reasonable to assume that that inward change, given time, will produce good works, the evidence of a changed life, and a changed heart.
Jeremiah 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Acts 26:20 But I went about, first to those in Damascus and Jerusalem, and through all the country of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, preaching a change of heart, so that they, being turned to God, might give, in their works, the fruits of a changed heart. (BBE)
2006-06-09 11:05:21 · answer #5 · answered by jzyehoshua1 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Easy way out? There is no easy way out! It is hard to be a Christian especially when ppl who say they are a christian but are not, go out and not care what they do in public. They are showing those who are lost and need answers that Christians are hypocrites, which is not true. A true christian has to now prove they are for real and that's hard.
2006-06-09 11:20:54 · answer #6 · answered by Tanya S 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most religions "take the easy way out" God is there when your angry or desperate but never in the day to day. People don't want to devote themselves to actually serving God only for a matter of convenience.
2006-06-09 11:17:36 · answer #7 · answered by prettymama 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
9 out of 10 Christians are hypocrites.
2006-06-09 11:07:53 · answer #8 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If a person truly receives Jesus as saviour, and loves him with their whole heart, they will want to live His way. To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with their God. Only the true heart believers get in free.
2006-06-09 11:07:23 · answer #9 · answered by songbird 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Faith without works is dead (somewhere in the Bible...James or Peter or some place like that)
Yeah, some people think that all they have to do is believe, and they're guaranteed a place in heaven...wrong.
2006-06-09 11:07:13 · answer #10 · answered by stacey 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋