Posted on 06/16/2006 5:37:47 AM PDT by Alouette
How interesting! Thanks for the information!
A lot of Jews who care about their faith are picking up a few tricks from fundamentalist and evangelical Christians. And they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
Joking aside, it is an established concept in Judaism, but its less clearly defined than in Christianity. A different conception of the afterlife (although Heaven does exist, and, according to certain scripture, a kind of purgatory as well) contributes to this. Add to this that Judaism is not a proselytizing religion; people must obey certain standards (Noahide laws), but only willing Jews must follow the standards of Judaism. Others can, but it's not like they're going to be damned if they don't.
Perhaps I didn't explain that too well, but it's the best I can do on short notice. Ill think more on this later tonight and have a proper answer for you tomorrow, since it's an excellent question and observation.
Just as a matter for information, the Christian belief is that works will not "produce" salvation; rather, that God is able to use the "saved" individual as an instrument of God's own will, as a result of the individual's conversion.
The conversion is when one voluntarily asks the Lord to be saved. If the conversion is sincere, one's behavior will then reflect good works, and the diligent individual will continue to learn to discern God's will through prayer or other communion with the spirit. This increasing ability to yield one's will to God's is sometimes referred to as "death to self," or "not my will, but thine."
By conversion, I am not necessarily speaking of changing from one religion to another; conversion is even for those born in "Christian" homes or cultures -- it is necessary to ask to be saved deeply personally and sincerely, in the faith that God hears our innermost thoughts. We have a saying, "the Christian faith is always one generation from extinction," meaning no person can inherit salvation as a birthright, but must make the commitment personally.
Your response contributes well to this dialogue; however, lest we "highjack the thread", what we should point out is that both religious Jews and Christians are in the minority in today's Israel, which contains a majority of secularists.
The rabbis are struggling there to rededicate the Israeli people's hearts to the practice of the Jewish faith, beyond mere Jewish ethnicity. Hence the struggle over this parade, which may be supported by many ethnic-but-not-religiously-observant Jews in Jerusalem.
An excellent point, which gets right to the heart of the matter.
I wish the rabbis well with their counter-parade, and hope that their petition gets through.
Correction: that is the Protestant belief. Roman Catholicism teaches that "good works" are actually necessary, and the Eastern Orthodox are actually pretty consistent in insisting that one must be one's own "co-savior" along with J*sus (and that the "new law" is actually more rather than less stringent than the Torah.
Thanks very much for the thoughtful response. I didn't intend to start an argument, really :=).
Huh??? That's almost entirely wrong. For a cursory overview of what Christian salvation is, read this.
So Satan isn't "the 'gxd' of this world?" I thought the NT said so.
Besides, chr*stianity isn't a single religion and doesn't have a single doctrine of salvation. Please note the differences among Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox.
Do you really think Wikipedia is a trustworthy source of religious information?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.