[Mark17]

It appears to me that some people have difficulty figuring out the difference between doing good works to obtain salvation, and doing good works BECAUSE of salvation. Actually, it’s a very simple concept. Even a 5 year old can understand it. I wonder why so many adults don’t get it? Spiritual blindness maybe?

[ealgeone]

Amen, bro.

[boatbums]

It actually is a spiritual blindness - one that is inherent in ALL religions that place the burden upon the person to merit the end result. It doesn't matter if that end is Paradise, Heaven, Nirvana, god-consciousness or Happy Hunting grounds, man made religions all make the reward conditional upon the man/woman working for it and deserving of it. Sad to say, there are many "Christian" groups (Christian in that they claim to follow Jesus Christ) that assert one MUST earn salvation by works of righteousness, obedience, works of "charity", and any number of whatever the powers in place determine is required. This makes ALL religions the total opposite of genuine Christianity. Because it is NOT what we must do for God but what He has done for us. He saves us by His grace THROUGH faith and not by our deeds.

Grace means undeserved, unmerited, not worked for. It is by faith that Abraham was declared righteous and it has always been so. A holy life is what results from the new spiritual birth - not the cause of it.

But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. (Titus 3:4,5)

[af_vet_1981]

Works, works, works ...

These are the works. Notice the Messiah does not ask who believed in Him. Calvinism is not the criteria.



When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Matthew, Catholic chapter twenty five, Protestant verses thirty one to forty six,
as authorized, but not authored, by King James

[Elsie]

It appears to me that some people have difficulty figuring out the difference between doing good works to obtain salvation, and doing good works BECAUSE of salvation.

Then there are the MILLIONS that think they HAVE to do 'good works' to KEEP their salvation!!!

[Elsie]

Then there are the MILLIONS that think they HAVE to do 'good works' to KEEP their salvation!!!

Or at least trust Mary and wear a Brown Scapular!

 

 

[Elsie]

at least trust Mary and...

"Gens quæ non servierit illi, peribit; gentes destitutæ tantæ Matris auxilio, destituuntur auxilio Filii et totius curi’‘ coelestis."— De Laud. B. M. I. 4.

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Cardinal Hugo http://fatima.org/crusader/cr38/cr38pg3.asp 

 

 

 

[metmom]

Or a desire to justify themselves.

Some people have a real problem not being control freaks and trusting someone else completely, even when it’s God.

So they think they need to *help* him some how.