Quote:
Originally Posted by monster
My thoughts on this:
The idea here is that, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, salvation cannot be achieved through good works, but only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ.
That said, when asked about the greatest commandment, Christ gave two:
1. Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.
2. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Thus, I do believe that doing good/behaving well toward others has an important part in one's life as a Christian, only it is not done to achieve salvation, but as part of loving God.
As Christ also said:
"Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me."
and
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
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Do you believe that a person who lives virtuously, as described in the Bible, but does not believe is condemned to Hell? Or purgatory (is purgatory even accepted by Evangelicals)? Or could they possibly get into heaven out of sheer 'ignorance?' How about someone who has never been exposed to Christianity at all? Or someone who was raised Hindu, Muslim, or any other major religion?
Quote:
Originally Posted by willx
If you're interested in "origin" religions of the various modern religions as well as cultural roots of concepts now commonplace, might I recommend a nice light read, called:
The History of Hell ~!
http://books.google.ca/books/about/T...MC&redir_esc=y
I read it years ago and it traces the evolution of thought of how a concept of "Hell" came into existence in modern religion as well as the history of what the "afterlife" was thought of prior to the construction of this concept. It traces the roots from religions prevalent in Babylon and Mesopotamia as well as Christianity's roots in Judaism and Zoroastrianism. |
Looks interesting. One thing I recall is that the 'three wise men' referenced during the birth of Christ in the Bible were also called three magi - which was the Grecco-Roman way of referring to a holy man of Zoroastrianism. They were considered to be masters of astrology by the Greeks, reading the stars for the birth of Jesus. Apparently, their religion was not considered incompatible with the Messiah of Judaism being born, but then again, the interpretation of the magi was inaccurate and filtered through the lens of Greek understanding. This is also from where we obtain the English 'magic' and 'magician.'