How can Christianity be about morality?

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Divine Insight
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How can Christianity be about morality?

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Post by Divine Insight »

According to Christianity you and I are both immoral sinners undeserving of salvation.

The only way we can be "saved" from damnation is to receive undeserved amnesty. And the only way to obtain this undeserved amnesty is to believe in the stories of Yahweh and Jesus.

According to Christianity (and especially the Gospel of Paul) there is absolutely nothing we can do to merit our own salvation. The only way to obtain it is to believe in the stories of Yahweh and Jesus.

So now what? :-k

Neither you nor I can obtain salvation via any form of moral behavior. This would violate Christianity.

However, if you are willing to believe in the stories of Yahweh and Jesus (possibly even by simply not even questioning them at all), then you will be granted undeserved free amnesty and granted eternal life in paradise.

However, if I question the stories and find them to be utterly inconsistent, illogical, self-contradictory, and thus totally unbelievable, I will be damned to eternal damnation.

NOTE: The above criteria has absolutely NOTHING to do with a person's morality.

So just because you are willing to believe in these stories (even possibly without even questioning them) you WIN eternal life in heaven, even though you don't deserve it.

I, on the other hand, being precisely as undeserving as you, will be cast into hell simply because I found the stories to be utterly absurd and unbelievable.

This religion certainly has absolutely nothing at all to do with morality. That much should be crystal clear to everyone. And especially according to Paul. Paul forbids anyone to merit their own salvation lest they can "boast".

Ephesians 2:
[8] For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
[9] Not of works, lest any man should boast.


So according to Christianity (without rejecting the Gospel of Paul) how moral a person is cannot have anything at all to do with whether or not they are "saved".

Question for debate: How can Christianity be about morality?

I mean really. You're going to be rewarded with eternal life just for believing in something despite the fact that you may be an immoral person? In fact, according to Christianity you necessarily ARE and immoral person. There is no such thing in Christianity as a moral human other than Jesus himself.

~~~~~~

NOTE: You are more than welcome to reject the Gospel of Paul and claim that our morality does matter. However, I should warn you ahead of time that this approach opens up a whole new can of worms. Because once you start claiming that you can merit your own salvation this then places your entrance into heaven based on having EARNED it yourself. And that would leave Jesus hanging on a cross for no good reason. So that's extremely problematic. Paul was at least astute enough to recognize this. Our morality can't have anything at all to do with our salvation. So this religion cannot be about morality.
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Re: How can Christianity be about morality?

Post #51

Post by Realworldjack »

Divine Insight wrote:
Realworldjack wrote: I guess my question here is, are there any Christians who are attempting to argue, that Christianity is about, morality?
Are you kidding me? This is a major position of most orthodox Christendom.


I would agree with you, but I am attempting to ask those Christians involved in this thread. In other words, the question of the OP is, "how can Christianity be about morality?" It seems we are beating around the bush here, with what seems to boil down to the quote I used which was,
but our actions DO matter
Well, why make this point? Does this response somehow answer the question of the OP? Is this response an attempt to demonstrate that Christianity is about, morality? There has been a lot of talk here, but I am not sure the original question has been addressed.

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Re: How can Christianity be about morality?

Post #52

Post by 1213 »

brunumb wrote: [Replying to post 39 by 1213]
Because eternal life is for righteous, and death is for unrighteous, it is more about what you are, not so much about what you have done. If you are unrighteous, you do unrighteous things, sin. Unrighteous things are for example lying, stealing, murdering…
I made the words that highlight you contradicting yourself bold. Apparently you can tell the unrighteous by what they do. So the righteous don't do those things and they can even be righteous without believing in your God.
Hmmm… I don’t see contradction in that, but to be clear:
1. Bible tells eternal life is for righteous
2. Righteousness is like state of mind
3. If person is righteous, he does righteous things

Righteousness, wisdom of the just, or right understanding means person remains in truth. If person remains in truth and has right understanding, he doesn’t say God doesn’t exist, but he may not yet have enough knowledge to say God exists. I think that is not very probable, but perhaps it can be so. For example, Thomas didn’t believe easily, but I think he still can be counted righteous.
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Re: How can Christianity be about morality?

Post #53

Post by 1213 »

Tcg wrote: Your posts seem to contradict each other. Is the question resolved by what one is or what one does?
Sorry, eternal life is promised for righteous, in the Bible. That is why, eternal life depends on, what you are. But obviously, if you are righteous, you also do righteous things.
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