| NKAJ said: "Christianity is the belief that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and believing in him is solely sufficient to have eternal life in heaven" I was a catholic and i was always told that your deeds are far more important...quite frankly if believing in Jesus would be sufficient enough to get into heaven then i think that's ridiculous. |
My understanding of Catholic theology is that they consider justification something that produces fruits, and people are called to obey the commands of God, and act. This is to be done out of who they are, empowered by the grace of God, and it is judicial in nature, with the sacraments being vehicles that empower and distribute the grace. And there is judgement and it is legal. Reformed theology (say Calvinism) separates it, and ends up speaking of total depravity, that man is so far gone that even believing is empowered by God, and good works are a sign of God and work, and it is by God and of God alone. All that is in this world is because God made it so, and God selects some, and not others. And these people abide until the end, as God preserves them.
Then you get into Evangelical theology, where they want people to choose whether or not they will become Calvinists.
I believe in all this, the Evangelical theology suffers too much from what goes on in the head and the emotions, rather than a measure of the heart of a person, and genuine living and trusting. Emo Phillips happened to provide an interesting critique of this in this bit he said:
When I was a kid, I prayed and prayed for a bike. I didn't get the bike, so I stole it, and asked for forgiveness.
To that line, I will get an evangelical who will say, "No no no... that is wrong!" but it is the conclusions one reaches from their theology and understanding of salvation. It is ALL about being forgiven, and not much else in this life. Maybe you do get a bit like Luther where people naturally do good works out of appreciation for Jesus, as graditude. On that, I would like to borrow a bit from the rest of Reform theology and go, Hmm... I don't think so, and then say that maybe a bit of the empowering of Grace is needed.
