Faith and Works
September 2, 2014 at 4:16 am
(This post was last modified: September 2, 2014 at 4:22 am by Mudhammam.)
After hanging out at my parent's house yesterday and talking to my father, it re-occurred to me how unique Christians believe their faith is in comparison to other religions (even Catholics--my folks are evangelicals) because they genuinely think those are works-based systems of salvation whereas Protestantism proclaims heaven's gate open to anyone who simply "believes."
Except that there is nothing simple about it. I could easily conceive of myself going about all the rituals and traditions (the "religion part") as "acts" of faith but ACTUALLY believing all that biblical nonsense (the "relationship part")? Now THAT seems like hard work. At most I can only picture myself as miserably and hypocritically pretending to be sincere while deep down constantly reminding myself how silly and petty and UNTRUE the whole Gospel story reads and feels.
Also, what's this "faith is a 'free' or 'deliberate' choice" thing? I don't get that bit at all either.
Except that there is nothing simple about it. I could easily conceive of myself going about all the rituals and traditions (the "religion part") as "acts" of faith but ACTUALLY believing all that biblical nonsense (the "relationship part")? Now THAT seems like hard work. At most I can only picture myself as miserably and hypocritically pretending to be sincere while deep down constantly reminding myself how silly and petty and UNTRUE the whole Gospel story reads and feels.
Also, what's this "faith is a 'free' or 'deliberate' choice" thing? I don't get that bit at all either.
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return - Baruch Spinoza
