NationStates Jolt Archive

Which is more important to being granted eternal life:
1)Faith
2)Good Deeds
3)Both Equally

I know people who go to church and are really just mean farts! You have to be nice and do good deeds for God to accept you!

mean farts, you say? I think you win best phrase of the day so far.

good deeds, just before you kick de bucket.....

Death bed repentance!!!!!!and not just to god,if i think im going to die im goint to compile a list of all the gods from all the religions and make my peace with all of them.

Sorted. ;)

Faith. I believe in the finished work of Christ.

Faith is what I believe will get you into heaven. A strong belief in the existence and love of God.

This may sound a tad pessimistic, but human kind is warped. I don't think performing 'Good Deeds' will get you into heaven, because what is 'Good?' I know this means helping people and such. But what if your attempts to help people turn out to be bad?

Should you go to hell because your Good Deed turned sour?

Good Intentions seems like a - I'm having trouble phrasing this, I think you get the point.

Since a person who doesn't have "faith" doesn't believe in an afterlife, I think the first option is out.

But, my personal belief is that there is something out there after we die, even if not everyone agrees with me.

My opinion? Our next life is reflected on what we did in this one.

You can do good deeds without faith.
But if you have Faith, you will do good deeds.

I can see how the thought of an afterlife is such a compelling one.

My friend died two weeks ago and the idea that after only 18 years on this earth that she might not in fact just be gone was a nice one, now I can really see how religion has come to adopt the idea of afterlife, it really comforting.

But because of this I'm reafirmed in my atheism, once you can see a possible way the religious beliefs started it is easier to say that your way makes more sense than any spiritual way. We may not be able to ever fully explain the origins of the universe but we may just discover the origins of religion.

I voted "both needed" but thats to simplistic to throughly explain what the Bible says on this issue. The Bible does say that faith is all that is nessecary. By this it means that there is not in heaven, some kind of tally system that records your quantity and quality of good deads and if you get past a certian standard then you get into heaven. The reason for this are two fold. One, the standard would have to be God's level (meaning no sin at all) which is practically and virtually impossible for most humans (only one man has ever achieved it) and second, in order to explain the system by which the quality and quanity of good deeds are mesaured you would proberbly have to know the mind of God. Good deeds as understood in the 1st century AD for example may be better or worse than those as understood now. Thus God would have to explain all that to us humans for every time right up untill the end times. However, this does not mean good works mean nothing at all. As James points out Faith without deeds is dead. Meaning that if you have true faith then a symptom (for want of a better word) of that faith will be your good works. Your faith should be shown by the good works that you do. This does not mean that you brag about it to your friends and other people, and try to recieve praise for it. If your doing these good deeds for God's glory then it shouldnt matter if they are done in secret or not. As a Chrsitian you shouldn't be out for man's praise, but out to glorify God. As a Chrsitan if anyone asks why your doing it, you should consider that an oppotunity to witness. A freind of mine at University is doing this now. He and a team of guy's from his CU (Christian Union) go round through the halls and do everyones washing up for free. The team is called "scrubs". Thats how I have always seen Christian attitude to good deeds, and their relevence to salvation. Real faith causes real deeds and real deeds are a sign of real faith. If anyone disagrees I'd be happy to answer questions

Basically, it is faith/repentance/confession/baptism that saves you and following God's will that keeps you saved.