Cognos

According to the New Testament, these are some of the ways of being saved and having eternal life:

Be a peacemaker
Be baptized
Be part of a believer�s household
Be part of Israel
Be persecuted because of righteousness
Be persistent
Be poor
Be poor in spirit
Be pure in heart
Be righteous
Believe and be baptized
Believe in Jesus
Believe that God raised Jesus from the dead
Do what the word says
Do good
Eat Jesus� flesh and drink his blood
Get rid of filth and evil, and accept the word
Hate your family
Have righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisees
Hear Jesus� words and believe him who sent Jesus
Hear the voice of the Son of God
Leave your family
Love God and your neighbour
Obey all the commandments
Obey the 6 commandments
Sacrifice your life
Stand firm
Through Effort
Through Faith
Through God�s choice
Through God�s kindness, love, and mercy
Through God�s power, purpose and grace
Through grace
Through grace and righteousness
Through the Holy Spirit
Turn from the error of your way


Keeps Christian theologians busy ...

Magus55

I see someone failed bible study...

livius drusus

Please refrain from substanceless and snide commentary, Magus.

Cognos, I'm not entirely clear on what your point might be. What does keeping theologians busy have to do with anything? Please expand.

Cognos

I'm pointing out that the way to Christian salvation is not obvious. The ways that I listed (all of which come from the New Testament) have to be reconciled into a complex, paradoxical theological explanation.

For Christians, the question is: How does someone become saved and achieve eternal life?

The answer is different depending on which verses are considered most important. Over the past 2,000 years, Christians have come up with many interpretations, and many, many denominations as a result of disagreements over what is important.

The simplest explanation is that the Bible does not provide a coherent, meaningful answer. The whole concept of Christian salvation is meaningless.

Magus55

Actually, when studied completely, there is only one way to Salvation, and the rest don't gain salvation, only justification or an outward expression of salvation.

And what does personal opinion have to do with the truth. Catholics can't interpret the Bible for themselves. The Catechism specifically states, only the magisterium can interpret scripture correctly. If you are raised Catholic, and that doctrine is taught throughout the world, then yeah, a lot of people are gonna get the wrong message of salvation. Other people don't like the idea of salvation by grace. I've seen it on this board alone, that many think salvation should be based on your earthly deeds, and not grace. So, people have a personal opinion of what should be right, and reinterpret scripture to fit their agenda, or don't interpret it all ( the majority of the cases), because they are taught that they can't.

Considering most alleged Christians fall under Catholic, and Catholicism adds on tons of doctrine that is 100% unbiblical, and then adds on doctrine that says, only the Church can determine what is Biblical, you are gonna get tons of mislead and confused people.

Heathen Dawn

Speaking of Catholics...

Magus55

And? We are justified by works, we aren't saved by works. And while the Bible doesn't say faith alone, it does say through grace and belief, which is faith.

Heathen Dawn

What’s the difference between salvation and justification?

NeoApostate

Well, let's see.

The verse used was James 2:24 - "Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only."

One of the famous references to 'saved by faith' is Ephesians 2:8 - "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:"

I looked up the greek reference for justified and saved there, the transliterated words were Dikaioo and Sozo.

Definitions given were:

Keep in mind that those definitions given came from www.biblestudytools.net, as I don't actually have a Strong's Concordance on me.

Now one of the definitions used for Dikaioo was 'render righteous', which sounds very similiar to what Christian salvation is. For more insight, however, go back to the original verse:
"Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only."

If he says 'not by faith only' that means somewhere else he mentioned justification through faith logically, right? So I searched for such verses, and found them in Romans chapter 5:

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:" - Romans 5:1
('Justified' there is Dikaioo again.)

Well, the verse begins with 'therefore' which indicates that the statement is a continuation of a line of though. So for context, go back and read Romans 4, which speaks about Abraham being justified through faith.

After reading chapter 4, I would have to say that in context the text is speaking of Abraham's salvation, as him becoming righteous and 'justified' in the eyes of Yahweh was key to salvation. Indeed, in verse 4:25 the word 'justification' is used, and the transliterated word is 'Dikaiosis', a slight variation of Dikaioo. One of the definitions given for it is:

That definately sounds like salvation to me.

So I would have to say that there is no difference between saved and justified, at least as far as Christian doctrine of salvation is concerned. One's being made righteous in the eyes of God (justification) is what keeps them out of hell and makes them new creatures, etc (saved). The two go hand in hand.

Of course, I'm sure you will find differing opinions depending on what denomination you ask, which brings us back to Cognos' original point.

Demigawd

*bumped for Magus55's consideration*