Welcome to Gaia! ::

No, it is not enough to say that you are a Christian. I believe that in this land of this day that we live in, most people would call themselves a "Christian." But here is a question that we need to ask ourselves, "Am I a true Christian?"

What do I mean by a true Christian? I mean by in this definition, "A person that has been washed under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that his sins are forgiven, and that he is living for God and longing to be with Him in eternity." That I believe is the definition of "True Christianity" that I could find in the Bible.

Now, I want to point this out here, going to Church and doing what is right is not being a Christian. Going to Church doesn't save any one of us. Don't get me wrong. I believe that going to Church is a tremendous blessing to go to build up your faith and to feelowship with others, but going to Church is not what makes us Christian.

Also, my pastor said this a few weeks ago and I blessed him for that. He said, "If you do all kind of good works, like going to Youth Gatherings, Donating to charity, or whatever you may do, if it is without faith, God considers it evil. Because it is written that without faith, our works are like oily rags to Him." Good works doesn't make us "Christians" either. We cannot work our way into Heaven but rather, we are born again and the good works would come naturally to us, like He said it will.

So if you need any help or any advice or encouragement, please feel free to PM me. ^^

Here is the problem that most people have with Christianity, it is not enough to just say you are christian. Its also not enough to go to church every Sunday and Wednesday and tithing and leading others to the lord. The sad truth is right in Romans (can't remember the actual verses) "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
No matter how much you do, you can never 'earn' you're way into heaven. Salvation itself cannot be earned, only accepted. A man can devote his entire life to the church and giving to others and be seen as a 'holy man' but if he didn't truly believe that Jesus paid the price for his sin, He would be damned to hell.
The opposite extreme, someone could be a mass murderer killing people just for the fun of it, after killing dozens of people he could be put on death row, seconds before he goes on the electric chair to pay for his crimes if someone were to witness to him, and he truly believed that God forgave him for his wretched life, that man would spend eternity in paradise.
Yes, Grace and Mercy are unfair.

@Fighter there are verses that would appear to contradict. Its really more about wordage.

Notice Galations says the works of the law. The law is specifically Jewish law which if you read through Jesus' life he says "I haven't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it"

basically the works of the law do not save us. But without works our faith is dead. So yes we need faith in order to be saved but our faith without the works well...then our faith is useless to us

Faith alone will get you to heaven, but if you truly have faith, you will do good works instinctively.

@Fighter, you shouldn't take verses out of context like that verse from James, before it says "a man is justified by works and not faith alone" like you quoted it explains why that is.



the context of a verse will tell you what that verse is trying to get across

Faith alone is enough, and you can tell someones faith by their actions.

You, like most people, think that just because someone says they are doing God's will, they actually are. Are you sure that way they are doing is in true faith? Surely that's what they claim, but is it truly the will of God?

Peoples logic is not always sound, years back a group of Christians started demolishing abortion clinics. A group could very well start killing all gay people. Are those good works?
It all comes down to personal interpretations, which are 99% wrong, since after reading something the first time, most of us come to a different conclusion, and we can't all be right. People take that initial conclusion without further thought and go with it. If they cannot give a sound reason for their actions other than faith or trust in God, then it is most likely the opposite.


We are commanded by God to have a reason for our faith.

And I'll just tell you this from personal experience. People aren't gay. Its a psychological thing, but the oppression of the media and culture won't let this fact get out. There is no "gay gene" only in the last 20 years did the whole "born that way" argument get started. Tolerance is going too far too fast, you can't 'tolerate' everyone's 'personal truths' but we're trying, and it will be our downfall. How much longer until someone's 'personal truth' that murder is ok, is tolerated?
And one more thing, why doesn't this 'tolerance' include Christianity? Culture doesn't tolerate Christianity because to do that would to be to tolerate the belief that homosexuality is sin, that there is one God, that all other religions are wrong, that miracles are possible. Accepting that miracles are possible would through off modern science, aside from the big bang and spontaneous generation of life, where the miracles are accepted and not admitted. Anyway I'm done ranting now.