Faith Not "Enough" in Chritianity?

[MaxPowerPoker]

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2. Reformed Protestantism. Calvinism teaches, in its most literal since, that nothing anyone does can possibly have any effect on there salvation, so it doesn't matter how much bad stuff a person does or doesn't do, but whether or not they were pre-ordained (elected) by God for salvation.

Calvins theology is very roughly summed up in the 5 letter acrostic TULIP, each letter has bearing on your question, so I will go through them.
T - total depravity - mankind is inherently totally evil, and unable to choose to do anything pleasing to God on there own. So, in other words, we are all really expected to be really bad

U - Unconditional Election - God chooses those whom he will, at his own divine perogative. How Good or bad they are is immaterial. this is the only thing that matters whether or not you will reach heaven.

L - Limited Atonement - The sacrifice of Jesus is only efficacious for those pre-ordained by God for Salvation.
The Goodness and badness doesn't matter.

I - Irresistible Grace - God's grace that is offered to those he elects cannot be denied, So, even if a bad guy wants to be bad, and has no desire to ever do good or know God, if he is elected, God's grace will win him over.

P - Perserverance of the saints ***** no matter what one does, if they are elected, they will be saved. So, Pol Pot, Hitler, Oprah, the guy that founded the IRS or any other society destroying plague of humanity can keep right on doing whatever, and there salvation in safe.


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You have done a very poor job of explaining Calvinism. I am a Calvinist and agree with almost nothing you have said here.

This document is actually where the TULIP acrostic comes from. If a manifesto exists for Calvinism...this is it:
http://www.reformed.org/documents/canons_of_dordt.html

A confession (statement of faith) that reflects historic baptist calvinism:
http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/bcof.htm

[coolhandluke]

Not ready probably won't agree because he's in the two camps I haven't talked about yet.

[kuro]

It's tricky.
Romans Chapter 4-6 and James 2:14-26 are probably the best biblical passages on trying to understand the concept of faith and works.

It's complicated. Man is incapable of saving himself regardless of how rigidly he attempts to follow God's law and is saved entirely through faith in God and by the grace that is bestowed on him by God. However, it is impossible to truly have faith without having works because the act of believing in God results in transformation that manifests itself in part through good deeds.

That's what Christians believe for the most part. Some Christians strongly believe in predestination though and so even the act of faith is something that God did for you.