Quote:
Ephesians 2:8-10
King James Version (KJV)
8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Though it is true we should do good deeds and work for Christ they are not what gets us into Heaven Only Believing in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and believing that he died on the Cross for your sins and rose three days later to sit on the right hand of God will get you saved.
John 3:16
King James Version (KJV)
16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 14:6
King James Version (KJV)
6Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
John 3:36
King James Version (KJV)
36He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Though the 10 commandments were made for Moses and His chosen people the Jews to follow they were also made to show that no one could follow all of them with out braking them. No one can say they have never broken one of the commandments and sins they were made to convict us and show how much we Need Christ in our hearts to forgive us of our wicked Sins.
King James Version (KJV)
8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Though it is true we should do good deeds and work for Christ they are not what gets us into Heaven Only Believing in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and believing that he died on the Cross for your sins and rose three days later to sit on the right hand of God will get you saved.
John 3:16
King James Version (KJV)
16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 14:6
King James Version (KJV)
6Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
John 3:36
King James Version (KJV)
36He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Though the 10 commandments were made for Moses and His chosen people the Jews to follow they were also made to show that no one could follow all of them with out braking them. No one can say they have never broken one of the commandments and sins they were made to convict us and show how much we Need Christ in our hearts to forgive us of our wicked Sins.
Either because this person was upset with me for criticizing a Chick Tract he spammed in one of my guilds or because I'm too "liberal" or maybe because I'm a Gnostic, but for whatever the reason, this person felt I needed to "convert" to his style of Christianity. What interesting and the focus of bring this up is that he used texts that my tradition regards as Gnostic. While his "interpretation" of these passages does touch on some of the useful layers, most of this trails into general garbage and misses the point entirely. His interpretation of Ephesians is the one that actually comes the closest to hitting on the layers.
Anyway I thought I'd use this to show some "alternative" interpretations to the passages he uses here.
Ephesians 2:8-10 - It's basically talking about faith in the mythos of what Christ represented and it's related teachings. History was taught back then for a purpose, not as just a string of facts. If you reduce it to faith in a string of "facts" where will your faith go if evidence shows your "facts" are wrong. I actually wrote a bit more in depth about this passage and it can be found here
Before I begin, let me give a little background about John, it's a Gentile retelling of the Tanahk with the purpose of contrasting the Tanahk's view of tribal God, YHWH with the developing view of a Universal God promoted by Christianity.
John 3:16 - If YHVH supposedly made the world perfect, then why would it need saving? The traditional answer is because the "Fall of Man" was so great that it rocked the foundations of the universe but such an interpretation means that somehow "Man" put a kink in this god's plans. The gnostic answer, the world was created flawed from the beginning, Christ came to rescue it from itself. Symbolically, the world is one's perspective and worldview, what the Son, the image of God, is supposed to be saving is one's perspective/worldview from itself. "the Son of God" is an old expression meaning "Perfect image of God" not a literal child.
John 14:6 (foregoing the KJV translation here, it screws it up here) 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
One finer point edit:
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by emulating me.
Early Christian worship is nothing like Christian worship is today. Early Christian worship was primarily emulation of the Christ mythos. There were reasons the Romans regarded the Christians as atheists besides not worshiping their Gods.
Anyway here's how I take this passage, "Mythically, Christ is the perfect image of what this Universal God would be like if he were a man, if you want to better know this God, then emulate Christ and trust his teachings."
John 3:36, this is a dualistic passage contrasting YHVH and Yeshua's God. Translation: Follow image of God and you'll get to know the universal God, don't and you'll stay under the wrath of YHVH. It's a stab saying that the Judeans were getting it wrong.
Anyway that's my two cents.
