Re: Spinoff from Interfaith Dialogue - Salvation and the nature of Sin
- Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit which revealed their nakedness to them and caused their fall from heaven
Adam and Eve discovered, in that instant, greed, anger, lust etc, and were drawn to it. That is original sin.
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2. Mankind is damned because of this one sin
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Because no one has the strength to refuse sin.
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3. God approximately 2000 years ago decided to descend to the Earth with the express purpose of dying for mankind in order to save them from this Sin.
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Exactly. Christ is God's physical manifestation. God would never sacrifice anyone else than himself, being so merciful and loving.
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4. Now that Jesus has died on the cross anyone who wants to escape the original sin of Adam and Eve must believe that Jesus is God and he died on the cross for that sin, otherwise he is Hellbound no matter what else he believes and does.
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Jesus died to show mankind what it was doing to each other, and to themselves. Jesus died forgiving. He lived without sinning. Since we can never achieve that our only hope is to believe in his sacrifice and let him save us. It is impossible to be saved by our own efforts.
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5. The model for heaven and hell is not do Good get Good as in Islam (Muslims will also go to Hell based on their sins) but more along the lines of accept Jesus and your soul will be transformed and as long as you accept Jesus you will go to Heaven. There is an optimistic view that if you believe in Jesus your actions will automatically tend to be good and good deeds are organic post belief in Jesus as opposed to directed at getting favour with God.
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Accepting Jesus means repenting Your past is forgiven if you truly repent. Then Holy Spirit starts to change your nature. Our so called good deeds are like dust in God's eyes, he is not after them but after your soul, so no one should feel proud of good deeds. Only sincerety works with God so even if you do great deeds but have, for eg, anger against your neighbor, you are still sinning.