Good conduct and key moral principles

• Good conduct


  The importance of good moral conduct in the Christian way of life
• Christians agree that good conduct is important, though, seen la the ethics component, they do not agree an how to go about putting into practice. There are also a range of differing views about why good conduct matters
• In the sixteenth century, westem Christianity was torn apart by the Reformation. There were bitter disputes that resulted in all-out war between the Catholic Church and the Protestant Churches that came into being
• One area of disagreement was concerned with justification; what Christians need to do to be accepted by God and welcomed into his Kingdom
• Three particular ideas, each of which claims support from New Testament teaching, are set for study


  • Justification by faith
  • Justification by works
  • Predestination
• Justification


  Being counted as righteous before God
• Predestination


  The belief that all events, including the fate of humans after death, have been decided by God from eternity
• Eschatological


  Referring to events at the end of time
• Before his conversion, Paul believed the he had to cam god relationship with God through keeping the Jewish Law He was orially frstrated by his inability to do this the more he tried, de ore he seemed to fail
• Because of original sin, it is impossible for humans to cam a good relationship with God
• Grace


  The generous and freely given love of God
• It is not that faith justifies a believer God alone can justify. The f of the believer is simply the response to the gift of grace
• This has always been the case, even for those who lived before Jeus- such as Abraham
• Sola fide


  A Latin term meaning by faith alone, refers to the belief of Martin Luther and of many Protestants that justification is try faith alone and not by works
• Martin Luther set the Reformation in motion in 1517, attacking the corruption in much of the medieval Catholic Church
• He set out a simpler religion that was based on scripture and the personal faith of the individual believer
• He proclaimed the doctrine of sola fide
• He taught that the faith of the believer is passive; justification comes by what God achieves through the atoning death of Jesus
• For Luther, good conduct was the expression of a person's faith, but it had no saving value whatsoever
• The Isblical basis for his belief is the New Tenen les of James
• The author pointed out that faith as is awak uncle o It doesn't keep a poor person war. o Fees dessacs believe in God. this expressed through works
• This was seen in Alahan's willingnes to sacrifice his son for God. oli was also seen in the protection of Joshua's spies by a prostitute in onder so assie the teseline conquest of Jericho
• Many Christians accept the need for works because of Jesus' teaching in the parable of the sheep and the goats
• Judgement will be based on the individual human's help for or failure so help those in need. No mention is made of faith; indeed the judgement being carried out is universal: 'before him will be gathered all nations
• In the Sermon on the Mount, Jevas also stressed the importance of doing God's will
• This was the position taken by the Catholic Church at the Counter-Reformation, which was its response to the Protestant Reformation
• It stated chat some human effort had to be put into the process of justification
• Justification is God's gift to humanity. It is given through the atoning death of Jesus and through baptism (see Chapter 5 for the significance of baptism)
• The power of the Holy Spirit enables us to live good lives. Responding to God's grace by living in a way that pleases God is an integral part of the process of salvation
• Paul's letter to the Romans seem to imply that God has decided in advance who would be justified. Dat miny Christians think that this is a distortion of Paul's teaching
• For Paul, God's purposes could not be known or understood by hamim Paul may have simply been trying to say that because he is omniscient. God knows what individuals will freely chome and so is that sense salvation is predestined
• Augustine believed that God infallibly knows who will be saved
• Predestination is an act of grace; human goodness is the result and not the cause of election
• Humans cannot understand the will of God, ie why he chooses to save some and not others
• God predestines some to his Kingdom while leaving others in their sinful state to be consigned to hell as a punishment for their sinful choices and actions
• Pelagius opposed Augustine, claiming that belief in predestination was incompatible with belief in free will but the Church sided with Augustine
• Calvin took Augustine's thinking to its logical conclusion in his teaching about double predestination
• God decided before creation who would be saved and who would be damned to hell
• Because of original sin, all humanity deserves damnation, so God's act of electing some is entirely an act of grace
• The Catholic Church rejects Calvin's teaching