While Zardoz gets rightfully mocked, it had probably the most accurate portrayal of immortality, a bunch of hippies who are bored with life living in a stifling and oppressive culture who run with joy toward their murderers.
"If you live an ethical life, when you die and your life is put in the scales, you will gain access to heaven, which is everlasting life." While this may be the popular belief about Christianity from movies and all too many pulpits, it has no relation to actual Christian witness through the centuries, which is " sola fide, that people are saved only by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by their own works."
This is not quite right, at least from the Protestant perspective, because it limits God’s sovereignty to save whomever He chooses, without reference to human standards. However, humans being human, even the Puritans with their TULIP Calvinism figured if they worked hard and lived pure God would surely show earthly rewards, hence the Puritan work ethic. But by TULIP it is Unconditional election, and those who may appear bad outwardly can still be saved by Grace . . . and the Grace is Irresistible, no matter how far anyone may try to run from it. But while this is historically correct, it stands little chance in the world of churches who preach and practice moralistic therapeutic deism, urging good people to be even better people, not sinners in the need of Grace.
Well, you might be surprised at what a resurgence in Calvinism there has been recently among young Protestant seminarians (and Latin rite among Catholics). And if they are right, then it's all Predestined anyhow and will turn out just as God wills it. Personally, I am an Arian Wesleyan, so free will does matter. But even so, salvation is still Grace through Faith, whether chosen or imputed.
Oh, no, Calvinism makes completely logical sense, given its theological unpinning. See the parodical depiction of Puritan Calvinism in Oliver Wendell Holmes’ “Wonderful One-Hoss Shay.” But when one element of the theology underlying Calvinism is called into question, the entire structure crumples like a Jenga tower. What Calvinism, Orthodoxy, and Latin Rite Catholicism have in common is the soul-thirst search for a sovereign and transcendent God . . . something much different than on offer in most contemporary churches, where God is little more than a permissive therapist whose only command/prescription is “fulfill your inner self.”
Sorry, but your description of the Christian view of eternal life is Palagianism, a heresy condemned by Rome and Protestants alike. Both agree that the basis for eternal life is the sacrifice of Christ.
While Zardoz gets rightfully mocked, it had probably the most accurate portrayal of immortality, a bunch of hippies who are bored with life living in a stifling and oppressive culture who run with joy toward their murderers.
"If you live an ethical life, when you die and your life is put in the scales, you will gain access to heaven, which is everlasting life." While this may be the popular belief about Christianity from movies and all too many pulpits, it has no relation to actual Christian witness through the centuries, which is " sola fide, that people are saved only by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by their own works."
However, the logical inverse *is* Christian doctrine: if you aren’t good in this life, you won’t go to heaven.
This is not quite right, at least from the Protestant perspective, because it limits God’s sovereignty to save whomever He chooses, without reference to human standards. However, humans being human, even the Puritans with their TULIP Calvinism figured if they worked hard and lived pure God would surely show earthly rewards, hence the Puritan work ethic. But by TULIP it is Unconditional election, and those who may appear bad outwardly can still be saved by Grace . . . and the Grace is Irresistible, no matter how far anyone may try to run from it. But while this is historically correct, it stands little chance in the world of churches who preach and practice moralistic therapeutic deism, urging good people to be even better people, not sinners in the need of Grace.
Thank God Calvin is dead and his followers are going extinct.
Well, you might be surprised at what a resurgence in Calvinism there has been recently among young Protestant seminarians (and Latin rite among Catholics). And if they are right, then it's all Predestined anyhow and will turn out just as God wills it. Personally, I am an Arian Wesleyan, so free will does matter. But even so, salvation is still Grace through Faith, whether chosen or imputed.
Orthodoxy and the Latin Rite are growing. They are also inimical to Calvinism, a doctrine which makes zero sense.
Oh, no, Calvinism makes completely logical sense, given its theological unpinning. See the parodical depiction of Puritan Calvinism in Oliver Wendell Holmes’ “Wonderful One-Hoss Shay.” But when one element of the theology underlying Calvinism is called into question, the entire structure crumples like a Jenga tower. What Calvinism, Orthodoxy, and Latin Rite Catholicism have in common is the soul-thirst search for a sovereign and transcendent God . . . something much different than on offer in most contemporary churches, where God is little more than a permissive therapist whose only command/prescription is “fulfill your inner self.”
Sorry, but your description of the Christian view of eternal life is Palagianism, a heresy condemned by Rome and Protestants alike. Both agree that the basis for eternal life is the sacrifice of Christ.
Altman didn’t say, "Immortality is not too far ahead” in that clip; one of his Twitter acolytes wrote that.