Hi Northboy
It’s nice that you read your Bible.
And to a casual reader, it might appear that my quotation from Romans, contradicts your quotation from James, but they really don’t contradict each other.
As with everything else in life, that is really important, “we must look at the details”.
And if you look at the details of James, you will see that although both Romans and James are talking about “justification”;
(Romans is talking about, being justified before God.)
(While James is talking about, being justified before men.)
Notice James 2:18......
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God knows our heart, therefore no works are required to be justified before Him.
But other people, don’t know our heart, so we must prove to them, that we are saved.
I see no contradiction between Paul, who played the role of Evangelist and James who was the Bishop of the Christian Church, just an evolution of thought.
Paul was speaking to convert new people to Christianity and James was speaking to the already converted.
Yes, Jesus is our saviour, but how many have taken them as their King?
What I mean by that is how many have studied the teachings of the Lord and have adopted them as a philosophy to live by?
Those that have would being doing good works without being told.
You started this thread as the "Secret of Eternal Life", that being belief that Jesus Christ as your saviour, and in my case, King as well.
But, I'll go you one more and say adopting the teachings of Christ as your philosophy will provide the key to developing solutions to a sustainable way of living for the individual and the ripples through society will lead to a sustainable society for followers of the Way in this world as well.
Yes, I read my Bible, Teachings of Bhudda, Koran, the writings of Ellen White, Book of Mormon,
Dead Sea Scrolls and many other writings as I strive to learn the Truth of things and try to figure out how we got where we are.
Remember, Paul reported to the Jerusalem Church of his activities and sought the Church's sanction for his actions. It was James that sanctioned Paul's actions.
I could trundle some versuses out of Acts to prove my point, but as you know your Bible, I'm sure that I don't have to.
As far a Christ's story is told, did he not return after his resurection (sp?) and speak to his disciples about the Kingdom of God and a result of which, as the writing of the Book of Acts tells introduces the Way?
The Lord's story in my view did not end at the Cross, it only just began.
