Judaism and Christianity: Encyclopedia II - Judaism and Christianity - Faith versus good deeds

Judaism and Christianity - Faith versus good deeds

Judaism teaches that the purpose of the Torah is to show that good deeds are considered in holiness as much or even more important than belief in God, and that both are required of people. An old Jewish saying captures this sentiment, "If you hear the Messiah has come, and you are doing a job, finish the job properly, then go and see." Although the Torah commands Jews to believe in God, Jews see belief in God as a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for a Jewish life. The quintessential verbal expression of Judaism is the Shema Yisrael, the statement that the God of the Bible is their God, and that this God is unique and one. The quintessential physical expression of Judaism is behaving in accordance with the 613 Mitzvot (the commandments specified in the Torah), and thus live one's life in God's ways.

Thus fundamentally in Judaism, one is enjoined to bring holiness into life (with the guidance of Gods laws), rather than removing oneself from life to be holy.

Much of Christianity also teaches that God wants people to perform good works, but all branches hold that good works alone will not lead to salvation, which is called Legalism. Some Christian denominations hold that salvation depends upon transformational faith in Jesus which expresses itself in good works as a testament (or witness) to ones faith for others to see (primarily Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism), while others (including most Protestants) hold that faith alone is necessary for salvation. However, the difference is not as great as it seems, because it really hinges on the definition of "faith" used. The first group generally uses the term "faith" to mean "intellectual and heartfelt assent and submission." Such a faith will not be salvific until a person has allowed it to effect a life transforming conversion (turning towards God) in their being (see ontological faith). The Christians that hold to "salvation by faith alone" (also called by its Latin name "sola fide") define faith as being implicitly ontological--mere intellectual assent is not termed "faith" by these groups. Faith, then, is life-transforming by definition.

A practical outcome of this difference is the attitudes of the two religions to death bed conversions. According to most forms of classical Christianity, one may lead an evil life, but on one's death one may repent for one's sins, accept Jesus as Christian dogma teaches, and then that person will be rewarded with a heavenly afterlife by God; this will be the same heavenly paradise that a comparatively less sinful person would receive. In contrast, all forms of Judaism teach that God judges a person based on their whole lifetime of actions and beliefs, and that deathbed conversions are therefore meaningless and have minimal effect on God's view of their life.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Faith versus good deeds", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki