In a moral society, does the belief in being saved by grace improve said society or causes more harm?

Question

Most christians I've discussed this with says, "if there wasn't a god...I could do anything and not be punished". Yet their belief allows them to do just that; as long as you believe in the "Lord Jesus Christ" all your sins are forgiven. How does this help create a more moral society? Furthermore, this might help explain how some of the greatest atrocities have been committed by God loving"christians".

Your views please.

Do you agree or disagree?

Why?

Answer 1

Your sins are not forgiven just by believing in the "Lord Jesus Christ". You still have "original sin" to be forgiven.Baptism erases original sin and any sins committed before Baptism.Sins committed after Baptism have to be forgiven through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Some Christians believe they can sin as much as they like because they believe any future sins are already forgiven. This of course is totally wrong. We are expected to try not to sin after all our sins are forgiven.

Answer 2

I disagree with your first premise. "for even the demons believe and tremble." The goal is to become more like Christ, a son of Christ which you could argue would create a more moral society. Even those who say belief alone will say that their belief and submitting to God makes them want to act like Christ, etc. I would attribute the attrocities of Christians to well, sin and the corruption of human nature.  

Answer 3

This belief has definitely harmed society.  The belief is tantamount to automatic salvation where you believe you simply have to believe in Jesus and follow the rules and you will be saved.  

The problem with this is that people are where they are on earth because they fell into the consciousness of separation from God.  They reason they commit all manner of what are called "sins" is because of this state of consciousness.  If you believe Jesus will save  you without rising above this separation mindset will only delay your spiritual progress.

Jesus told us two critical things about the spiritual path.  First, that the kingdom of God is within you.  It is a state of being and there is no way you can be automatically catapulted into that state.  Second, that you cannot reach the inner kingdom without taking the beam (of separation) from you own eye.  In other words you have to overcome the mindset of separation from God before you can enter the consciousness of oneness with God - which is what true salvation really is.

Jesus cannot save you because he can't enter the kingdom of God for you.  We all must "save" ourselves by rising to a higher level of consciousness.  

Believing that we are saved by Jesus or by anthing or anyone else outside of ourselves only delays our own and humanity's progress.

Answer 4

"...faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." Grace only gets you in the door. You are still required to do good works to grow as a Christian. Those who don't teach this Biblical reality are not going to show good Christian values.  

Answer 5

Japan, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway don't have low crime rates for nothing.

There is a severe lack of Christianity in those countries.

So Christianity has an overall detrimental effect on society.