Well, I'm not sure it exactly falls under the thread topic, but i can kind of explain to a certain extent what Jesus was doing... It's kind of been my area of study lately.
Let me explain. Christianity, or at least my entire experience of it, has always consulted the bible for answers to life, both the new and old testements. Yet from what I've read and heard about the life of Jesus he actually denounced the old testament, saying something like it being outdated or something. (If I'm wrong in this please let me know because my memory isn't all that good) And in the bible itself God says "Thou shalt not have any other gods before me" yet I see more Christians look in their bibles for answers than praying to God for answers.
The old testament follows the Jews for the most part. God had a covenant with the Jews, with special terms and conditions that applied only to them.
A covenant is... Well, there's not exactly a comparison in western culture. There's really no equivalent. For those of you who know about Native American culture, I hear it's kind of like becoming a blood brother in some ways.
The best way to describe it is that, it's kind of like a contract, and that it's kind of like a marriage at the same time. It's absolutely unbreakable. At the time, in that culture, people would seal their covenants in such a way that it became the responsibility of whatever god they believed in to enforce it, usually with death as the penalty for breaking it. You are generally VERY close to the person you enter covenant with.
Animal was sacrificed, As if to say, hould I break this covenant, May what happens to me be worse than what happened to this animal.
In a covenant, two become one. The parties involved take on aspects of the identity of the other person, usually symbolically done by trading robes, armor, or weapons. The other person's life becomes more important to you than your own. Often times, there's a length of time involved / specified, and often times, it's everlasting.
The old testament follows a covenant between God and the Jews. God himself entered into a covenant with Abraham, promising him that he would be the father of a nation, through which the savior would be born. (This is significant, because it's basic God promising that, on His life, this WILL happen...)
Through Abraham's son, the Jews were born, and soon found themselves in captivity and slavery in Egypt. In Egypt they learned all sorts of skills and became a very strong hard working group of people.
God brought them out of Egypt through Moses, and brought them into a new land. He established a covenant with the Jews (just them) that we now refer to as the old covenant, or the Mosiac Covenant. It was not established as an everlasting covenant, but it was to last until the savior came. In this covenant, God promised the people of Israel that IF they followed His commandments, than He would bless them, but if not, than there would be grave consequences. These commandments for this covenant are known now as the Ten Commandments and, “The Law,” which had many other commandments that applied, again, only to the Jews such as, Don't eat pork. These were not to be added to, or taken away from.
Now, by the time Jesus came, of course the law had been twisted, warped, and changed. The pharisees had turned the law into something it was not. They claimed to have the ability to take away from, and add to the law. Jesus is seen constantly criticizing this, and bringing people back to following the actual commandments.
The coming of Jesus was the agreed upon ending of the first covenant, and the bringing of the new covenant, and acting as the covenant sacrifice.
Becoming a Christian is essentially entering into the new Covenant with God. You agree to live your life for Him, and make Him more important than yourself, and you take on part of His identity in doing so. You enter into an eternal, everlasting covenant, and the only requirement set, is that you enter into it. God is agreeing to protect you and your well being as well (Remember that God has a far more eternal perspective, though.)
As a Christian, having agreed to make God more important than myself, it has become my responsibility to do what I can to make His interests more important than my own. I have a very clear pictures of what His interests are because I can look back at the Ten Commandments and get a very clear picture of what He wants from me. I'm not without sin, and I'm going to mess up, but nothing can break an unconditional, everlasting covenant, not even my own shortcomings and faults. I trust that He's going to hold to what He promised.
That's called faith. If prayer is simply talking to God, then it would only make sense that we (being Christians) do it often. After all, We're supposed to be quite close.
So yeah, I guess that kind of sums up (in a very simplistic way) my view on faith and salvation in a Christian sense.
Kobuk, as for your story... I'm disguested that someone would act like that. ; ;
There is something to faith, but we're supposed to do everything we can... Not just say that God will come down and handle all our problems. >.<
That'd be like me jumping off a cliff thinking that God is going to save me. =\
