Spyke

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No, that is absolutely NOT what Christians believe. Certainly all protestants believe the salvation comes 100% through grace, not works. Catholic and Orthodox is more complicated, but even they believe works are a symptom of grace, not the other way around.

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Tech millionaire builds 99-unit tiny house neighborhood for homeless Canadians - rent is kept at 30% of income, the large majority of residents pay a maximum of $200 — including all utilities

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In France the law does not allow rent (or mortgage) payments higher than 1/3 of net monthly income.

It is pretty effective at keeping the housing market vaguely in check.

Fell apart after COVID when a bunch of Parisians sold their little apartments and arrived in the provinces with a million in their pocket. The law has kept it level after that big jump though I think.

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You're correct that about protestants believing in the internal change. "Works" are a natural result of that internal change, but are not enough. Luther's kind of "Eureka" moment was realising that we can do nothing to get into heaven and that it was grace and grace alone.

I cannot talk about all branches of Protestantism as I only know pentecostal (more specifically Assemblies of God) and low Anglicanism, but to my understanding is that communion/baptism or a separate thing to service/charity/etc (liturgy and works perhaps?), neither of which have any bearing on salvation. Having said that, Jesus did tell us to be baptised and take communion.

As for the purgatory stuff, the general teaching that I have heard is that Jesus went "down" in to Hell for that time before resurrection. As far as I know, only Catholics believe in purgatory (perhaps Orthodox too, I know next to nothing about them unfortunately). In any case, I have always understood that Jesus was talking about heaven and that there is only heaven, earth and hell with no intermediary stages. I will have to have a think about that passage in 1 Peter though, I agree that it can be interpreted that way.

Having said all that, maybe I should put out my standard disclaimer: I am not a theologian, but an engineer who has been Christian for 30+ years and has good education. Take everything I say with that in mind.

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Well protestant can mean anything from high Anglican to happy clappy Pentecostal.

The big realisation by Martin Luther that led to Protestantism was that it was all about grace and nothing else matters. There are other things (fruits, works, call them what you will), but none of them lead to salvation - only grace. That is the very core of Protestant Christianity in all its forms.

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Absolutely true, but faith and grace is apart from works.

Remember the 2 guys crucified next to Jesus. One had faith in Jesus and was told he would be with him in paradise. He had no chance to exercise works, no chance to be baptised or anything of the like, but he is in heaven anyway.

Church, in it's true sense, becomes a natural (and perhaps unavoidable) extension of being saved by grace. It is not the means by which you are saved, but just something that happens as a result.

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