Christian beliefs about sin and the Fall, salvation through grace, faith and works, atonement through the death of Jesus, and the afterlife of judgement, heaven, hell and purgatory.

What this dot point is asking

Eduqas wants you to explain what Christians believe about sin (including the Fall), salvation (how people are put right with God), atonement (how Jesus' death makes that possible) and the afterlife (judgement, heaven, hell and purgatory). The topic feeds the 15-mark evaluation question on whether Christians are saved by faith alone, where Catholic and Protestant views diverge, so you need the content, the divergent views, and the sources of wisdom and authority Eduqas rewards.

Sin and the Fall

Christians differ on how literally to read the Fall (some treat Adam and Eve as historical, others as a symbolic account of how sin entered the world), but the point is the same: humans cannot put themselves right with God by their own effort, so salvation depends on God.

Salvation: grace, faith and works

How these fit together is the great divide in Christian teaching, and a favourite Eduqas evaluation topic. Protestants, following Saint Paul, stress that people are saved "by grace ... through faith ... not by works" (Ephesians 2:8 to 9): salvation is a gift received by faith, and good works flow from it but do not earn it (justification by faith alone). Catholics and Orthodox agree salvation begins with grace but hold that faith must be lived out in good works and the sacraments, since "faith without works is dead" (James 2:26).

Atonement: how the cross saves

Christians explain how the cross atones in different ways (as a sacrifice for sin, as Jesus taking the penalty humans deserved, or as a victory over death), but all agree it is God's act of love: "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son" (John 3:16). Atonement is what opens eternal life to believers, which is why it links straight into the afterlife.

The afterlife: judgement, heaven, hell and purgatory

Christians believe death is not the end. Following Jesus, most believe in the resurrection of the body to eternal life, not merely the survival of the soul (the Apostles' Creed affirms "the resurrection of the body"). After death there is judgement: God judges each person on their faith and actions, with three possible outcomes. Heaven is eternal life in the presence of God, perfect happiness pictured as "my Father's house [with] many rooms" (John 14:2). Hell is eternal separation from God, traditionally pictured as fire but understood by many modern Christians as being cut off from God by rejecting him. Purgatory, held especially by Roman Catholics and rejected by most Protestants, is a state of purification before heaven.

The key source for judgement is Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31 to 46), where the King separates people by how they treated "the least of these". These beliefs give Christians hope in the face of death.

Common and divergent views

The common view across Christianity is that humans need saving from sin, that salvation rests on the atonement won by Jesus, and that there is judgement and an afterlife. The main divergences are over salvation (Protestant faith alone versus Catholic faith and works), over how literally to read the Fall, and over the afterlife (purgatory is a Catholic belief; the nature of hell is debated). For the exam, treat "faith alone" and purgatory as the contested points.

Try this

Q1. What does "original sin" mean? [a-style recall]

• Cue. The flawed, sin-inclined human nature that many Christians believe all people inherit because of the Fall (Adam and Eve's disobedience, Genesis 3).

Q2. Explain the difference between the Protestant and Catholic views of salvation. [b-style short explanation]

• Cue. Protestants stress salvation by grace through faith alone, with good works flowing from faith (Ephesians 2:8 to 9); Catholics teach grace and faith must be lived out in good works and the sacraments ("faith without works is dead", James 2:26).