Re: [TruthTalk] Crucial Doctrines

[Charles Locke]

Izzy,

What a good question. I look to Romans 10:9-10 to answer the question about salvation:

Rom 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved;

Rom 10:10 for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

This seems pretty clear as far as slavation is concerned. It does not add "if you do this, and do that, and believe this doctrine, or follow that doctrine".

So, my position is that as long as one believes and confesses as Paul indicates in Romans 9-10, one is saved. BTW, I also believe that one does not lose one's salvation.

I do believe there are those who say they believe and fall away because they did not truly believe. It may appear as they they lose their salvation...but one can't lose what one never had. Furthermore, it is not up to me to decide who believes and who does not. We can judge people by their actions, but we do not know their hearts.

Those who rely on their works for salvation, even a little, most likely are not truly be saved, because they are not putting their full faith in Jesus. Yhey are in essence saying, "Jesus' death on the cross was not enough to save me... I must do my own works to help it along". This is essentiall disbelief. They are relying on themselves, and there truly is nothing, I repeat NOTHING, that we can do to merit salvation. This is the problem with the non-believer who ansers the question about why they think they are going to heaven by stating, "I am a good person and always try to do the right thing". That is admirable from a human standpoint, but according to Paul, that does not provide salvation.

Now, works ARE important, in that they are a RESULT of one's true belief, a sign of our understanding of and gratitude for the grace that has been given us. These are the good works for which we have been set apart. However, the works themselves do not add one iota to one's salvation...all of the glory for our salvation goes to the One who saved us through His blood. And this is a free gift, for those who believe.

Christ left two actual physical symbols for us, both of which only believers should partake. The first is baptism, and the second is the Lord's Supper.

Notice that Paul did not mention that baptism is part of salvation! However, we are baptised out of obedience as a symbol to ourselves and to others of our conversion. Are non-believers sometimes baptised? Sure, when they convince believers that they believe. But they are not saved by that. And, their baptism is a lie they are telling, and they will eventually fall away. How about immersion v. sprinkling? Although all of the baptisms in the Bible were immersions, and I belive that is the best symbol for the changed life, I cannot say that sprinkling is wrong.

And, the Lord's supper, as we all agree, is done in rememberance of Jesus and the sacrifice He made. What about doctrinal issues of transubstantiation v. consubstantiation v. symbolism, or wine v. grapejuice? This doesn't matter. What does matter is that you remember Jesus and the sacrifice He made.

There are many other doctrinal issues that have been used to separate churches in all Christ-based religions. But I feel that the above issues are the immutable traits of Christians, and those who follow the scripture in those things are part of the "invisible church", as our former TT'r Glenn once said (God rest his eSoul), and that is the one true church that Jesus established.

Perry

----Original Message Follows----
From: "ShieldsFamily" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [TruthTalk] Crucial Doctrines
Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 08:26:22 -0600


A general question for all TT'ers:

With all of the haggling going on about correct doctrines, I'm wondering
how important "correct doctrine" really is to getting into heaven when
we die. For instance, will St. Peter be standing at the gate with a
multiple-choice questionnaire and if we miss the right answer, say, on
"Is the Holy Spirit a person or a force?", a buzzer goes off and the
floor opens below us, and we fall into hell?

My point is, it seems to me that it is less important where we ARE on
the continuum of right and wrong doctrine than it is in what DIRECTION
we are going. Are we headed towards God, or away? Are we really seeking
Truth, or not? I believe that ALL truth leads to Jesus Christ.

What if we don't have all the "right" answers to doctrinal questions? Is
that more important to God than how we treat our fellow human beings? Is
it more important than whether we tolerate sin in our lives? I know that
what we believe is VERY important, because it does determine whether or
not we are "Saved".

But what are the CRUCIAL DOCTRINES that we must believe to be saved?
Somehow I don't think that whether or not we celebrate OT holy days are
one of those crucial doctrines for salvation. Isn't it all about who
Jesus really is? If you have that right, can other doctrinal "mistakes"
keep you out of heaven?

Izzy



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