Man's Views of Salvation vs. God's

As you read this blog, I ask that you prayerfully read it with an open mind and heart. I understand God is the only One who can make you understand spiritual truth if it is His will. I cannot force you to learn what is discussed here. Only God can apply His word to your spiritual eyes and ears. My blogs are not meant to condemn, judge or demean anyone so please keep that in mind. I only want to be used faithfully by God in sending out His message about this particular, yet ever-so important topic - salvation.

If you claim an identity with Christ through a Christian religion or church, you're familiar with how salvation is achieved. In other words, because you're a Christian, you've read or been taught by your church that, in order for you to be saved, you need to do this or that. This is most commonly known as "free-will" doctrine. Here are a few examples:

1. You may be assured that you're saved if you get baptized in water.

2. You may be assured that you're saved if you prayed a rehearsed prayer.

3. You may believe you're saved if you possess statues, figurines, or paintings of Jesus or the virgin Mary. Because you have these idols in your presence, you feel there is holiness, that God is with you.

4. You may also be assured of your salvation because you "believe on Christ".

5. Some churches also teach that if you "accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal Savior", you're a new creation - meaning you've now been saved. The gift of savlation has already been laid out for you and all you need to do is accept this gift.

6. Others simply teach that, if you do good deeds or if you do a combination of any of the above, you'll spend eternity in Heaven with our Creator.

I believe there are many more ideas produced by man to help others get to Heaven. In this blog, I'll only be discussing the popular "accepting Christ" doctrine held and practiced in the Christian churches.

While some of these are spoken of in the Bible, practicing any of these "free-will" doctrines is unbiblical. If this doesn't make sense, let me explain. If you look at verses, in the Bible, for example, that say if you believe on Him, you'll be saved. You can find such a verse in Acts 16:30-31, where it says:

30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

From face value, it appears this is all we have to do to become saved. We can further support this idea as we read other similar verses like Matt. 3:2, "And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." It's true the Bible does mention many verses that say there is something you can do to get saved. You also have the confidence in the churches that teach the idea that you can be saved if you do this or do that. Besides, church doctrines have been around for nearly 2000 years. They should be trustworthy since they've been around since around Christ's days. But is this even so? I mean doesn't the Bible really say that if you do this or that, you'll be saved?

Here's the answer: If you pick and choose just the verses that talk about what we can do to get saved, then you are following man's own doctrine, not God's. If I were the pastor of a church and would like my church membership to increase simply because I want to make sure I earn some living, I would make sure my teachings are people-friendly. I would teach whatever is pleasing to men so that they would join my congregation. Whether you like it or not, raising a church is no different than raising a business. We want to attract customers (potential and existing church members) to our services so that we get funded (tithes and offerings). So if I teach a doctrine that says we can do something to get ourselves saved, that is "Good News" to everyone. That is very comforting because it gives us the reassurance of being saved. I would also incorporate performances such as solo singing, choir singing, praise and worship singing led by a band, skits and plays, and other theatricals. That would make my church members invite others to experience all these holy things. These practices and beliefs would help grow my church. This is typically how a church operates, with their people-friendly free-will doctrine leading the way.

A church member's belief in his/her salvation is based on the church's free-will doctrine. If you visit each church in your area and ask them if they're saved, their answer is "Yes" simply because they feel they have the true doctrine. So let's say you are a Southern Baptist and believe that your church doctrines and creeds are truthful, you most likely will think only your denomination is the true church and the only ones saved. Besides, why attend any other denomination like the Methodist or LDS if you feel you already have the truth? The real problem with this is, man will come up with their own "truth" which usually consists of Biblical truth and their own ideas. They 100% do not trust in what God is saying in the Bible.

OK, going back to the doctrines made by churches on how one can become saved. I remember a few times being at different churches, asking the pastors and elders about these predestination and elect verses I came across throughout the Bible. The main response I got? They basically told me (I'm paraphrasing here), "You don't need to worry about that." But somehow, I continued searching the Bible for answers. I even remember one summer night in 1996 in which I started asking myself, "Where in the Bible does it say that all I have to do is accept Christ to be saved? Where is this idea found?" For most of that summer (I was on summer break from college), I searched the Bible for anything that talks about accepting. I found nothing. I then started asking other pastors and elders and they contended that the word "receive" in John 1:12 is most likely the same as "accept". I even once pulled a pastor aside after service and showed him the church's program that says "...accept Christ as your Lord and Personal Savior..." I then told him, "Did you even know this idea of accepting is not even in the Bible?" And he said, "Really? I didn't know that." A couple weeks later, they changed the program to read "...receive Christ as your Lord and Personal Savior." This too is very misleading but I won't get into this.

So what now? How can we make all verses that say you do this or that to be saved stand against God's salvation program known as predestination or election? I will cover these in Part 2.