"The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." (Acts 5:30-31)

Finally Paul stated, recorded by Luke in the book of Acts,

"He [God] has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." (Acts 17:31)

Finally, Jesus claimed that He is the Only way to God . Jesus stated, recorded in the Gospel of John,

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. . . . I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." (John 10:1, 9)

The Apostle John tells us in 1 John 4:1-3

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world."

The denial of Jesus’ deity is very popular among many Christian circles today based on pseudo-intellectualism; pseudo because there is no external or objective evidence scientifically, historically or archaeologically to support their denial.^{58, 84} It is evidence of the great apostasy, the falling away from the truth, that Paul wrote about in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 and is evidence that Jesus is coming very soon. What did Jesus say about his claim to be God the Son in the flesh? Jesus said the following to the Jews who could not accept his being Yehovah Elohim in the flesh,

"You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. I said therefore to you, that you shall die in your sins; for unless you believe that I AM, you shall die in your sins." (Jn 8:23-24)

I AM meaning: Yehovah in the flesh. Therefore, the third Biblical foundational truth that cannot be altered or played with, if we are to be successful in Evangelism and in bringing men and women to saving faith in Jesus Christ, is what the Bible teaches us Jesus claimed about Himself: that He is fully God and fully Man.

The fourth Biblical foundational truth that cannot be altered or played with, if we are to be successful in Evangelism and in bringing men and women to saving faith in Jesus Christ, is that God’s forgiveness for our sins repented of is based on Jesus’ death and shed blood on the cross ALONE, not on any works of ours. This is covered on pages 5-6 of WEL. The Apostle Paul wrote,

"By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. . . . For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law." (Romans 3:20, 28)

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him." (Rom 5:8-9, Eph 1:7, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 John 1:7, Rev 1:5)

Again, Chapter 8 explains the full significance of this Biblical truth of Christianity and why it cannot be otherwise.

The fifth and final Biblical foundation that cannot be altered or played with, if we are to be successful in Evangelism and in bringing men and women to saving faith in Jesus Christ, is that God’s forgiveness for our sins through Jesus’ death and shed blood on the cross is received by faith and THROUGH FAITH ALONE. When I share the Gospel on the field I get many different statements about how we are saved. Some are the following: "Through Repenting of our sins," "Through water baptism," "Through receiving the Holy Spirit," or "Through speaking in tongues." It is true that in order to receive Jesus’ salvation for our sins, we must first confess and repent of our sins. Jesus said,

"Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.’" (Luke 24:46-47, Matt 3:1-12)

Jesus made plain that we must repent of our sins to be forgiven, but just repenting of our sins does not gain God’s forgiveness for our sins. If we could be saved through just repenting of our sins, then all people of all religions would be saved. We must repent of our sins in order to receive God’s forgiveness for our sins, but just repenting of our sins alone will not gain God’s forgiveness for our sins. The only way we gain forgiveness for sin’s repented of is when we accept by faith God’s forgiveness for those sins through Jesus’ death and shed blood on the cross alone. Paul and John wrote,

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him." (Romans 5:8-9)

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace." (Ephesians 1:7)

"To Him who loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood." (Revelation 1:5)

Many times I am told on the field that we are saved through water baptism. They will cite Acts 2:38 and Mark 16:16,

"And Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’" (Acts 2:38)

"He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved." (Mark 16:16)

When these passages are taken out of the Bible, it is hard for one to argue with them. By themselves this seems to be exactly what these passages are saying. What is the problem with interpreting these verses at face value? First, Acts 2:38 and Mark 16:16 are not the Bible, they are verses in the Bible. The Bible is Genesis through Revelation. These verses must be interpreted in the light of all that the Bible teaches on the subject. Second, Peter’s own teachings and comments in the rest of the book of Acts do not support the emphasis these people are putting on Acts 2:38. All one has to do is read the rest of the book of Acts to see that Peter does not interpret his statement in Acts 2:38 the way these various religious groups are interpreting it.

In Acts Chapter 10 we read of the first Gentiles converted to Christianity. Peter was a Jew and nothing unclean had ever entered his mouth and he had never polluted himself by entering the house of a Gentile. However, Jesus did not just come to save the Jews as Peter and even at this time the rest of the Apostles had believed, but to save all mankind including the Gentiles. Because of Peter’s incomplete understanding about Jesus’ salvation for men the Lord gave Peter a vision of all the animals of the earth, including the unclean ones they were commanded in the Law of Moses not to eat. When Peter saw the vision the Lord told him to kill and eat. Peter responded by saying to the Lord that nothing unclean had ever entered his mouth. Jesus said in response, "What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy" (Acts 10:15). This happened three times and then some Gentile men knocked on Peter’s door that were sent from Caesarea by Cornelius, a centurion and Gentile of the Italian cohort. Cornelius sent them to Peter through the instruction of an angel of the Lord to have Peter come and deliver a message to them.

The Holy Spirit told Peter He had sent them to him and that He was to go with them without misgivings. When Peter greeted the men he went with them and when he arrived at Cornelius’s house, he said to him and to the others gathered with him,

"I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right, is welcome to Him." (Acts 10:34-35)

What do we see demonstrated here? We see that even though Jesus had died, risen from the dead and afterwards had spent forty days with the Apostles teaching them and then they witnessed His ascension, they still did not yet have a full understanding about what their salvation in Jesus was all about or how it was to be received and administered. Up until this vision, Peter believed that Jesus’ salvation was only for the Jews, not the Gentiles. The book of Acts is a recording of the beginnings of the church, their growth and the Apostles’ learning experience of all that Jesus’ salvation involved. In Acts 2, to the best of Peter’s understanding, which was based on John the Baptist’s baptism and instruction, he was explaining to them what they needed to do to be saved, but at this point Peter did not believe this included Gentiles. Now in Acts Chapter ten Peter learns through the Holy Spirit that Jesus’ salvation includes the Gentiles also.

As Peter was sharing the Gospel with these Gentiles, in Acts 10:43 he made the following statement:

"‘Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.’"

Groups which tell you that you are saved through water baptism will tell you that believing means to be baptized in water. However the sects of the Pentecostal believers who teach this will also tell you that the person is not truly saved until he receives the Holy Spirit and speaks in Tongues. They base this on Romans 8:9: "But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him." I have had this said to me many times on the field when sharing the Gospel with men.

After Peter made this statement in Acts 10:43, what happened next? Acts 10:44 tells us:

"While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message."

Wait a minute? These groups tell us that a person is saved when baptized in water and that only afterwards can they then have someone lay hands on them to receive the Holy Spirit. Had these Gentiles been baptized yet? No. What had happened? After Peter told them that in order to receive forgiveness for their sins they had to believe on the Gospel, they believed in their hearts the message of the Gospel. When God saw in their hearts their saving faith, he automatically gave them His Holy Spirit as a result. Therefore saving faith is not being baptized in water, but believing on the message of the Gospel which is Jesus’ death and shed blood for our sins. Peter affirms this truth in Acts 11:15-17 and again in Acts 15:8-11,

"And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as He did upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If God therefore gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?" (Acts 11:15-17)

"And God, who knows-the-heart⁶⁴, bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. . . . But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are." (Acts 15:8-11)