This past year I had an e-mail correspondence with a minister who came from this persuasion. He tried to tell me that everything written after Acts was not to be used for the purpose of establishing salvation theology, that these other books were only written and addressing the church, not the issue of Salvation. This man in order to live with the contradictions he found in the rest of the Bible just simply cut out and threw away what did not support the way he was interpreting Acts 2:38 and Mark 16:16. In light of that, I studied through and addressed him only with the book of Acts and showed him how Peter’s teachings in the book of Acts contradicted the way he was interpreting Peter’s statement in Acts 2:38 and Mark 16:16. He would never give me any response to these clear contradictory passages. He would instead resort to name calling, attacking Paul and saying I was of those camps, but he would not give me any explanation of how he could explain in Acts 10 their receiving the Holy Spirit before water baptism and then Peters further statements in Acts 11:15-17 and 15:8-11. This has pretty much been my experience with other ministers of this persuasion also. The man I was corresponding with through e-mail would then go on and attack Paul and his salvation theology. However, I never addressed anything Paul had to say except to point out that Peter’s teachings in Acts were in complete harmony with the teachings of Paul in His Epistles. What does Peter have to say about this? Peter stated in 2 Peter 3:15-16,

"And regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction."

First, Peter acknowledges Paul’s writings as the Word of God and does not attack Paul’s writings but defends them as not Paul’s ideas but the word of God; second, the context of this statement of Peter is in regard to salvation; and third, he makes plain that people like this man, because they do not take what Paul has to say about salvation into consideration in their teachings on salvation, actually end up distorting what the Bible has to say about salvation. Paul, Peter and John wrote their Epistles Primarily to address wrong teachings about salvation. One can-not understand fully the process of their salvation without reading the Epistles. That is why this man and his associates error, because they do not take into consideration the teachings of the Epistles on salvation in formulating their salvation theology, they do not take the full counsel of God into consideration.

The Bible does not contradict itself and to properly interpret any passage, it must be taken into consideration with everything else the Bible has to say on the subject. All cults based on the Bible are the result of taking verses out of the context of the Bible as a whole and building a theology on it. This is true of Jehovah witnesses, Mormons, Christian Science, etcetera. When you do not take into consideration everything the Bible has to say on the subject of salvation, you end up doing what this man and his associates do, you come up with all kinds of false teachings to explain away obvious contradictions to the way you are interpreting a verse that was meant to be interpreted in the context of the Bible as a whole. Remember, the Bible does not contradict itself, only our interpretations do. It is our interpretations which need modifying, not the Word of God. The truth of the matter is that when you take everything else Peter has to say about salvation in the book of Acts, you find it is in complete harmony with everything Paul teaches in the Epistles. There is no contradiction. The contradiction only comes when Acts 2:38 is made to stand alone without taking into consideration everything else Acts and the rest of the Bible teaches on the subject of salvation. Paul wrote Timothy:

"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the Word of Truth." (2 Tim 2:15)

"Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things; for as you do this you will insure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you." (1 Timothy 4:16)

Salvation through Faith Alone is dealt with on pages 9-10 of the salvation tract What Is Eternal Life? and in much greater detail and exclusively in my book titled Salvation Is Received Through Faith Alone. It is true that Jesus has died for the sins of the whole world, but his death is not applied to our sins until we receive this work of Jesus on our behalf by faith. Paul wrote in Romans 3:28, "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law." We receive this work of Jesus’ salvation for us by faith by receiving Jesus Christ Himself into our hearts as Savior from our sins and as Lord of our lives.

What do we mean by faith? By Faith! we do not mean blind faith, meaning faith without proof or verification; we mean knowing that once we ask Jesus to come into our hearts as Savior from our sins and as Lord of our lives, that He does come in and save us, not as a feeling, but because He gave us absolute proof that He will do what He promised when He came back physically from the dead. What is Jesus’ promise? That He will come into our hearts when we ask Him to. Again the significance of all this is fully explained in Chapter 8 of this Section.

The Apostle Paul in the book of Romans Chapter 4 tells us about Abraham, that he was saved not as a result of being circumcised, which represented the Law, but because he believed God’s promises to him. Moses records in Genesis 15:6, "Then he believed in Yehovah; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness." Paul tells us that God made this declaration to Abraham not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.

"Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it reckoned? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, that he might be the Father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be reckoned to them." (Rom 4:9-11)

The point of this being that he was saved by believing on God’s promises, not because of some religious act. Paul’s point is that once we have repented of our sins we are saved by believing on God’s promises through Jesus also, not because of some religious act like water Baptism or because we speak in tongues. This is what Paul is talking about in Romans 10:9-10 when he says if we believe God the Father raised Jesus from the dead we shall be saved. When we believe on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are saying we believe God’s promise that He accepts Jesus’ death and shed blood for our sins and that He has proved this to us by bringing Jesus back from the dead.

Paul further explains to us that Abraham following Yehovah in obedience through circumcision did not save him but was simply evidence of the faith and salvation Abraham already had. When a person has truly repented of his sins and turned to God for His forgiveness of those sins by faith through Jesus’ death and shed blood on the cross, it will be evidenced in the future by his changed life and obedience to Christ’s commands; but not as the means to his salvation, but as a result of the saving faith he already has. This truth is covered clearly on page 17 of What Is Eternal Life? In the same way, water baptism does not save us either, but our following Jesus in obedience to Him through water baptism is simply evidence of the saving faith we already have.

When sharing the Gospel, how do we properly administer Salvation?

1. First, we are to Preach the Gospel, preach Jesus, share the Gospel with men (Acts 8:5, 35, Rom 10:14-15, Rev 19:10).

2. Second, the person must believe on the Gospel and then give evidence of his saving faith through confessing Jesus as Savior and Lord (Acts 8:13, 37, Rom 10:9-10, 13)

3. Third, when they give us evidence of the saving faith they already have through confessing Jesus as Savior and Lord, then and only then do we baptize them in water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19-20, Acts 8:12, 13, 38, 10:47-48).

4. Finally, we are to then lay our hands on them and pray for them to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit for ministry outreach and release (Acts 1:8, 8:12-17, 19:6-7).

In review the five Biblical foundational Christian doctrines which cannot be altered or played with if we are to succeed in Evangelism and in bringing men and women to saving faith in Jesus Christ, are the following:

See Illustration

1. One, that we must accept by faith, founded on the Physical Resurrection of Jesus Christ, that the Judeo-Christian Bible is ABSOLUTELY the Word of God in all that it affirms down to the letter, His ONLY Holy inspired written Word to Man ALONE.

2. Second, that we must take Moses’ teachings in the bible about the creation of the cosmos, the earth and the creation and constitution of man in six twenty-four hour days and fall of man literally.

3. Third, that what Jesus claimed about Himself is absolutely true: that He is fully God and fully Man.

4. Fourth, 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.

5. Fifth, that God’s forgiveness for our sins through Jesus’ death and shed blood on the cross is received by faith and THROUGH FAITH ALONE.

Chapter 1 of this Section titled, Evangelism Is Not A Spiritual Gift, is a foundation for Chapter 2 of this Section titled, The Three Ingredients of Christian Conversion. Chapter 2 talks about what is involved in Evangelism and why using a Salvation Tract like What Is Eternal Life? is most effective in this process.

Chapter 10 of this Section titled, A Field Presentation of What Is Eternal Life?, is a page by page explanation of how to present the tract What Is Eternal Life? and an explanation of the purpose of the content of each page in the tract and how it addresses all critical issues necessary for successful Evangelism in presenting the Gospel on the field.