Amen! So you
admit that these works of faith FOLLOW salvation.
News flash, water baptism is a "work of faith" which FOLLOWS salvation (Acts 10:43-47).
You were so close, but here is where you blew it. Your obsession with "water and works" salvation continues.
It's actually you who denies that salvation is by grace through faith, NOT WORKS, then you try to spin these verses to make them fit your doctrine of salvation through faith
and works. Allow me to show you again.
Acts 2:21 - whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved. As I explained to you before, calling on the name of the Lord is what we do when we come to faith in Christ and are saved (Romans 10:13), not after we come to faith in Christ.
Mark 16:16 - He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved
(general cases without making a qualification for the unusual case of someone who believes but is not baptized) but he who
does not believe will be condemned. The omission of baptized with "does not believe" shows that Jesus does not make baptism absolutely essential to salvation. Condemnation rests on unbelief, not on a lack of baptism. So salvation rests on belief. NOWHERE does the Bible say "baptized or condemned." If water baptism is absolutely required for salvation, then why did Jesus not mention it in the following verses? (3:15,16,18; 5:24; 6:29,40,47; 11:25,26). What is the
ONE requirement that Jesus mentions
9 different times in each of these complete statements?
BELIEVES. *What happened to baptism? *Hermeneutics. John 3:18 - He who
believes in Him is not condemned; but he who (is not water baptized? - NO)
does not believe is condemned already, because he has not (been water baptized? - NO) because he
has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
1 Peter 3:21 - Peter tells us that baptism now saves you,
yet when Peter uses this phrase he continues in the same sentence to explain exactly what he means by it. He says that baptism now saves you-
not the removal of dirt from the flesh (that is, not as an outward, physical act which washes dirt from the body--that is not the part which saves you), "but an appeal to God for a good conscience" (that is, as an inward, spiritual transaction between God and the individual, a transaction that is symbolized by the outward ceremony of water baptism). Just as the eight people in the ark were "saved THROUGH water" as they were IN THE ARK. They were not literally saved "by" the water. Hebrews 11:7 is clear on this point (..built an
ARK for the
SAVING of his household). *NOTE: The context reveals that ONLY the righteous (Noah and his family) were DRY and therefore SAFE. In contrast, ONLY THE WICKED IN NOAH'S DAY CAME IN CONTACT WITH THE WATER AND THEY ALL PERISHED.
Acts 11:18 - This
repentance was
unto life because as we read in verse 17 -
they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and Acts 16:31 says -
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, which they did and were saved BEFORE water baptism (Acts 10:43-47). They
received the gift of the Holy Spirit when they
believed BEFORE water baptism.
2 Corinthians 7:10 - We see that godly sorrow (not sorrow of the world) produces repentance leading to salvation, which is through faith. Repent "change your mind" new direction of this change of mind "faith in Christ for salvation". Acts 20:21 - testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of
repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 10:10 - Notice in Romans 10:8 - But what does it say? "The word is near you,
in your mouth and in your heart" (together) that is, the
word of faith which we are preaching, (notice the reverse order from verse 9 to verse 10) - that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the
heart one
believes unto righteousness and with the
mouth, confession is made unto salvation. Confess/believe; believe/confess. Confessing with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing in our heart that God raised Him from the dead are
not two separate steps to salvation but are chronologically together. It's not believe today then confess next week and are finally saved next week.
1 Corinthians 12:3 - Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and
no one can say that Jesus is Lord except BY the Holy Spirit. There is divine influence or direct operation of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a person when confessing that Jesus is Lord. This confession is not just a simple acknowledgment that Jesus is the Lord (even the demons believe that), but is a deep personal conviction, without reservation, that Jesus is that person's Lord and Savior. So simply believing in our
head (and not in our heart) that God raised Him from the dead
does not result in righteousness and simply reciting the words "Jesus is Lord" not by the Holy Spirit from a check list of steps as if they are simply magic words that when added to mere "mental assent belief" gives us an entry pass through the door of eternal life
is not unto salvation *What about someone who is unable to speak (is moot). How can they confess with their
mouth? Such a person would remain lost according to your erroneous interpretation of Romans 10:9,10.
Titus 3:5 - Spiritual washing/purification of the soul is accomplished by the Holy Spirit (not plain ordinary H20) at the moment of salvation. Water baptism is the picture or symbol of the new birth, but not the means of securing it. The Holy Spirit does the washing and renewing, man submits to the baptism after the new birth.
Hebrews 5:9 - Seeking salvation by works is not obeying Him. So who obeys Him? The saved or the lost? I've heard many works salvationists (such as Roman Catholics and Mormons, along with yourself) use this verse to try and support "salvation by works." Only believers have obeyed Him by choosing to believe the gospel (Romans 1:16) in order to become saved, and only believers obey Him after they have been saved through faith by practicing righteousness and not sin (1 John 3:9,10).
In either sense, only believers obey Him. Unbelievers have not obeyed Him by refusing to believe the gospel (Romans 10:16) and without faith its impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6), so unbelievers practice sin and not righteousness (1 John 3:8,10) and unbelievers do not obey Him no matter how much "so-called" obedience that they attempt to conjure up through the flesh in a vain effort to receive salvation based on their works. So
in either sense, unbelievers do not obey Him.
Matthew 7:21 - Salvation by works is not the will of the Father (Matthew 7:22). John 6:40 - For my Father's
will is that everyone who
looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
James 1:12 - "Perseveres under trials, stood the test, love Him" is descriptive of those who are born of God.
John 3:5 - Jesus said, "born of water and the Spirit" He
did not say born of
baptism and the Spirit. To automatically read baptism into this verse simply because it mentions "water" is unwarranted. Scripture interprets itself. Notice in John 7:38, "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of
LIVING WATER. 39 But this He spoke
concerning the SPIRIT.. *Did you see that? If "water" is arbitrarily defined as baptism, then we could just as justifiably say, "Out of his heart will flow rivers of living baptism" in John 7:38. If this sounds ridiculous, it is no more so than the idea that water baptism is the source or means of becoming born again. In John 4:10, Jesus said, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a
drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you
living water." In John 4:14, Jesus said, "but whoever
drinks of the
water that I shall give him will
never thirst. But the
water that I shall give him will become in him a
fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. Jesus
connects this living water here with everlasting life. Living water is not water baptism. In 1 Corinthians 12:13, we also read - .
.drink into one Spirit.
1 John 3:14 - We know that we
have passed (past tense) from death to life, (demonstrative evidence)
BECAUSE we love our brothers. Anyone who
does not love remains in death. Believers do not love their brother in order to pass from death to life but BECAUSE they have passed from death to life. 1 John 3:10 - By this the
children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who
does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who
does not love his brother. You still have trouble distinguishing between a PRESCRIPTIVE and a DESCRIPTIVE passage of Scripture.
Romans 8:24 - This verse does not teach that if we have faith, but we don't have enough hope, we won't be saved. You are always trying to "add additional requirements" to salvation through faith. Unlike the english word "hope," the N.T. word contains no uncertainty; it speaks of something that is certain. Strong's #1680 - elpís (from elpō, "to anticipate, welcome") – properly,
expectation of what is sure (certain); hope. Genuine hope is another aspect of faith, not an additional requirement to become saved after faith. If we have saving faith in Christ then we have this hope. Faith is the substance of things
HOPED for.. (Hebrews 11:1). So that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the
HOPE of eternal life (Titus 3:7).
2 Thessalonians 1:8,9 - I already explained to you what it means to not obey the gospel of of our Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation by works is not obeying the gospel, quite the opposite. Romans 10:16 - But they have not all
obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has
believed our report?" As you can see, we
obey the gospel by
choosing to believe the gospel. Those who
do not obey the gospel have
refused to believe the gospel. Choosing to believe the gospel is the act of obedience that saves (Romans 1:16). The gospel is a message of grace to be received through faith. The gospel is not a set of rituals to perform, a code of laws to be obeyed or a check list of good works to accomplish as a prerequisite for salvation. The gospel simply sets forth Christ
crucified, buried and risen (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as the Savior of all who
believe/trust in His finished work of redemption as the ALL-sufficient means of their salvation.
Romans 2:8,9 - This is crystal clear. For by grace you
have been saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves; it is the
gift of God, 9
not of works, lest anyone should boast. You try to spin this to make it say saved through faith
and works of faith, (Romans Catholics say faith "infused with works") just not works of the law. Paul did not say "and works of faith" and works of faith are good works which are a part of the moral aspect of the law, so your argument is dead on arrival.
Matthew 18:3 - "Unless you are converted and become as little children" is how Jesus characterized conversion. It pictures faith as the simple, helpless, trusting, dependence of those who have no resources of their own. Like little children, they have no achievements and no accomplishments to offer or commend themselves with. Jesus here is pointing to the need to have the same type of faith that little children exhibit. The most trusting people in the world are little children. They have not acquired the obstructions to faith that often come with advanced education and exposure to the philosophies of men. Christ calls us to have the same kind of faith/trust that little children naturally have. People must become as little children in humbly recognizing their helplessness in attaining the kingdon in their own strength. We are 100% dependent on Jesus Christ to save us.
So as you can see, I did not spin these verses but used Biblical hermeneutics to properly interpret these passages of Scripture and the end result is Scripture harmonizes with Scripture. You are still in denial that salvation is by grace through faith and is not by works. Until you can finally see that "works of faith" are good works that we are saved FOR (Ephesians 2:10) and NOT by (Ephesians 2:8,9), you will not let go of your works in order to take hold of Christ through faith. It's time for you to repent and believe the gospel. Then you will be able to say (just as I was able to say several years ago) know I get it and now I KNOW that I have eternal life (1 John 5:13). Praise God!
Continue to prayerfully seek for the truth and God bless.