How odd. I am really surprised that you would call the apostle Peter a person whose “ object of their salvation is themselves or their good works”. You must not be familiar with Acts 8 where he tells Simon the sorcerer to “repent”. Simon who was a new convert having just believed and was baptized—sinned and Peter told him he was going to “PERISH.” A good example of a “saved” person who, unless he repented and prayed for forgiveness was going to be lost! Are you going to tell me that Simon was never saved in the first place? Are you going to tell me that the word “Perish” doesn’t mean “death or destruction? (I looked it up). Are you going to tell me “that’s just your interpretation” and “it doesn’t mean that.” So far that is all I have gotten as answers to the scriptures I have presented.
James, who preached the same gospel as Peter, stated that it is by works that a man is justified, which is the same gospel preached by Christ to the Jews. Paul preached no such gospel to the Gentiles. Many have said to me that it's the same gospel throughout...
Of them I ask, "Really?" Well, let's put that to the acid test:
Matthew 15:22-28
22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, [thou] Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
23 But
he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
24 But he answered and said,
I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
26 But he answered and said,
It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast [it] to dogs.
27 And she said, Truth, Lord:
yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.
28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her,
O woman, great [is] thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
Gentiles were dogs under the Kingdom Gospel. Attempts to escape that fact is futile. This clearly shows that the ONLY salvation available to Gentiles was to become Jews.
Ephesians 3:1-3, 5-7
1 For this cause
I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ
for you Gentiles,
2 If ye have heard of the
dispensation of the grace of God which is
given me to you-ward:
3 How that
by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, ...
5
Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is
now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
6 That the
Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and
partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
7 Whereof
I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.
The belief that some harbor that there was only one gospel...well, the expense to truth is enormous in the belief systems that ride upon that bandwagon.
MM