DO YOU THINK YOUR BELIEFS ARE THE ONLY TRUE WAY? IF SO TELL ME WHY?"

Yes, I do believe that the answers for salvation are in the Bible.  I do believe, for example, that Baptism is required to be saved.  Otherwise why would the Bible say in 1 Peter 3:21 that Baptism saves?  Yes, I do believe that faith without works is dead because it says so in James 2:26.  I also believe that it doesn’t even matter if an angel told you that all you have to do is accept Jesus as your personal savoir to be saved because Galatians 1:8 says it is not enough to change what the Bible says about the other steps in the process.

Do I believe that what I believe is the only true way?  Yes, because what I believe is the word of God.  2 Timothy 3:16-17 says “all scripture” and that means I cannot skip the ones that make it difficult to avoid the fact that until I obey the scriptures I am lost to God and will not go to heaven when I die. 

The Bible says to hear the word.  That means don’t rely on angels or being filled with supernatural power or lightheaded feeling you got when God gave you or your family a special blessing.  It says hear the word, Romans 10:17, and you can’t have the faith called for in the Bible unless you quit trying to make the Bible say what you want it to say to justify yourself and start listening to what God wants and then obey it. (James 1:22)

Yes the Bible does says that we are justified by faith and not works (Galatians 2:16) but you can not build a religion around that alone.  How do you explain James 2:24 that clearly says “not by faith only"?  Galatians is saying that we cannot earn our salvation by works or the law.  The Israelites proved that to be true.  And James is not talking about works to earn salvation, it is talking about works to complete our faith just like it did for Abraham in James 2:21-22.  Don’t you see that? 

So if faith needs to be completed with works of faith, what are they?  Acts 2:38 says it includes repentance.  The people had already hear Peter preach the word and in realizing what they had done they recognized and confessed that Jesus was the son of God, but were they saved, No.  They asked what to do to be saved.  Did you not ever notice that Peter did not tell them about the Sinners Prayer or accepting Jesus as their personal savoir?  He told them what God wanted them to do and that was to repent and be Baptized.  So is my way the only true way?  It is if I tell you the same thing Peter said because that was God’s word he preached.

So is that all?  Hear, Believe and Repent?  Believing that Jesus is the Son of God is not enough all by itself.  The devil and the demons believe that he is and they are not saved by it.  No, the believing faith has to be completed (James 2:22).  Repentance is necessary to complete your faith and Romans 10:9-10 say it includes confession.  Matthew 16:16 gives us the example of Peter’s confession and Jesus made the confession the rock, the foundation for his Kingdom and Church.  The “good confession before many witness” (1 Timothy 6:12)

Now our faith is surely complete!  No, it is not, not if we believe the Bible it isn’t.  Denial does not change the fact that 1 Peter 3:21 says that it is Baptism that saves us.  How?  Not by replacing the other commands of the Bible but just like it saved Noah.  Because he had enough faith to enter the ark we have to have enough faith to be baptized for the remission of our sins.  Acts 10:48, Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16 say the same thing that Peter said. 

Yes, I believe that there is only one true way but don’t believe it because I said so, read Ephesians chapter 4.  The idea that you can worship your way and I can worship my way because we will all get to the same place in the end is just not Bible.  Matthew 7:13 says it best and better than I ever could.  Worship like you please and God will condemn you to the punishment we all deserve but worship the way God pleases and we have God’s promise of eternal life.

The Church of Christ has no special gift of learning.  We have no lock on salvation through membership.  We are not perfect and have, just like you, fallen short of the Glory of God.  What makes us different is we are willing to put our own desires for entertainment aside and seek only to worship God as he pleases, as he told us to in the Bible.  We speak where the Bible speaks and remain silent where it is silent.

Do you think we are judging you?  Well, we are not judging you, only the things you believe and if we are it is by the Bible and Matthew 7:1-2 says, “Judge not, that you may not be judged.  For with whatever judgement you judge, you shall be judged: and with whatever measure you measure out, it shall be measured to you again.”  I am not afraid to judge whether your way of belief is right because I do so by searching the scriptures and I am willing to be judged by the Bible.

We believe the you must Hear, Believe, Repent, Confess and be Baptized to be saved and, yes, that is the one true way!