Sincere repentance toward God naturally leads to faith in Jesus.
Genuine faith in Jesus necessarily produces repentance.
And repentance and faith always leads to salvation.
We see this clearly in Luke 7:36-50. A sinful woman weeps at Jesus' feet. Even before that, she boldly enters this Pharisee's house, without even being invited. Once in, she finds Jesus and weeps at His feet, wetting His feet with her tears, and then wiping them with her hair and kissing them, and finally anointing them with perfume.
Notice she never spoke a word. She never confessed Jesus as her Lord. She was not baptized.
Yet Jesus saw that she was truly repenting in her heart, because He said, "Your sins have been forgiven."
Jesus also saw that she had faith in Him in her heart, because He said, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
He declared her saved. Through her repentance and faith, she was saved.
Is it that you are unwilling, or are you incapable, of understanding the difference between salvation before Jesus' death and after His death?
While Jesus was alive, He had the power and authority to forgive sin at His whim, for whatever evidence of faith that He chose to accept (Matt 9:6). But after His death, His will was set and cannot be changed (Heb 9:16-17). So before His death, Jesus could, and did, accept any evidence of faith that He wanted to accept. But after His death, the evidences of faith that are acceptable are only those that are stated in the NT as leading to or resulting in the reception of salvation.
It has been no different since the fall of man until today. Repentance and faith in God saves a person.
From Abel to Enoch to Noah to Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Joseph to Moses to Rahab to Gideon to Barak to Samson, to Jephthah, to David, to Samuel, to the prophets, to the apostles, to the followers of Jesus, then and now - all these gained approval - salvation - through their faith. And where there is genuine faith, there is repentance. And where there is repentance and faith, there is salvation. Nothing more, nothing less.
This has been and still is the story of the Bible. It has not changed and will not change all the way up to the last day, the 2nd coming of Jesus. All glory to God!
They do indeed, if you properly understand what faith is. But if you have a faulty understanding of what faith is, then you will think that simply having an intellectual acceptance equals faith, which it does not.
Did you know that many, if not most Church of Christ churches say that they are the only true church? All others are hell-bound.
Although Doug claims that he is not part of that church, his doctrine fits theirs quite definitively. In fact, I believe I have heard him say that if a person disagrees with his interpretation of Scripture, then they are lost.
Look at #203. Doug says that everyone I teach is lost, on their way to hell, until they obey God and not me. So whatever church Doug belongs to - if any - if they agree with him, then they too believe that they are the only true church, just like Doug believes, or at least he believes he has the only true interpretation
Who is it that determines who is saved? It is God, is it not?
It is not you, nor is it me.
So to be saved, one must obey God. Not you, and not me; God.
So since you are teaching the false doctrine of "belief only", if someone follows you, they remain lost until they accept the truth and obey God's requirements to be saved.
Peter said that some of what Paul wrote was hard to understand. Isn't is just like Satan to zero in on all those verses that have been debated for centuries to come up with false doctrines? In fact, just about every New Testament author has said some things that are not clear at first glance.
The only reason the verses that speak of the requirement of baptism, or verbal, public confession are debated is because Satan knows that they are important and has gotten people like you to disagree with the proper interpretation of them. There is nothing ambiguous about Acts 2:38, or 1 Pet 3:21, or Rom 10:9-10. These verses are very clear, but the hardness of people's hearts makes them want to take the easy way out, and not yield to the authority of God.
I've been reading through testimonies of persons on youtube about "Why I left the Church of Christ". Legalism, adding works to the gospel, constant infighting between different churches who all say they are the "Church of Christ", and the only true church. They disagree about peripheral issues, making them salvation issues. Using musical instruments in church - some say even using a pitchpipe is a sin. There are only 5 acceptable, Biblical ways to worship, according to them. They must have communion every Sunday. Each church is autonomous, so they make up their own rules as they go along, and many do not agree with the other churches. One ex-CoC said that the prevalent emotion in many CoC churches is fear.
You shall know them, false prophets, by their fruit.
Alexander Campbell started this cult on May 4, 1811.
You bring up several points here about the Church for which Jesus died that are very important.
There should not be any infighting or arguments about this doctrine or that doctrine. Each congregation of the Church should be independent, with its own elders to lead and guide it. If one congregation believes that something is wrong, and the next congregation over believes it is right, unless it is expressly stated in Scripture, both of them can be correct (Matt 18:18-20, 1 Cor 8).
There is no evidence in Scripture for a ruling body that controls, organizes, or oversees large groups of congregations as the catholic, the southern baptist convention, and other similar denominations that claim to be the Church do.
I do not believe that the churches of Christ are the only true Church. They have many problems, and many false doctrines just as the baptist (and all other religious denominational) churches do. The mormons, jw's, and catholics are not really Christian religions. They pose as Christ followers, but have placed man's teachings above Scripture.
There are many, many people in the world today who think they are Christ followers, but in reality they have deceived themselves and have never been a Christ follower a day in their life.
