Inquiry:
What must one do to be saved? A list of 169 items necessary for salvation is given by the questioner. Obviously, we don’t have space to list them all here. Unfortunately the full list is no longer listed on the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible. In the original article, I address a few items – a sampling of the entire list. Is there a contradiction?
Response:
Here are some of the items which were posed by the questioner:
- Say the right things (Matthew 12:37)
- Believe the right things (Romans 3:28; 5:1)
- Be a doer of the law (Romans 2:6, 13)
- Don’t offend the little ones (Matthew 18:6)
- Bridle your tongue (James 1:26)
- Be grafted in (Romans 11:23)
- Be faithful unto death (Revelation 2:10)
- Do the right things (John 5:29; 2 Corinthians 5:10)
- Hunger and third for righteousness (Matthew 5:6)
- Repent (Luke 13:3, 5)
- Don’t lust (James 1:15)
- Confess Jesus before men (Matthew 10:32)
- Be a saint (Psalm 37:28)
The religious world is not agreed on what one must do to be saved. You could ask 5 different preachers this same question and potentially get 5 different answers. What causes the division? It is not because the Bible is unclear on the topic, it is that people are following the doctrines of man rather than the Bible.
What must you do to be saved? The 132 things listed above are a small portion of what the questioner has compiled. These are all necessary, and more. Not all of the 169 items provided by the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible folks are valid – some were based on misuse or poking fun at a text, but many of them are correct.
Of the idea that there is a contradiction here, such would only be true if the Bible identified one thing to the exclusion of all the rest or two things which are opposite and opposed to one another. Calvinists do this in their bid to have salvation by faith alone, but the Bible does not. There is no contradiction.
Links: YouVersion | GROW magazine
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