MlDavid L. Mohn Chinese Christian Seminary ShamShuiPo, Hong Kong Saved by Faith Alone? The New Testament's conditions for salvation under the terms of the New Convenant for the Church nowhere teaches salvation is by faith alone. This FACT of scripture is quite clear and makes the teaching of some preachers very difficult to understand in view of what the Bible says. Besides paying attention to what the Bible DOES say, we also need to pay close attention to what it does NOT say. The following question was recently put to me: A man on an airplane, flying at thirty thousand feet, was told the gospel and he believed. But, before the plane arrived at its destination it crashed, killing the man before he could be baptized. Will the man go to heaven? The person asking the question claimed that the man would surely go to heaven, based on numerous scriptures that state we are saved by faith (e.g. John 3:36; Eph 2:8-9). The questioner also assumed that repentance is necessary to be saved, since it is written, "unless you repent, you shall perish" and "God...commands all men everywhere to repent" (Luke 13:3,5; Acts 17:30). He also accepted, that the man's sins needed to be remitted, i.e. that salvation includes and requires the forgiveness and remission of sins. The questioner made the following assumptions: (The scriptures given are the main ones usually used to support the assumptions.) 1. Repentance occurs at the same time as belief. You cannot believe without repenting. 2. Remission of sins occurs at the same time as belief [and repentance]. 3. The Holy Spirit is given at the same time as belief [and repentance]. (Acts 10:44-48; Eph 1:13) 4. We enter Christ, or His body, the Church, at the same time we believe. (John 1:12) A great multitude of believers today would agree with the questioner's conclusions and assumptions (except maybe the fourth one). Since "the scripture cannot be broken" (Jn 10:35), let us see if these assumptions are supported by scripture. Examples from the Gospels should be excluded, such as the thief on the cross (Luke 23:39-43) and the woman at Simon's house (Luke 7:2ff), because the conditions of salvation at the time of those examples were based on the Old covenant with Israel. Jesus had not yet died and resurrected. The New covenant made with Christ and ratified by His blood (Matt 26:28) had not yet begun. In Acts 2:37-38 we find that, after listening to Peter's Holy Spirit inspired sermon, a large number of the Jewish audience believed, "being pricked in their hearts". But, when they asked Peter what else they needed to do, Peter surpisingly told them, "Repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." So, on the basis of what the scripture teaches, we must conclude that repentance does NOT necessarily happen at the same time as belief. At least 3000 people examples of this fact are given in scripture (Acts 2:41). Of course belief and repentance may happen together, and repentance may even come before belief (Mark 1:15). Further, Acts 2:39 indicates that this is the universal, NORMAL method of receiving God's promise. Note also in verse 40, that Peter is talking about how to be saved. (Why would he tell the audience to "save yourselves" if they had already been saved by their faith?) Let us therefore, ask the question: If the man on the airplane died after he believed, but before he repented, would he go to heaven? Secondly, after the resurrection of Jesus and the beginning of the Church on the day of Pentecost, are there any scriptures that indicate that remission of sins happens at the same time as believing the gospel? The answer is, "No." There is no scripture that says something like, "Believe...and you shall receive the remission of sins." But many times the scripture connects baptism and the remission of sins (viz Acts 2:38; 22:16; Tit 3:5). In fact, Paul is an example of someone who believed for three days without having his sins remitted (Acts 9:9; 22:16). Ananias told Paul, "Why are you WAITING? Arise, be baptized, and WASH AWAY your sins..." Thirdly, are there any scriptures that indicate that the Holy Spirit is given at the moment you believe? Again, the answer is, "No." There is no scripture that says something like, "Believe...and you shall receive the Holy Spirit." But in Acts 2:38 Peter says to the Jewish believers, "Repent, and be baptized into Jesus' name for the remission of sins and you shall receive the Holy Spirit." And, to the Ephesian believers, when Paul discovered they did not yet know or have the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1-6) he asked them about their BAPTISM, NOT about what, or in whom, they had believed! This does not mean that faith and repentance are unnecessary. It does mean that a Biblical conversion includes faith, repentance AND baptism. Someone will ask, "But what about Acts 10:44-48? Did not they receive the Holy Spirit before they were baptized?" Of course the scripture says they did. But that was an exceptional case, not a normal case. Peter said exactly this in Acts 11:15, when he reported back to Jerusalem. If such a sequence of events (i.e. receiving the Holy Spirit and then baptism) was normal, why did he not say, "just like everyone else"? Instead, he specified: "as on us AT THE BEGINNING". Eph 1:13 uses the Greek aorist verb tense, which indicates sequential--NOT simultaneous-- occurrance of events. First, they heard. Then, they believed. After that, they were sealed with the Spirit. How much time passed between these three events is not stated. It may have been minutes, hours, days, or longer. Aorist participles may also be translated causally, "because you believed, you were sealed with the Spirit." But that would not change the sequential nature of what happened. Causes still come before their results: faith comes BEFORE receiving the Spirit, not at the same instant. Paul did NOT say, "When you had ONLY believed, you were sealed." Fourthly, are there any scriptures that indicate that you enter Christ or His body, the Church at the moment you believe? Again, the answer is, "No." There is no scripture that says something like, "Believe...and you shall be in Christ" or "Believe...and you shall be part of the Church." Instead, we have many scriptures that say we are baptized into Christ and His body, the Church (Rom 6:3; Gal 3:26-27; 1 Corin 12:13; Matt 28:19). Somebody might say, "We only need to be baptized 'to fulfill all righteousness'" like Jesus did. But note that Jesus was being baptized by JOHN at the time, and not into the name of Jesus. To be baptized for the same reason, we should receive the same baptism! (And remember that Acts 19 teaches us the foolishness of that idea!) Someone else might say, "But Paul says, 'You have been saved by grace through faith...not by works...'" (Eph 2:8-9), and therefore baptism is not necessary for salvation. But if we wish to choose isolated verses, we can prove that neither faith, repentance, nor baptism are necessary, because "through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved" (Acts 15:11). Also, in Eph 2:9 Paul was speaking about works of the Jewish Law of the old covenant. Now, on the one hand, baptism is something done TO us--not something we do ourselves. On the other hand, baptism is not part of the old covenant but of the new, therefore, baptism is NOT excluded from being required as necessary for salvation. Nor did Paul or any other Biblical writer or Church Father ever call baptism a work. But, since believing, repenting and confessing are all actions which we DO, why do certain preachers not call THEM works and say THEY are unnecessary because of Paul's words in Eph 2:8-9? If we are going to rely on the Bible as our ONLY rule of faith then we must reject the questioner's four assumptions as being unsupported by scripture. Indeed, the Bible gives very clear teaching about when and how our sins are remitted (i.e. through baptism into Jesus), when and how we receive the Holy Spirit (i.e. through baptism into Jesus), and when and how we enter Christ and His body, the Church (i.e. by being baptized into Jesus by the Holy Spirit). To teach that baptism is not necessary for salvation is to deny the words of Jesus, "...whoever is not born of water AND the Spirit cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). That water here means baptism is a fact of Church history. We should believe what the Bible says, no matter how many others, of whatever importance and fame, or how many books, teach differently. To preach another gospel than the one Paul preached is to risk the curse (Gal 1:9). If we wish to speculate we may say, "God may, in His mercy and by His grace, accept the man on the plane on the basis that, if he had had a chance to be baptized, he would have been," then we may praise God for His mercy and grace. But, if God makes His decision on the sole basis of what the Bible says, then the man cannot be saved. According to scrip- ture, being unbaptized he has not entered Christ, his sins remain unforgiven, and he lacks the Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches that any one of these three conditions is enough to prevent entrance into heaven. Then, we may praise God because of His justice. Finally, the case of the man on the airplane is clearly an exceptional example, as is the classic case of the man in the desert who dies before he can reach sufficient water to be baptized. Hopefully, no one reading this tract is on a crashing plane or dying in the desert. It is an extremely dangerous procedure to establish a doctrine of what should be believed or done based on an exception, instead of based on what is normal and usual.