There’s much debate about how one is saved. I’m no fan of debates, but I do enjoy looking into the scriptures. Let’s see what the Bible says about salvation.
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Belief – Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
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Grace – Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
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Hope – Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
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God – 1Timothy 2:3-4 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
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Gospel – Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;
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Repentance – Acts 11:18 When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.
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Spirit – Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
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Blood – Rom 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
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Works / Obedience – James 2:24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
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Confession – Ro 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
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Jesus – Matthew 1:21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
If all of these be true, which they are, for they are from the scriptures, then can we eliminate this one……
Baptism 1Peter 3:21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us
If we can eliminate this one, baptism, then we can eliminate any of them. Can we eliminate any? If not, then why do so many only talk about just one?
What Must I Do To Be Saved?
Hear and Learn– Rom. 10:17; John 6:45; 17:3
Believe – Heb. 11:6; John 6:29; 8:24
Confess the Lord – Matt. 10:32-33; Rom. 10:9-10
Repent – Luke 13:3; Acts 3:19; 17:30
Be Baptized – Mark 16:16; Acts 22:16; Gal. 3:26-27; 1 Pet. 3:21
Continue in the Apostles’ Teaching – Acts 2:42; 2 Tim. 3:14-17
As you can see, I’ve only used scripture. Read it, let the Word of God give the answer. If we can help you in some way, please reach out to us.
Borger church of Christ @ Franklin & Juniper 
Why did you stop at Ephesians 2:9 where it specifically says salvation is not of our own works?
Have you read all of the passages in the post
Hi great rreading your post
Thank you, My hope is to help folks to know the Lord and how to be saved.
What do you have to say about why God allows many Christians to think Calvinism is biblically justified?
Does God allow it because he is “trying” to convince them Calvinism is wrong, but God simply isn’t capable of doing the job successfully?
Or does God have the capability to successfully dissuade them from Calvinism, but has higher mysterious reasons for wanting them to misinterpret the bible?
As an unbeliever, I assume classical theism solely for the sake of argument, and therefore conclude that if God seriously wanted to uproot Calvinism, he would have no more problem doing it than he did in uprooting the Judaizers and the Gnostics. I therefore conclude that God wants certain Christians to think Calvinism has biblical justification.
I cannot trust a god who may be reasonably perceived to desire for sincere Christians to remain in Calvinist error, when most Calvinists are no less sincere in their walk with Christ than Arminians are.
What do you propose God ought to do that He hasn’t already done?
More miracles? no more faith, just show Himself? Write it differently?
How would you run the earth, heaven, and the universe?
You’re not the first to not like the way God is running His universe, nor will you be the last.
But you still haven’t answered why you feel the need to be the commandant of viewpoints.
Well first, you didn’t answer directly. You evaded my questions and simply added your own. It is not unreasonable on my part to expect you to answer them. Here they are again:
I will now answer your newer questions directly. Please show me similar courtesy.
First, I don’t think you are serious in asking that. I would say god should prevent the sexual abuse of children, but no, you’ll just shoot back that god is infinitely righteous, thus when he allows evil, it is surely for a greater mysterious good that mere mortals can’t fully comprehend, thus, we are in no position to criticize him. So I have difficulty trying to presume your question was serious.
Second, I see open-theism in the bible, which means I can justify a literal interpretation of god’s “regretting” his prior decision to create man (Genesis 6:5-7). So if something else in the bible says god is infinitely righteous, I chalk it up to either self-contradiction in the bible, or I interpret the more laudatory passages as not meant to state something literally true about god, but were mere Semitic hyperbole solely for ultimately pointless dramatic flair. So I have a very defensible justification for denying your presupposition that god is infinitely righteous and completely beyond all rational criticism. I remain reasonable to criticize your god.
Third, what you call “god” is more accurately described as a “concept” of god. You think Mormons have a concept of God, and Calvinists have a concept of God, and you are happy to assert that both of them are false for various reasons. But there is nothing about your specific take on “god” that moves it from concept to demonstration. When you say god is infinitely wise, you are saying something far more complex and subject to error than when you say “cars exist”. And yet I’m sure you assert god’s infinite wisdom as if it was equally as indisputable as your own self-awareness.
I therefore reasonably consider the god-is-infinitely-wise hypothesis to be nothing more than an opinion. Your assurance that god is infinitely wise is not god itself, it’s merely a statement about god that carries far less authority than whatever authority you think Jesus had when he was preaching.
That’s correct. For reasons previously explained, your knee-jerk reaction that says “god’s ways are mysterious” or “god is infinitely righteous” or “who are we to judge god!?” constitute nothing but rhetoric and blind reliance on assumptions you know perfectly well I don’t agree with you on, so you cannot pretend I am unreasonable when I disagree with your classical theist assumptions. It is not rational for an atheist to yell “transitional forms!” and then seriously expect you to suddenly start believing in evolution…and its equally irrational for the Christian to yell “god is infinitely good, who are we to judge him!” and seriously expect the unbeliever to suddenly adopt classical theism.
That’s because you haven’t asked me why I condemn absolutely everybody, including any gods, who have opportunity to prevent, but hardly ever prevent, child rape.
Looking forward to how you reconcile your anti-Calvinist god’s efforts to dissuade Calvinists, with the sad fact that plenty of them remain Calvinists their entire lives and don’t even notice that maybe god is telling them they are wrong.