By: David Flournoy
In the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints we often say that we have the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As a missionary I would share that as one of the things in our Church that sets us apart. Sometimes people would become defensive as if I had just insulted their grandma or something. I would then ask them, what they believed they needed to get to heaven. The answers varied immensely. Some people said that all you have to do is accept Jesus into your heart and you're saved. They would insist that it was impossible to sin after this, even if a commandment was broken; since Christ had been accepted it was no longer sin because they were saved. There is much about that which I disagree with, but I will not get into that right now. Others would say all you have to do is be baptized and you are saved. I often heard people say, God doesn't care which church you go to as long as you live a good life.
I firmly believe all of these have truth in them, but are not complete. They do not have the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When I say the Gospel, I mean the path to return to God.
In the Gospel of Jesus Christ there are five main doctrines in which we accept the grace of Jesus Christ into our lives. If it were not for the sacrifice of Jesus, doing these things would be meaningless because we cannot be saved by dead works. It is in the living Christ that these steps have power.
1) Faith Jesus said "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved," Mark 16:16 So believing and having faith is required for salvation.
2) Repentance. In the Acts its says he "commandeth all men every where to repent", Acts 17:30 As we repent we change our lives and become more like Jesus Christ
3)Be baptized and 4) Receive the Holy Ghost Jesus Said to Nicodemas " Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." John 3:5
5) Endure to the End " he that endureth to the end shall be saved." Matt 10:22
These are the doctrines that Christ set up for us to return to His presence.
Baptism is NOT essential to salvation. Look at the thief on the cross in Luke 23. He repents and believes and Jesus said that he would be with Him in paradise. No baptism.
ReplyDeleteEndurance is merely a sign of true belief. If someone professes belief and then falls away, they never had saving faith to begin with. 1 John 2:19.
Mormonism is FALSE my friend. Please repent and worship Jesus Christ for who He is, the one and only God and the second person of the trinity before it is too late.
David,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post. You are correct about the points of the gospel. I wrote a blog post with the same title in 2009. You may be interested in reading that too:
http://sevenofeverything.blogspot.com/2009/05/what-is-gospel.html
How then do you explain Luke 23 in reference to the unbaptized thief's salvation?
DeleteAll I will say to you about Luke 23 is that you misunderstand the paradise that Jesus is referring to.
DeleteAs for baptism Jesus states otherwise (Mark 16:16). Both are required; one without the other cannot produce salvation. Baptism is included in faith and is also included in grace. So if you want to say that "by grace are ye saved through faith" then we are still correct. You misunderstand both faith and grace. Since when is baptism not a gift of God?