Salvation by Being Good – Table of Contents

The chapter headings I have published on my blog, free of charge, are in blue and underlined. The rest may become blog posts when I finish them.  At some point they will all go into a book titled Salvation by Being Good. Speaking of which, what do you think? Would you buy the book? If you subscribe to my blog I’ll give you advanced notice of its publication and a huge discount.

The chapters with bullet points I have either started or finished and posted on this blog. The rest have yet to be started.

 

INTRODUCTION

  • A Novel Idea – Taking Jesus at His Word
  • What Kind of Faith Are We Talking About Here?
  • Am I Missing Something Here?
  • Paul Understood Jesus the Same Way
  • Ezekiel Said the Same
  • Mankind’s Default Setting: Saved
  • Moral Influence Atonement vs. Penal Substitution Atonement
  • The Righteous Get a Different Salvation
  • Jesus Died for All
  • God is Just
  • The New Perspective on Paul – Is This That?

 

PART 1 – Righteousness That Works vs. Works Righteousness

The wicked is thrust down by his wrongdoing, but the righteous has a refuge when he dies. (Proverbs 14:32)

Salvation by Being Good

  • The Plan of Salvation – As I Formerly Understood It
  • Salvation Before and After Christ: Turn from Your Wicked Ways
  • God’s Merciful Nature Was Sufficient Before Christ
  • God’s Merciful Nature is Sufficient After Christ
  • The Matthew Road to Salvation
  • Who Are These Wicked People Who Aren’t Accepted by God?
  • Who Are the Righteous?
  • How Good is Good Enough?
  • The Influences That Lead to Modern Evangelical Soteriology

There Are None Righteous – Except For Everyone Who Is

  • We Are Doomed They Say
  • One Way to End Up With Universal Condemnation
  • They Say There Are No Good and Noble People – Except for Those Who Accepted Jesus
  • There Are None Righteous, No Not One – is Exaggeration
  • All of the Saints Who Were Considered Righteous Because of Their Conduct
  • All the Other People Who Are Considered Righteous – And Why They Are

Righteousness by Self-Effort is Good, Expected, and Attainable

  • Revelations From Jail
  • Self-Righteousness From Then Until Now
  • Religious People Corner the Market on Self-Righteousness
  • St. Paul the Former Self-Righteous Pharisee
  • We are Called to be Self-Righteous – In a Good Sort of Way
  • Are Christians the Only Righteous Ones in God’s Eyes?

What The Cross Accomplishes

Imputed Righteousness That is Real – Not Transferred

  • How Imputed Righteousness has been Perverted by Protestantism
  • Abraham Was Already Righteous
  • Noah Was Already Righteous
  • The Kingdom of God is Righteous People, Not Just Christians

 

PART 2 – The First Step Off the Reservation: Universal Condemnation to Hell – Because Human

Universal Condemnation – Christianity’s Self-Inflicted Wound

  • Who Told You That You Aren’t Good Enough for God?
  • Driving While Under the Influence of Calvinism
  • The Modern “Gospel” is Losing Ground in Modern Society

 

PART 3 – Meet the New Paul – Same as the Old Paul

Luther Didn’t Nail It – He Muffed It

Works vs. Faith

Faith vs. Faithfulness

Grace vs. Amazing Graciousness

Sola Fide – The Biblical Authors Didn’t Get the Message

Shifted Meanings: Salvation, Justification, Propitiation, Atonement

The Romans Road to Salvation

 

PART 4 – Why Jesus? – The Good News of Jesus Christ

Why the Cross is Good News

God Really is Love – John 3:16 Explained

  • Man’s Intrinsic Value – Because Love
  • What Agape Love Is
  • The Opposite of Agape Love is Selfishness, Not Hate
  • Eternal Conscious Torment is Not Love
  • God Actually Likes the Humans in the Family of God
  • God Loves His Family

God Really is Just – Justice Demands Forgiveness

  • The Big Trial – I Am Sooooo Guilty!
  • Now THAT’S Unjust
  • We Aren’t Judging God – We Are Judging Theology About God
  • Starting On the Right Foot – A Biblical View of Justice
  • We Are Expected to Understand Justice and Do It
  • God is Better Than Us, Not Worse
  • Punishment is to be Limited, Commensurate with the Crime
  • The Best Monarch
  • Rationalizing Eternal Punishment – Turning Biblical Holiness on its Ear
  • God is Not a Hypocrite
  • Forgive Not, And You Won’t be Forgiven
  • The Capricious God of Evangelical Christianity
  • Conduct, Justice, and the Cross

The Good News of Salvation in Jesus Christ

  • Why Jesus Was Crucified
  • Faith in Jesus Provides Access to Divine Help
  • The Good News of Salvation Outside Jesus Christ
  • Billy Graham – Selling a Solution to a Problem That Doesn’t Exist
  • All the Evangelists in the Bible Who Didn’t Get the Memo About Salvation by Faith
  • If Jesus is Essential Why Was He Left Out?

What Does It Mean to “Believe in Jesus”?

Was There a Cosmic Change When Jesus Was Resurrected?

  • God Provided Avenues for Grace Prior to Christ
  • God Provided Another Avenue for Grace with Christ
  • Getting Right with God by Following the Conscience: Modern Christianity Has Closed the Door

How to Be “Born Again”

  • Born Again in 1978
  • What is “Born Again”?
  • Nicodemus – Educated in a Jewish View of Being Born Again
  • Jesus Explains Being Born Again
  • Our Default Setting at Birth: Good, Righteous, and Born from Above
  • Molding a Child’s God-Given Conscience
  • Peter’s Testimony Regarding Being Born Again
  • John’s Epistle About Being Born Again
  • Paul’s Spiritual Circumcision Equates with Being Born Again
  • How to Get a New Heart and Spirit
  • There Are Many Ways to Say “Born from Above”
  • How to Get Your Name Written in the Lamb’s Book of Life
  • How to Hear from God

 

PART 5 – God – The Monster We Have Created

The Evangelical Monster God is Bad News

  • Jesus has Become an Instrument of Condemnation
  • Jesus Came to Increase Grace/Opportunity
  • To Whom Little is Given Little is Required
  • Covenant Has Always been About Obedience
  • Evangelical Salvation Theology: A Giant Series of Negative Inference Fallacies
  • Evangelical Salvation Theology: A Giant Series of Taking Things Out of Context
  • The People Outside the Kingdom are the Wicked, Not the Non-Christians
  • The 10,000 Foot View Where God is Gracious

The Monster God of Calvinism is Even Worse News

  • What do Calvinists Believe?
  • This is Why Calvinism is Wrong: It Makes God Out to be an Evil, Sadistic Monster
  • The End of the Debate for Some Calvinists: You Can’t Question God
  • The End of the Debate for Some Other Calvinists: Spiritual People Accept Hard Doctrines
  • Making God a Moral Monster – an Unnecessary Stumbling Stone
  • The False Rest and Comfort of Election
  • The Doctrine of Total Depravity Requires Total Scrutiny
  • The Church’s Achilles Heel: Pride of Literalism
  • Pitting Scripture Against Scripture – Both Sides are Wrong
  • An Appeal for Unity – God’s Way

Theodicy – The Problem of Evil – Solved – by God’s Love

 

PART 6 – Interpretive Missteps on The Way Back to The Cross

The Problem with Salvation by Systematic Theology

Taking Things Out of Context Leads to Christian Exceptionalism

  • I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; No One Comes to the Father but by Me
  • If You Believe Not That I Am, You Shall Die in Your Sins
  • Salvation is Found in No One Else for There is No Other Name
  • Romans 2 Destroys Christian Exceptionalism
  • Why There Is Remission of Sins Without the Shedding of Blood

Literalism – The Bane of Good Theology

What Kind of Law Are We Talking About Here?

 

PART 7 – Bringing Judaism, Christianity, and Islam Closer Together

Did the Lamb Sacrifice Save the Jew?

  • What Was the Cross For?
  • How Do Jews Understand It? – Let’s Hear It from the Horse’s Mouth
  • What About the Scapegoat?

“Christ Died For Us” Does Not Mean Penal Substitution Atonement

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to History

  • Jesus Disappointed Jewish Expectations for a Messiah
  • John the Baptist Defines the Savior’s Mission

New Covenant Life in the Old Covenant – and Islam

The New Perspective on Paul – Is This That?

 

APPENDIX:

Scriptures That Teach All Men Will Be Judged by Their Conduct, Not Their Belief

Various Scriptures in the Light of Salvation by Being Good

What [the] Hell? – The Terminology of Eternal Suffering

What About Christus Victor?

What About Universalism?

 


To learn more about restoring an apostolic and 1st Century biblical view of salvation I also recommend the following:

If Being Good Can Not Save a Soul

Love, Righteousness & Salvation: Foundational Christianity

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