Salvation by Being Good

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

Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.  John 5:28-29

Having a hope in God, which these men cherish themselves, that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.  Acts 24:15

For we through the Spirit, by faithfulness, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.  Galatians 5:5

• 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

• Then Solomon Was a Dreamer
• And Ezekiel was a False Prophet
• The King of Nineveh Was a Used Car Salesman
• Jesus was Fooled by Jonah
• Jesus and His Fellow Jews Had a False Hope in the Hope of Righteousness
• Paul was not an Apostle
• The Author of Hebrews was a Whack Job
• Jesus was not the Messiah
• God has no Love and Compassion for Non-Christians
• We Don’t Know God
• God is Unjust
• We are Wasting our Time on Sinners
• God’s Efforts Were in Vain
• The Evangelists in the Bible were Misleading
• Jesus Made it Harder to Get Saved
• What Pleases God is Not How People Live
• Our Bibles Can’t be Trusted

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• 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

• 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?

• 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

• What [the] Hell? Is Annihilation within the Boundaries?
• What Does “Eternal” Mean?
• What Do the “Worms and Fire” Verses Mean?
• What Does It Mean to “Die”?
• What Does “Devoured” Mean?
• What Does “Perish” Mean?
• What Does “Destroyed” Mean?
• What Is “Eternal Fire”?
• How Long Does “Stubble” Burn?
• What Are “Ashes”?
• What Does “Slay” Mean?
• What Does “End” Mean?
• What Does It Mean to “Cease to Be”?

• To Draw all to Himself and God
• To Draw the Wicked to God so They Would Repent so They Could be Forgiven
• To Prove He Spoke for God so People Would Listen to Him and live the Christ life.
• Like a Good Shepherd, to Lay His Life Down for the Sheep. Jn 10:11
• To show us that agape love is to deny ourselves for the sake of others.
• To  Make Disciples
• To be a “Ransom” – But That’s a Bad Translation

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• 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

In Africa “preaching the Gospel” is seen as a way to lift oneself from poverty. After becoming involved with many Kenyans and other Africans I frequently get requests from would-be evangelists hoping to get support for their “ministry”. They will show me pictures and say, “See, I’m preaching the Gospel. With your help I can reach more people in my country!”

I then ask them, “What is the Gospel?”

And they have no clue.

I ask them, “Since you’re an evangelist preaching the Gospel and hoping to get paid for it, surely you’ve read every scripture in the Bible with the word “Gospel” in it, right?”

They haven’t.

It’s the same for Americans claiming to preach the Gospel. They really don’t know what the Gospel is.

So let’s go through it beginning with Abraham.

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• What Was the Cross For?
• Let’s Hear it from the Horse’s Mouth
• What About the Scapegoat?

All six chapters of this section have been published as one blog post.

• We Know One Person Who Needs to be Born Again
• Who Cares What Some 1st Century Jew Thought About “Born Again”?
• Nicodemus was a Pharisee – Pharisees were Bad People
• What “Born Again” Meant in Ancient Jewish Culture
• Nicodemus – Educated in a Jewish View of Being Born Again
• Did Nicodemus Really Think Jesus Expected Him to Crawl Back Into His Mother’s Womb?

• Jesus – Knowledgeable in the Jewish View of Being Born From Above
• Bad People are Born From Below
• “Born From Above” Indicates the Source of Your Morality
• The Broad Path from Above to Below
• Those who Received Jesus were Already Born of God
• Our Default Setting at Birth: Good, Righteous, and Born from Above
• Human Conscience is Given by God
• Molding a Child’s God-Given Conscience for Righteousness and Salvation

• John’s Epistle About Being Born from Above

• Peter’s Testimony Regarding 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

• Why Jesus was Sent

And we won’t get fooled again! [followed by iconic drumming and guitar work].

Well those of us who discover the Original Paul won’t be fooled again.

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• 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

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• Primary Text for the Basis for Judgement
• Supporting Texts for the Basis for Judgement
• The Romans Road to Salvation Shows Conduct to be the Basis for Judgement
• Being Good is Righteousness, Life, and Salvation
• The Matthew Road to Salvation
• Repentance From Wickedness Works – Before the Crucifixion and After
• The Impartiality of God’s Judgement

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This is an 80 page document, a book in its own right, which is 95% scripture, making it an invaluable resource for understanding salvation and teaching others.

There are too many subheadings to include as bullet points so I’ve just listed the chapter headings:

Chapter 1 – Just How Important to God is Love?
Chapter 2 – What is Agape Love?
Chapter 3 – For God so Loved the World
Chapter 4 – Christ Our Example
Chapter 5 – Let’s Get Practical
Chapter 6 – Why Righteousness Matters
Chapter 7 – What Does “Righteous” Mean?
Chapter 8 – When is a Person Considered Righteous?
Chapter 9 – Benefits of Righteousness
Chapter 10 – How Righteousness Saves Eternally
Chapter 11 – What is Salvation?
Chapter 12 – The Big Picture Narrative
Chapter 13 – How to Become Righteous If You Aren’t
Chapter 14 – Righteousness that Works – Not Works Righteousness
Chapter 15 – Righteous Leadership
Chapter 16 – Scriptures Frequently Misunderstood