Who can be saved?

Can Catholics? can oneness Pentecostals? can Baptists?

We should probably dispense with the idea of salvation-by-category except for that category spiritually defined around Jesus as the faithful.
What had these disciples done except give loyal-recognition to Jesus.

While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. Someone said to Him, "Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You." But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?" And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, "Behold My mother and My brothers! "For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother." (Mat 12:46-50)

And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, "Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven." And some of the scribes said to themselves, "This fellow blasphemes." And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, "Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? "Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, and walk'? "But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"--then He *said to the paralytic, "Get up, pick up your bed and go home." And he got up and went home. But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men. (Mat 9:2-8)

I would not want to be guilty of diminishing "doctrine" but it is Christ who, in his doctrine, teaches us that "they will know you by your love for one another" and that we will "know them by their fruit" and so on. His doctrine so thoroughly adds up to "in our loyalty to Christ, be Christ-like". Humble submission to His teaching would stand in contrast to our being fastidious about our extra-biblical inferences, or even censorious about a proper organization of biblical data.

"Pistos", which we normally have as faith, is loyal-recognition, or loyal-acknowledgment and thereby "pistos" is received by God, personally. Also, since it is directed by the various faithful individuals toward the person of God, we notice it is directed by individuals who are at various levels of apprehension of the scripturally revealed information about this person of God to whom they are each directly loyal.

However, the one who is loyal, by definition cannot persist in despising the teaching (doctrine) of the one to whom he is loyal.
And a bit more, none of this is to say that "we are loyal to God by merely being loyal to the god of our(?) understanding". If one is personally loyal to the God of Abraham, he or she necessarily demonstrates that loyalty in these last days by loyalty to the person of His Son.

I simply think that we should be cautious to distinguish between a submitted loyalty to Christ and His authoritative teaching, over against loyalty to our institutions and pronouncements. The Lord may be making quite the distinction as He looks on the faith of those who would be His people, individually...even the least of them.

As you study with this in mind, notice those who have a loyal-recognition of Jesus in the Gospels and praise God with me at the amazing benefits. Their greatest needs are met. Their sins are forgiven...you know, awesome stuff like that. And Jesus is still available to you and me now...through His word, by his Spirit, and in his actual position at the right hand of the Father...to be the proper object of our loyal-recognition.

The Lord is patient with His little flock. Perhaps this is why we hear Him calling His own to come out of false religion represented by the Harlot and Babylon.

I heard another voice from heaven, saying, "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. (Rev 18:4-5)

Reading with borrowed ability

...for the activity and the goal.



The goal is faith in our teacher, the activity is reading among the readers but in the presence of our Father.

Matthew 23:6-10
"They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men. "But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. "Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. "Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ."

We do well to study in, and for, a loyal and trusting recognition of Jesus. It would be a shame to study the scriptures, thinking that in them we have eternal life, and miss our opportunities for a living fidelity toward Jesus. The faith of Jesus is our goal.

The mentality that says "we are standing on the shoulders of giants" may not be the most accurate perspective. We appreciate the accurate teaching of gifted teachers who have rightly read the scriptures. Yes, we gladly read among "the readers" but if their insights are correct the correctness belongs to the LORD! The truth of the Gospel is indestructible, yet our ability to grasp and submit to it is fragile. For our studying to be done well, in the sight of God...for the activity to be conducive to our real goal...we depend on the LORD...immediately.

Confidence in the Lord should be at the heart of our studying. And so self-confidence in our ability to read and submit to it might be counter-productive. In fact even self-confidence in our ability to pick our favorite reader, or school of readers could produce the wrong effect; especially when we note the tendency to shift our loyalty away from the proper object. I think the teaching of Christ referenced above addresses our tendency to think of our communion with God as derived rather than direct. In reality both our proper reading and proper submission are an activity of directly meeting with the Lord. Our temple,the meeting place between God and man, is not made with hands.

Be the Kingdom of God or You're a Waste

Matthew 7:6 has often baffled commentators. Understood as a chiasmus this verse fits into the Sermon very well. It is an exhortation to be kingdom-people, governed by the law of Christ...or else...you will not be the valuable possession God has called you to be. You will be without value, like pearls to swine. You will be without separated-purpose, like sacrificial-meat given to dogs. On the other hand we will be like salt thats salty, and like light that illuminates; we will have special value, and be of a special purpose, IF we act on the Gospel teaching of our Lord, Jesus.

The excerpt below on the topic of chiasmus was taken from the "in the beginning" website.


In general, chiasmus refers to an inverted parallelism or sequence of words or ideas in a phrase or clause, sentence, paragraph, chapter, or an entire literary work. For example, Matthew 7:6 contains a simple chiasmus which may be represented as follows:

A "Do not give what is holy to dogs,

B and do not throw your pearls before swine,

B’ lest they trample them under their feet,

A’ and turn and tear you to pieces"

In this instance, the propositions A and B are reflected as in a reversed mirror image by the propositions B’ (said as "B prime") and A’ (said as "A prime"). By recognizing Matthew 7:6 as a chiastic structure, one can make much better sense of this verse than might otherwise be done; for it seems most logical that the dogs (A) tear to pieces (A’), and the swine (B) do the trampling (B’).