Dear friends,brothers,sisters and readers, May Our Lord Jesus Christ Bless you all.
As you many have already gathered, i have started this thread so that we can as individuals put forward what we believe is nessassary for salvation, i will start with what i believe is nessassary for a person to be saved.
The first requirement for salvation is Faith,
3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.( John3:16)
But what i would like to add to this is that the faith you have must be the same faith as Jesus passed on to His Apostles and the Apostles passed on to the Church, Which is also a living faith and not a dead faith, for dead faith has no works to perfect it, as living faith does.
2:24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. (James 2:24)
Secondly, Baptism is the next step after you recieve faith,
16:16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.( Mark 16:16)
3:5 Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.(John 3:5)
6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.(Romans 6:4)
These scriptures all teach that he who is baptized will be saved, and that we must be baptized to be saved, and that baptism is when we recieve newness of life.
Thirdly The Eucharist is needed to be partaken of to be saved,
6:51 I amthe living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.
6:52 The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?
6:53 Then Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
6:54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
6:55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.(John 6:51-55)
So as is obvious from what Jesus said if we do not partake of the Eucharist we have no salvation.
Next is Confession,
1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.( 1 John 1:9)
20:23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.( John 20:23)
Both these scriptures show that confession is a biblical practice, and secondly that confession is to be done with a priest, as from Johns gospel we see Jesus passing on Authority to His Apostles to forgive or retain sin, and this is done after confession. The Apostles passed this same Authority onto there successors and has been passed on from them to this preswent day.
And last but not least Christianity has to have Priests, for without a priesthood there is not Sacraments of Baptism,Confession and the Eucharist, besides all Christian Churches should have an Altar, from which the priesthood ministers,
13:10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.( Hebrews 13:10)
19:19 In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border.(Isaiah 19:19)
The Book of hwbrews teaches that christian church have an altar that the christians partake of, and in Isaiah the Old testament speaks of an Altar in Egypt, now this could only be a christian altar as teh Jews only had one altar and that was in Jerusalem, so this altar in Egypt is speaking of a christian altar.
So to summerize what i believe is needed for salvation
1. Faith
2. Baptism
3. Eucharist
4. Confession
5. Priesthood
Please anyone feel free to refute me if you believe i have spoken untruthfully or if you think that you can offer me some support to my arguement, remember this is a friendly forum and we are all intelligent and reasonable people, otherwise you would'nt be here, so lets have fun
May God Bless your life
Macarius