Baptist Reasoning Would Mean All You Have To Do To Be Saved Is Love Your Brother
I John 2:10 is another verse that illustrates how passages like John 3:16 do not prove belief in Jesus (to the exclusion of obedience) is all we need to do to be saved. I John 2:10a reads “He that loveth his brother abideth in the light”. Notice that if the fact that John 3:16 only mentions belief as a condition of salvation proves belief is the only condition necessary, then since I John 2:10 only mentions loving your brother as a condition of salvation (abiding in the light), it would prove all a person has to do to be saved is to love his brother. Many an atheist would be saved if this reasoning holds true. But since the Bible clearly teaches atheists will not be saved (Hebrews 11:6), we know this is not sound reasoning.The only condition mentioned by I John 2:10 is loving one’s brother, but we learn from other verses (like John 3:16) that belief is also necessary and so an atheist will not be saved. And we learn from other verses (like Luke 13:3 - “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish”) that repentance is also necessary and so an unrepentant homosexual believer will not be saved. And finally, we know from other verses (like Hebrews 5:9 - Jesus “became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him”) that in addition to belief and repentance, obedience is also necessary to being saved by the death of Christ.The sum of God’s word is the truth (Matthew 4:4). We must take all it says on this and every subject.To read a written debate on if salvation is by “faith only” click on:http://www.bibledebates.info/DebatesWritten/CockrellDonahue/index.htm