The Way Back To Truth
Frank
Christ again showed the real Gospel to the world,
that he himself is the righteousness for salvation,
just as he told his disciples he would (John 16:10),
and so he enabled the Protestant Reformation.
But today that Gospel is hardly heard anymore.
Some Lutheran and Presbyterian denominations
still teach (not merely profess)
that faith alone in Christ alone justifies,
but because even during the Reformation,
baptism was presented as though a way
in which faith comes (means of grace),
many people now trust in baptism,
including infant baptism, for salvation.
Also trust in repentance for salvation is general
among the thousands of denominations.
Even in the Reformation, repentance
was seen as a precondition for
justification in Lutheran theology,
and as an inevitable effect of being
justified in Reformed theology.
Nevertheless, both stated repentance
to be distinct from justification
and never to be trusted for salvation.
But even during the Reformation,
Anabaptists so emphasized repentance
and being a disciple, that the Reformers
were concerned that it was a departure
from justification by faith alone.
Meanwhile, the Church of England began
taking a middle course between
Catholicism and Protestantism,
with Puritans wanting the latter.
Then from the Church of England
in the 1700s came John Wesley
with Methodism in which he taught
the false "gospel" that being saved
requires repentance before justification
and requires works after justification.
>From out of Methodism, came
the Holiness movement in the 1800s.
>From out of the Holiness movement came
the Pentecostal movement in early 1900s,
which led to the Charismatic movement
and Neo-Charismatics from about 1960 on.
The way back to the real Scriptural Gospel
that Christ showed to enable the Reformation
and that is the only Gospel that gives eternal life,
is to go back to the Biblical Gospel as shown
by Christ himself at the moment he gave
it to enable that Reformation:
Back before the Gospel was clouded up
by things retained from Catholicism,
such as glorifying baptism and sacrament
as though means of grace;
back before the Gospel was replaced
by trust in things in addition to Christ,
such as repentance and baptism,
rather than keeping trust on Christ alone;
back when the imputed righteousness of Christ,
the core of the real Gospel,
was cherished rather than disregarded
as "older Protestant theology".
The real Gospel is based on Christ alone,
his imputed righteousness being
that required for salvation:
The moment Christ gives us faith to stop trusting our
"righteousness" and start trusting him to be our Righteous
Substitute so he regards his righteousness and victory ours,
we have eternal life.
(Romans 4, Ephesians 2, Philippians 3, Colossians 1,
John 6, 1 Peter 1, Preface to Luther Latin Works)
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http://roines.home.mindspring.com
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