“If we endure, we shall also reign with Him: if we shall deny Him, He also will deny us.” 2 Timothy 2:12
Listen to most any christian explain how a person is saved, and you will likely hear things about how a person must ask forgiveness for his sins (not a requirement for salvation), and accept Christ into his heart (not a requirement for salvation—not even a thing, actually), or change his sinful lifestyle into one of moral goodness (not a requirement of salvation).
When christianity abandoned the Father’s traditions (those traditions that Paul taught the Gentile converts—1 Corinthians 11:2, 2 Thessalonians 2:15), it also rejected the true path to salvation, and created its own “decision-based” counterfeit of salvation.
Ultimately, christianity’s false teachings about salvation have misled literally BILLIONS of people away from the true Gospel of Yahoshua, and into a false belief system invented by pagans and idolaters called “christianity.”
By distorting what scripture tells us about receiving salvation, christianity altered the entire path—and then threw in a false baptism as some sort of “public profession” of faith (which is not true baptism, but a perversion of the physical foreshadow under the law, which is what water baptism was—a SYMBOL of the future-revealed spiritual real substance of baptism, which is the covering of the Holy Spirit).
By teaching a false salvation that is a decision man makes, christianity ignores the actual path to salvation shown to us in scripture’s entirety (by ignoring the first part of the book, christianity presents a half truth—and half truths are more aptly called “lies”).
The ancient Jewish people we see in the Old Testament are a physical object lesson for us—they are a physical foreshadow of Messiah’s bride, whose name is Y’isra-el (“rules as God”).
When the ancient physical Jews received the physical covenant (Ten Commandments), it was a picture of Messiah’s bride (a spiritual people, not a physical one) receiving the spiritual covenant on the Feast of Weeks, which was seven Sabbaths plus one day from Messiah’s resurrection on the Feast of Firstfruits (Acts 2).
The journey the ancient Jewish people took out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and ultimately to the mountain to receive the covenant, was mirrored in the way of the tabernacle—the priestly progression from the Outer Courtyard (Egypt), through the Holy Place (wilderness), and into the Holy of Holies (the mountain), where the covenant was housed within the Ark (a symbol of the bride).
So, the false salvation peddled by christianity would have one believe that the ancient Jewish people received their covenant in Egypt, rather than leaving Egypt, going through the wilderness being led by the Holy Spirit, and then reaching the mountain and waiting to receive their covenant.
The false salvation taught by christianity would have one believe that the covenant was located in the Outer Courtyard, and not the Holy of Holies, and then, to add insult to heresy, the false baptism of christianity would require an additional room AFTER receiving the covenant, wherein baptism (which is located in the Outer Courtyard—BEFORE the covenant) would be performed in front of an audience AFTER the covenant (the physical covenant foreshadowed the seal of the Holy Spirit).
It’s a counterfeit!
As we’re told in 2 Timothy 2:12, the ONLY way to reign with Messiah is to endure in belief until the covenant is received. Those who do not endure by confessing Messiah Yahoshua to everyone around them will not receive eternal life, and will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Making a decision is NOT enduring.
It is for that reason that Messiah Yahoshua said in Luke 8:13 that “the seeds on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, welcome the word with joy. But, having no root, they believe for a while and depart in a time of testing.”
He explained that those who believe, but who do not endure in their belief by confessing Him before others (usually at great personal risk—at least in one’s relationships with family and friends), will fall away from their belief, and never receive the source of life (root) who is the Holy Spirit.
It’s the same thing we’re told in Hebrews 10:39 about those who do not shrink back (fall away) from their belief, but endure in belief all the way to the saving of their souls. Now, if salvation were merely a decision that man makes, or a prayer he prays, then why would the scriptures tell us that the saving of one’s soul is predicated upon his enduring in belief?
It is the systematic rejection of what the entirety of the scriptures shows us concerning salvation, and, that rejection by christianity is sadly based in a deep-seated hatred for anything that even sounds Jewey—so many christians stand ready to condemn anything that sounds Jewey to them as “the law.”
They blindly dismiss the true Gospel because they ignorantly believe that the Jewish Messiah who honored His Father’s traditions, died to abolish His Father’s traditions—those traditions that Paul taught to the Gentile converts and told them to “keep them.” Such thinking is absurd!
Why would the apostle Paul do that if Messiah abolished those traditions? Answer: he wouldn’t, and he didn’t. It was the inventors of christianity who rejected the Father’s traditions and codified their false religion in the fourth century, calling it the “christian religion,” or “christianity.”
Salvation is not obtained by a decision man makes, nor a prayer that he prays. Salvation is not an act of man changing his lifestyle. Salvation is not asking for forgiveness for all past sins of the flesh. So, any instance in which a preacher tells folks to “come forward and get saved” is false teaching, and that preacher is a false teacher.
Salvation is given by the Father in HIS time to those who believe in the salvation that comes through His Son Yahoshua (His name means “Yah’s salvation”), and who confess Him before others regardless of the consequences of doing so, and who endure in that belief until they are TOLD they have been made children of Yah—they have been made righteous by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who then testifies directly to them the confirmation of their redemption (Romans 8:16, 1 Corinthians 1:6-8).
Any other salvation is a false salvation. Any other path to salvation is a counterfeit of the true path. Sadly, billions of people have been lied to about what salvation is, how it is received, and how one knows he has received it. They have believed Satan’s lie from the garden that they shall not surely die!
Egypt, the wilderness, then the mountain, where the covenant was received.
The Outer Courtyard, the Holy Place, then the Holy of Holies, where the covenant indwelt the ark.
Believe, confess Messiah before others (endure in belief), then receive the covenant.
THAT is the path to salvation that the scriptures teach. There is NO scripture that states anything about belief BEING salvation (Satan and his demons believe), and there is not a single verse that states anything about “accepting Christ into one’s heart.” That is simply christianese, not truth.
There is ONE salvation given by ONE Father through belief in ONE Messiah resulting in the indwelling of ONE Holy Spirit, who teaches ONE body of truth. There are not many ways to salvation, but ONE path alone. Believe, endure in belief, receive the covenant. The false teachings of christianity lead folks to wrongly believe they are saved simply because of something THEY have done.
No, there is NO salvation until the Father does something—and, that is His declaration of adoption; it is the placing of the Holy Spirit within the one who has endured in belief by confessing Messiah before others without shrinking back from it.
Those who have never received the personal confirmation from the Holy Spirit that they have been made a child of Yah have no claim to being saved.
Sadly, those who have fallen for the counterfeit salvation pushed by christianity have been given no personal evidence that they are Yah’s children, and they wrongly think that verses of scripture confirm their salvation (something scripture CANNOT do (John 5:39), nor is it even a purpose of scripture, which is given ONLY to those who are already Yah’s children—2 Timothy 3:17).
The false salvation promulgated by christianity is responsible for the group of people we see in Matthew 7:21-23. Those folks were fully convinced on the earth that they were saved, but they are actually unsaved christians who thought they could “decide” their own salvation. Sadly, they will hear the tragic declaration from Messiah: “Depart from me, I never KNEW you.”
For more information: Between Belief and Salvation