What the Early Christians Believed about Salvation. David Bercot- Scroll Publishing - Faith Alone

Hi, I'm David Berceau, and I am in the process of making a series of messages on what the early Christians believed in the series, which is on the subject of salvation. This is certainly the best one to start with, because unless you understand what the early Christians believed on salvation, you're not going to adequately understand what they believed to say about baptism or eternal security or a lot of other topics. But before we go into the subject itself, I think it might be good to address for a moment the question of why do we even care what the early Christians believed? Is this simply a historical exercise? No, it's not just a historical exercise. I'm not making this series of messages out of academic interest.

Rather, I think we all need to pay close attention to what the primitive church believed. And by the primitive church or the early Christians, I'm talking about the Christians who lived before the time of the Council of Nicaea, where you have the beginning. It actually began a little bit before then, but of the church and the state basically merging into one entity. In particular, I'm interested in what the Christians believed in the second century. In other words, in the first century after the apostles, the first hundred years after the last apostle died, what did they believe? And the reason this should be of interest to all of us is that the first generation of those Christians, I'm talking about the second century Christians, men like Polycarp and Ignatius, they actually learned the gospel.

They received the gospel from the apostles themselves. Now, it doesn't mean that because they received it from the apostles that they were infallible, that they were beyond corruption or anything like that. But obviously, they were in a position to better understand the apostolic faith than we are, because they received it firsthand. They could ask questions. I mean, wouldn't it be nice today if we could ask Paul, "Would you clarify what you meant by this?" Or the devil asked John, "Now, what did you mean when you said this or that?" Well, see, Ignatius, Polycarp, Clement of Rome, these men had the opportunity to do that. Not only that, they spoke Greek. That was their native tongue.

It wasn't something they went to seminary and studied and still weren't fluent in it or didn't fully grasp it. It's what they grew up talking. No language barrier there, no culture barrier. They lived in the same culture as the apostles. They could understand the setting of what was happening. So even though they weren't infallible, the odds would be that if what they believe the scriptures are saying and what we believe the scriptures are saying, if we differ, they're more likely to be right than we are. Obviously, the scriptures are our final source of authority. But as we're going to see in this series of messages, everything they believed has very strong scriptural support. And so if nothing else, it's worth our time to at least look at it and to ask ourselves, "Is it possible that maybe I'm wrong on this?

Maybe my church is wrong on this one point?" Okay, so that's why we're looking into this. Now, the general plan I'm going to be following throughout each of these messages is that I will first briefly explain what they believed. And then I'm going to be reading to you from their own writings so that you can hear it from their mouth. It's not just me making up something or altering something to fit my views. It's what they themselves said. And I'll try to give you a volume and page reference. This would be to the Anti-Nicene Father set. So you can go and find the quote yourself. I want you to check up on me. I don't want you to listen to these and say, "Okay, this is what they believe."

Go and dig it out and see for yourself. And then we're going to go to the scriptures to see if, okay, this is what they believe, but is there really a basis on the scriptures for believing the way they did? Now, what I've found to be universally true is that their beliefs always encompass the totality of scripture. In other words, it's not a matter of proof texting, pulling this verse out and saying, "See, this is what the apostolic faith is," and then you've got this other verse over here that you kind of hide. Or if someone finds it, you say, "Well, no, it doesn't really mean that." With them, you don't have a proof text problem because they're not taking one verse.

They're taking the totality of the New Testament. If we look at all these verses, what do they mean? And I've also found that, and I can't really think of an exception, there may be one or two, but I can't think of any, that their understanding is always the most literal reading of scripture. So it's both literal, plus it takes into account all the verses instead of being based on one or two verses. Now, please don't be alarmed if, as you listen to these various messages, that you find that what they believe doesn't fit what you believe. Because I'm going to tell you upfront, it probably won't. I mean, when I started this journey, which was, wow, 17 years ago, I found only about maybe 10 to 20 percent of what I grew up believing turned out to be correct.

So I probably have had to do more changing of my views than any of the people listening to my messages or reading my books. Okay, with that, now let's get into the topic of what the early Christians believed about salvation. I think it's probably safe to say that most of you have either grown up with or have been converted to the Reformation understanding of salvation. The teaching of salvation was a central theme of the Reformation that was started by Martin Luther. Now, as probably all of us know, he taught that we are saved by faith alone. Our works don't play any role in our salvation at all. Now, that's what we usually hear. Now, actually, if you want to be more precise, Luther really didn't teach that we're saved by faith alone.

I mean, when you look at everything that he said, because what he taught is that before the creation of mankind, we were all arbitrarily predestined by God for either salvation or for damnation. When I say arbitrarily, I mean it wasn't based on God's foreknowledge that he saw that we would have faith in his Son, so he determined then that we would be among the elect. No, he made that decision based on no criteria. So if we have faith, it's because we were predestined to have faith. So it's not our faith that saves us, it's the predestination that saves or damns us. Now, my experience has been that most evangelicals don't really hold to the Reformation doctrine of salvation.

That is, they really do believe in salvation by faith alone, not Martin Luther's version of that, because they do believe that there is hope of salvation for all people. In fact, my experience has been that even people who say they believe in predestination really don't when it gets down to the nitty-gritty, because they'll pray for the lost as though their prayers can really make a difference. But if we've all been arbitrarily predestined, our prayers aren't going to make one iota of difference at all. It was because of this doctrine of predestination that came out of the Reformation that was a central theme of the Reformation that initially Protestants were not as mission-minded as the Roman Catholics were.

Because again, why worry about the heathens living off in some other part of the world? If they're going to be saved, they're going to be saved. And if not, there's nothing you can do to change that situation. But what we know today as salvation by faith alone, which most Bible-believing Christians hold to, generally, we are so insistent on this doctrine of salvation by faith alone that we would consider somebody as not even being saved, as not being a real Christian, if they doubt this teaching. In other words, what most evangelicals would believe is that the only work that can affect your salvation is to hold to wrong theology. Other sins or errors may affect your relationship with God and your reward in heaven, but they're not going to affect the fact that you will be in heaven.

On the other hand, holding a wrong understanding of theology will keep you out of heaven. Now, I mean, no one preaches that in a sermon, but I mean, let's be honest, that's what evangelicals believe, that there really is a work. It's your theology. Yesterday, I was driving to a small town about 30 miles from where I lived, and I passed by a small country Baptist church, and on the billboard out front, the sign, it said, "You are not saved by what you do, but by what Christ did for you." And I think most evangelicals would say, "Yes, I agree with that statement." However, being the ever-contrarian that I guess I am, I would have to say again that evangelicals really don't believe that.

They don't believe that you are not saved by what you do, but by what Christ did for you. Because they do think that we are saved by something we do. You have to invite Jesus in your heart or pray the sinner's prayer, or you're not saved. It doesn't matter if you have faith in Jesus Christ. If you believe that he's the Son of God, if you believe in his deity, if you believe he died for your sins, you could believe all of those things, which almost everybody who uses the name Christian would believe in those things. But a typical evangelical would say, "No, it's not enough just to believe in those things. Have you accepted Christ as your personal Savior?

Have you invited Jesus into your heart? And if not, then you're not saved." So, you know, on one hand, we say you're not saved by what you do, but in reality, we teach that you are. That is not just your faith alone.

Secondly, even though, as I said before, I don't think any evangelical would acknowledge this, I think nearly all evangelicals believe in salvation through theology. That is, if you believe that your actions, your works of obedience play any role in your salvation, then you can't be saved. Or if you doubt the divinity of Christ or have a wrong understanding of his deity, you can't be saved. I mean, that is what most evangelicals believe.

So let me say, we say faith alone, but it's really faith plus theology. Now, in case you're wondering, I'm not picking on evangelicals. When I started this whole journey 17 years ago, that's where I was. I was a member of an evangelical church. And so I'm not singling out evangelicals. It's just this is where I was, and this has been my point of reference to compare the early church. But through my study of the early church, I have found there's certainly a lot of diversion between what they believed, a difference between what they believed and what evangelical Christians tend to believe. And the same statement would be true. A lot of difference between what they believed and what Roman Catholics believe, or I mean, you put any name in there that you want.

Now, if there's anything, though, that the average Bible-believing Christian would expect to find that the disciples of the apostles believed, it would be this doctrine of salvation by faith alone. Because, I mean, that's considered by most Bible-believing Christians as a bedrock of the faith. I mean, it's a theme that's hammered on in nearly every evangelical sermon, every tract, and as I mentioned, even on church billboards. So it comes as a total shock to most Bible-believing Christians when I tell them that the early Christians didn't teach this at all. I mean, it came initially as quite a shock to me. I mean, even though I wasn't raised with the evangelical doctrine of salvation, I had converted to that view.

As I said, I was a member of an evangelical church. At the same time, though, I was painfully aware that there were an awful lot of Bible verses that didn't seem to fit our doctrine of salvation. Still, the doctrine of salvation by faith alone was hammered into all of us so thoroughly. I mean, even if you questioned it, you were afraid to ever really deny it. You would say, "Well, no, I'm not denying it, but there's a problem here or there," because it was so hammered in all of us, as I said.

Well, I think I've tantalized you enough, and now I owe it to you to explain to you what the early Christians believed about salvation. And the starting point is recognizing that they believed that our salvation comes in two stages. And really, unless a person understands that there are two stages of salvation, he or she's never going to understand the New Testament teaching on this subject.

All right, what are these two stages? The first stage is we are saved by grace through faith at the time that we believe in Christ, repent of our past sins, and are baptized in water. There's no works involved in this at all.

Now, we are involved in it. We have to believe, we have to repent, et cetera. But that doesn't merit our salvation. It's not something we do to earn it. It's a step of responsibility on our part. Well, what happens at this first stage? What does it mean to be saved at this first level? Okay, first of all, it means that all of our past sins are washed away. We start with a clean slate. If you died immediately after being saved, you would go straight to paradise. In other words, it's a completed work at that point. It's not like it's half done and then something more has to be added to it. You are saved if you died right then.

You go to paradise. Again, now I'm telling you what the early Christians believe. You're born again at that time. You're a new creature in Christ. You're a Son of God adopted into his family. And as a new creature, you receive the Holy Spirit. Okay, well, what doesn't happen then at this first stage, you may be wondering. Well, what doesn't happen is you aren't perfect. You're still capable of sinning.

I said that all of your past sins are forgiven. I didn't say all of your future sins. The early Christians believe that future sins are not pre-forgiven at baptism. In other words, you start with a clean slate, but you can muddy that slate again.

Now, all of our favorite evangelical verses about being saved by faith alone, that not of works, all of that, and all the verses that speak about our salvation in the past tense, they're all speaking about this first stage of salvation. What role did the early Christians believe that theology plays in this? Well, they would have said some theology is essential, but very, very little. In fact, I find that the early Christian salvation is actually more centered on grace than the modern evangelical view. And normally, a person was instructed in the rudiments of the faith before baptism, particularly as we get further away from the first century. But the only doctrine you had to know were the basics that are contained in the Apostles' Creed.

I'll just read that creed to you. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to Hades, on the third day rose again from the dead, ascended to heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

From there, he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic, or means universal church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Well, that's, I'd say, simple enough. If you didn't believe those things, then you would not really have even a minimal grasp of the Christian faith.

And yet, at the same time, the primitive church wouldn't have said that even all of those beliefs were necessarily essential for salvation. I say that because they generally recognize the baptism of heretics to be valid. In other words, they believe that the one who grants you salvation is Jesus himself, not the person who instructs you in the faith, not the person who baptizes you. And they believe that his grace can even cover doctrinal errors if he so chooses.

But don't misunderstand me here. I'm not saying that they believe that heretics are generally assured of salvation. This issue of the validity of their baptism only came up when persons heard the gospel through a heretical sect, but later were converted to orthodoxy, and the question arose, did they need to be rebaptized at that time? So definitely, we can say the early Christians believed in salvation by faith and by grace.

But that's this first stage. You remember I said earlier that what I found is that their theological understandings nearly always embrace all of the scriptures instead of just taking part of them and having to shove the other ones under the rug.

Now, see, all these verses that talk about you're saved by faith and, you know, salvation in the past tense, they didn't throw those out. They believed all of that. But they also believed all the other verses that talk about it as a future thing. And so that's why they saw that salvation. There's two different stages of our salvation. The second stage is this, that we maintain our saved condition by holding fast to our faith and living in obedience to Christ's commandments.

But please understand, we're already saved. We're not doing these things to earn salvation. We do these things to maintain our already saved condition. Now, they didn't believe you have to live perfectly, that if you sin, if you violate one commandment of Jesus Christ, then you're starting over. No, they understood from beginning to end, salvation is a process of grace, that God's grace is there. His power is there in dwelling in us. And they didn't believe that there's any mechanical works that we can do. I mean, these aren't brownie point sort of things that we start stacking up brownie points by doing this or that. No, they believe that the essence of Christianity is an obedient love relationship with Jesus Christ.

And so our final salvation is not determined until we die because we can lose our faith. The scriptures are full of examples of people who lost their faith like Judas. Or we can deny Christ with the way that we live, even though with our lips we profess to believe in him as our Lord and our Savior. Our actions can totally deny that. Now, on that particular topic, there's going to be a message on what they believe on eternal security. And so I will discuss more of that particular aspect in that message. Now, I want to read to you some passages from their writings. So everything that I've just told you, you can hear out of their mouths.

And then after I read to you these, we're going to go back to scripture and see if all of this is in the scripture. Because if it's not, then it doesn't matter what they believed. Now, after each quote, I'm going to give you a volume and page, and that's referring to the Anti-Nicene Father set, the 10-volume set. And like I said, I would really encourage you, go and look not just at the quote that I've read, but the surrounding passages to check up on me, make sure I'm pulling things out of context. And I'm going to be reading these now in chronological order, starting with the earliest, with men who were actual disciples of the apostles.

And I know it can get a little tedious listening to just quotations, but this is such an important subject. I think it's important that you know that this is coming right from their mouths, that this isn't something David Berceau is making up.

All right, we begin with Clement of Rome, who's actually even mentioned in the scriptures. He was a fellow worker of Paul and was made the overseer elder there in the church in Rome in the first century. He writes, "All of these persons, therefore, were highly honored and were made great. This was not of their own sake or for their own works or for the righteousness which they wrought, but through the operation of his will. And we too, being called by his will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor are we justified by our own wisdom, understanding, godliness, or works that we have done in holiness of heart. Rather, we are justified by that faith through which from the beginning Almighty God has justified all men."

Now, that's volume one, page 13. Clement of Rome would have written this letter around the year 96. I mean, this is probably the apostle John was still alive when he wrote this or somewhere right about the time of his death. And I should have mentioned these first quotes I'm reading are dealing with this first stage of salvation. I don't want anyone to accuse the early Christians of believing that you earn your salvation by works. Because as we're going to see from these quotes, I mean, they held to what would essentially sound like an evangelical view of salvation, but it's talking about this first stage of salvation. Okay, I'll go another one from Clement of Rome.

Still on volume one, page 13. "For what reason was our father Abraham blessed? Was it not because he worked righteousness and truth through faith? Ignatius, a personal disciple of the apostle John, he was ordained as an overseer or bishop during the lifetime of John, and he died as a martyr around the year 105. And this is what he wrote, volume one, page 63. Therefore, let us not be ungrateful for his kindness, for if he were to reward us according to our works, we would cease to be."

A letter, it's an anonymous work entitled or known as Letter to Diogenes. It was written probably around the year 125, perhaps later, sometime certainly in the second century. Find this on volume one, page 28. He wrote, "Being convinced at that time of our unworthiness of attaining life through our own works, it is now through the kindness of God been graciously given to us. Accordingly, it is clear that in ourselves, we were unable to enter into the kingdom of God. However, through the power of God, we can be made able." Polycarp, a personal disciple of the apostle John, was ordained as an overseer in the church at Smyrna by one or more apostles, and he died faithfully as a martyr.

This letter was written about the year 135 because he lived to a ripe old age. Find it in volume one, page 33. "Into this joy, many persons desire to enter. They know that by grace you are saved, not of works, but by the will of God through Jesus Christ. But he who raised him up from the dead will raise us up also if we do his will and walk in his commandments and love what he loved, keeping ourselves from all unrighteousness." Now, see there, you see the two stages being saved by grace, not of works, and he will raise us up if we do his will.

All right, Irenaeus. This is written about the year 170 or 180. And Irenaeus was a personal disciple of Polycarp. So Irenaeus is only, there's only one link, one middleman between him and the apostles themselves. He writes, this is in volume one, page 450. "The Lord himself, who is Emmanuel from the Virgin, is the sign of our salvation. It was the Lord himself who saved them, for they could not be saved by their own instrumentality.

Therefore, when Paul explains human infirmity, he says, 'For I know that there dwells in my flesh no good thing.' It thus shows that the good thing of our salvation is not from us, but from God. And again, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?' Here we see that we must be saved by the help of God, not by ourselves." Again, from Irenaeus, volume one, page 478. That previous one was volume one, page 450. "No one indeed, while placed out of reach of the Lord's benefits, has power to procure for himself the means of salvation. So the more we receive his grace, the more we should love him."

Again, from Irenaeus, volume one, page 517. "He confers his free gifts upon those who should receive them." Again, volume one, page 528, from Irenaeus. "Christ redeems us righteously," talking about from the apostasy, "by his own blood. But as regards those of us who have been redeemed, he does this by grace. For we have given nothing to him previously, nor does he desire anything from us, as if he stood in need of it." All right, moving to another writer, Clement of Alexandria. He was a teacher in the church in Alexandria, Egypt. Probably was an elder or overseer there. This would have been written about the year 195. You can find it in volume two of the Anti-Nicene Fathers, page 172.

He writes, "The apostolic scripture speaks in this manner. After that, the kindness and love of God our Savior to man appeared, not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. Behold the might of the new song. It has made men out of stones and out of beasts. Furthermore, those who were as dead, since they were not partakers of the true life, have come to life again." Tertullian. This was written about the year 207. Some of his writings would date back to the 190s. Find this in volume three, page 376. He says, "Her repentance as a sinner deserved forgiveness according to the mind of the Creator, who is accustomed to prefer mercy to sacrifice.

But even if the stimulus of her repentance proceeded from her faith, she heard her justification by faith pronounced through her repentance in the words, 'Your faith has saved you.' This was by him," talking about Jesus, "who had declared by Habakkuk that just men will live by his faith."

Again, Tertullian in volume three, page 432, writes, "It is the office of Christ's gospel to call men from the law to grace." Origen, writing about the year 228. This is in volume 10, page 333, writes, and he was discussing a scripture passage. The passage declares that before God, no living being will be justified. This shows that in comparison with God and the righteousness that is in him, no one, even of the most perfect saints, will be justified. We might take an illustration from another scenario, saying that, for example, no candle can give light before the sun. By that, we do not mean that the candle will not give out light, but that only that it will not be seen when the sun outshines it.

Cyprian, he was overseer or bishop in the church of Carthage around the year 250, writes this in one of his letters. This is volume five, page 533. "We must boast in nothing, since nothing is our own. In the gospel according to John," quoting now, "no one can receive anything unless it were given him from heaven."

Finally, I'm going to read to you a quote from an anonymous treatise written about the year 257. It's concerning the subject of rebaptism. You can find it in volume five, page 677. And the quote from Cyprian, I don't think I said that reference. It's volume five, page 533. "Our Lord says to the paralytic man, 'Be of good cheer, my son. Your sins are forgiven you.'" He said this so that he could show that hearts were purified by faith for the forgiveness of sins which would follow. Similarly, the woman who was a sinner in the city obtained this same remission of sins. For the Lord said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven you.'

From all of these things, it is shown that hearts are purified by faith, souls are washed by the Spirit, and bodies are washed by water. Finally, by blood, we may more readily attain at once to the rewards of salvation." Now, after hearing those quotes, you might be thinking, "David, they don't believe any different than evangelicals do." That's the same thing that's preached in every Baptist church around the country. That's true. But again, as I said, you got to remember there are two stages. If we don't, we end up not only misreading them, we're also misreading the scriptures. Now, I'm going to read to you quotations that deal with this second part of salvation, maintaining the gift that was given to us by our obedient love relationship with Jesus Christ.

And most of the writers I'm about to quote to you will be the same ones we just read. So let no one accuse them of ignoring the scriptures talking about salvation by grace or by faith, not of works, and all of that. They knew all of that, and they believed all of that. The difference between them and today's church is that they believed all these other verses as well. They didn't shove them under the rug.

Okay, let's start off with Barnabas, one of the earliest writings that we have outside of the New Testament. Some scholars date this as early as the year 70. I don't think anyone dates it any later than the year 130. It's in volume one, page 148. Here, Barnabas says, "The way of light then is as follows. If anyone desires to travel to the appointed place, he must be zealous in his works."

See, salvation is a matter of traveling. He's talking, writing to people who are already saved, but then there's this journey you have to continue on. Again, he writes page 149 of volume one. "He who keeps them," talking about the commandments, "will be glorified in the kingdom of God. However, he who chooses other things will be destroyed with his works." Clement of Rome, we talked about earlier, page 13 of volume one, writes, "We are justified by our works and not our words." Again, on page 11 of volume one, he wrote, "Take he beloved, lest his many kindnesses lead to the condemnation of us all. For thus it must be unless we walk worthy of him and with one mind to do those things which are good and well-pleasing in his sight."

Another quote from Clement of Rome on page 14 of volume one. "Let us therefore earnestly strive to be found in the number of those that wait for him in order that we may share in his promised gifts. But how beloved will this be done?

It will be done only by the following things. If our understanding is fixed by faith towards God, if we earnestly seek the things that are pleasing and acceptable to him, if we do the things that are in harmony with his blameless will, and if we follow the way of truth, casting away from us all unrighteousness and iniquity." Now again, this man was a personal companion of Paul. It's spoken of by Paul in his letter to the Galatians as my fellow worker, Clement, a man approved by the apostles and by the other Christians of his day.

Ignatius, the disciple of John, wrote volume one, page 51, about the year 105, that he may both hear you and perceive by your works that you are indeed the members of his son. Again, page 55, "The tree is made manifest by its fruit. So those who profess themselves to be Christians will be recognized by their conduct. It is better for a man to be silent and be a Christian than to talk and not be one." The earliest sermon that we have written down, it's sometimes called Second Clement, found in volume seven, page 518, we hear this exhortation. "This then is our reward if we will confess him by whom we have been saved. But in what way will we confess him?

We confess him by doing what he says, not transgressing his commandments, and by honoring him not only with our lips, but with all our heart and all our mind. Let us then not only call him Lord, for that will not save us. For he says, 'Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will be saved, but he that works righteousness. For that reason, brethren, let us confess him by our works, by loving one another.'" Again, in that same message found in volume seven, page 519, "Therefore, brethren, by doing the will of the Father and keeping the flesh holy and observing the commandments of the Lord, we will obtain eternal life." A writing called The Shepherd, written by a certain Hermas, dates back to about the year 150, found in volume two, page 10, this quote, "He will bestow on them the blessing which he has promised them with much glory and joy, if only they will keep the commandments of God, which they have received in great faith."

Again, on page 25 of volume two, he writes, "Only those who fear the Lord and keep his commandments have life with God. But as for those who do not keep his commandments, there is no life in them." Justin Martyr, writing about the year 160, found in volume one, page 165, said, "If men by their works show themselves worthy of his design, they are deemed worthy of reigning in company with him, being delivered from corruption and suffering. This is what we have received. Those who choose what is pleasing to him are on account of their choice deemed worthy of incorruption and of fellowship with him." Again, he writes in volume one, page 217, "But there is no other way than this: to become acquainted with this Christ, to be washed in the fountain spoken of by Isaiah for the remission of sins and for the rest to live sinless lives."

Milito, an early Christian leader, writing about the year 170, writes this, "He has set before you all these things and shows you that if you follow after evil, you will be condemned for your evil deeds. But if you follow goodness, you will receive from him abundant good life together with immortal life forever." Now, I can imagine this is beginning to get a little bit tedious just listening to a bunch of quotes being read.

And we're nearly done. We're nearly done. But I just ask that you please stay with me here because I want you to be hearing this from their own mouths. And by the abundance of quotations I'm giving you, I want you to see beyond any doubt that this is truly what they believed, not what just one or two of them believed. But I'm quoting to you from the vast majority of all of the writers. And nobody else presented a different view than this. You won't find any writing in all of those 10 volumes that presents a different view of salvation than that. One, we are saved by grace. That's the first stage of our salvation. Two, we maintain this gift of salvation through an obedient life, a life that is focused on Jesus Christ, a life in which the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us and that we are bound to our Lord and to his Father by love.

I'm going to read to you from Theophilus. And he's from the east. These writers, some were Western, some were Eastern, some were in North Africa, some were in Europe, some were in the Middle East. This is all over the known world of that time. He writes, and this is an apologetic work, explaining Christianity to pagans, volume two, page 93. He says, "To those who by patient continuance and well-doing seek immortality, he will give life everlasting." And again, from Theophilus, volume two, page 105, "That then which man brought upon himself through carelessness and disobedience, God now saves to him as a gift through his own philanthropy and pity when men obey him. For man drew death upon himself by disobeying.

So by obeying the will of God, he who wants to can procure for himself life everlasting. For God has given us a law and holy commandments, and everyone who keeps them can be saved. And obtaining the resurrection, he can inherit incorruption." Irenaeus, who was not only the personal disciple of Polycarp, he was also overseer or bishop in the church in Lyon, France. Modern-day France, it was called Gaul in his day. Volume one, page 468. And I read to you all those quotes about being saved by grace, etc.

But this is the second stage. He writes, "To believe in him is to do his will." That's page 468. And now page 511 of volume one from Irenaeus. "Those who believe God and follow his word receive that salvation that flows from him. On the other hand, those who depart from him and despise his teachings and by their deeds bring dishonor on him who made them heap up against themselves most righteous judgment." Once more from Irenaeus, page 525. "With respect to obedience and doctrine, we are not all the sons of God. Rather, it is only those who truly believe in him and do his will. Now, those who do not believe and do not obey his will are sons and angels of the devil.

Those who do not obey him, being disinherited by him, having ceased to be his sons." You see, if you notice how much they equate believing with how we live, that if we do not live by his teachings, we don't really believe in him. Clement of Alexandria, volume two, page 230. "All of humanity stands in need of Jesus so that we may not continue intractable and remain sinners to the end and thus fall into condemnation." And again from him, page 350 of volume two. "To obey the word whom we call the instructor is to believe him, going against him in nothing." And again, volume two, page 354 from Clement of Alexandria. "Now the just will live by faith," quoting from scripture, "which is according to the covenant and the commandments."

And again from him, page 363. "It is the will of God that he who repents of his sins and is obedient to the commandments should be saved." Now going to Tertullian. This was written about the year 200, volume three, page 517. He says, "It is for this reason," talking about the Gnostics, "that they neither regard works as necessary for themselves, nor do they observe any of the calls of duty, eluding even the necessity of martyrdom or any pretense that may suit their pleasure." Finally, I'm reading to you from Hippolytus, writing about the year 205. Another leader in the early church. Find this in volume five, page 181. "This shows that transgressions are blotted out and that reconciliation is made for sins.

But who are the ones who have reconciliation made for their sins, except those who believe on his name and propitiate his countenance by good works?" Of course, our faith rests on the scriptures, not on the early Christians. So now let's go back and look at the scriptures. Did these people just make all of this up, or is what they said there in the New Testament? Now, I'm going to assume that you're already familiar with the scriptures that talk about the first stage of salvation, that we are saved by grace, by faith, not of works. And I'll have to apologize if you're not familiar with those verses. There's certainly many of them throughout the New Testament.

So what I want to focus on now are the verses that teach the other half of salvation, the second stage of maintaining the gift that was given to us. And I think that part of the main question in your mind right now is, do the scriptures really speak of two phases of salvation, or is that something the early Christians made up?

Well, let me read to you two verses in scripture. Ephesians 2, verse 8. "For by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works." A good evangelical passage and definitely a statement that is true. You notice there he talks in the past tense. You have been saved, okay?

Now look at what Jesus said, Matthew 10:22. "He who endures to the end will be saved, will be saved." Now he's talking about future. See, there's two tenses being used in the New Testament. Sometimes it's a past thing, sometimes it's a future thing. And when we don't recognize that, we come up with doctrines that are only holding to half of the gospel. Either we're losing the part that talks about maintaining our faith, maintaining our salvation, or we're ignoring the part that salvation is a gift by God's grace that we don't have to earn it. And most groups fall in one camp or the other. They either throw out the ones on grace or they throw out the ones on obedience, the first stage or the second stage.

But now let's start with Jesus Christ. What did Jesus teach? What did the gospel that Jesus brought to us dealing with now this second stage? Matthew 7:21. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven." John 15, verse 10. "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love."

John 8:31. "If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed." John 8:51. "If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." Matthew 25, verses 33 through 35. "He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those on his right hand, 'Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink.'" John 15, verse 1, verse 6. "I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.

If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. And they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned." Luke 13, verse 24. "Strive to enter through the narrow gate. For many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able." Strive, he says. Boy, a word you wouldn't dare say today.

John 5, verses 28 and 29. "The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation." So if in your mind you're about to accuse the early Christians of not knowing their scriptures, of teaching heresy, well, I guess you're going to have to make the same claim against Jesus Christ because he has said nothing different than what they said, or I should put it the other way around. They have said nothing different than what Jesus Christ himself said. But what about the epistles of Paul and all of that?

Well, let's look at what he says about the second stage. We know what he says about that first stage. He says, "Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel by which also you are saved if you hold fast that word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain." That's 1 Corinthians 15, verse 1 and verse 2.

See, he says, "You are saved, but if you hold fast." See, it wasn't all over with once you believed and repented and got baptized. No, you still have to hold fast. Ephesians 5, verses 5 and 6. "For this you know that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God."

And foreseeing, I guess, what some people would be saying, he finishes, "Let no one deceive you with empty words." Again, 1 Timothy 4:16. He writes, "Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you." See, the second stage, you will be saved. He's talking to Timothy, certainly someone who had been saved, but there's another stage to our salvation. Hebrews 4:11. "Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience."

James 2:24. "You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only." Romans 2:6-7. This is from the Revised Standard. "He will render to every man according to his works. To those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life." You know, I think I could take some of these quotes from the New Testament and mix them in there with the quotes from the early Christians, and I would guess the average Christian wouldn't be able to tell them apart. In fact, I'm going to guess the average evangelical would say these quotes I'm reading to you right now from scripture were something made up by the early Christians.