Originally Posted by Sleeping in EQ
We have been down this road many times. Many Mormons would be well served to pay more attention to Paul, and particularly Romans 3 and 8-10. I don't know of anywhere else in scripture where such a stinging indictment of works can be found.
Still, citing Paul and calling it a day does not meet my standard of searching the scriptures for truth. I'm convinced that heterodoxy (yes, even heresy according to conventional Christian dogma) is all over the NT.
The way Paul discusses grace and works, and the way the Gospel of Matthew and Epistle of James discuss grace and works, has never been reconciled to my satisfaction. Instead I am satisfied with faction, as it were, or with striving to understand how different understandings are more salient at particular moments.
The words from 1 Peter 2:1-2 are powerful:
Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation.
Here's just a sampling of passages detailing what the NT teaches about salvation. I find it to be much less narrow than the usual dogma. With the exception of the Hebrews 5 passage, "save" (or its variation) is derived from the same Greek word, "sozo":
Ephesians 2:8: "...by grace are ye saved through faith..."
Romans 8:24: "...we are saved by hope..."
Acts 16:31: "...Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved..."
1 Corinthians 1:21: "... it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."
Titus 3:5: "...he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost."
1 Peter 3:21: "...baptism doth also now save us..."
Mark 16:16: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved..."
Romans 10:9: "...if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
James 1:21: "...receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls."
Matthew 24:13: "...he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved."
1 Timothy 2:15: "...she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety."
2 Thessalonians 2:10: "...they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved."
Hebrews 5:9: "...he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him."
1 Corinthians 5:5: "...deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
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