In this partial examination of the generally recognize requirements for salvation in the New Testament (and one passage in the Old), “be saved/achieve salvation/be given salvation,” etc., “inherit/see/share in/take part in the kingdom/reign of God/heaven,” etc., “being/being called a child/son of God,” etc., and “sins forgiven” are taken as synonymous.
Also, several strictly metaphorical or allegorical instances which Christianity as perceived by the author has designated to be intending the doctrine of salvation in their meaning are included, but labeled as such (ex: Revelation 3:20, which the author is not convinced means much about salvation without the added separate interpretation).
I use Young’s Literal Translation, because I am convinced it is the nearest to the original writings that the English language has come to date. On such topics as the centuries of mistaken translation concerning the word “Hell,” as well as “devil,” the YLT provides a much truer picture to the original words, with the added benefit of being in the Public Domain.
Promptings for references were taken from this list of requirements.
| Matthew | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Requirement | Source | Result | Explicit/Implicit? | |
| Be poor in spirit (separately interpreted spiritually needy). | Matthew 5:3 | “…theirs is the reign of the heavens.” | Explicit | |
| Be a peacemaker. | Matthew 5:9 | “…they shall be called Sons of God.” | Explicit — they shall be called his child when they do this. | |
| Be persecuted for righteousness’s sake. | Matthew 5:10 | “…theirs is the reign of the heavens.” | Implicit — they could already share in/have the reign of the heavens before this happens. | |
| Get insulted (reproached), mistreated (persecuted), and have lies told about you (evil things said about you) because of Jesus. | Matthew 5:11-12 | “…because your reward [is] great in the heavens, because thus they did persecute the prophets who were before you.” | Implicit — the end of the verse seems to suggest they will already be in Heaven, but will just have great reward there. | |
| Doing and teaching (these) commands (Jesus had just referred to the law) | Matthew 5:19 | Being called great in the reign of the heavens. | Implicit — it appears that this only applies to people already involved in the reign of the heavens, as it only refers to reward. | |
| Be more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees. | Matthew 5:20 | Without doing so, “…ye may not enter to the reign of the heavens.” | Explicit — “unless” X, “ye may not enter.” | |
| “Love your enemies, bless those cursing you, do good to those hating you, and pray for those accusing you falsely, and persecuting you” | Matthew 5:44-45 | “…that ye may be sons of your Father in the heavens…” | Implicit | |
| Don’t do your kindness before men, to be seen by them. | Matthew 6:1 | If you do, you don’t get a reward from your Father who [is] in the heavens | Implicit — this does not necessarily mean the reward is life. It could mean that doing acts of kindness in the sight of others is the reward, which takes place of a spiritual one that is given for when kind acts are not publicized. It could also mean that the motivation needs to be other than being seen doing kindness. | |
| Judge not. | Matthew 7:1-2 | You won’t be judged. | Wrong — this passage is not referring directly to the afterlife, but rather, using verse 2 as a guide to context, as just one half of a larger teaching: When you judge someone, the standard you use must and is used equally against you as well. There is no mention of the heavens or God’s family, etc., in this teaching; it seems to relate to mortal life | |
| Just ask for it. | Matthew 7:7-8 | It will be given to you. | Metaphorical — Jesus isn’t necessarily talking about the doctrine of salvation here. | |
| Do the will of Jesus’s Father who is in the heavens | Matthew 7:21 | You can come into the reign of the heavens. | Explicit | |
| Have endured to the end (of? Presumably the end of your being “hated by all because of [Jesus's] name.”) | Matthew 10:22, Matthew 24:13 | You shall be saved/rescued/delivered. | Explicit | |
| Give a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple to one of these little ones | Matthew 10:42 | You may not lose your reward | Wrong — this reward is not necessarily speaking of an afterlife. This must be thought of with that bias in order to interpret it that way. Compare Mark 9:41 below | |
| Be turned and become as the children | Matthew 18:3 | Unless you do so, you may not enter into the reign of the heavens | Explicit | |
| Obey a couple commandments and sell all you have to the poor and follow Jesus. | Matthew 19:17-22 | You shall be perfect and shall enter into the life and will have treasure in heaven | Explicit — with slightly different requirements and results from the same story in a different gospel. Compare Luke 18:18-23 below. | |
| Don’t be rich. | Matthew 19:23-24 | It makes entry into the reign of the heavens harder for you | Implicit — all Jesus is saying here is that it is only with difficulty that a rich man can enter in the reign of God. |
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| Leave your house, or brother(s), or sister(s), or father(s), or mother(s), or wife, or children, or fields, for Jesus’s name’s sake. | Matthew 19:29 | Receive 100 times what you had in all that, plus inherit life age-during. | Explicit | |
| Be invited by God and be worthy of his choosing. | Matthew 22:1-14 | Unclear result. Verse 14 “…for many are called (κλη¦τοὶ: called, invited, welcome, chosen) and few chosen (ἐ¦κλεκ¦τοί: chosen out, preferred, selected)” is responsible for great disagreement on salvation doctrines. | Metaphorical — whle this parable does begin with Jesus likening it to the reign of the heavens, the specific meaning of the parable is uncertain. The interpretations one can take from it solidly are that the king is God, the son is Jesus, and that he cast the servants out because, although they were all (good and bad alike) invited/called by the king, and one man in this instance was not wearing the clothing of the marriage-feast and was kicked out. | |
| Mark | ||||
| Don’t be ashamed of Jesus and his words (in this adulterous and sinful generation). | Mark 8:38 | If you do, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of you | Wrong — it can be true that the Son of Man be ashamed of you and that it have no bearing or relation to the afterlife. Also, the word “generation” here (γενεά, (genea), birth, race/descent/offspring/progeny, but also meaning the age occupied by a generation or “the whole multitude of men living at the same time,” [Long Definitions, New Testament. ©2007 Great Treasures.] from this root we get the word genealogy) has more meanings than the reader of English translations assumes; regardless, this by no means appears to be directed at all of humanity for the rest of time. | |
| Give a cup of cold water to those who are Christ’s | Mark 9:41 | You may not lose your reward | Wrong — this passage is not specifically dealing with afterlife. Compare Matthew 10:42 above. | |
| Mark 10:29-30 | see Matthew 19:29 above | |||
| Mark 13:13 | see Matthew 10:22 above | |||
| Believe and be baptized. | Mark 16:16 | You will be saved. | Explicit — the question of baptism as a true requirement arises from its absence in the inverse, when Jesus says, “he who hath not believed shall be condemned.” Belief seems to be the main point he wants to stress. | |
| Luke | ||||
| Don’t be rich. | Luke 6:24 | — | Metaphorical — “comfort” (παράκλησις) does not literally mean heaven or afterlife, but rather could refer to the physical riches, as well as the idea that because they have physical reward already, the afterlife award would not need to be as great to compensate. Also, the lack of a result here makes it far from explicit. | |
| Love God and your neighbor, whom Jesus describes in a parable as the Samaritan. | Luke 10:25-37 | “Thou shalt live.” | Explicit | |
| Nothing | Luke 13:20-21 | “And again he said, `To what shall I liken the reign of God? It is like leaven, which a woman, having taken, did hide in three measures of meal, till that all was leavened.’ | Implicit — is the woman God? The leaven is likened to the reign of God, but what is the leavening (the effect of the reign of God)? Are the three measures (sata) of meal humanity? Why three? The entire mixture is leavened; if the mixture is humanity, this means that all receive of the reign of God at the behest of God. | |
| Strive to go in through the straight gate because many will seek to go in and will be unable. | Luke 13:23-24 | Unclear result (Possibly a chance at getting in?) | Implicit — it is a response to the question “Are the people saved few?” | |
| Obey a couple of the commandments, sell all you have for distribution among the poor, and follow Jesus. | Luke 18:18-23 | This is how to inherit life age-during. | Explicit — but different requirements and results from the same story in a different gospel. Compare Matthew 19:17-22 above. | |
| Luke 18:29-30 | see Matthew 19:29 above | |||
| John | ||||
| Be born from above. | John 3:3 | If you don’t, you are not able to see the reign of God. | Explicit | |
| Be born of water and the Spirit. | John 3:5 | “If any one may not be born of water and the Spirit, he is not able to enter into the reign of God.” | Explicit | |
| Believe in the Son of God | John 3:16 | You won’t perish, but have life age-during. | Explicit | |
| Believe in the Son | John 3:36 | Have life age-during. | Explicit | |
| Hear the word of Jesus and believe the one who sent him. | John 5:24 | Have life age-during, do not come to judgment, but pass out of death into life | Explicit | |
| Be given by the Father and come to the Son | John 6:37 | Don’t be cast without by Jesus. | Implicit — this does not refer to the afterlife/reign/heavens outright. Once again, the assumption that Jesus means cast out of the afterlife is ungrounded. This word translated “cast out” (ἐκ¦βά¦λω, ekbalo) is the same word used when Jesus healed people of the demons afflicting them and when he drove out the moneychangers from the temple. It is not inherently metaphysical. | |
| Behold the son and believe in him | John 6:40 | Have life age-during | Explicit | |
| Be drawn (ἑλ¦κύ¦σῃ: dragged, impelled) by God first. | John 6:44 | You are then able to come unto Jesus. | Implicit — God’s drawing you is defined here as a prerequisite, with Jesus saying no man can come to him unless his Father who sent him draws that man; however, he does not say the other requirements, only that the option is only open to you once you are drawn by the Father who sent him. | |
| Believe in Jesus | John 6:47 | Have life age-during | Explicit | |
| Eat of the bread that out of the heaven is coming down. | John 6:50 | You will not die. | Implicit — the meaning of his bread analogy is cleared up in John 6:55, but the means by which we do so is not. The option of literal physical consumption was at least open to those present during this speech, despite the oddity of the option. | |
| Eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood. Otherwise you have no life in you. | John 6:53-54, 57-58 | “hath life age-during, and I will raise him up at the last day” | Explicit | |
| Come in through Jesus the parabolic door, as a parabolic sheep. | John 10:7-10 | You will be saved; you will also come in, go out, and find pasture through Jesus, who is like a door. | Implicit — this isolated verse (verse 9) is an obvious continuation of the sheep analogy, including the oft-left-out bits about going out of the door as well as entering, and about the benefit of finding pasture. | |
| Hate your life on this earth | John 12:25 | Keep it for age-during | Explicit | |
| Acts | ||||
| “and it shall be, every one — whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord…” | Acts 2:21 and surrounding verses | “…he shall be saved.” | Implicit — the surrounding verses are crucial, because they point to future events (at the time the speech was given). One finds that verse 21 is simply another prophecy in a list of them about a certain time, wherein “whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, he shall be saved.” | |
| Unspecified action toward no other name but Jesus of Nazareth only. | Acts 4:12 | “Salvation,” perhaps specifically the beggar from Acts 3, saved from his paralysis? There is no mention here of sin or of heaven(s), only a physical healing using Jesus’s name. | Given Peter’s clearer speech in Acts 3, it is explicit — “there is no other name…in which it behoveth us to be saved.” | |
| “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ…” | Acts 16:30-32 | You and your house will be saved (from?) | Implicit — Given modern Christianity’s terms, it is explicit. However, the passage itself does not denote that from which he is saved. It is probably safe to assume the jailer means what he has heard them saying/singing in prison, but our assumptions are not in the Bible. | |
| Romans | ||||
| Be a doer of the law | Romans 2:6, Romans 2:13 | Be declared righteous | Wrong — be declared righteous when? Not necessarily after death. | |
| Be known ahead of time (προ¦έ¦γνω) by God and be marked out beforehand (προ¦ώ¦ρι¦σεν) by God. | Romans 8:29-30 | Will be/are(?) called (ἐ¦κά¦λε¦σεν: could mean either vocation or designation), freed from your guilt and declared righteous (ἐ¦δι¦καί¦ω¦σεν), be thought of, considered important/given honor in the mind of God (ἐ¦δόξ¦α¦σεν). | Wrong — these verses are an explanation of the reason behind Romans 8:28, in essence putting a ‘because’ to the unspoken question “Why is it that, ‘to those loving God all things do work together for good, to those who are called according to purpose’?” Their relation to salvation or afterlife was supplied after the fact. | |
| Be chosen by God before you have done right or wrong. | Romans 9:11 | It’s up to God to choose your destiny for the afterlife. | Wrong — this verse is an explanation of what happened concerning God’s message to Rebecca about Jacob and Esau. The choice of God is what fulfills his purpose. There is no mention of the afterlife, the kingdom, the heavens, nothing of the kind; there is mention only of God’s purpose being enacted by his own choice and not by man’s works: there is no mention of that being an eternal (age-during) purpose. After all, this (Romans 9:12) refers to what happened in Esau and Jacob’s mortal lifetimes; Esau sold his birthright and thus served Jacob during his life on this planet. | |
| Confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God did raise him out of the dead | Romans 10:9 | “Thou shalt be saved.” | Explicit | |
| Romans 10:13 | see Acts 2:21 above | |||
| Be part of Israel. | Romans 11:26 | Then you will be saved, since all Israel will be saved. | Explicit — here Paul is quoting Isaiah 59:20-21. | |
| 1 Corinthians | ||||
| Believe (in/about what?) | 1 Corinthians 1:21 | God sees fit to save people through the foolishness of the preaching | Misplaced — God saves believing people through the preaching, meaning their belief came first. | |
| If you practice whoredom, deliver yourself up to the Adversary for the destruction of the flesh. | 1 Corinthians 5:15 | That the spirit be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus | Explicit | |
| Don’t separate from a spouse that is unbelieving. | 1 Corinthians 7:12-14 | An unbelieving wife/husband is sanctified in the believing husband/wife; otherwise the kids are unclean. | Explicit | |
| Ephesians | ||||
| Be chosen (predestinated) by God | Ephesians 1:3-7 | Be adopted as one of God’s family. | Wrong — the result of this choice of God is unrelated to the afterlife in this and similar passages. Here it is that God gives blessings to humanity based on his choice to do so, with verse 4 showing that mankind was considered holy and unblemished before him before the foundation (κα¦τα¦βο¦λῆς, katabolis: a casting down, an establishment with intended continuation) of the world (κό¦σμου, kosmon from kosmos: a word we have caused to mean the universe, but originally just means order, ornament, decoration, arrangement). However the teaching in Ephesians 5-7 begs clarification: God chose beforehand (before what? mainstream Christianity for some reason (tradition of past church doctrine) hastily assumes before the act of creation itself) to make mankind lovely (χά¦ρι¦τος, v. 6 “accepted”), and since Jesus bore the wages/weight of sin for humanity (which is θάνατος: death, the natural end of life, Romans 6:23), it now has redemption (payment of a ransom, v. 7) from this penalty, since Jesus’s death paid for the sin of all mankind (1 Timothy 4:10), as opposed to only those believing. | |
| 2 Thessalonians | ||||
| Love the truth / Accept the love of the truth / Receive the love of the truth. / Don’t believe the truth. | 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 | It is part of being saved. | Explicit | |
| 1 Timothy | ||||
| Through the child-bearing, and if they (Adam and the woman) remain in faith, and love, and sanctification, with sobriety. | 1 Timothy 2:14-15 | The woman shall be rescued/saved (contextually, from transgression) | Explicit | |
| Nothing | 1 Timothy 4:10 | God is the Savior of all mankind | Explicit | |
| Be careful what you do and teach, and continue doing both | 1 Timothy 4:16 | You will save yourself and the people who hear you teach. | Explicit | |
| Titus | ||||
| God our Savior giving you a bathing of regeneration and a renewing of the Holy Spirit. | Titus 3:5 | You are saved. | Implicit — this passage is in the past tense, and it is unclear who “we” and “our” mean. The author is of the persuasion that “we” and “our” refer to all humanity. | |
| James | ||||
| Don’t be rich. | James 5:1 | Miseries come upon rich people. | Wrong — this verse is wrongly cited as relating to the afterlife. The great miseries that come upon rich people is that they made the mistake of making treasure in the last days (v. 3) and as a result their riches (gold and silver) have rotted (v. 2). |
|
| 1, 2, and 3 John | ||||
| Love. | 1 John 4:7 | You are born of God and you know God, since God is love. | Explicit — doubly so, because it says the reverse is true, i.e. X is Y, not X is not Y. | |
| Jude and Revelation | ||||
| Hear the voice of “the Amen, the witness — the faithful and true — the chief of the creation of God” (probably Jesus, judging solely by his knowledge of all their deeds, the conditions of their spiritual hearts and his reference to God as “my Father”) and open the door. | Revelation 3:20 | He will come in unto you, and will sup with you, and you with him. | Metaphorical — this verse is often cited as a description of the rather recent Christian teaching of Jesus entering the new believer’s spiritual heart through a door in it on which he is knocking but awaiting entry by its occupant, a teaching which echoes an Arminian doctrine of the placement of the onus of salvation on the human. The author is unconvinced that this is referring to salvation from sin or from death. | |
| Be a virgin. | Revelation 14:4-5 | Be bought from among mankind, be unblemished before the throne of God | Wrong — these verses do not in any way say virginity is a requirement. The word translated as “were bought” here is ἠ¦γο¦ράσ¦θη¦σαν, from the root ἀγοράζω (agorazo): to be in the marketplace, to attend it, to have use of it. This seems to paint the idea of being open to God’s choosing, as opposed to the ideas of not being in the market or of being purchased. This word “bought” is the same as the famous “Ye are bought with a price” passage, as well as the question of Philip just before the feeding of the 5,000: “Whence shall we buy bread, that these people may eat?” | |
| Do God’s commands; don’t be a dog, a sorcerer, a whoremonger, a murderer, an idolater, or someone who is loving and is doing a lie, because these are without. | Revelation 22:14-15 | The authority shall be yours unto the tree of the life, and by the gates you may enter into the city. | Metaphorical — the object of this description is uncertain. What gate? Dogs? What’s the tree of life? What gates? What city? | |
| Some of the Old Testament | ||||
| Turn back from the wickedness you have done, do judgment and righteousness. | Ezekiel 18:27 | You will save your soul. | Explicit | |
Those marked Wrong were, in the author’s view, wrongly attributed to teachings about the post-thanatos state of humanity. Those marked Implicit make a suggestion at afterlife teaching, while Explicit verses are clearly referring to an afterlife teaching. Those marked Metaphorical are passages on which one should suspend judgment, because of the opacity of the allegory.
The purpose of this exercise was to go back through this (admittedly partial) list and ask if these requirements are, indeed, the ones widely recognized as the essentials of the faith; it is assumed the belief system would hold in highest regarded the words said by Jesus Christ about the religion for which he is named.
Tentative Conclusion
In order to achieve eternal bliss, as they say, you definitely need to:
Be a poor in spirit or spiritually needy(Matt. 5:3) peacemaker(Matt. 5:9) who is part of Israel(Rom. 11:26), who hates his life on this earth(John 12:25) and eats the flesh and drinks the blood of the Son of man(John 6:53-54, 57-58), more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees(Matt. 5:20), who does the will of Jesus’s Father (who is in the heavens)(Matt. 7:21), be turned and become as the children(Matt. 18:3), obey a couple commandments and sell all you have for distribution among the poor and follow Jesus(Matt. 19:17-22, Luke 18:18-23), leave your house, brother, sister, father, mother, wife, children or fields for the sake of Jesus’s name(Matt. 19:29) (although don’t separate from a spouse who is disbelieving(1 Cor. 7:12-14)), receive the love of the truth(2 Thess. 2:10-12), hear the word of Jesus(John 5:24), behold the Son(John 6:40), believe (the one who sent Jesus)(John 5:24), in Jesus(John 6:47), on the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Son(John 3:36), in the Son of God(John 3:16), in your heart that God raised Jesus out of the dead(Rom. 10:9), and just plain believe(Mark 16:16)), obey Jesus(Heb. 5:9), be baptized(Mark 16:16), love God and your neighbor (whom Jesus describes as a Samaritan)(Luke 10:25-37), just plain love(1 John 4:7), confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth(Rom. 10:9), be born from above(John 3:3), of water and Spirit(John 3:5), if you ever practice(d) whoredom, deliver yourself up to the Adversary (or “Satan”) for the destruction of the flesh(1 Cor. 5:1-5), turn back from the wickedness you have done and do judgment and righteousness(Ezek. 18:27), if you’re a woman, through childbearing so long as you and the child’s father continue in faith, love, and sanctification with sobriety(1 Tim. 2:14-15), and have endured to the end.(Matt. 10:22, 24:13)
Or, since God is the Savior of all mankind, don’t worry about any of that(1 Tim. 4:10), or just do an unspecified action (possibly nothing) toward no other name but Jesus of Nazareth’s only, as it is the means of salvation(Acts 4:12).
(Read all these verses together (in two parts): First half, Second half)
What could be simpler than that?
And those are just the explicit ones.
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