Which Gospel is the True Gospel Leading to Salvation?
Salvation is one thing we better make sure we get right!
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The first time I heard the historical account of how Jesus was crucified and died for my sins, rose from the grave, and forty days later ascended into heaven, I was a teenager. A friend from high school had invited me to attend a youth group function at her church. As I listened to the pastor explain how my sin separated me from God, and how if I died in my sin I would go to hell, I became frightened. Hell sounded pretty bad, so I decided I better do whatever he said to do so I could go to heaven instead.
I don’t recall the exact details of what transpired, since that was more than forty years ago. But I have a vague recollection of being instructed to recite a prayer thanking Jesus for shedding his blood to forgive my sins and asking him to come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior.
Five years later, I was in college and attending a different church. That pastor taught that everyone who had “accepted Christ” should be baptized. Wanting to do what I was told God expected of me, I walked into the frigid water of Hyalite Reservoir in the Rocky Mountains of Southwest Montana and submitted to be being submerged.
Thinking I had done what I needed to do in order to become a recipient of God’s amazing grace, I spent the next thirty-five years convinced my salvation was secure. But then a curious thing happened. As I began to question everything I had been programmed to believe about history, politics, and various other subjects — in the process discovering deception after deception — I began to also question what I had been taught about salvation. Not willing to gamble when it came to where I would spend eternity, I embarked on an examination of the various plans of salvation taught in Christendom.
A Review of Many Different Plans of Salvation
I am by no means an expert in the doctrines of all protestant denominations and non-denominational churches currently in existence worldwide, which number in the thousands. However, in the course of attending a variety of churches throughout my life, and being exposed to myriad preachers, teachers, and authors claiming to be Christians, I have…
