Opportunity Based Salvation

Jesus saves.  Jesus is the way.  We've all heard the slogans.
Many Christians make the argument that one must believe in Jesus to be saved from eternal damnation.

The bible contains the following passages:

1. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."
2. Rom. 3:22, "even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction."
3. Rom. 3:26, "for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
4. Rom. 5:1, "therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
5. Rom. 10:4, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes."
6.  Rom. 10:9-10, "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; ¹⁰for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."
7. Gal. 2:16, "nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified."
8. Gal. 3:14, "in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."
9. Eph. 1:13, "In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise."
10. Phil. 3:9, "and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith."

This result of this justification and regeneration is that the sinner turns from his sin and towards doing good works. But it is not these works that earn our place with God nor sustain it. Jesus accomplished all that we need to be saved and stay saved on the cross. All that we need, we have in Jesus. All we need to do to be saved--to be justified--is to truly believe in what God has done for us in Jesus on the cross.

 Yet nothing in these passages addresses the fate of newborns, of babies, or of very young children.  I think there can be no doubt that newborns, babies, and the very young children lack the mental capacity, the exposure to, and/or the capabilities of accepting or believing in Jesus.  Does that mean they are doomed to eternal damnation?  They are still supposedly born of original sin, therefore how is that sin forgiven?


Other Christians claim salvation occurs when a person accepts the gift of salvation, he or she is said to be justified — made acceptable before (or made right with) God. The process of being declared righteous is called justification.
Ephesians 2:8–9 says, "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. It is not from yourself or anything you've done, but the gift of God." Salvation, therefore, is a free gift of grace from God.
Yet again, these incoherent newborns or very young children lack the ability to accept the gift of salvation.


Catholics believe that God's gift of grace is received through faith and by partaking of the sacraments (such as being baptized, taking Communion, being confirmed in the church, and confessing sins to a priest). Baptism is particularly important and Catholics consider it a key requirement for being saved.
Most Orthodox Christians believe salvation is more of a gradual process in which humans become more and more like God as they participate with him in the work of salvation. Protestants see the act of praying the sinner's prayer as the trigger that brings salvation into a person's life. In contrast, Orthodox Christians typically place far less emphasis on a specific "salvation event" that starts the Christian's life, focusing instead on what must be done over the course of a person's life to continue on in the faith. In other words, while Protestants ask, "What can I do to be saved?", Orthodox Christians ask, "What can I do to be most saved?"

Protestants believe in justification sola fide (by faith alone). In other words, faith in Jesus Christ is all that is needed to actually save a person. "Faith" or "belief" in this context isn't simply an intellectual belief in God, but rather something far deeper and life changing than head knowledge. Protestants point to several verses in Acts and Romans to back up their claim:

• "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved." (Acts 16:31)

• "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe." (Romans 3:22)

• "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law." (Romans 3:28)

• "To the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness." (Romans 4:5)

Protestants are very leery of the W word that Paul speaks so loudly against in the Book of Romans — works. That's why they disagree with the Catholic link between the sacraments and salvation and the tie that Orthodox Christians place on living a Christian life with one's salvation. Protestants consider these efforts to be works, plain and simple, since they are actions that one takes apart from belief. Although Protestants agree with Catholics and Orthodox Christians that a Christian must live out her faith (Philippians 2:12), they see the practice of "living out" as something that is separate from salvation itself — an effect of receiving salvation, rather than a necessity to receive salvation.
Putting aside all these debates and nuances, here are two key truths about salvation and faith that all Christians agree on:

• Faith in Jesus Christ is essential to be saved and justified. See Ephesians 2:8–9.

• True faith has a backbone. The Book of James makes it abundantly clear that a declaration of faith by itself doesn't amount to a hill of beans if it isn't backed up by action (James 2:14–26). In other words, if you're gonna talk the talk, you've gotta walk the walk. Therefore, if someone is truly a Christian, his or her life is going to be characterized by a growing faith and, over the long haul, will live in accordance with that faith. However, recognize that this is a consequence of faith, not a condition.

 Is the Christian Hell populated with newborns, babies, or the very young?  What of the severely developmentally disabled, those incapable of forming developed, reasonable, coherent thoughts?  Are they doomed to damnation simply because of the natural state to which they were born?

There can be no doubt of the existence of certain human beings, referred to as "uncontacted people" that lack the exposure to ideas in Judaism, Christianity, Islamic teachings, and the like. Uncontacted people, also referred to as isolated people or lost tribes, are communities who live, or have lived, either by choice (peoples living in voluntary isolation) or by circumstance, without significant contact with global civilization.   People like the Sentinelese, the Sami People, the people of the Unnamed Tribe of the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil, and many others. 

Therefore, are these people doomed to damnation simply because of the conditions of their existence?  Has God doomed these people to eternal damnation in their very creation?  Does the lack of opportunity thereby justify their fate?

Obedience to Imagined Authority, the Great American Dream

"Thinking people can see that most Americans veer between manic-depression and paranoid-schizophrenia. While they know they are getting kicked around by the rich, there’s such a strong tradition of obedience to authority in America that most people just take it in stride and just get on with their lives."

"This is a population with an severe “abuse” problem. I compare it to the compulsive behavior among women and children who’ve lived in abusive relationships. The sickness passes from one generation to the next without interruption. It is a condition that has to be treated, which means creating a process where the person can see that the violence being done to them is violence and not love. America is a nation badly in need of therapy."

"The chasm between rich and poor has grown wider in America than anyplace in the industrial world. The rich get richer and the poor own nothing. The middle class–the class of illusion–is committed to defending the so called American dream and believing whatever the rich tell them in order to sustain their own very tenuous existence."

"The US kills and exploits the rest of the planet to serve the narrow interests of 10% of the population, they just point to their college educations, their cars, and other trinkets and shrug it off as unimportant or plug their heads back into the sand. What do they care? They have their Starbucks and their I-Pods and their flat-screens."


The above was borrowed from Dr. Bede Vincent Curley.


If we should find ourselves beholden to some other imagined authority, this can only mean that we have constructed the conditions of our own servitude.  Weak minds require strong leadership.

Logic, reason, independence, and free will are viewed ever-more as liabilities to the corporate masters.  Obedience, ignorance and complacency are more desirable traits among the American population. 

Technology, entertainment, sports, news, politics and so forth are used as mere distractions to keep the people ignorant and satisfied.