Evolution
of the Salvation
Doctrine in the
Four
Gospels
The four Gospels,
Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John are regarded by Christians as historical accurate
accounts
of the life of Jesus. But what I'm about to show you will
shock you,
because there is a serious difference between them that the Church
either
doesn’t know about or won't tell you about, otherwise its
Gospel theology would
crumble to dust! What I am going to show you is
that the first three Gospels - Matthew, Mark and Luke have a different
Jesus
and a different Salvation theology than the Gospel of John
does. This
logically indicates that the Salvation concept we have today, central
to
Christianity, evolved through mankind after Jesus supposedly left
Earth.
Therefore, it is a human concept, rather than a divine one, which is
very bad
news for fundamentalist churches that like to preach about sin,
salvation, and
redemption.
The first three
Gospels
Matthew, Mark and Luke are termed the Synoptic Gospels and are regarded
by
Biblical scholars, both Christian and secular, to be older than John.
(The
dating of the Gospels is not known, and estimates vary among scholars,
with
Christian scholars posing earlier estimates than secular scholars, not
surprisingly. Secular scholars tend to place the dating of the Gospels
after 70 AD though. See Dating
of the Synoptics)
Mark
is
regarded as the oldest, followed by Matthew and Luke, then by
John. Now
the central theology doctrine of Christianity today teaches a salvation
by
faith through grace, by believing that Jesus died on the cross for your
sins
and rose from the grave. This doctrine is central and
fundamental to the
Christian Gospel. However, this form of salvation is NOT
taught in
Matthew, Mark and Luke, which are the oldest of the Gospels!
The basis
for the Christian Gospel of salvation by faith and the atonement comes
from the
book of John, which is the newest of the Gospels! Fascinating
isn't
it?
In the Gospel of
Matthew,
there is NOT ONE WORD about having to believe on Jesus in order to go
to
heaven. In fact, there is not one word about having to
"believe" in anything at all to get to heaven! There is no
mention of the atonement or of salvation by faith. In fact,
Jesus says
that all you have to do for God to forgive your sins is this:
"For
if ye forgive men their trespasses, your
heavenly
Father will also forgive you:" (Matthew 6:14)
Later in that
Gospel, when
someone asked Jesus directly what he had to do to be saved and have
eternal
life, Matthew clearly records a salvation by works:
Matt.
19:16-21: "And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what
good
thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him,
Why callest
thou me good? there is none good but one, that is,
God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith
unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt
do no murder, Thou shalt
not commit adultery, Thou shalt
not steal, Thou shalt
not
bear false witness, Honour
thy father and thy mother:
and, Thou shalt
love thy neighbour
as thyself. The young man saith
unto him, All these
things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto
him, If
thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor,
and
thou shalt
have treasure in heaven: and come and
follow me."
Jesus in this
account never
said here that you have to believe that he died on the cross for your
sins for
God to forgive you! In the same Gospel of Matthew, Jesus also
preached
the famous beatitudes which emphasize that those with good hearts,
attitudes
and character will inherit the kingdom
of God,
which is another
way of saying that they will go to heaven!
Matthew
5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Matthew 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness:
for they shall be filled.
Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the
children
of God.
That's it! He
didn't
say that you had to believe that Jesus died for your sins in order for
you to
be forgiven. The verses that say that are in the book of
John, which came
about 50 years after Matthew.
Now take a look at
the book
of Mark. He doesn't mention that you have to believe in Jesus
to be saved
either, except for a verse in the last chapter of Mark:
“He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not
shall be
damned.” (Mark 16:16).
However, most scholars believe that that verse is an interpolation, or
a
forgery, since many of the earliest manuscripts of the Gospel of Mark
do not
contain that verse, and furthermore it does not fit into Mark since the
rest of
it doesn’t teach a salvation by faith. Therefore,
Mark probably never
wrote anything about having to believe that Jesus died for you, in a
salvation
by faith, or the atonement concept. Likewise, the Gospel of
Luke is also
like Matthew and Mark in that it doesn't mention belief in the
atonement or in
salvation by faith either! Therefore, it is likely that the
original
Jesus, if he existed, probably never preached such a doctrine
either!
Next comes the
Gospel of
John, and we have verses that require you to "believe" in Jesus to be
saved, such as:
John
3:16
“For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
John
3:18
“He that believeth on
him is not condemned: but he that believeth
not is condemned already,
because
he hath not believed in the
name of the only begotten Son of
God.”
John
3:36
“He that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall
not see
life; but the wrath of God abideth
on him.”
John
8:24
“I said therefore unto
you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe
not that I am he,
ye shall die in your sins.”
John
11:25
“Jesus said unto
her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth
in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live:”
Of course, some
Christians
will respond by saying that you have to add up all the Gospels together
to get
the complete story. However, the key
point here is that if Jesus actually said that you had to believe in
him in
order to be saved, then Matthew, Mark and Luke would have at least
mentioned something
about that somewhere! If it was central to Jesus' teachings that
you need
salvation by faith, then why didn't they mention it at all in the first
three
Gospels? The logical reason is that
they never heard of nor supported that idea, because it didn’t
evolve until
later when the early Christians decided to add that doctrine, as in the
Gospel
of John. So we can logically conclude that if Matthew, Mark
and Luke
were with Jesus when he was on earth (assuming they are even
eyewitnesses which
isn’t even claimed), then Christ probably never said anything
about faith,
belief, or the atonement either!
Since the atonement
and
salvation by faith concept isn’t taught until the Gospel of
John, therefore it
is logical to conclude the following. About 50 years after
the first
three Gospels, the Church decided that a Gospel based on simple good
works and
kindness was not enough. They needed more power over
people. And
they needed a way for people to feel totally powerless in their own
works so
that they could be completely dependent on the church and its salvation
sacraments. They needed the belief from their followers
that they
alone were the only way and religion. So they added the
salvation by
atonement doctrine to Christianity, in order to justify the
church’s sacraments
that were required for the salvation of souls, which in turn gave them
power
over people. That's why the newest Gospel, John came into
play. The
Gospel of John was a result of the developing theology of the Church at
that
time. That book is where the verses about salvation by faith,
being
"born again", the atonement, and having to believe that Jesus died
for your sins came from. On many pages in it, you will find
Jesus saying
something about having to believe in him. When Christian cite
Gospel
verses about being saved, they always refer to John. (No wonder many
Christians
say the book of John is their favorite book.) Just take a
look at a
Christian pamphlet or tract, and you'll see that the verses they
mention about
faith and believing on Jesus are from the book of John, such as John
3:16 and
John 14:6. When they quote Jesus, they usually refer to this
book. Yet this book did not come for at least 50 years after the
first three
Gospels. Therefore, logically whatever Jesus actually said
would have
been recorded more accurately in the earlier Gospels, which emphasize
good
works and charity instead.
From this it is
apparent as
to
how the Salvation theology evolved in the Church while the New
Testament books
and letters were still being written. Another fact that
indicates this as
well is that according to Mark, Christ was a man. But
according to
Matthew and Luke, he was a demigod, while John insists that he was God
himself. That also shows an evolution of the concept of Jesus
from a man
gradually to a deity status. This is common with religious
founders
throughout history, because no matter what they claim themselves, their
followers
eventually try to deify them and make them into a God to worship.
Of course,
Christians also
quote verses to support their Salvation by atonement theology from the
epistles
of Paul too. However, man Paul never even met Jesus Christ
(at least not
physically)! He never wrote anything about what Jesus did
either.
And since he was not with the historical Christ, he obviously doesn't
know nor
is he qualified to tell us what the historical Christ had taught when
he was on
earth. In fact, there are many discrepancies between
Paul’s idea of
Salvation and Jesus’. For examples and details of
this, see Paul vs.
Jesus by David D. Danizier.
Conclusion
There you have it,
THREE
Gospels of good works being enough to satisfy God, versus ONE Gospel of
faith
and atonement. Three against one! Again the central
doctrine of the
Evangelical Christian Gospel loses by the numbers (as the doctrine of
infallibility did in Argument
# 1). Case
closed.
This is in fact
good news
for
people, because it means that Jesus probably never preached that you
had to
believe that he died for you to be saved, which means that billions of
people
now and throughout history who didn’t convert to the
Christian Gospel won’t spend
eternity in hell after all, like Evangelicals warn.
Therefore, for those
worried about either themselves or their unsaved loved ones, this takes
a huge
burden off their shoulder. Now they can rejoice, celebrate,
and yell
“Hallelujah!” (See also Evolution
of heaven and
hell in the Bible from Zoroastrianism – Good news for the
fearful)
For more on this
subject,
see
What
Must We Do To Be Saved by Robert
Ingersoll, on Infidels.org. Ingersoll’s mock dialogue with a
minister,
The
Talmagian Catechism on Infidels.org, also
addresses this issue as well (see below).
Also see Salvation
by
Dennis McKinsey, which lists contradictions in regard to obtaining
salvation.
Here is a revealing
excerpt
from Ingersoll’s mock dialogue The
Talmagian Catechism that
addresses these discrepancies.
QUESTION. How is it that Matthew says nothing about "salvation
by faith," but simply says that God will be merciful to the
merciful, that he will forgive the forgiving, and says not one word
about the necessity of believing anything?
ANSWER. But you will remember that Mark says, in the last
chapter of his gospel, that "whoso believeth not shall be damned."
QUESTION. Do you admit that Matthew says nothing on the
subject?
ANSWER. yes, I suppose I must.
QUESTION. Is not that passage in Mark generally admitted to be
an interpolation?
ANSWER. Some biblical scholars say that it is.
QUESTION. Is that portion of the last chapter of Mark found in
the Syriac version of the Bible?
ANSWER. It is not.
QUESTION. If it was necessary to believe on Jesus Christ, in
order to be saved, how is it that Matthew failed to say so?
ANSWER. "There are more copies of the Bible printed to-day,
than of any other book in the world, and it is printed in more
languages than any other book."
QUESTION. Do you consider it necessary to be "regenerated" --
to be "born again" -- in order to be saved?
ANSWER. Certainly.
QUESTION. Did Matthew say anything on the subject of
"regeneration"?
ANSWER. No.
QUESTION. Did Mark?
ANSWER. No.
QUESTION. Did Luke?
ANSWER. No.
QUESTION. Is Saint John the only one who speaks of the
necessity of being "born again"?
ANSWER. He is.
QUESTION. Do you think that Matthew, Mark and Luke knew
anything about the necessity of "regeneration"?
ANSWER. Of course they did.
QUESTION. Why did they fail to speak of it?
ANSWER. There is no civilization without the Bible. The moment
you throw away the sacred Scriptures, you are all at sea -- you are
without an anchor and without a compass.
QUESTION. You will remember that, according to Mark, Christ
said to his disciples: "Go ye into all the world. and preach the
gospel to every creature." Did he refer to the gospel set forth by
Mark?
ANSWER. Of course he did.
QUESTION. Well, in the gospel set forth by Mark, there is not
a word about "regeneration," and no word about the necessity of
believing anything -- except in an interpolated passage. Would it
not seem from this, that "regeneration" and a "belief in the Lord
Jesus Christ," are no part of the gospel?
ANSWER. Nothing can exceed in horror the last moments of the
infidel; nothing can he more terrible than the death of the
doubter. When the glories of this world fade from the vision; when
ambition becomes an empty name; when wealth turns to dust in the
palsied hand of death, of what use is philosophy then? Who cares
then for the pride of intellect? In that dread moment, man needs
something to rely on, whether it is true or not.
QUESTION. Would it not have been more convincing if Christ,
after his resurrection, had shown himself to his enemies as well as
to his friends? Would it not have greatly strengthened the evidence
in the case, if he had visited Pilate; had presented himself before
Caiaphas, the high priest; if he had again entered the temple, and
again walked the streets of Jerusalem?
ANSWER. If the evidence had been complete and overwhelming,
there would have been no praiseworthiness in belief; even publicans
and sinners would have believed, if the evidence had been
sufficient. The amount of evidence required is the test of the true
Christian spirit.
QUESTION. Would it not also have been better had the ascension
taken place in the presence of unbelieving thousands; it seems such
a pity to have wasted such a demonstration upon those already
convinced?
ANSWER. These questions are the natural fruit of the carnal
mind, and can be accounted for only by the doctrine of total
depravity. Nothing has given the church more trouble than just such
questions. Unholy curiosity, a disposition to pry into the divine
mysteries, a desire to know, to investigate, to explain -- in
short, to understand, are all evidences of a reprobate mind.
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