Blogotional says in his usual pithy way: "a simple gospel will change the world" and reminds bloggers that some of what we discuss is more complex than many of today's churchgoer will understand. He argues that some of the points are less important than others which is no doubt true. But what I would say is it is important for a full understanding that we have some understanding of all the phases of responding to the gospel that Peter in Acts refers to. We ought also to have a view that is formulated on the bible. One of these days I will have a thorough debate with Jollyblogger on Baptism which will be a site to see since we will finally be disagreeing with gusto but I am sure still grace. I certainly do not doubt Davids salvation just because we differ on baptism, but I do strongly believe he is wrong, as I am sure he does me.

It is part of my belief set to include all these aspects in the "normal" response to the gospel, but just to be clear that does NOT mean that I believe that someone who has not been baptised with water or the Holy Spirit is not a Christian. I do believe that they are missing out on some of what God intended for all christians to experience, but not that they are not saved. It is not really in my nature to whittle down the gospel to the bear minimum, the lowest common denominator that all can agree to, because to do so we have to ignore aspects of what the bible says. Having said that for the purposes of recognising who is a christian and who isnt it is at times necessary however. The Bible Archive has done one of the best jobs I have seen of doing just that. Notice that like me he is explicit about the notion of Jesus bearing our punishment. I will say it again, I am unconvinced that people can be saved without that.

Men are guilty sinners. (In kid-speak. All people have sinned. That means that they have done wrong, said wrong and thought wrong�and they know it! These wrong things are all things that are against God�he�s not happy about it and it all makes Him very upset.)

Jesus is the Living God and He lived as a perfect man. (God is perfect. He doesn�t do anything wrong and God is also upset at all the sin that people do. So God sent His Son, and he became a man and walked here on Earth telling people how bad they were and that they had to trust Him to come into His kingdom.)

Men hated Jesus and killed Him just like the Bible said. (People didn�t like what Jesus was saying. His own people, who knew that God was gonna come and be a man just like them, hated Him! All those people killed Jesus�and He knew they were gonnna do it! He said that they were gonna do it! He had prophets write it down in the Bible and they still went off and did it. People�every boy, girl, man or woman�deserved that type of punishment�but we punished Jesus instead! He was the only one who never deserved it and he took that punishment anyway. God, Jesus� Father, didn�t stop it and destroy everyone but left His Son alone so that He could show His love for people one day.)

Jesus Christ rose from the dead proving men wrong and God right.(But Jesus, the Living God, proved men wrong by rising from the dead. There was no way He was going to let them have the last say and He�s God after all! He rose up proving that the message He was preaching was true�that trusting in Him, the Son of God, is the only way to have New Life!)

Anyone who realizes that they�re guilty and trust Jesus, the Living God, will have new life. The rest God will judge. (So Jesus is alive today, sitting in heaven next to His Father waiting for the day that He comes back to judge guilty sinners�like you and me. The only ones that will live are the ones who believe Jesus and trust Him that He is the one who saves! You have to look at yourself and know that you are a sinner�we all are�and that believing Jesus, trusting Him, is the only way that you will live!)

Alesus Rarus and I seem to be speaking on cross purposes. I do respect his blogging also and apologise if I seemed a little harsh. But strangely having said "We must be baptized by water and the Spirit and accept Christ to earn that eternal privelege" he now is saying we do not have to earn our salvation. It is strange how we often seem to need to exegete each others posts. Perhaps he can explain for me how he can say we should earn it and then say we dont.

Lets keep the discussion flowing, my wife's simple 10 points are surely reverberating around the blogosphere.