Steps to Salvation

I believe there are fives steps we must take to salvation. We must hear, believe, repent, confess and be baptized. I am just going to list the verses for each of them now. I will probably go back and elaborate on them later.

If you follow the link below it should take you to an online bible where you can search each of the verses below.

Online Bible, English Standard Version

HEAR

John 6:44-45
Romans 10:13-17

BELIEVE 

Hebrews 11:1, 11:6
John 3:16; 8:24
Romans 5:1
James 2:24

REPENT

Luke 13:3
Acts 2:38; 3:19; 17:30

CONFESS

Matthew 10:32-33
Romans 10:9-10
Acts 8:37

BE BAPTIZED

Matthew 28:18-20
Mark 16:15-16
Acts 2:38; 22:16
Romans 6:3-6
1 Corinthians 12:13
Galatians 3:26-27
Colossians 2:12
1 Peter 3:21



I believe you must have all of these working together to be saved,.

"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." (James 2:14-17 ESV)

Faith without works is dead. You cannot have faith without works.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
(Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV)

Works alone won't save you. You can't work your own way to salvation. It is the gift of God.

Fossils and Great Flood

FOSSILS AND THE FLOOD

For fossils to form, organisms usually have to be buried in mud, sand, or clay soon after they die. Hmm I wonder what could have happened to bury everything at once, maybe a great flood or something?

One of the first Bible accounts we learn as kids is of the Great Flood. But is it true? Is it really possible that rain fell from the sky for 40 days and nights (Gen. 7:12) and that water sprang out of the earth (Gen. 7:11) so that it covered the entire globe?

Let's answer those questions with logic first and then evidence. The first sentence you read in the Bible, Genesis 1:1, says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." If we believe the first verse in the Bible, doesn't it then stand to reason that God could make it rain and open the springs of the earth for 40 days and nights? Absolutely! Since He made the world, He can control the world. Then there are the  numerous cultures of the world that for generations have passed down stories of a flood similar to those of the Genesis account. They include cultures from India, China, Mexico, Peru, Russia and East Africa, among others. Isn't it far more logical to believe that these accounts are rooted in an initial true event from long ago, such as the Genesis flood, than to think that somehow all these groups dreamed up a good story on their own?

Logic, then, seems to favor the Genesis flood account, but what about science?

There is evidence that most, if not all, of the world's mountains have been underwater in the past, as sedimentary deposits and fossils have been found at or near the peak of many mountains. That alone strongly suggests not just a localized flood, as some try to rationalize from the Genesis account, but a true worldwide flood.

In addition, the vast array of rifts and fractures throughout the ocean floor suggests that a massive shift in the earth's crust may very well have occurred. That would enable the water coming out of the earth, not just the sky, as is described here, "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened" (Genesis 7:11 ESV).

Back to fossils, so when it rains what is there? A lot of mud. Could all of the rain trigger massive mudslides? Would the animals not be killed and covered soon after they die? I am not a geologist or paleontologist so I can't be sure if this is right, but that is my logic.