Question: I believe you are adding to the gospel another requirement, i.e., a correct understanding ...

Question: It seems to me that TBC is saying about Catholics that if a person believes that Christ’s work on Calvary is absolutely necessary for salvation, and in faith requests the grace that Calvary made possible, but in addition believes that salvation is received incrementally in the sacraments and performance of good works, such a person is not saved. I believe you are adding to the gospel another requirement, i.e., a correct understanding of the doctrine of grace....If a belief that the sacraments are somehow necessary for salvation causes a person who has faith that he is saved because of Christ’s atoning work to be not saved, would this not exclude Luther, who according to TBC June 2000 “retained a belief that baptism is essential for salvation”? My feeling about Catholicism is not that the gospel is absent but that it is accompanied by so much unnecessary paraphernalia that a sincere person might not find the gospel in all the clutter....

Response: The Bible is very clear that we are saved through believing the gospel, which is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth...” (Rom:1:16For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
See All...). If, as you say, “a sincere person might not find the gospel in all the clutter” of Catholicism, then that person cannot be saved because he cannot believe a gospel he cannot find for the clutter. No, I am not “adding to the gospel” that a person must have “a correct understanding of the doctrine of grace.” I am simply saying what the Bible says: that a person must have an understanding of the gospel to be saved, for one cannot believe what one does not understand. Anything that obscures the gospel prevents those who hear this “cluttered” or “Jesus-plus” falsified gospel from being saved. Paul cursed those who added that in addition to faith in Christ one must keep the law of Moses. Catholicism has added far more, and thus those who believe it are even further from believing in Christ through the true gospel.

Yes, for a Lutheran (like a Roman Catholic or Calvinist) to believe that he was saved through being baptized as an infant and that he has merely “confirmed” this fact later is a false gospel that will not save. The Bible clearly teaches believer’s baptism: “What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest” (Acts:8:36-7
See All...). An infant has not heard and believed the gospel and thus doesn’t qualify for baptism. Baptisms of the household of Cornelius (Acts 10) and the Philippian jailor (Acts 16) are cited to justify the practice of infant baptism, but those baptized had believed the gospel. Yet Calvin taught not only that infant baptism saves, but that baptism by a Roman Catholic priest saves—an odd belief for one of the leaders of the Reformation!

Yes, Christ did say, “He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved” (Mk 16:16). But scores of verses say “he that believeth shall be saved” and “he that believeth not shall be damned.” Not one, however, says, “he that is not baptized shall be damned.” Paul could hardly remember the few whom he had baptized at Corinth. He stated, “Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel” (1 Cor:1:14-17 [14] I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius; [15] Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name. [16] And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. [17] For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
See All...) and that he had “begotten [them]...in Christ Jesus... through the gospel” (4:15)—and there is no mention of baptism when Paul declares the gospel, as in 1 Corinthians:15:1-4 [1] Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; [2] By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. [3] For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; [4] And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
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