In Christ,
Jesus was born at the time God determined to bring His people back to Him, to seek and to save what was lost. John the baptist and Jesus collectively spent years preparing people's hearts. They instructed people to repent of their sins. Jesus told people to estimate the costs of being his disciple, to deny & die to themselves. Jesus demonstrated God's compassion for people with the healings and feedings. Jesus followed his Father's plan, Jesus was the perfect conveyor of everything God (John 12:47-50). After three years of working at returning Israel's hearts to God Jesus died for all our sins. Then Jesus, now with all authority, and for the first time, told his apostles to go global, to make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. Those who believe and are baptized will be saved. Those who don't believe will be condemned. So they did. Following Jesus's instruction, Peter commanded those at Pentecost to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. This was after his sermon, after Peter uttered "those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved", and with pricked hearts the people asked him "What shall we do?" Peter Later said, "baptism, which now saves you also"- consistency. Paul said we're baptized into death so we may walk in the newness of life. Anyway, the years and centuries pass. The catholic church decides to prevent splintering of doctrine by keeping the scriptures from people and they succeed for a while. The catholic church makes a million compromises to God's word. They keep the forgiveness part if baptism mentioned in Acts 2:38, but they start sprinkling instead of immmersing sick people, then they expand that to babies, then all baptisms are through sprinkling babies. Wycliff comes along and gives people back the scriptures. The catholic church lets loose Johan Teztel with his indulgences and ticks off Martin Luther. Before you know it, we got a reformation movement. Just before the reformation another movement has already taken hold of big chunks of the world and makes its way to Europe. This movemrnt is called humanism, a very practical worldy philosophy that emphasizes what is seen and de-emphasizes faith. In Switzerland, a young man Ulrich Zwingli gets his bachelor's and his Master's degree in a megacenter of Humanism, the University of Basil. Then this humanist becomes a priest. With his practical background, he throws out the catholic liturgy and preaches only the Bible and makes other practical changes and radically simplifies the catholic worship, removing pomp and ceremonies and wardrobe. When his practical training he confronts the catholic's version of baptism, he goes by what is seen rather than faith and begins a movement which said I can't physically see "physical water" washing away "spiritual" sins. He concluded baptism washing away sins was impractical. Although this may seem spiritual to some, its origin was largely philosophical. He made a philosophical humanism conclusion about baptism. His idea took hold because he freed the swiss from catholic domination. His people loved and protected him, not because these people were studiously examining the scriptures. The people were willing to believe anything he told them. In addition, when people are deprived of the opportunity to be a Berean, they are very vulnerable to any kind of teaching. They have no training with which to protect themselves. Hand in hand with the availabilty of the Bible came humanism. The reformation was 50%Bible/50%Philosophy. Along with Zwingli's humanism colored sunglasses, his teachings reeked of philosophic dualistic principles. Accordingly, Zwingli asserted that flesh in and of itself was hopelessly corrupt and could not possibly participate in the divine process of salvation. Therefore, humans believing in God was irrelavent to our salvation. It interfered with God's sovereignty that He should have to wait on us to believe. No, God saves us or not as He wishes, and belief comes later. In other words - The Elect - humans have no choice in salvation. Some of it may seem christian, but a key characteristic of dualism throughout time is that it blends with the ideas of whatever religion exists at the time and philosophy was huge in Europe at the time of the reformation. The flock did not discern between scripture and philosophy. Anyway, Zwingli went on the attack against the anabaptists "re-baptizers", both through executions and through developing a doctrine that defended infant baptism and denied baptism's scriptural foundations. Zwingli's doctrinal evolution is chronicled at the following link:
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Zwingli wordly side eventually was his undoing. Being the practical man that he was, he believed political reformation should happen alongside religious reformation. On one such politically motivated battle, Zwingli, the fighting priest, was killed. (Yes, Luther joined Zwingli in the execution of two anabaptist leaders- they were all violent).
After Zwingli (or around the same time), in France, a lawyer who was trained in, uh... Humanism, decided to become a priest-John Calvin. John Calvin uttered for the first time in history, that a person is saved at the moment he/she puts their faith in Christ - it was a new concept at the time. Zwingli had taught that a person was saved by predestination "before" he/she believed. Martin Luther, the early church fathers, and Peter & Paul maintained forgiveness of sin/salvation came at baptism (only after belief in Jesus and repentance). Within another two centuries, by the1700's, preachers were using the phrase "receive Jesus"/"receive His salvation" against the original greek wording of John 1:12. In 1950, the first time this phrase appears in any literature, that I found, the phrase "accept Jesus as your personal Savior" came into being. There is a history of the altar call that overlaps with this. Historically, the altar call originated from the mourner's bench, developed for quick and numerous conversions, and then later modified to the modern and more friendly version - the altar call. "Acceptibg Jesus as personal savior" through a prayer or invitation fits in well w/ quick and easy altar call, instead of taking the time to estimate the costs of being a disciple as Jesus said to do (Luke 14).
So when we see Ephesians 2:8-9 on the topic of work that doesn't save us, your assertion that it refers to the works of the law makes some sense. I believe that it also includes references to certain NT works (1 Thess 3:2, II Cor. 8:6) and not to other NT works (John 6:29, Philippians 2:12). There is no Biblical theme that targets works as "any effort." There is not consensus is the protestant community of the meaning of a work. One Baptist convention I called labeled Romans 10:9-10 Confessing "with your mouth" Jesus is Lord, a work and not part of salvation. Another Baptist convention I called said that this physical confession is absolutely necessary for salvation. Some have said the sinner's prayer is a work, because you're "doing" something. The unclarity in the Bible where it does not nail down what a work is once and for all comes from the fact that the original intent was not as people advertise it today. Those authors were not obsessed with the physical corruption of our efforts despite that they are guided by God. Look at Exodus 14:14-17. It wasn't all God, God told the people to act. But it was God's instructions. Numbers 21:9 people were saved when they obeyed God's instructions to look upon the bronze serpent; It was ALL God's mercy even though God instructed them to act. Luke 6:1-10 The jews were upset that Jesus did work on the day that God rested. Jesus said it was lawful to "do good" on the sabbath. There is no consistency when you look at the Father's and the Son's attitude, with the doctrine that the works that don't save is synonymous with "any effort." Ephesians 2:8-9 says A gift of God and not "of yourselves". (NASB) Matthew 21:25 "The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?" Romans 9:31-32 the Israelites did not arrive at the law because it was not from faith in God, but of themselves. He called that "works." (NASB) Matthew 19:16, 21 And someone came to Him
and said, "Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?" [21] Jesus said to him, "If
you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure
in heaven; and come, follow Me." When we let scripture interpret scripture, the "any effort" definition of
works does not emerge. The only way that works could be taken to the extreme of being defined "any
effort" (even though God gives that instruction for salvation) is if you mix philosophical dualism into -
Ephesians 2:8-9. The Holy Bible itself doesn't state that definition anywhere. It is worldy. Instead, Jesus
is enough, all the credit is His regardless, always will be. His plan, His grace, His baptism for forgiveness of sins, and His Glory.
