Author’s note: I sense it good to again present this salvation roadmap. Never has the truth of God’s saving grace been more urgent or more important than now, so near the Rapture of believers into the presence of Christ.

Salvation

Salvation is rescue from something that is death-dealing in nature. That is, it is the plucking from a deadly situation or circumstance and placing in a position of safety. This is what God offers to all of humankind. He offers salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Salvation from what?

Each human has been born under the penalty of sin since Eve was seduced into eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and Adam knowingly disobeyed by joining the woman in eating that fruit.

God warned the first two people that if they disobeyed by eating fruit from this tree, they would surely die. Lucifer, in the form of the serpent, put the question of whether to believe the Creator in their minds by asking, “Yea? Hath God said?”

“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:1-5).

With that disobedience—just as God said—sin and its consequence, death, entered the world. The man and woman lost fellowship with God. They began aging and degenerating toward death. Human beings now needed salvation from sin and death.

God loves His creation called humanity and wanted to have the people become part of His eternal family—to live with Him forever in Heaven. The Creator, in His grace and mercy, said He would redeem them; He would bring into the world One who would save them from sin and death.

He cursed the serpent, Lucifer, who became known as Satan and the devil, and said to him:

“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15).

Sin had begun its life-sapping work, and the man and woman had to be ejected from the Garden of Eden. Many Bible scholars believe this was done to keep them from the Tree of Life that grew in the Garden. If they had access, they would eat its fruit, and rather than eventually dying, they would grow increasingly grotesque in every way. Angels were placed at the Garden’s entry to keep them from returning.

God shed the blood of His creation for the first time when He provided animal skin coverings for the naked man and woman. This was the first of the blood system of sacrifice that would foreshadow the awful price that would be paid for sin upon the cross at Calvary when God’s only begotten Son died there.

John the Baptist announced Jesus’ purpose when Jesus approached while John stood at the Jordan River, baptizing people.

“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Jesus lived on the earth for thirty-three years, then was sacrificed by crucifixion—the cruelest of all executions of the day. Jesus became sin for all of humankind on the cross that day. God the Father could not look upon Him while Jesus took all sin upon Himself for all men, women, and children.

Jesus’ true agony of that moment, when He became the horrendous thing His Father could not look upon, was recorded by the Gospel writer Matthew.

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

Matthew recorded the moment when Christ completed His mission on the earth:

“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost” (John 19:30).

Jesus Christ, the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world, had fulfilled the supreme sacrifice.

Jesus spoke of that salvation mission while preaching, teaching, performing miracles, and ministering during His time here as the Son of man—the only sinless human ever to walk the earth’s surface.

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

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.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

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 3:14-18).

The question often arises: What about those who haven’t heard of Jesus? This was asked of the late Dr. Tim LaHaye, and when he started to answer, he was allowed only a few seconds. He was put on the spot by the host, who asked a question that called for a profound answer.

Dr. LaHaye had only a moment to answer the TV host’s assertion that it isn’t fair of a God to send anyone to Hell if they don’t hear the message. Dr. LaHaye used Scripture in a split-second decision in answering, then was abruptly cut off from continuing with his answer.

The Scripture in question is Romans 2:12:

“For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.”

Tim was saying, I think, that the totality of Scripture teaches that people are without excuse who have the understanding that there is a creator who judges sin. This is true whether Gentile or Jew.

Implicit within Dr. LaHaye’s response were things he never got to explain. I knew him well, and he would have made his case something like the following had he been given time.

God’s precepts are one upon another, remember, and often truth comes from an entire body of scriptural proof rather than from just one or two verses.

Paul was addressing, particularly, the Jews, who labored under the Mosaic Law (although by that time, the Law was not in effect because of the Cross), juxtaposed against the Gentiles, who didn’t have the Mosaic Law.

Keep in mind that God’s Word says:

“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth [it] not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).

Scripture says also:

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:13-17).

All of this adds up to the fact that Jesus Christ, alone, is the way to redemption. But, He must be lifted up so that all will be drawn to Him. If there is no preacher to preach, then there can’t be faith because faith comes from hearing (the Gospel). Just as an infant is innocent in God’s eyes because the child can’t “hear”—i.e., understand—so are those who haven’t understood (truly heard) that Christ is the way to salvation.

However, even among savages in the darkest places where the Gospel hasn’t reached, if they “know to do good, and do the opposite,” they are not guiltless. God will hold them accountable for the light they have, which the Law would have provided for more civilized peoples.

The key here is that Jesus fulfilled the Law when He said, “It is finished!” and gave up His spirit to death. Remember, Jesus once asked those around Him, “Why callest me good?” He then said, “There is but one good, and that is God” (Matthew 19:17).

Jesus was, of course, saying He was the only good because He is God. He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world to cover the sin debt owed by fallen humankind. So, when the savage knows to do good, he is given that light by the Holy Spirit. He still chooses or rejects Christ, who is the only good.

The simple explanation is that people are accountable to the extent that they have been given light (understanding). But that doesn’t unveil the whole Gospel story regarding its application to those who haven’t had a preacher or teacher.

The Bible speaks to savages and the so-called civilized as well. Here are some relevant salvation Scriptures that cover every person who has been or will ever be born.

“I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:14-18).

“For 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. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:16-20).

Here, once again, is how to come to salvation, thereby dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

A strange silence of sorts set in immediately following the election of Donald J. Trump as 47th president of the United States. To me, it was an eerie sense of stillness, kind of like the atmosphere felt just before a tornado-carrying storm I once experienced in Mississippi.

Within forty-eight hours of the election, two leaders of America’s most dangerous, nuclear-weapons-laden, antagonist nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping, reached out to congratulate Mr. Trump for his victory in quite conciliatory language.

At the same time, Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau and spokesperson for the terrorist organization, issued a call for peace. He emphasized “immediate cessation of the aggression, particularly in Gaza.”

Suddenly an atmosphere of peaceful calm seems to pervade the world that just days ago looked to be about to explode into nuclear war. What’s going on?!

Even the completely insane-acting leftists have dialed back hate-filled rhetoric.

President Joe Biden, who just before November 5 was calling all of us who supported Trump “garbage” and saying he wanted to slap our (derrieres), was kind-sounding and generous in his public congratulations to his successor. His press secretary was almost overly accommodating in promising the smoothest transition of presidential power in the history of the republic.

The Trump-haters who were screaming “Nazi!” and “fascist!” in Trump and his supporters’ direction suddenly are no longer to be found–at least not on the surface. What, indeed, is going on?!

Part of the answer, at least to the question of the Biden and Harris forces being so subdued, and even the so-called deep state (the intelligence services that want to keep Trump out of the White House at any cost) seeming to say nothing, is because of the unanticipated election numbers. Donald Trump won both the Electoral College and the popular votes. This produced what is perceived as a mandate for Trump to implement the policies he proposes. The nation has spoken with no uncertainty.

This completely threw Trump’s haters into disarray. They simply, at least for the moment, are stumped as to how to again begin dismantling the nation’s movement back toward its founding principles.

Had Trump won only the Electoral College voting, the mobs of rampaging rioters would have likely been turned loose in order to deceptively protest the injustice they want perceived as being inflicted on those in the majority constituting the popular vote.

Now those who, like Barack Obama, want to “fundamentally transform America” by opening borders to all comers and doing all the other Sodom-like things they foisted on us are temporarily stunned. They must find another tact than burning down their own cities, etc.

All of this peacefulness simply means that Donald J. Trump has been again put in the most powerful office on the planet for the Lord’s very special purposes. No person, political party, or any other force put him there. We even witnessed God’s hand in the assassination attempt. Trump himself said he felt an invisible hand slap him to the floor at the moment when the bullet missed his head by no more than an inch.

I don’t claim to know exactly what the Lord is up to with the sudden developments we see coming one after another. But I do know He is fully aware of each movement in this fascinating end-times act we’re a part of.

The calm we’re in the midst of at present is leading to a sort of peace that will result in the act intolerable to the Almighty. It will be the satanically inspired act against Israel by the world’s nations that will bring God’s destruction upon all anti-God forces of the earth.

Although I’ve continued to support Donald Trump for president, I nonetheless wonder whether he will be instrumental in the prophesied act that will cause God to judge in such world-rending wrath.

Already, it is conjectured that Mr. Trump will revise the efforts for peace in the Middle East–the effort he was involved with when forced from power by the loss in the 2020 presidential election.

The Israeli-Palestinian peace plan advanced by President-elect Donald Trump during his first term will likely be back on the table when he returns to office, according to a former senior aide who reportedly has been tapped to help lead the transition team.

The Trump peace plan envisioned Israel being able to annex all of its settlements in the West Bank while granting the Palestinians a pathway to a semi-contiguous state on the remaining territory. The plan was swiftly rejected by the Palestinian Authority, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the plan with reservations. His settler allies, who are now part of his coalition, rejected the proposal due to its inclusion of a potential Palestinian state.

In an interview with CNN, Brian Hook, who served as Trump’s special envoy for Iran, is asked to respond to an assertion by Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister that normalization with Israel is off the table without the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Highlighting the 2020 peace plan, Hook tells CNN, “Much of that work is still relevant today,” adding that the proposal contains all of the conditions Riyadh is seeking in order to normalize with Israel.

However, Hook acknowledges that no one is “in much of a mood” to discuss a two-state solution following Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.

“There are many Israelis right now who are focused on other things, specifically keeping them safe from this kind of evil terrorism that they endured on October 7,” he says.

Citing three sources familiar with the matter, CNN reported yesterday that Hook will lead Trump’s transition team at the State Department. (“Trump official suggests 2020 Israeli-Palestinian peace plan will be back in play,” Jacob Magid, The Times of Israel, November 7, 2024)

It is the peacefulness of all these doings that makes one uncomfortable. It will be a covenant of false peace that divides God’s chosen nation Israel that will bring His wrath and judgment, according to Daniel 9:27.

It will be the dividing of God’s land, Israel, that will bring the world to Armageddon, according to the prophet Joel (Joel 3:2).

We are told that when there is a cry for peace and safety, sudden destruction comes (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

Antichrist will come in as a peacemaker, but by that peace, he will destroy many, the prophecy says (Daniel 8:25).

Now, I in no way am saying Donald J. Trump is to be Antichrist. And, there is no doubt in my thinking that he genuinely wants to bring all these wars, including that of Russia vs. Ukraine and Israel vs. the entire Israel-hating nations of the Middle East, to an end.

However, like past presidents and other leaders placed in power by Heaven’s edict to rid the world of war, to get to the peace, Mr. Trump seems perhaps poised as the world’s most powerful leader of these times to put into motion prophecy that will bring real peace—the only peace that will truly put an end to war on this fallen planet.

That will only happen when Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, breaks through the black clouds of war at Armageddon.

He is the only Hope–the Blessed Hope—for peace on earth and for peace in the human heart through salvation of the soul.

Here is how to receive that peace:

“That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).