According to the Roman church, for a person to be saved they must go through many rituals and perform many good works. And even then, you cannot know whether you have done enough to be saved until you see the Lord; to claim otherwise, that you can know you are saved, is the sin of “presumption,” according to the teaching of the Roman church.

However, Peter, “the first pope,” according to the Roman church, had a very different view of salvation. In the first gospel message ever preached during the church age, he quoted the Old Testament prophet to declare, very simply,

Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord
Shall be saved!
— Acts 2:21; cf. Joel 2:32, Romans 10:13

What a wonderful promise this is from the word of God! And yes, if it really is that simple, then we surely can know that, if we have called on the Lord in truth, we shall be saved eternally; praise the Lord for that!

Is there more to the Christian life than that? No doubt; that is what the rest of the New Testament unveils to us.

Moreover, some people always try to use the Lord’s word in Matthew to refute Peter’s word in Acts. The Lord said,

Not everyone who says to Me, Lord! Lord! will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but he who does the will of My Father who is in the heavens.
— Matthew 7:21

However, the Lord and Peter are speaking of two different things, and once we understand that, this matter becomes clear. The Lord is not speaking about eternity, but rather, about where we will be in “the kingdom of the heavens,” which is the 1,000 year reign of Christ upon the earth that will take place at the end of this age; only after that 1,000 year period will eternity begin. And to enter into the blessing of the 1,000 years we surely do need more than a simple confession of faith; rather, we need to become a disciple of Christ so that we live our Christian life in faithfulness to Him. (Rev. 20:1-6; cf. 2 Cor. 5:10; and see the most recent edition of our podcast, “What Is the Kingdom of the Heavens?”)

In contrast, Peter is speaking of our eternal destiny, and for that to be secured, all that is needed is, as he says, to “call upon the name of the Lord,” so that He becomes our Savior.

That may not be all there is to the Christian life, but it is the beginning, and with it we can and absolutely should have the assurance that, yes, we shall indeed be with the Lord for all eternity.

Praise the Lord for that!

Sent to our mailing list on
—  2 August 2025 —