Belief in Christ is irrelevant to salvation.

Preamble (Feel free to skip)

I do want to qualify that I fully understand that salvation has slightly different understandings across the various Christian traditions. For instance, Catholic Christians see the grace that imbues salvation as mediated through the sacraments, while Calvinists see salvation as something that occurs despite any thought, feeling or action on our part. My post is not directed at these traditions.

I am speaking to those Christians, mostly Evangelical, non-denominational protestant Christians who espouse a much simpler "alter call" version of salvation. This version says that if you confess your sins and accept Jesus into your heart by believing in the narrative of his actions, then you are saved. They often site Romans 10:9-10.

The doctrine of sola gratia seems to have morphed from its origin as a polemic against mediation via the church, especially with crimes like the sale of indulgences, into a sort of sola fides, where trust in Christ, which boils down to belief in his life, death, and resurrection is sufficient for salvation. Essentially, if you speak the Nicene Creed in good conscience, you're saved.

Romans 10 seems pretty definitive on the matter, but it doesn't sit well when taken as a whole. First of all, I would like to weaken Paul's credibility.

• In Philemon, Paul exhorts Onesimus to return to his master, directly contradicting Deuteronomy 23:15, which says not to return a slave to his master.
• Paul says all authorities are appointed by God in Romans 13, while Hosea 8:4 clearly says that Israelites appointed princes not by God.
• In that same chapter, Paul exhorts Christians to bend to every authority, while Exodus 1:8-22, midwives rebel against Egyptian authority and are rewarded by God for it.
• In Galatians 3:10, Paul quotes Deuteronomy 27:26 to show that the law curses its breakers. But then in v11, he misquotes Habakkuk 2:4b "the righteous shall live by faith (or faithfulness)", to imply faith in Christ, when Hab. 2:4a, which reads "he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail", clearly implies that faithfulness means fidelity to the Law.
• In Colossians 1:24, Paul seems to exaggerate "slightly" by claiming that his persecution on their behalf completes their salvation.
• Romans 9:18 claims that God's mercy is sovereign and transcendent, while Christ taught that mercy is granted to the merciful via their actions (Matthew 5:7).
• In 1 Corinthians 7:25, Paul casts aspersions on his own degree of inspiration.

When it comes down to it, all of these mistakes are related to authority (slave/master, citizen/government, God headship/man, his own/his congregation, faith/Law). Paul seems to puff himself and his mission up beyond the scope of the Law and even Christ himself. So when he talks about confession and belief alone as the sole requirement for salvation, I hold it suspect. It seems too strident.

Argument

James 2:19 gives us a different opinion. "You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder." Don't forget that Christ is one as God is one (John 10:30), so I can't accept a semantic escape that this is not specifically saying salvation. Belief in God as one is belief in Christ.

And this just makes much more sense to me. If the demons can believe, and they are not saved, then your belief cannot save you. What would distinguish you from a demon is your behavior as it conforms to the teachings of Christ. So then salvation then is much more like Philippians 2:12, where you have to work it out with fear and trembling. You can slip in and out of it as you lose yourself and find Christ.

In this light, most of the Christians I have problems with because of their unethical, unChristlike behavior are not saved until they get their act together, and some Christianities now have to move from selling eternal real-estate to actually trying to push people to live better lives. Also, anyone who acts like Christ and not like a demon is then saved. This is why I am no longer a Christian - not even a Christian Universalist. I simply support every teaching of Christ and try to conform to it.