Beyond the Salvation Wars: Why Both Protestants and Catholics Must Reimagine How We Are Saved

by Matthew W. Bates

God has provided salvation, but when does it begin? What is required of us? Can we lose it? These and other disputed questions have divided Christians for centuries. Matthew W. Bates has already shown that the gospel is about King Jesus and that faith includes allegiance. In Beyond the Salvation Wars, he unpacks additional truths from the Bible and the early church to describe how salvation happens.

Bates offers a new model, encouraging Protestants and Catholics toward long-term unity. But his proposal contains strong medicine: it doesn't sugarcoat current Protestant and Catholic errors but diagnoses with precision for the future health of the church.

By using accessible writing and stories, Bates shows what Scripture teaches about baptism, election, regeneration, assurance, and justification. A companion to his previous book, Gospel Allegiance: What Faith in Jesus Misses for Salvation in Christ, this book will appeal to those who want to discover core truths about how we are saved--for their personal journey as well as for final Christian unity. A discussion guide with questions for classes and groups will be available.

Genres: Theology, Christianity, Nonfiction, Christian, Biblical Studies, Religion, Catholic

304 pages, Paperback

First published March 11, 2025

About the author

Matthew W. Bates (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) is Assistant Professor of Theology at Quincy University. His main teaching area is the Bible and early Christian literature, especially the New Testament. He also teaches courses in Western Religion, Church History, and Christian Spirituality.

Reviews

[William Dusing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matthew Bates does it again! Beyond The Salvation Wars: Why Both Protestants and Catholics Must Reimagine How We Are Saved is a welcomed addition to Bates’s collection of vitally important work for the church and the Kingdom. In a very practical and approachable way, Bates unpacks some of the most difficult and divisive arguments concerning salvation, justification, baptism, and more. Having read Gospel Allegiance, Why the Gospel?, The Gospel Precisely, and Salvation by Allegiance Alone I opened this book expecting to simply rehash some of the previously explored material, but I was pleasantly surprised with Bate’s new angle and approach to fully exploring these long-debated issues with a focus, not toward further division, but toward unity. Get a pen, notepad, and fresh highlighter ready, because this is a book you’ll return to again and again as a wonderful source for understanding salvation according to Scripture. I highly recommend this book!

[Jared Greer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this and I've been intending to write a proper review for it. But because life has been really busy and hectic lately, I've decided to simply highlight my areas of agreement and disagreement in bullet-point form.

The Good:
-I appreciate Bates's ecumenical spirit, and his active pursuit of the ecclesial unity Jesus prayed for.
-I appreciate his desire to accurately and charitably represent both Catholic and Protestant articulations of salvation. He is intentional about avoiding unfair caricatures of theological positions.
-I've long agreed with Bates's framing of the gospel as the proclamation of Jesus's incarnation, death, resurrection, and enthronement. Jesus is the Christ! Biblically, this is indeed the gospel. (That said, I think Bates could afford to more strongly emphasize the ministry of Jesus as constitutive of the gospel).
-I've long agreed with Bates's proposition that biblical faith is embodied, and that it is not simply mental assent. In general, 'allegiance' language helpfully and accurately describes biblical faith.
-Bates is correct about credobaptism being the correct model for baptism. While his argument is primarily biblical-theological in nature, the historical priority of credobaptism can be corroborated in historical-theological works such as Everett Ferguson's "Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries."
-I appreciate and agree with the distinctions he makes between the gospel and the *benefits* of the gospel. Justification by faith is a benefit of the gospel, but it is not the gospel proper. Blurring the lines between the gospel and the benefits of the gospel is an ever-present temptation to which many succumb.
-I agree with his understanding of election as corporate, and I appreciate his refutation of individual predestination.

The Bad:
-While Bates is intentionally systematic in his approach, I nonetheless felt that his *theological* reflections were often minimal and underwhelming. Bates is a biblical scholar, so it is perhaps unsurprising that his arguments are largely analytical, logical, and linguistic. But while there is nothing inherently wrong with such an approach, a book advocating a vision for Christian soteriology can afford to be a bit more grounded in theological reflection and in the story of a gracious and loving God relentlessly seeking union with His creation. In other words, I would have appreciated some more 'right brain' to go along with the 'left brain.' :)
-I fear Bates too severely underplays sacramentality, perhaps as an overcorrection to Catholicism's radical sacramentality. E.g., he affirms that baptism is ordinarily saving—which I would agree with—but he attributes the salvific nature of baptism to baptismal confessions of allegiance rather than the act of baptism itself. The evidence he provides for this conclusion is somewhat minimal and selective; and I think a strong case can be made biblically, theologically, and historically for baptism being more robustly sacramental. I believe the sacramental and soteriological significance of baptism has been nuanced more helpfully in books like "Down in the River to Pray" by John Mark Hicks & Greg Taylor (though I don't 100% agree with the theology in that book either).
-Perhaps I am overly pessimistic, but I fear that some of Bates' proposals for advancing the ecumenical cause are naively optimistic and insufficiently pragmatic.

Overall, I think the good significantly outweighs the bad here; and I've already recommended this to several friends, with the caveats articulated above. I've been extremely frustrated with the gross misrepresentations and unjustified, blanket dismissals of this book in certain quarters (looking at you TGC). I'm grateful for the work Bates is doing, and I always appreciate sitting at his feet. I'm looking forward to whatever he does next!

[Andrew Goode · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough, challenging critique of both Catholic and Protestant dogma. The Gospel Allegiance model is a significant step in the right direction!

[Jake Preston · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thought-provoking read. Bates makes the case that both Protestants and Catholics have in some way missed the center of the gospel. Protestants have centered justification by faith alone as the gospel rather than a saving benefit. Catholics have overemphasized the sacrament of baptism as salvific as opposed to faith in Jesus.

Bates argues that the gospel essence can be summarized as Jesus is king and the proper response to this good news is embodied allegiance in every area of life. If the gospel essence is justification by faith or Jesus's death for the forgiveness of sins (while both are important), it's not actually good news, but good advice on which a person must act. The gospel, though, is that Jesus, the Son of God, through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension has been enthroned as Lord of the world and he will one day return to consummate his kingdom.

I felt like his critiques of Protestants in the area of personal justification were on point. Jesus has committed to saving a group, the church, of which the individual believer can be part as they give their allegiance to Jesus and are indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

The book is very dense and technical at more than a few points, but it was worth the time to parse out some really fascinating insights about soteriology. Ultimately, I appreciate Bates' desire for unity within the church and the shared commitment between Protestants and Catholics to see worldwide allegiance to Jesus the forgiving and gracious King.

[Becker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beyond the Salvation Wars caps off a months-long journey that I have been on to understand Dr. Bates’ proposal that a “Gospel-allegiance” model of salvation better aligns with the teachings of Jesus the New Testament authors than the classical Protestant and Roman Catholic models. Important in this argument is a re-understanding of justification not as imputed righteousness (classical Protestantism) or imparted righteousness (Roman Catholic), but as “incorporated (or “in-the-Christ”) righteousness.” Bates puts words to a lot of the thoughts I have had over the past decade of theological education and study of the Text. This book was excellent and I hope it will be a gift to the Church going forward.

[Adam Bloch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that one must read at least one of Bates' previous books on Gospel Allegiance to appreciate this volume (and seriously, read and understand that theological paradigm: "Faith in the Gospel" makes so much more sense when understood as "Allegiance to Jesus the King"). While I agree with most (perhaps all) of Bates' theology within this volume, I'm afraid, however, that this book won't do much for the greater conversation (but I hope it will), since a great deal of time is devoted to explaining why everyone else is wrong, and the big voices in that conversation, therefore, won't care. This book's strength, however, is as a second volume to something like _Why the Gospel?_ when a Christian wants to know how that paradigm addresses common Christian arguments and applications.

[Matt Koser · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a review saying that the one thing Protestants and Catholics can agree on about this book is that Bates doesn’t believe the gospel—a little bit of an exaggerated review in my opinion.

I appreciate Bates’s desire for ecumenicism and argument that Christians should not be content with remaining divided. Although there was some good stuff in this book on baptism, election, regeneration, the atonement, etc. (all things I’m very interested in), I’m not sure how unifying this book will be to take us beyond the salvation wars. (My least favorite chapter was his chapter on election—basically a corporative view based on weak hermeneutics)

Bates’s perspective is a mixture of New Perspective of Paul and Arminianism. Overall I think it’s a helpful, provoking read, even if you disagree with some of his approach and conclusions.
______
My ⭐️ rating criteria
- ⭐️: I absolutely did not like or totally disagreed with the book and would recommend that no one else read it
- ⭐️⭐️: the book was below average style or content, arguments were very weak, wouldn’t read it again, but wouldn’t beg people not to read it necessarily
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️: a fine book, some helpful information (or a decent story, for the handful of novels I read), maybe I disagreed somewhat, enjoyed it decently well
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: a very good book, information was very helpful, mostly agreed with everything or it was a strong argument even if I disagree, was above-average enjoyable to read
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: incredible book, I enjoyed it more than most other books, I want to read it again in the future, I will be telling everyone to read it for the next few weeks

[Ryan Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

-2 for strategy and incompleteness
+1 for boldness

A very bold book. while there are some things I really like, I have to conclude that the book was just not very strategic toward the author's goals, at least from my vantage point.

If you want to unravel an entire systematic theology, you will need to write an entire systematic theology, and that is not what this book is. It ends up leaving more questions than answers.

I was left wondering where I could find the rigorous explanations behind his very short treatments of extensive topics. Perhaps he has done this work elsewhere or simply wants to motivate others toward doing it, but that is a dangerous path forward in my view.

This level of theology should be done rigorously first, then and only then disseminated in popular works like this. I know he has read many more rigorous works from others that inform his opinions and positions, but it isn't clear to me how these synthesize into a coherent whole.

What is the Doctrine of God that these changes result in? not mentioned here. I could go on....

[Zachary Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

What an intellectually satisfying book.

I have for a long time wanted someone to put forward a constructive biblical model like this. So much of what I've read is too based in the relatively recent theological past. Bates puts in one place so much of what I've been thinking on the topic. It was nice to find a work I so resonated with and can heartily recommend.

It's not perfect but it's so good. His chapters on Baptism, Election & Regeneration, and Perseverance are must reads! I can't believe he packed so much, so well, into such a limited space.

The book took a little bit to get going but hit its stride after the ground work was laid. I found myself gripped in chapters 5-9.

His discussions of Justification and "Righteousness of God" were really good and really worth reading but these were the areas where I could nitpick. I basically agree with what he did say about Justification but felt like it needed a fuller treatment--not 'enough' was said. "Incorporated Righteousness", rather than Imputed or Imparted, carried a lot of freight--such a powerful better way. But I'm one of the last few who seem to think NT Wright's "covenant faithfulness" model of ROG actually does explain all New Testament occurrences. I might want to call it call it Covenant Justice to honor the 'Dik' word family in Greek, but the idea is right. That is, Jesus, The Christ, IS the righteousness of God on display in history. Through the Christ, God has honored his covenantal commitments--both blessing and curse--to Abraham's family. And from faith (Christ's) to faith (ours), we become convenataly just/faithful ourselves (but not by ourselves) through union with Christ and attendant new-heart/Spirit life.

Overall, this book packs a big theological punch in a small space. I kinda of wish it was 500 pages and even more thorough-- it certainly could've been. But I understand such a choice would limit it's reach. All in all, this is a super strong offering and certainly enough to generate discussion and I hope it doesnt get squashed by powers-that-be-gatekeepers who are threatened by its critique of their cherished models. Read it (charitably).

[Darren · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I was reading Matthew Bates’ new book (Beyond the Salvation Wars) while sipping my coffee, I was reminded of G. K. Chesterton’s famous line, “If you look at a thing 999 times, you’re perfectly safe; but . . . if you look at it for the 1000nth time, you’re in danger of seeing it . . . for the first time.”

On page after page, I saw gospel concepts that I had looked at 1000 times in a fresh and exhilarating light. Here are three comments and three suggestions for potential readers.

First, Bates is an archaeologist with important New Testament words. He shows how detritus has accumulated around key terms like “gospel.” We all know what that word means, right? Well, maybe we need to look again. Bates brushes off the cultural and theological sediment that has accumulated around this word for the last two thousand years and helps us to see what “gospel” meant in the first century. (Like Lewis Carroll pointed out through the voice of Humpty Dumpty, words don’t always mean what we want them to mean.) Bates also carefully defines terms like “faith” and “grace” with the first-century context and usage in mind.

Second, Bates is a “salvation-Scripture dissectologist,” that is, a skillful solver of theological jigsaw puzzles. In Beyond the Salvation Wars (and in his previous books) Bates helps readers understand how various salvation-oriented terms fit together to form a coherent whole (e.g., grace, faith, works, image, judgment, glory, Messiah, etc.). As mentioned above, he also correlates theological terms from systematic theology into his salvation panorama, terms like election, regeneration, justification, etc. (Wait until you read what says about election and regeneration in chapter 6, assurance in chapter 7, sanctification in chapter 8, and justification in chapter 9. You’ll either “see red” or see anew like Chesterton talked about.) What emerges from his careful analysis is a striking and wholistic view of how salvation unfolds for the community and individuals.

Third, Bates’ presentation of the Jesus event (and all its implications) makes for a synthetic picture that doesn’t leave out passages from Scripture’s salvation picture that are inconvenient for certain traditions. Like The Dark Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter, Bates deals with verses that Must Not Be Named in certain theological circles and evangelical-church doctrinal statements (e.g., Romans 2, Hebrews 10, 1 John 5:16-17). What’s more, his seamless incorporation of so-called “problem passages” into the tapestry of his “allegiance model” makes his thesis credible and compelling. I found myself saying with Paul, “I’m not ashamed of this gospel,” now that I’m understanding its profundity, challenge, and glory at deeper levels.

Here are three suggestions for readers from all theological traditions.

First, I encourage readers from every denominational background to guard themselves against “knowingness” when it comes to salvation issues. “Knowingness” is a term coined by the philosopher Jonathan Lear to describe the condition where our sense of already understanding a topic keeps us from reapproaching it with curiosity and openness and thus forfeiting Chesterton’s “seeing it for the first time” possibility. The attitude that says “I know all about this already” is the dire enemy of learning. Laying aside “knowingness” before we open the book is critical for engaging with Bates’ understanding of this “great salvation” (Heb 2:3). What’s more, we must be loyal to the truth rather than to our theological or institutional “brand” or brand spokespersons (p.2). This is a challenge for all of us.

Second, I suggest reading the book with theologically curious friends. Bates provides an appendix with accessible discussion questions for each chapter. (By the way, Brazos Press did a beautiful job publishing the book. The paper is high quality, the typeface is attractive, and there’s ample white space for the reader’s jottings and notes.)

Third, give copies to your pastors and priests and ask for their impressions. Read it in your book club. Returning to Chesterton and his admonition to look and look again, Paul told Timothy to “Keep a close watch on … the teaching” (1 Tim 4:16a). This firm admonition makes sense because the stakes for misunderstanding the gospel – or maintaining a caricatured one – are sky-high. Paul goes on, “for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” – 1 Tim. 4:16b). As Bates writes, “The gospel is of utmost importance because it is how God is bringing about salvation” (p.27). We must keep looking, learning, and refining our understanding of the Bible’s teaching about salvation with Scripture, church history, early Christian writers, and solid scholarship like Bates is producing.

Speaking of early Christian writers, I thought about this line from the Epistle of Barnabas as I read Beyond the Salvation Wars: “We ought therefore … to learn accurately concerning our salvation, lest the Evil One having effected an entrance of error in us should fling us away from our life.” (Barnabas 17:1). Let’s read Bates and revise as necessary our understanding of how salvation operates.

Finally, his book – like his other publications – will certainly “set the cat among the pigeons,” as my friend put it. Because Bates deals fearlessly with controversial issues, many “pigeons" will be flying around church campuses when the book starts circulating. But a little theological tumult isn’t a bad thing at all, especially in the service of gaining fresh clarity on the most important question facing every person in the universe, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:3).

[Ryan Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beyond the Salvation Wars is a must read for anyone curious about questions like "Why?" and "How?" The Church has divided over and over on these questions, so it is surprising that so many camps presume to claim to know the right answers. As Bates himself notes in the introductory pages, this book is not written for such people. This book is for everyone else who continues to want to better understand the Good News about King Jesus.

I've now read three books by Dr. Bates, and each one has significantly helped me make better sense of the Bible. I don't know whether the Gospel Allegiance model is correct in every point, but I appreciate its ability to answer more questions and make more sense of the text. Beyond the Salvation Wars, in particular, provides great clarity in the different models' positions and weak points. Bates' portrayals of these positions feel honest and not mere straw men. I say this as one raised and confirmed in the Catholic Church and now serving as a deacon in a Baptist church.

I find Bates' arguments compelling and even convincing. They also provide better answers for my long held questions like:

- Why does what I do matter after believing and being baptized?
- Why would anyone consider the gospel of Jesus Christ "Good News"?
- How can I help my children, family, and friends understand what it means to be disciples?

As much as the book tackles more theoretical topics, the results provide very practical application. Does this change everything I believe? Certainly not. However, I'm given greater clarity and find a deeper longing to serve our Lord Jesus Christ all the more.

I hope others will give this book a chance. If you are at all a thinking Christian, Beyond the Salvation Wars will give you plenty to ponder.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Matthew Bates has written extensively about why the words we usually see translated as “faith” would be understood more clearly if translated “allegiance” when describing our response to the Gospel and to King Jesus – denoting relationship, loyalty, and trust, in addition to just believing certain propositions. He has described the Gospel as the announcement about Jesus the saving King and what Jesus accomplished – an announcement meant to bring people to be allegiant to King Jesus.

In his new book, “Beyond the Salvation Wars: Why Both Protestants and Catholics Must Reimagine How We Are Saved”, he builds on his previous work about the King Jesus Gospel, the importance of allegiance, etc. - examining how these ideas interact with common Protestant and Roman Catholic ideas about how we are saved.

As you might guess from the title, he dives into a lot of things that are hot-button issues in this book, and he was unafraid to tackle them from his own point-of-view.

He starts by summarizing his understanding of the Gospel and affirming that Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Eastern Orthodox all have this at the core of their doctrine. So for Bates this isn’t so much “another gospel” issue that places any of these main groups “on the outside.” That was a good place to start the discussion.

He then works to show where he thinks various groups have shifted their focus, added unnecessary bits, or obscured parts of the Gospel that they do in fact affirm. This is obviously the more challenging aspect of the book, as just about everyone picking up the book is bound to disagree with him on something they hold dear.

As someone that is bought in to a lot of Bates’s core ideas, but who joined the Eastern Orthodox Church in recent years, my own wrestling with this book was both significant and predictable.

On the one hand, there were a lot of places where I was nodding my head – when Bates was discussing election, once-saved-always-saved, and problems he saw with both the standard Protestant and Roman Catholic views of justification, for instance. And I was especially interested to see that his own proposal, “incorporated righteousness,” aligns well with the Orthodox understanding of justification in many ways.

On the other hand, I did not find myself in alignment when he was pushing back on priesthood, sacraments, infant baptism, and other parts of doctrine and practice that Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox share. These were generally places where I wanted more – more than some of the standard arguments in some places, more sources cited to back up some of his claims in others. These were also places where I think including an Orthodox perspective could have been helpful. While I was somewhat disappointed with some of these parts of his book, I recognize the potential that his approach has for helping to encourage more detailed and earnest cross-denominational conversations that move deeper.

I expect that most Christians reading his book will have a similar mixed experience – albeit, with different “maps” of places they agree/disagree with the viewpoint and arguments Bates put forward.

The important dynamic, for me, was that it prompted me to think afresh about Scripture and core concepts of theology – examining a variety of positions from a new angle, reexamining my own tradition and understanding to make sure I really understood the “why”, etc.

This book gave me a unique chance to consider the way he combined his core ideas about the Gospel, King Jesus, and “faith” as “allegiance” with other data to put together a more cohesive, holistic view – enabling me to more clearly compare/contrast with the way I’ve synthesized his core ideas with other data and experience as part of my journey.

The net/net of all of this is that while I cannot wholeheartedly say I agree with all of the positions and arguments that Bates puts forward in this book, I feel like wrestling with this book has better prepared me to interact with people across the spectrum of viewpoints and traditions in the future. I think others will find this book a helpful resource for the same reasons - especially, if they’ve already come to value Bates’s contributions to the “King Jesus Gospel” as I have.

This appears to be precisely what Dr. Bates was aiming for with this book, so to that I say, “Mission Accomplished!”, and I look forward to the discussions it will encourage.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jesus prayed for our unity as His Bride in John 17. There HAS always been unity underneath all our disunity. Bates’ book charts an insightful and helpful path forward for us towards transformative discussion between Catholics and Protestants with the goal for us to learn to love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ through Grace-based trust and allegiance in King Jesus who actually agree on SO much. In my opinion, we talk past each other without knowing it in so many ways. We actually do agree!!! To live is Christ, to die is gain! Jesus is The Eternal Life. The Gospel is The Power of God for salvation for everyone who trusts/believes/has allegiance to King Jesus. We agree FAR more than we realize! Christ in us, The Hope of Glory is calling us to fulfill our witness to those who do not yet know Him by our love for one another FIRST, instead of FIRST harshly judging and criticizing each other because of our rational disagreements. I am copying and pasting a key section below that I believe helps show the core and heart of the Gospel which we all actually agree on, if one listens well with an open heart and mind. Let the one who has ears to hear and a humble, teachable heart listen and join the discussion!

The Gospel’s Theological Focus

Classic Protestantism: The gospel is about personal atonement and justification. The gospel is primarily about what happened on the cross, preeminently Jesus’s death for a person’s sins. When by faith alone an individual trusts God’s promise that in Christ the atonement is effective, Jesus’s righteousness is credited to that person’s account so that the person attains justification (right-standing) in the presence of God.

The Gospel-Allegiance Model: The gospel’s climax is victorious enthronement. The gospel is primarily about the victory that God won over all his enemies—including sin, death, and Satan—through the gospel events. These gospel events reached a pinnacle in the first century when Jesus, who was crucified for our sins and raised for our justification, became the ruling Christ and incorporated his people into his saving benefits.

The Gospel’s Purpose

Classic Protestantism: The gospel’s purpose is the individual soul’s rescue. Salvation is primarily about forgiveness of sins so that an individual can be declared “righteous” even though sinful, avoid God’s wrath, and grow in holiness. Then the individual’s soul can go to heaven rather than hell after death. When a person is eternally saved for heaven or passed over for damnation, God alone is glorified.

The Gospel-Allegiance Model: The gospel’s purpose is the holistic rescue of God’s image bearers, through which creation, humans, and God are glorified. Salvation is not about souls getting into heaven but rather is purposed toward the recovery of human flourishing right now and then forevermore. The gospel’s purpose is to enable all the nations (inclusive of individuals) to give allegiant obedience to Jesus the king—having experienced his forgiveness, victory, and transformative new-creation power—so we can reign with him now and in the resurrection age. Allegiance to King Jesus not only eternally saves from punishment and death but also is for the restoration of glory for humans, creation, and above all God.

Saving Faith

Classic Protestantism: Saving faith is mental trust in God’s saving promises. Saving “faith” (pistis) is an inward confidence aimed away from one’s own works or self-righteousness and instead at the truthfulness of God’s promises in Jesus Christ. Saving faith is trusting that by faith alone Jesus’s death for your sins and his priestly mediation on your behalf are personally effective for your salvation.

The Gospel-Allegiance Model: Saving faith is faithfulness, trusting loyalty, or allegiance to the king heralded in the gospel. Although inclusive of it, saving faith is not primarily trusting that God’s saving promises in Jesus are true. Nor is it trusting that faith alone is effective. Rather, faith is a relational way of life, bodily and communally expressed, from start to finish. For personal faith to be saving it must be relationally externalized bodily as enacted allegiance to Jesus in his capacity as the rescuing and victorious king announced in the gospel.

Works

Classic Protestantism: Works confirm salvation. Our works are good but hazardous because we tend to trust our deeds rather than Jesus’s accomplished work on the cross on our behalf. Works are excluded from personal justification and cannot in any way serve as the basis for meriting final salvation. Yet once justifying mental “faith” is in place, good works will invariably follow if a person is genuinely saved as part of that person’s sanctification or growth in holiness.

The Gospel-Allegiance Model: Works are foundationally saving as an embodiment of allegiance. We cannot earn salvation through works of the law (works-righteousness or legalism), but good works have a foundational positive saving function because they are part of pistis, the word traditionally translated as “faith.” Good works are saving as part of allegiance (“faith/fidelity”) to the king from the ground up. The individualized distinction between justification and sanctification within classic Protestantism is false. That is, the division between a person’s justification and sanctification has an insufficient scriptural warrant and obscures how Scripture actually describes the salvation process.

Saving Grace

Classic Protestantism: Saving grace is God’s timeless unmerited favor in Jesus Christ. Grace is God’s unmerited favor in providing personal salvation in Jesus Christ. It is usually understood as given before creation to those elected or predestined for salvation. Since each person is born guilty and cannot perform any deeds to merit forgiveness, each individual must be saved by grace, a free gift originating in God’s timeless will, entirely outside each person’s own future efforts, abilities, or foreseen merits. Saving grace means that God always acts to save individuals before and apart from anything they might do to merit salvation on their own. Many aspects of grace—such as its effectiveness, scope, and resistibility—are understood in diverse ways by Lutherans, the Reformed, Anglicans, Methodists, and other Protestant traditions.

The Gospel-Allegiance Model: Saving grace is multifaceted. It is unmerited, enormous in size, benevolent, and timely. Yet the premier saving grace is the gospel itself, which was given by God in the first century as an unmerited, allegiance-demanding gift. Within the gospel-allegiance model, when we are talking about the grace required for ultimate salvation, it must not be abstracted away from the gospel as the specific undeserved grace that God has already opted to give humanity collectively within history. Above all, saving grace means this: humans, considered as a whole, did nothing to earn or merit God’s specific grace of the gospel when it was given approximately two thousand years ago, but King Jesus’s people now enjoy the gospel’s powerful gifts and special saving benefits.

[Tim Donnelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nijay Gupta’s endorsement on the back cover of the book says that Bates is an equal opportunity offender, but all for the good purpose of turning us back to Scripture to reconsider the true gospel.

And I couldn’t have said it any better. This book will maybe come off as slightly controversial, but I believe Bates’ intent in writing this is all for the purpose of getting back to the roots of Apostolic Christianity.

He rightly challenges many commonly held assumptions of both sides of the aisle, for Protestant and Catholic readers. Which made for plenty of provocative sections in the book that I hope will lead to good dialogue and a reconsideration of what we believe and why.

Overall, would highly recommend.

[Douglas Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matthew Bates is a New Testament scholar to whom I pay very careful attention. His writing is deeply reasoned, biblical, and challenging, and this book is no exception. No one is safe here. While broadly supportive and honoring of both sides of the divide, Protestants and Catholics alike will feel the heat of his critique!

Twenty years ago, Bates' thesis would have sparked an agitated and unhelpful exchange. However, I believe the current environment is much more open. I also think there are far fewer hardened Piper, MacArthur, and "Young, Restless, and Reformed" enthusiasts on the Protestant side who would strongly object to Bates' arguments.

The author provides a helpful summary of his previous work on faith as allegiance and an explication of the Gospel. He then uses this context to examine how Protestants and Catholics view the Gospel and salvation. I recommend this book to everyone interested in the theology of salvation. It is deep water so approach with an open heart and engaged mind!

[Jennifer Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Bates brings forth compelling critical analysis of the interpretation of salvation comparing and contrasting between Protestants and Catholics. He also sheds tremendous light on crucial areas of interpreting what salvation means based on scripture. Having read the King Jesus Gospel by Scot McKnight just before this and following up with Dr. Bates’ allegiance model here, I have a profound and greater holistic understanding of what salvation means, what the gospel truly is and the broader connection we have in gospel allegiance in a life fully committed to Jesus and connected with all humanity in Christ - far beyond the common Western evangelical truncated personal transaction model of faith.

[William Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book I've read by Bates, and I'm now seeing his pattern of redefining commonly held theological beliefs. He is well-studied and a scholar, no doubt. (Far beyond me.) But I struggle with how he calls out other belief systems using theological gymnastics to prove their point, then he does the same. I just don't agree with him on a lot, yet appreciate his desire for biblical truth. Even though I don't agree with a lot, the points he makes will be influential in my faith and teaching. I do agree that allegiance to King Jesus is often lost in today's theological landscape, and it needs to be recovered.

[Matthew Emery · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not great. He’s taking New Perspective on Paul and trying to do too much with it. He’s certainly right on several things, but this book gets out of hand.

He starts with a rundown of his Twitter beef and it kind of carries the energy of someone arguing on Twitter the whole book. He claims that he wants to use the ancient church to make his points, but outside his chapter in baptism (probably his strongest chapter) he only makes broader unsubstantiated claims about the ancient church and only cites like 5 Fathers, most of that in the baptism chapter. I was not persuaded by what he’s saying and believe others have done a better job emphasizing the kingdom implications of the gospel.

[Mark Kennicott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book that advances a much needed theological conversation in our times regarding our understanding of biblical salvation. Regardless of your agreement with the author’s conclusions, this book frames the discussion with clarity and offers an important path for continued dialogue. An excellent follow up to his book “Gospel Allegiance,” and an excellent resource for both individual and group study.

[Joel Wentz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is thoughtful, careful in exegetical method, and very, very bold! I enjoyed the book as a whole, was provoked and challenged in good ways, but worry it's a bit too ambitious in terms of the number of issues addressed. Absolutely worth reading, though.

Full video review here: https://youtu.be/7LEkfHvOF4Q

[Chris Hatch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a challenging book for both Protestants and Catholics, as Bates will help you reconsider some of your deeply held beliefs through a thorough exploration of scripture and Christian tradition. I didn't agree with everything here - few will - but I think he's on the right track.

[Jack Hairston · Rating 4 out of 5]

A noble effort

While I admire this effort to reconcile Roman Catholics with Protestants, there are glaring assumptions. As a result, I doubt that any minds will change.
In the meantime, any friend of Jesus is a friend of mine.

[Filip Sekkelsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! Thourough, thought-provoking and hopeful.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this work, Matthew Bates expanded on his previous works explaining his doctrine of faith and belief translated from the Greek, pistis, may at times better be translated as allegiance.

[Troy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matthew Bates has repeated his previous successes by bringing the reader to the real points of soteriological contention. No matter what the theological tradition, the reader must encounter Bate's biblical approach to emphasizing the Kingship of Jesus of Nazareth and what that means for the loyalt that the King is due. "Beyond the Salvation Wars" is asking relevant questions that multiple traditions need to take seriously.