Here's Fee's footnote to this statement that appears at the end of the chapter: I get a lot of flack for this view, especially from some in my "revivalistic" heritage, and am quoted such tests as Romans 10:9, "that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." This text, however, presupposes the Christian community as the place where such confession occurs, at the very least at baptism. The earliest Christians would not have understood a believer whose salvation has not been completed by baptism, which includes identification with both Christ and His people.
A single person is sitting at home in front of the TV; a Christian broadcast is on, a sermon is preached, an invitation is given, and the person responds by "accepting Christ." But the only "church" the person attends is by way of the TV, with no connection to a local body of believers. The question: Is this person saved? I would answer: Only God knows; but such salvation lies totally outside the New Testament frame of reference. -- Gordon Fee in “Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God”
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