Are you saved?

Is that even the right question?

What are some of the right questions?

• Have I repented and been baptized into Christ Jesus? (Acts 2:38)
• Does the Spirit of Christ dwell in me?
  (Romans 8:9, 2 Corinthians 13:5)
• Do I love the brethren?
  (1 John 3:14)
• Do I keep Christ's commandments?
  (1 John 2:3,4) (John 14:15)
• Do I abide in Christ and His words abide in us? (John 15:4-10)

Being 'saved' is not a one time act or experience, but a life that begins with conversion and our commitment to Jesus in baptism and never ends. Those who fail to remain in Christ die out and end up being cast into the fire. (see Luke 8:5-15)

Many think they are 'saved' because they were sprinkled as infants, or said the sinner's prayer, or joined a church, or believed Jesus died for their sins. But hear the warning of the Lord:
"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'" (Matthew 7:22,23)

What must I do to be saved?

• hear the Gospel
• believe
• repent
• be baptized into Christ
• abide in Christ perservering until the end
  

All these things we do are in response to what God has done in Christ and what His Spirit continues to do in drawing us to Him.

Don't depend on those who lift a few verses out of Paul's epistles "which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures." (2 Peter 3:16) But put your faith in ALL that Jesus and His Apostles taught.

UNITY OF THE FAITH
OF THE CHURCH
THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE WORLD

Irenaeas

[120-202A.D. a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of John]

- Against Heresies Book 1 Chapter 10

The Church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His [future] manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father “to gather all things in one,” and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Savior, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, “every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess” to Him, and that He should execute just judgment towards all; that He may send “spiritual wickednesses,” and the angels who transgressed and became apostates, together with the ungodly, and unrighteous, and wicked, and profane among men, into everlasting fire; but may, in the exercise of His grace, confer immortality on the righteous, and holy, and those who have kept His commandments, and have persevered in His love, some from the beginning [of their Christian course], and others from [the date of] their repentance, and may surround them with everlasting glory.

As I have already observed, the Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house, carefully preserves it. She also believes these points [of doctrine] just as if she had but one soul, and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them, and teaches them, and hands them down, with perfect harmony, as if she possessed only one mouth. For, although the languages of the world are dissimilar, yet the import of the tradition is one and the same. For the Churches which have been planted in Germany do not believe or hand down anything different, nor do those in Spain, nor those in Gaul, nor those in the East, nor those in Egypt, nor those in Libya, nor those which have been established in the central regions of the world. But as the sun, that creature of God, is one and the same throughout the whole world, so also the preaching of the truth shineth everywhere, and enlightens all men that are willing to come to a knowledge of the truth. Nor will any one of the rulers in the Churches, however highly gifted he may be in point of eloquence, teach doctrines different from these (for no one is greater than the Master); nor, on the other hand, will he who is deficient in power of expression inflict injury on the tradition. For the faith being ever one and the same, neither does one who is able at great length to discourse regarding it, make any addition to it, nor does one, who can say but little diminish it.

Commitment to Christ

Commitment to Christ is the first step of following Jesus.  Becoming His disciple is not a matter of spiritual maturity, but spiritual necessity.  Jesus was always careful to warn those who would follow Him of the cost of doing so.  He always turned away those unwilling to pay the price. But we live in a day and in the midst of a "Church" where discipleship is going to a weekly bible study and where the cost is being a "faithful tither."  The vast majority of Christians have no idea what it means to be a disciple.  In fact, most think discipleship is an option, something for the committed.  They are content to rest on the teachings of "grace," "Jesus paid it all," and "eternal security."  Now, it is most certainly true that one is saved by the grace of God alone, apart from any merit or works on our part.  And it is most certainly true that Jesus paid the full price for our redemption and salvation and it is something purchased by God for us and freely given, not something that is simply subsidized by God as the Catholic church seems to teach.  But cheap grace is not God's grace.  The cheap grace that demands less that Jesus demands has no more power to save that a rosary hung on a rear view mirror.  Cheap grace is like the plastic "jesus junk" promoted in fliers and sold in Christian bookstores. It is the Billy Graham "come forward, say the sinner's prayer" salvation that almost always leaves its victims worse off than if they had never heard the Gospel, for now they think they are "saved" and "eternally secure" even if they continue to love sin and refuse to obey Christ the Lord. They have believed another gospel which is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ at all! Following Jesus and salvation is not a one time "decision" we make, but a life to live. More...

In defense of God
Open Theism

The Closed Theism of Augustine/Calvin/Islam postulates a fully closed future where all that will happen has been fully pre-ordained by God from before creation. The God of Closed Theism is now fully static as is the future. God fully knows what will take place because it already exists, having been already been created or ordained. In Closed Theism God sits outside of time and space and surveys creation as a fully completed and finished system from beginning to end. Augustine/Calvin/Islam postulates God has a revealed will He has made known, and also a secret will that exhaustively determines and causes all things whether good or evil.

Open Theism postulates a future that does not yet exit. The past exits because it has happened, the present is what is happening, and the future is what will happen and can be partially known by what God has determined to do and is partially unknown because God is not the only actor and only will and He and His creatures act and interact. The Word of God cannot be broken, but God has not exhaustively spoken. Open Theism believes God's revealed will is fully consistent with His character and He does not ordain nor cause sin. In creating humanity and angels with a free will God created the possibility of sin but did not create sin.

I ask, is Open Theism's vision of God interacting and wrestling with humanity, or the Augustinian/Calvinist/Islamic model of a fully deterministic universe, with God as the sole actor (who no longer acts) and cause more consistent with "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son"? more...