In my almost 45 years of being a Christian (and yes I really am one - I actually can tell you the day I converted - April 21, 1963), I have never quite encountered the discussion in the evangelical world right now about who is truly saved.
In this corner ladies and gentlemen, we have those who really don't care. They figure that your works will determine if you are saved so we will need to wait until you die to find out if you truly were a Christian. Meanwhile, they treat everyone who keeps coming to their church as if they are a Christian. In some churches (mostly emergent) they even baptize and allow into membership anyone who is "part of their community."
And in this corner we have those who fret and worry that the wrong people will receive Christ and just say some prayer and not mean it or understand it. So, to prevent this, they make a plea not to do this. Some of these also catechize for several months to make sure the "converts" know the right answers to the questions. This, they believe, will assure they were really saved.
And in this corner, we have those who have altar calls with mass prayers for salvation and "hope" the new converts meant it.
So, does anyone really know who is saved? I always thought I did but now I'm not sure after reading and hearing all of this. The way I knew was the old fashioned way - by the impression of the Holy Spirit when you talked to someone who said they were saved or born again. But then, for churches to do that, they would actually have to spend time with the converts and get to know them. Hmmmmmm......
A Prayer Request & Thanks
1 week ago
2 comments:
The last several years I too have been thinking about this. It bothers me. Maybe that is wrong. I look at a friend I have known for 30 years from the first church I attended and recieved Christ. She doesn't attend church (rarely) anymore.It's like she has a 'Precious Moments' type of christianity. In rural areas in New York State christian womens groups are about scrapbooking. These women have no biblical language and don't seem to incorporate God's word into their lives. Social club...? Yet they are evangelical,at least I am blessed when I hear pastors preach at their churches. It's like they are sleepy christians. There is no passion.
How do you know you are saved? When you heard the gospel did God do such a work in your heart that you now hate the sin you once loved and do you now love the God you once hated?
Repent and believe. Repentence is taught almost like a "work". It literally means to collapse. To NOT make any excuses. Call out to God to grant you repentence and plead the blood of Christ.
Matthew chpt. 7 makes me tremble. What it is saying about the "few" who will enter in is not the fact that all the people on Sunday all over the world who gather proclaiming Christ.....you take them and compare them to the rest of the world and they are the few...NO....what it is saying is of all the people in the world who emphatically claim Me as Lord....of them...only a few are really saved. It's frightening!!!
I'm writing a book at present dealing with this subject.
I really enjoy bloodtippedears.blogspot.com
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