Yes, by the grace of God and accepting Jesus as my Lord and savior. It doesn't really mean much otherwise. I rather be called a Christ follower than a Christian because Christian is a blanket term for the most devout to someone who's family may believe and be associated with.

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The one Theologian that helped me understand the bible, and the teachings within it, was St. Thomas Aquinas with his "shorter Summa" (Summa Theologica)

For me, it's C.S. Lewis. I'll investigate the Summa Theologica. Thank you for the tip.

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Originally posted by KSGM:

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The one Theologian that helped me understand the bible, and the teachings within it, was St. Thomas Aquinas with his "shorter Summa" (Summa Theologica)

For me, it's C.S. Lewis. I'll investigate the Summa Theologica. Thank you for the tip.

I found Aquinas extremely difficult to read, perhaps there are translations that are friendlier than that which I was exposed to.

I am saved by the grace of God. My savior Jesus Christ gave His life so I could have eternal life after this life along with anyone else willing to accept His perfect gift. I was born and raised in the Baptist faith. I knew at a young age that God was real and I was a sinner when I learned to lie and cuss. Some would consider my recognition of God and his Son Jesus satisfactory for salvation but the Bible says there are many that recognize him but without acceptance of Jesus they are lost.

I put off accepting the aforementioned gift for some unknown reason but sitting in church with my girlfriend at the time I realized I needed to do my part. With a broken heart and tears flowing from my eyes I walked to the front of the church, kneeled at the altar and prayed to God to save me. I walked down the aisle alone and was joined at the altar by the Christians at the Charity United Baptist Church. When I stood back up after praying I’ve never walked alone again. I was buried in a liquid grave a week later because I had died out to sin and was made a new creature in Christ. Being baptized didn’t wash away my sins but it was a way to show the world that I was a new man having died and being raised back to life like Jesus Christ. That was 23 years ago and I’ve made many mistakes in that time but I try to do my best to live my life in a way pleasing to God.

I have three sons ranging from 5 months to 7 years old. My prayer is they will accept Christ as their personal savior some day. It pains me that I can’t make that decision for them but I can try to teach them and live my life as an example for them to see everyday. I believe every individual will reach an age of accountability where they will recognize the difference between right and wrong and they will choose wrong. At that point the individual is lost. Prior to that they’re perfect lambs without spot or blemish like Jesus.

As some have mentioned we must be born again. When I became a Christian I was a new babe despite being 20 years old. I didn’t understand a lot about the Bible but I knew the basics and I truly believed the preached word I had heard. I’ve grown in my faith since then. Just like Jesus was born of a woman on this Earth, I have a birth mother and a spiritual mother too, the church. My spiritual mother is awaiting her groom who will return to get her someday so we can live for eternity in Heaven. I’m not saying someone can’t be saved outside a church but I truly believe they will have some interest or desire to learn about Jesus and most people get that at church.

Clearly faith is extremely important and the Bible says faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God as stated in Romans. In Corinthians we learn of the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. I do believe it’s my responsibility to read my Bible and build upon the preached words I hear.

I’m sorry for rambling but I thought I would share my experience and belief in hopes that it may help someone.

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Originally posted by chellim1:

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Could become you become unsaved, if you stop believing? (Although, if you stop believing, you wouldn't care any more.) If Christians are saved by God's grace, and not by their works (which is the heart of it, as I understand it), if you can be "un-saved" that implies God has withdrawn his grace, which is problematic, isn't it?

Not so much that God has withdrawn his grace but that through grave sin (or mortal sin), like murder, you have rejected His grace. Of course, there is a path back, through the Sacrament of Reconciliation (also called Penance or confession).

This is, of course, the Catholic view of mortal sin, which most Protestants don't share. That is not a criticism, just noting a difference.

If Christ is the only path to Salvation, how were the Biblical patriarchs saved, and others who followed them who developed the current form of the modern Christian faith ? I heard an evangelical pastor say from the pulpit that those guys did not receive salvation because Christ had not yet been born and sacrificed on the cross. I thought that was a pretty stupid thing to say, but he was serious, and I suspect not too smart even though he was conventionally trained and officially commissioned by a mainline denomenation. Sometimes those guys get a little too big for their britches.

For me, as a practicing Catholic, salvation is not a one and done thing.

Jesus states, "Strive to enter through the narrow gate..." (Lk 13:24). Strive implies an ongoing process. We can't know until the time comes to stand in front of the big fella and make our case. The best we can do is the best we can do, and keep our fingers crossed because the alternative would kind of suck.

I know a priest who was assigned to the Vatican for some time. He told me that Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI both went to confession daily. Daily. I was struck that even the holiest of men weren't sure and continued to "strive". Me? I'm working on it.

Karl Keating, editor of Catholic Answers states it pretty well in the book Catholicism and Fundamentalism:

"Are you saved?" asks the fundamentalist. "I am redeemed," answers the Catholic, "and like the apostle Paul I am working out my salvation in fear and trembling, with hopeful confidence-but not with false assurance-and I do all this as the Church has taught, unchanged, from the time of Christ". (pg 176).

I believe that those who hear the Gospel, believe it, repent, confess that Jesus is Lord, and are baptized, will be saved. This of course must be sincere, and one thing that I haven’t seen mentioned much is the repentance part of this. We must truly be sorry for our sins and strive to remove sin from our lives as much as humanly possible. Of course, we cannot achieve perfection….not even close.

I believe that if you are truly saved your life will show it. You will have a desire to please God and obey His commandments. If you were “saved” 10 years ago and your life looks no different than it did when you were “saved” then I think you have reason to be very concerned.

We are told to examine ourselves. Do this sincerely. It is true that our works are like dirty rags and it is only because of Jesus and His death and resurrection that we can have the gift of eternal life. However, we will be known by our works.

Keep seeking Christ, keep repenting and trying to weed out the sin that is in you. We will not be perfect until we are made anew in Heaven, but you will definitely be a different person. You will be able to see it in yourself and so will others.

Grew up in church. Always had it in my heart but can't say I was ever saved until I got on my knees in my living room with tears in my eyes and asked for forgiveness and trusted in my Lord savior, Jesus Christ forever.
I was in my mid 20's in the early 80's.

The old time saints written about in the Old Testament foresaw Christ through revelation from God. The first blood shed to form animal skins to cover Adam and Eve after their disobedience which separated them from God was a foreshadowing of Jesus. When Abraham was told by the One True God to take his only son, Issac, to a mountain and sacrifice him to please God and was then provided a sacrificial ram to substitute for Issac was a type of Jesus. Noah and the arc was a type of Jesus. The examples go on and on. David in the Psalms actually foretold some of the very words and experiences of Jesus while Jesus was on earth as a human being . Isaiah does the same in great detail. Each book of the Old Testament reveals Jesus as Savior. Those who were seeking Truth understood and they believed in Him.
The Scriptures reveal that Jesus was in the beginning as the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus is the substitute for any and all who understand that they simply are not able to have an eternal relationship with the perfect God because of sin. God, from the beginning, planned to come to earth as a man while remaining God. He was the only perfect sinless sacrifice to serve as our substitute and receive our judgement of guilty as charged.
How can anyone hope to intellectually understand this? Impossible. That’s where Faith comes in. The Scriptures tell us that “without faith” it is impossible to please God. Truth is found in the Bible. We are so fortunate in this day and age to have access to the written Word of God!

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Originally posted by wrightd:
If Christ is the only path to Salvation, how were the Biblical patriarchs saved, and others who followed them who developed the current form of the modern Christian faith ?

Fair question. As for the patriarchs, I refer you to Hebrews 11, the Hall Of Fame of people who exercised their faith on God. Verse 13 says, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them,….” Verse 16 says because they believed what God said then “Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.” So the Patriarchs were saved because they believed and acted on what God said. Abraham was prepared to sacrifice Isaac because God told them. The patriarchs sacrificed bulls and lambs as atonement for sin because that’s what God told them. They acted on what God said because they believed God because that’s is faith - believing and acting on what God said. And because of acting on their faith, God claims them as His own and prepared a place for them even though they may not have known that what they were doing was a foreshadowing of the sacrifice that of Jesus.

As for those who may not have lived under the Old Testament Law or heard of the good news proclaimed in the New Testament, I refer you to Romans, one of the letters written by the Apostle Paul who, before his conversion to Jesus, was trained to be a Rabbi and thus was a scholar of the Old Testament and he persecuted and imprisoned Christians. He personally held the cloaks of people who stoned Stephen to death in the book of Acts.

In the first part of Romans, he dealt with how God judges people who were not under the Old Testament laws versus those who were under the Old Testament laws. Paul said that apart from the Law given through Moses, God’s law is written in every person’s conscience validating every action as according to God’s will or against God’s will. Those under the Old Testament laws have, in addition to their conscience, the Old Testament laws that also validate their actions.

But a key point that Paul makes is that both a person’s conscience and the Old Testament Law were unable to save anyone. Their purpose was to point out they needed to be saved. Just like you may or may not have symptoms of having COVID, all a covid test does is to show whether you have Covid. The Covid test does nothing to cure COVID much like your conscience or the Old Testament cannot fix your sin. In Romans 4:3, Paul says what made Abraham righteous (his sin problem cured) is Abraham believing God. "For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.'" (Romans 4:3)

Paul asserts it had always been people believing what God said and acting on it that cured people’s sin problem and it still remains that way. But whereas God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac and God told Moses to sacrifice bulls, God is now saying that to cure their sin problem, people have to believe in Jesus to fix their sin problem.

I was a bit confused by wrightd's post. I think he was ultimately poking fun at that particular preacher, and the question posed was rhetorical.

To address that rhetorical question: The salvation granted by Christ's death transcends the linear timeline that we know.

John 8:58 "Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am."

That particular passage, for me, is very important in understanding how much of Christianity "works".

"Pete and Delmar been saved. It looks like I'm the only one who remains unaffiliated"!

I have done as I was required and am doing as commanded. I understand that following Christ has a refining effect on the character which I believe is the point of His gospel. I believe in the nature of His grace and sacrifice. I also believe in His mercy which, compensates for what we lack. That goes for all of humanity historically and in the future. I think only outright rebellion guarantees an eternal punishment. That was Lucifer’s sin. I believe that is the point of this life where we don’t have absolute knowledge, to prove our choice. Between righteousness and evil, which do we choose? The more refined is our character, the more righteousness we choose. So, in fine, I choose to work toward righteousness in the principles of the gospel of Christ where there is a balance of grace and compliance. Faith and mercy.

Ultimately, I think only Christ gets to say who is His.

My understanding.

I'm 1648 confessional reformed, or Presbyterian if you'd like. I had belief as a child, but moved away from faith, until such time as I was educated enough where they Holy Spirit came back and baptized me like a lightning bolt. And now count myself among the saved and elect.

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Originally posted by Rey HRH:

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Originally posted by wrightd:
If Christ is the only path to Salvation, how were the Biblical patriarchs saved, and others who followed them who developed the current form of the modern Christian faith ?

Fair question. As for the patriarchs, I refer you to Hebrews 11, the Hall Of Fame of people who exercised their faith on God. Verse 13 says, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them,….” Verse 16 says because they believed what God said then “Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.” So the Patriarchs were saved because they believed and acted on what God said. Abraham was prepared to sacrifice Isaac because God told them. The patriarchs sacrificed bulls and lambs as atonement for sin because that’s what God told them. They acted on what God said because they believed God because that’s is faith - believing and acting on what God said. And because of acting on their faith, God claims them as His own and prepared a place for them even though they may not have known that what they were doing was a foreshadowing of the sacrifice that of Jesus.

As for those who may not have lived under the Old Testament Law or heard of the good news proclaimed in the New Testament, I refer you to Romans, one of the letters written by the Apostle Paul who, before his conversion to Jesus, was trained to be a Rabbi and thus was a scholar of the Old Testament and he persecuted and imprisoned Christians. He personally held the cloaks of people who stoned Stephen to death in the book of Acts.

In the first part of Romans, he dealt with how God judges people who were not under the Old Testament laws versus those who were under the Old Testament laws. Paul said that apart from the Law given through Moses, God’s law is written in every person’s conscience validating every action as according to God’s will or against God’s will. Those under the Old Testament laws have, in addition to their conscience, the Old Testament laws that also validate their actions.

But a key point that Paul makes is that both a person’s conscience and the Old Testament Law were unable to save anyone. Their purpose was to point out they needed to be saved. Just like you may or may not have symptoms of having COVID, all a covid test does is to show whether you have Covid. The Covid test does nothing to cure COVID much like your conscience or the Old Testament cannot fix your sin. In Romans 4:3, Paul says what made Abraham righteous (his sin problem cured) is Abraham believing God. "For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.'" (Romans 4:3)

Paul asserts it had always been people believing what God said and acting on it that cured people’s sin problem and it still remains that way. But whereas God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac and God told Moses to sacrifice bulls, God is now saying that to cure their sin problem, people have to believe in Jesus to fix their sin problem.

I think a summary of the above might be related to something I heard from a Christian man who said that God doesn't send people to Hell for not hearing about or knowing Christ (or the spirit of Christ as the Patriarchs did described above), but because they loved their sin. I thought that was a smart way of trying to understand this topic.

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Originally posted by KSGM:
I was a bit confused by wrightd's post. I think he was ultimately poking fun at that particular preacher, and the question posed was rhetorical.

To address that rhetorical question: The salvation granted by Christ's death transcends the linear timeline that we know.

John 8:58 "Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am."

That particular passage, for me, is very important in understanding how much of Christianity "works".

Exactly. Apologies for potential misunderstanding. To me the differences between the major Christian belief systems are minor points, and many people from all of them will do better in their afterlife compared to those who love their sin. I don't think the point of Faith in the good religions is to bicker about minors so to speak. If the Christian based faiths are supposed to argue about the differences between them in terms of the specifics of salvation based on other elements above and beyond faith and the good works that follow from it, then maybe those who do would be better served with religions that promote division, hate, domination, and execution.

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To me the differences between the major Christian belief systems are minor points, and many people from all of them will do better in their afterlife compared to those who love their sin. I don't think the point of Faith in the good religions is to bicker about minors so to speak.

Right. In the thread on the Crusades I posted:

Yes. I'm a Catholic and I believe in the universal church. I'm also ecumenical in the hope that one day the various schisms and factions can reconcile and reunite.

The Church was instituted by Christ, but corrupted over time by the men who run it. Just remember, all men are sinful, some more so than others.

I believe there are many paths to salvation because no church controls the path to the Father. Maybe He laughs at some of these relatively minor doctrinal differences.

^^^^^^^^^^not to be dramatic nor ominous, but I believe a time is coming when all righteous men (aspirational as such may be) are going to need each other to put off persecution.

Glad to hear it op, praise God for His free gift to us. What a simple and amazing gift it is, through Jesus our Lord. I study His word and am always learning and realizing new things by it, "a little here a little there". To be near/with Him in eternity will be nothing short of amazing.

I could only imagine what it was like to see Mount Sinai, on where the Lord was in the Old Testament during the time of Moses and think how could anyone not constantly look at it and believe/follow Him.

While I still stumble, I am grateful for the grace He constantly gives us in His Son. Our nation needs Him now more than ever.