Talk:KCU/04/SMERD

Here's a useful forum contribution from a student in the Christian Heritage online class (Kerrie Davis), which may be a helpful dialog partner for you:

To decide whether or not one is considered by God to be saved, one must first define the term 'saved'.

To be saved means to be forgiven, to be justified, to receive the gift of eternal life, to have a personal and intimate relationship with the Lord, to be delivered from the penalty of sin and to have the passage into Heaven. (Mount Pleasant Ministries)

First of all, salvation (being saved) is more than just having knowledge of who Jesus is, or accepting the fact that Jesus is alive and that He came into the world to die for our sins.

You will be saved when you confess (agree with God) that you are a sinner, lost, on your way to hell, and you are in need of a Savior. This confession is also known as assurance. Assurance has to do with our comprehension of the facts and provisions of salvation through faith in Christ. (Keathly)

In the article, Assurance of Salvation, Keathly states that there are five ways in which people lack assurance. They are not being able to recall the exact time of salvation, questioning the time in their life when they accepted Christ, struggles they have with certain sins, and to what Keathly states as the primary reason behind a lack of assurance is doctrinal misunderstanding and the consequent lack of faith in the finished work of Christ. Lastly, people often lack assurance because they have been taught that they should look to themselves and their works as the primary means of their salvation.

Now, if we as human beings understand and verbalize that we believe the holy word of the Bible, we have confessed our sins, have asked God for forgiveness and to enter our hearts are we saved? Yes. By all means we are.

John 3:36 states, "The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who rejects the Son will not see life, but God’s wrath remains on him (John 6:37)."

Doesn't this answer all skeptical questions? The Bible informs us that if we believe in Jesus and how he died for our sins we are granted entrance into heaven. However, here is where the question remains unanswered. By that I mean, does believing and confessing one time guarantee me everlasting life in the Kingdom of God?

Chapter 10 of Theology Matters informs us that the perspective of the Christian person should never be "not really sure I'm saved". (pg. 115)

The word of God tells us that he knows our hearts and minds. Therefore, he knows that we are repeatedly tempted by sin and that we do succumb to our weaknesses. "To claim that one has no sin is to say that God is a liar". (Theology Matters, pg. 118)

Once again, the question of "once saved, always saved" remains. How can I ensure that I enter into Heaven? I have taken the first step by confessing my belief in Jesus and how he died for me. I don't question the day I received salvation. It was on a Sunday afternoon. The 13th of September in 1987. I was 11-years-old. Now, do I consider myself 'still' saved? Absolutely. I may have slid down a wrong path or two during my life's journey but I have always known that the Lord and Savior was there when I needed him. I may have strayed from my planned pathway but I never lost sight of the journey.

"I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, but has crossed over from death to life." - John 5:24

The correct way to answer any questions about salvation and it's duration is this; once we are saved and accept God as our father, he prepares our place in his Holy Kingdom. God, the one who sent his only son to die for our sins, he is our hope. He never turns his back on us, even in our times of deepest sorrow and grief he is with us. How can someone insist that I am no longer saved because I did not attend church services last month? Or, insist that I am not saved because I displayed anger when I didn't get my dream job? Such ideas of ‘losing salvation’ are not feasible.

I am not perfect, God understands this. He understands my short-comings. It is my salvation that will get me to the Kingdom of God. My entrance therein depends on my will, determination and the drive that I plan my life and my future around his word.

"Never, never let us curtail the freeness of the glorious Gospel, or clip its fair proportions. Never let us make the gate more strait and the way more narrow than pride and love of sin have made it already. The Lord Jesus is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. He does not regard the quantity of faith, but the quality. He does not measure its degree, but its truth. He will not break any bruised reed, nor quench any smoking flax. He will never let it be said that any perished at the foot of the cross. 'Him that cometh unto Me," He says, 'I will in no wise cast out'” (John 6:37). (Ryle)

References:

Keathly, J. Assurance of Salvation. Retrieved October 22, 2007 from http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=1415

Mount Pleasant Church and Ministries. What Does it Mean to be Saved? Retrieved on October 22, 2007 from http://www.mountpleasant.org/Ministries/what_does_it_mean.htm Ryle, J. Faith and Assurance. Retrieved October 22, 2007 from http://www.the-highway.com/assurance_Ryle.html

Theology Matters. Answers for the Church Today. College Press Publishing Company. Joplin, Missouri

Instructor Feedback on First Draft

As a first draft, this contribution falls short. (This would not pass if submitted for the final draft.) You do have some promising separate contributions. The intro is particularly effective. The individual parts are not bad; it's just it is not fitted into a whole yet.

Things to work on:

1. For each contribution & separate part of your paper, develop your points, incorporate more dialog partners in each discussion, & then tie the separate parts into a coherent paper

2. Look up more of the biblical evidence on the issue of how you can be sure you are saved

3. Look up technical commentaries on the biblical evidence: e.g., commentaries from the NIV Application Commentary Series, the Word Biblical Commentary Series, the New International Commentary on the New Testament Series, &/or the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament Series.

Here's some web resources that may be helpful:

http://www.sbts.edu/Resources/Publications/Journal/Spring_1998.aspx

http://www.christianethicstoday.com/Issue/011/The%20Ethics%20of%20Assurance%20By%20William%20L%20Hendricks_011_25_.htm

http://www.the-highway.com/assurance_Ferguson.html

http://www.the-highway.com/bornagain_Caldwell.html

http://www.ae.gatech.edu/people/dhodges/papers/LJC.pdf

http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=1415

http://www.catholic.com/library/Assurance_of_Salvation.asp

http://www.the-highway.com/assurance1_Brooks.html

http://www.the-highway.com/assurance_Ryle.html

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TopicIndex/98/

http://www.christianity.co.nz/assur.htm