I am being conformed more and more every day into the likeness of Christ. (Some days better than others)
1st Cor. 15
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
I do not think being saved from death is what being saved really refers to when most people use the term today.
Because we are all sinners and because Christ took all the punishment for our sins we have the potential of being saved, we must however be accepted by Christ and He has let us know what will gain His acceptance.
I personally follow Christ to the best of my ability, sometimes I slip or don’t do as well as I would like but then that is why He suffered for my sins if I repent and ask for forgiveness. It simply does not happen because I confess Christ as Savior of the world. Although no person can earn His acceptance anyone can gain it but it takes more than words as so many people profess. It takes faith, hope and charity. If you don’t have hope in Christ you are as good as lost. If you don’t have faith which is very much related to that hope again, you are lost. If you don’t have charity then you don’t really have faith and are lost. But that is a discussion that has been going on between people of different religions for many, many years. I have a different question to put forth, although related to who is saved or when are they saved.
The vast majority of the people to have ever lived in the world have never even heard the name of Christ Jesus. Are they then doomed, through no fault of their own to eternal damnation? If they are damned am I to be punished for not telling those in my lifetime who I could have reached?
The Roman and other Catholic churches have a solution for this which has been around well over a thousand years, Purgatory. Peter the Apostle said Christ went to the spirit world, some would say Purgatory, to preach to the spirits of those where there and as the disobedient as in the days of Noah.
Somehow the offshoots of Catholicism lost Purgatory. It started with Luther, while not completely denying Purgatory it was completely redefined.
I have a problem with the vast majority of humanity who have never heard God’s word being condemned for eternity. Surely a God of love would not do that. There is much to admire in much of Protestantism but that condemnation is not part of it. I don’t think I could ever be a part of such an organization that condemns people because of where or when they were born.