Posted on 01/04/2013 7:15:20 AM PST by xzins
1.Do you enjoy Fellowship with God and Christ?
2.Are you Sensitive to Sin in your Life?
3.Do you Obey the Scriptures?
4.Do you Reject this Evil World?
5.Do you Love Christ and eagerly await His Return?
6.Do you see a Decreasing Pattern of Sin in your Life?
7.Do you Love other Christians?
8.Do you Receive Answers to your Prayers?
9.Do you Experience the Ministry of the Holy Spirit?
10.Can you Discern between Spiritual Truth and Error?
11.Have you Suffered on Account of your Faith in Christ?
Ping to article
Thought it was ...believe and thou shalt be saved.....
With a centurion’s faith.
ping
Jesus also said:
15“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.16“You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?17“So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.18“A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.19“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.20“So then, you will know them by their fruits.21“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.22“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?’23“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’
If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. Romans 10:9
And then God makes it even simpler.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Romans 10:13.
As Isaiah said, “to the law and to the testimony”.
We should not kid ourselves about the results of real salvation.
I was saved in 1981 and "checked up on my salvation" maybe a hundred times in the early years.
Even today, Satan is capable of dangling doubt in front of my face, but the directive to "Hide Thy (God) word in my heart .. " is the solution to doubt.
Jesus used scripture to confront and defeat Satan in the wilderness temptation.
Salvation IS easy ... whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord Shall ... Be ... Saved.
This only would I learn of you, did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Gal 3:2-3.
“7.Do you Love other Christians?”
I think there is a mistake here. Shouldn’t it read,
“7.Do you Love other bible believing, pre-tribulationist, King James only, Baptists?”
I’ll raise you one more ping.
Timely series, thanks. I’ve gotten a bellyful of “belief is enough, repentence is optional” sermonizing lately. If sin abounds in your life you need to examine yourself.
John mcarthur believes Christians are selected by God and not saved by faith.
Very good article xzins.
I did not know that Jonathan Edwards Ministry lined up so well with John Wesley’s.
This is what is missing in ChristianDom today.
Real Salvation that leads to a Change of Heart!
Yeah, I am really, really conflicted with John. In everything else, he is a spot on, really great Bible teacher and preacher, I’m just not a Calvinist, and its weird because Calvinists and reformed people tend to talk more about Calvin than Christ. And there is a reformed movement sweeping evangelicals, even in the Baptist church. But it is just not Biblical. As quoted above, “If you declare that Jesus is Lord, and believe that God brought him back to life, you will be saved.” A lot of Calvinists want to argue that it is more complicated than that, that their study and education has revealed to them much much more that is part of salvation, but that hardly squares with Jesus stating that unless you have the faith of a child, you could not be saved. In other words, salvation by faith is as simple as a child’s faith.
I think that what John has stated is a sign of growth of a Christian, and that we should strive for each one of those things to be part of who we are as followers of Christ. But I don’t believe that is a salvation checklist. You could be saved, and not have developed in those areas like you could have, but that would be your loss on missing out to have a deeper, richer experience for Christ, and to enjoy the fruits of living that experience for Christ.
Finally, many great Bible teachers like Norman Geissler, Frank Turek, Adrian Rodgers have clearly shown that the elect refers to nations, or people called to ministry, but not to salvation. Salvation is to all people, not just some that God arbitrarily picks to be saved.
I read the 11, and if this were a True-False test, like in grade school, some of my answers would be the “T” with an extra line under the crossing top line, in an attempt to obfuscate. Didn’t work in grade school either.
I believe I am saved by faith in God. The indwelling Holy Spirit (with all the power, and promise of God) will change me.
Now, do I see those changes? When I do, I praise God! for his Love and Faithfulness.
When I do not, I pray for forgiveness, and repent, and trust God to hold up his end.
Any change in me is the Power of God, working in me. I can do nothing to ‘force’ the issue, earn my way, stress to be better, etc. Problem is, someone looking at me from the outside may see a lazy sinner, who is not trying enough. Or (on a good day) see a Christian, who is doing God’s will. The “works” I do are those things the Holy Spirit shows me to do, and as I obey (and the HS produces results) it may appear that I am a Good Christian. (And I may still appear lazy or hypocritical to an observer from the world or be judged by a Christian.)
I have to continue to believe God is saving me as I appear as lazy, or even good. Especially when I am judged by others, or by even myself. (Sometimes the face I see in the mirror is not a nice guy.) Now, even as I type, I want to repent of my view of myself, and look at myself with the Forgiveness and Love of God.
Disclaimer= = This is not just feel good ideas out of my head. This is the life of Christ that has been formed by years of believing, fellowship, and Bible reading. I could find scriptures to support much, and they flitted through my head as I typed, but I am relying on the HS and the Mind of Christ in other Christians to hear them from the HS also. (And too much time to find and quote and cut and paste for accuracy.)
Roger copy,
No false prophets here or lawlessness for that matter.
A centurions faith that ...8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
That’s it, an up or down vote. an exercise of volition (key part of our “in his image” package).
The list of 11 “tests” seems a nice, thorough checklist for one’s daily walk.
Thank you for your service sir
**’Failing Miserably Daily’ Bump For Later**
While everything on the list is good, and cause a Christian to ponder, They are Not “10 New Commandments” to either save or KEEP Salvation.
If a person is a believer, these 10 things will start to happen, (because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit)and will be the RESULT of Salvation.
And if a person is NOT a Christian, they won’t care.
And here’s the rub...if we start answering “YES” to the majority of the questions, do we become like the pharisee who went up to the Temple to pray, and addressed God by listing all his good deeds?
Eek...don’t wanna be like THAT!
Grace and peace to you, FRiend.
I do love bible-believing, pre-trib, KJV only Baptists. Otherwise, I’d have to ditch half the family.
Truly. :>)
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