I was not raised in evangelical circles. I was raised in a church in which I never heard the gospel. At the age of 20, the first time I heard the gospel presented to me I got saved. In faith I trusted Christ as my Savior. I prayed. I received Him as my Savior, and he forgave my sins and gave me the gift of eternal life. (John 1:12; 1John 5:11-13)
--According to you I am not saved.
I never repented from all my sins. At the age of 20 I would never be able to remember all my sins, much less repent of them. The Bible says:
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
When a person believes, his heart is changed. Repentance is a part of believing. Repenting in and of itself is works. Salvation is by grace through faith and that not of yourself, not of works.
I trusted Christ as my Savior, didn't go through a theology book to learn various theological definitions of repentance, Lordship salvation, etc.
No, Christ saved me by His grace. I accepted his free gift by faith. The gospel is really very simple. But if you don't accept my testimony I am fine with that.
I didn't know what Acts 20:21 said. I didn't even know there was a Book of Acts. I was biblically illiterate. I put my faith in Christ. It is Christ that saves, not Bible knowledge. Listing your sin and turning from each one is works. I don't have a works based salvation. My faith is in the sacrifice of Christ and the penalty that he paid for me. I accepted that payment by faith.
My life began to change slowly after I was saved. That is a process called "sanctification." There was no immediate change at salvation, that I could see. I wasn't in the habit of "practicing sin," as a lifestyle. Of course, many of the unsaved live more righteously than many of the saved, and put believers to shame.
Not true. I knew I needed a Savior. I was a sinner on my way to hell. Christ paid the penalty for my sin. I trusted him as my Savior. I was saved.
But you want to take that away from me and tell me I am not saved??
Hogwash! Your theology is messed up.
It sounds to me like you believe in a works based salvation.
Repentance does not equal faith. Get a hold of a good Bible dictionary.
You are very confused. Salvation is not a process. It is an event.
I guess I am not saved then. You really believe that?
Christ is Lord whether you confess him as Lord or not. Christ is Lord even if you act as Hitler or Stalin. There is nothing that you can do to dethrone Christ. He is Lord; Creator of all; sustainer of all. What makes you think that you can MAKE Christ, command Him to do anything. You are a puny little creation of him. He is your Creator. You cannot command or make Christ to do anything. He already is Lord!! Learn that!
The question is: Will you (as Saul did), submit to Him as Lord?
He already is Lord whether you like it or not. Today is the day of grace. Today he offers to be your Savior. Tomorrow may be too late. Now is the day of salvation. If people do not accept him as Savior now, it may be too late.
2 Corinthians 6:2 (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)
Repentance is the flip side of faith. When one puts genuine faith in Christ, their life changes so that they have repented already. The repentance is a fruit of their salvation, not a condition. Salvation is not by works, as you described. It is by faith and faith alone. You don't believe in sola fide??
Like I said, no one gets saved by accepting Jesus as Savior Unless we come to repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (acts 20:21) there is no salvation. If a person is not coming accepting the Lordship of Jesus they do not get saved.
Last edited by a moderator: