Should your salvation ever be questioned?

I think we are almost required to question people's salvation if we are to witness to them.
If we must assume all are saved then witnessing is not necessary.

I think the point is to ask them about it, not to go about with the pharisees saying, "Well. They must not be truly saved if they are doing such and such."

It has always been one of my pet peeves for someone to proclaim that we can safely assume people who don't live correctly aren't saved.

I have found from experience that you certainly cannot see enough of anyone's life to tell if they are bearing saving fruit.

When we know all things then we can judge someone's salvation.

Until then, it is best left to God, who sees the heart.

MR

 

I've had my salvation questioned by some with whom I've had doctrinal disagreements, such as my knowing the KJVO doctrine is false, salvation by works is false, one isn't saved until he/she speaks in tongues(sonething I've never done), etc. However, those people have no power over me while Jesus DOES, so I concern myself with obeying Jesus rather than agreeing with some men...and I generally dismiss their questioning as idiots' prattle.

 

Proper questioning of salvation:
"Friend, have you ever accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour?"

Improper questioning of salvation:
"You use the NIV!!! Are you saved??"
"Your wife wears trousers, are you SURE that you are saved??"
"What kind of music is that on your CD player?? I thought you said you were saved!!!!"
"You are a baby baptiser - and you claim to be a Christian?!?!?!"

I fail to see how 1 Peter 3v15 gives me a command to question someone's salvation.The question which we must be "ready to always give an answer to" is, "Why do you have this hope in you?" Not - "I don't think you are saved, prove it"

 

Paul tells us to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling -

Phillipians 2:12 "So then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my prescence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling".

 

In the original commision to the Apostles he said
"...preach the gospel to every creature", not to every "lost" creature, so IMO as much as is possible we also should be doing this with the the gospel of the grace of God through Jesus Christ.

Preach/teach the grace of God through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Scriptures, let the chips fall where they will (to quote a cliche).

However if someone who expresses a false hope crosses my path, right or wrong, I assume that the Spirit of God sent that one my way to correct him/her and offer him/her the truth from the Scripture.

HankD

 

Very well said.

 

C4K wrote,

I have on occasion come right out and asked people this when I believed that it was the Holy Spirit who was prompting me to do so. But without that prompting, I would not do it because many individuals would be highly offended by such a question—especially if these individuals were members of the clergy or have been serving Christ for many years in another capacity.

Some years ago I was sitting at the table in a United States Navy officers’ dining room with five Navy chaplains representing five different Christian denominations. During the course of our meal, one of the chaplains asked me what I believed individual chaplains could do to gain more respect from the other servicemen. My reply was, “Live a life that clearly manifests the saving power of the blood of Christ.” Upon hearing my reply, one of the chaplains, who enjoyed smoking cigars, excused himself from the table and left the room. Had I asked that chaplain, "Friend, have you ever accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour?" I believe that all five chaplains would have excused themselves from the table and left the room—and I would not have been invited back next week.

 

FrankBetz wrote,

Amen! Thank you for sharing this with us.

 

FrankBetz wrote,

 

FrankBetz wrote,

Amen! Thank you for sharing this with us.

 

I have on occasion come right out and asked people this when I believed that it was the Holy Spirit who was prompting me to do so. But without that prompting, I would not do it because many individuals would be highly offended by such a question—especially if these individuals were members of the clergy or have been serving Christ for many years in another capacity.

Some years ago I was sitting at the table in a United States Navy officers’ dining room with five Navy chaplains representing five different Christian denominations. During the course of our meal, one of the chaplains asked me what I believed individual chaplains could do to gain more respect from the other servicemen. My reply was, “Live a life that clearly manifests the saving power of the blood of Christ.” Upon hearing my reply, one of the chaplains, who enjoyed smoking cigars, excused himself from the table and left the room. Had I asked that chaplain, "Friend, have you ever accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour?" I believe that all five chaplains would have excused themselves from the table and left the room—and I would not have been invited back next week.

</font>[/QUOTE]No problem with that Craig, that is of course the kind of approach any one of us should use. You seem to stive to find a reason to be critical. I try to simplify my posts rather than write a whole scenario of what happens before I would ask that question.

 

I have no problem with asking someone if they really know Jesus then talking to them about it. I wouldn't do it though unless we were one on one. When someone asks me I proudly say yes and thank them for asking. They are doing their job!

 

It seems to me the real key is distinguishing between our asking and our judging.

When I ask someone if they know they are saved I am neither assuming they are saved or not saved, I don't know. However, when I pronounce judgment upon someone...."Billy Graham cannot be saved because he works with liberals", at that point I am acting the part of God which I have not right to do.

Remember when we get to heaven we will be amazed by three things:
1. Some we expected to be there will not be there.
2. Some we did not expect to be there will be there.
3. We are there as well!!!!

 

Your heart may be pure in asking the question, but this particular question is often not received that way, and we need to be very careful about asking it. And of course, such a question can open a very big can of worms if you ask a Roman Catholic, a Lutheran, or a Methodist that question, because their theologies interpret such a question very differently from what we, as Baptists, intend to ask.

 

I ususally try to get a little religious background on the person before asking. That way I can see how much they know about Jesus in the first place. If they don't want to talk about it, then the matter is closed.