What must I do to be saved?

[Guest Guest]

"BELIEVE and thou shalt be saved"

[BaptistLady02]

According to this verse, you simply have to believe:

Acts 16:30 KJV And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Acts 16:31 KJV And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

However, the Bible also says that the devils believe and tremble:

James 2:19 KJV Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

But this verse does not say that the devils believe in Jesus. It says that they believe there is one God.

What other verses support the doctrine that all you must do to be saved is believe?

Luke 8:12 KJV Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

Romans 10:9 KJV That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

But does repentance come with believing? I believe so.

Mark 1:15 KJV And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

As you can see, repentance comes first and then comes believing the Gospel according to this verse.

Now, don't get me wrong, I could be completely off base with this post and I hope I am not but it is entirely possible. I am no theologian. So, if I am incorrect about anything, please correct me.

[BrotherDan]

John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

He that believeth on him is not condemned, NOT believes and is baptized, JUST believe alone.

If I can't trust my Savior to save me alone, than how can I trust Him in other areas of my life?
Rom. 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. NOT and is baptized.

If I were in a airplane and shared the gosple to someone, they repent and ask Jesus into there heart just after they do that the plane crashes there would they spend eternity???

Sorry I believe salvation is a free gift given at the moment one puts thier trust in Jesus.

BrotherDan

[heartstrings]

Right!
And if Jesus comes into your heart, He will always be there.

[lettheredeemedsayso]

http://www.biblebelievers.com/AllThis.html

[holster]

Wait! Don't you have to be patting your dogs head while you quote the "sinners prayer?"

Sorry, don't intend to be dis-respectful to the Truth but it amazes me how some people can mess us something as simple as the Gospel!

[Madeline]

Let me start by emphasizing that God's wants everyone to be saved (Ezek.18:23; Matt.18:14; Jn.12:47; 1Tim.2:4; 2Tim.2:24-26; 2Pet.3:9). Not only that, but He made has provided salvation for every single human being by sacrificing His one and only dear Son our Lord Jesus for all of our sins.

John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Since God has done everything, salvation is effortless -- for all who desire it. In fact, all a person needs to be saved is to "not say 'no'" to the precious gift of Jesus Christ.

I would like to say a couple of things right from the outset. First, because God wants us to be saved and because Jesus has already done "all" the work of salvation, the truth is that everyone who has ever truly wanted to be saved has been / will be. No one is going to hell because of an accident, a mistake, or a small piece of misinformation. The only people going to hell (and unfortunately that will be the vast majority of the human race) are those who in truth did not wish to have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It wasn't that "they didn't understand the gospel message properly", but rather that didn't want to accept the free gift of Jesus Christ. Whether they wanted to work and not receive salvation freely, or whether they wanted God the Father without the Son, or whether they wanted nothing to do with God whatsoever in truth (even if for whatever reason they chose to play the "religion game"), God knows every heart perfectly, and He will demonstrate at the last judgment the truth of every heart's motivations, no matter what the person has said and no matter how things may have appeared to us. All who seek, find. All who knock, are opened unto. All who ask, receive. God has done everything and continues to do everything for all to be saved. Those who reject Him and His Son, actively or passively, do so with their own hard hearts and stiff necks (even if they seem like "nice people" to us here in the world).

Acts 16:30 - "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."

As the verse above makes clear, salvation is assured on the basis of belief-in-Christ. I have hyphenated this phrase because it seems to me that people have a tendency to fixate on "believe" and forget "Christ". "Jesus" is the object of our faith, His Person and His work. We have to believe "in" and accept "Him" as He is and what He has done for us as the means of our salvation in order to be saved. So when people say "believe" or "just believe", that is fine, I suppose, but it does depend what is meant. As I say, this is a theological problem but not really much of an evangelistic one, because as soon as a person who really understands that they need a way out of death and damnation hears the good news about Jesus they are going to be saved before you can even get around to explaining to them the mechanics as you understand them (whether or not you understand them entirely correctly):

Acts 10:39-44 "And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree: Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly; Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word."

Indeed, the very fact that so many genuine Christians seem confused about the precise mechanics of salvation "is proof positive" that God's message and our reception of it is more powerful than any set of "rules" we might want to posit in our attempts to understand these things -- because the very people who are offering you differing opinions are most likely saved!

God knows who belongs to Him. And He also knows very well who wants to and who will as soon as they hear the gospel of truth. Coming to Jesus is like having the lights switched on in a pitch black room. All of sudden, we see things clearly. And in this we are different from the rest of the world who prefer darkness to light. But all those who love the light, come to the light. If we tell people who are truly interested the "truth" about Jesus Christ, that He is true God and true Man, having taken on humanity to come into the world to die in our place, that He bore all of our sins and washed them away with the blood of His sacrifice, and that eternal life instead of damnation is freely offered by accepting Him, believing in Him, seeking shelter in Him, loving Him, following Him, then however we say it (if what we saw is true and complete) will be more than enough for the Holy Spirit to use. The person listening who "wants" to be saved "will" be saved. What happens will happen marvelously and miraculously beyond our sight. And the light will switch on. It will only be later on that the person if harangued by someone who is hung up on mechanics may start to wonder about how (or if) they were saved. But in a good place where the truth is being taught we may expect that the new Christian will be nurtured in the Word from day one and will quickly build up the spiritual muscle necessary to endure this and all the other sort of Satanic attacks of which the world and life are full. The sad thing of course is that there are very few such safe places today.

Those who answer the question on how one must be saved by "1.Just believe; 2.It's easy as the Gospel; 4.Trust in Christ's finished work", depending upon what they mean by these things, fall into the category of what I said above. I prefer quoting the Bible about salvation through Jesus, and then actually explaining the Person and work of Christ. Focusing upon what WE "must do" rather than what "Christ did" is the big problem here and the source of all confusion.

Finally, while being "fuzzy" about the mechanics of salvation when giving the gospel can be problematic (especially if the emphasis is placed on the listener instead of on Jesus Christ), ADDING to the gospel is a horrendous sin:

1) There is no such thing as a "sinner's prayer", at least in the Bible, and there is nothing like this related to the process of salvation. Everyone knows he/she is going to die and everyone knows he/she is a sinner worthy of condemnation. Those who will not face the one and/or have hardened their hearts against the other are not going to accept Jesus no matter how many prayers of whatever sort you get them to pray. But to "add' this sort of nonsense to a gospel appeal not only won't help the person in question be saved, but I also have to question the salvation of the people who do such things. For it seems that their own personal sense of self-righteousness is really more important to them than the salvation of other people, and that is hardly an indication that they are truly following Jesus Christ.

2) Water-baptism should */NEVER EVEN BE MENTIONED/* in the same breath with salvation. If a person even so much as assumes that water-baptism has ANYTHING to do with salvation then they may indeed be resting on THEIR works instead of on the work of Christ: such people are NOT saved. Anyone who tells you that water-baptism is necessary for salvation or even suggests it to a minimal degree is at best a spiritual infant; at worst the person may be unsaved and a pawn of the devil. He told the apostles to spread the gospel and the baptism of the Holy Spirit thereby. That is the biblical meaning of the so-called "Great Commission".

Love,
Madeline