Am I Going to Heaven ?

[lizmom]

http://www.matthewmcgee.org/qa1.html#Q2


Answer: The key is, do they really believe they are saved by grace through faith in the gospel of grace without works? If so, then they are saved. Now some groups believe they have to be baptized, or that they must not work on Sunday, or that they must perform certain good deeds or rituals etc. If they know that those works have nothing to do with their salvation, then they are saved (through faith alone, without an ounce of works). But on the other hand, if they do believe that doing this or that is required for their salvation (as many groups and denominations teach) in addition to their faith, then that is mixing faith and works. It is telling Jesus Christ, "No Lord, your death was insufficient." That is not faith in the gospel, and I see no scriptural reason to think that such a person would be saved. The doctrine known as Lordship salvation makes this error in a subtle way. Saying that one must make Jesus Christ "Lord of your life" to truly be saved is really saying that you must add at least a little works to your faith in order to be saved. That is tainting the gospel. Salvation is by the grace of God alone through faith alone. See Ephesians 2:8-9. Faith does not equal works, but rather, faith is belief. So among those who mix the dispensations of Law and Grace there are some who are saved (if they keep the works out of salvation), but many who are lost.

Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

http://www.matthewmcgee.org/qa1.html#Q2

Amen A4C! Good quote and who cares who wrote it, it's truth!

[Brother Love]

http://www.matthewmcgee.org/qa1.html#Q2


Answer: The key is, do they really believe they are saved by grace through faith in the gospel of grace without works? If so, then they are saved. Now some groups believe they have to be baptized, or that they must not work on Sunday, or that they must perform certain good deeds or rituals etc. If they know that those works have nothing to do with their salvation, then they are saved (through faith alone, without an ounce of works). But on the other hand, if they do believe that doing this or that is required for their salvation (as many groups and denominations teach) in addition to their faith, then that is mixing faith and works. It is telling Jesus Christ, "No Lord, your death was insufficient." That is not faith in the gospel, and I see no scriptural reason to think that such a person would be saved. The doctrine known as Lordship salvation makes this error in a subtle way. Saying that one must make Jesus Christ "Lord of your life" to truly be saved is really saying that you must add at least a little works to your faith in order to be saved. That is tainting the gospel. Salvation is by the grace of God alone through faith alone. See Ephesians 2:8-9. Faith does not equal works, but rather, faith is belief. So among those who mix the dispensations of Law and Grace there are some who are saved (if they keep the works out of salvation), but many who are lost.

Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

http://www.matthewmcgee.org/qa1.html#Q2

Amen A4C! Good quote and who cares who wrote it, it's truth!

Amen

Brother Love

[Ambassador4Christ]

The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.

[Left Coast]

I’ve skimmed through this thread and I’ve viewed many of the posts. I might have missed a person or two but so far all I’ve heard is works gospels.
The closest one not having a works gospel is lizmom. She recognized that it is a work to believe on Jesus Christ.
Her Quote:
Praise God for saving us. We are not all learned scholars. The work that we are to do is to believe in Jesus Christ.
She is right God saves us. We have nothing to do with it. Are we saved by keeping Gods commandments? We are commanded to believe.

1 John 3:23  And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

Why is it that not every one becomes saved. What separates us. Two brothers raised in the same home one becomes saved the other does not. Why, is one smarter, wiser, or more humble? Why does one come to salvation and the other does not?
The answer is the heart. Mans heart is totally corrupt. Absolutely no one has a heart that is able to truly believe.

Genesis 8:21  And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
 
Jeremiah 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

But God in His mercy has chosen to save some people. So He gives us a heart that will believe on Jesus. We become saved when God gives us a new heart.


Ezekiel 11:19  And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
Ezekiel 11:20  That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.


Hebrews 10:16  This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
Hebrews 10:17  And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

To believe is a work. Faith is a work.

1 Thessalonians 1:3  Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;

Believing and faith are results of salvation

[suzie]

But doesnt Scripture tell us that God desires for all to be saved? (1Tim 2:4) Not that He has chosen some to be saved.

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace which we now stand." Romans 5:1-2

[Left Coast]

This goes to the word “all”. I’m going to copy and paste something I wrote elsewhere:
__________________________________________________________________________ ________
One reason why so many misunderstand these verses is because of the word “all” that is used.
In the bible the word “all” can refer to all people or it can refer to all of a certain group of people.
For instance, to every one:

Romans 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

And references to a limited group of people:

Mark 1:5  And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.

This cannot be ALL of the people of Judaea, there would have been close to two million people there at that time.  Certainly not all of the Pharisees and Sadducees would have been there.
Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon on this:

..." the whole world has gone after him" Did all the world go after Christ?  "then went all Judea, and were baptized of him in Jordan." Was all Judea, or all Jerusalem, baptized in Jordan? "Ye are of God, little children", and the whole world lieth in the wicked one". Does the whole world there mean everybody? The words "world" and "all" are used in some seven or eight senses in Scripture, and it is very rarely the "all" means all persons, taken individually. The words are generally used to signify that Christ has redeemed some of all sorts —some Jews, some Gentiles, some rich, some poor, and has not restricted His redemption to either Jew or Gentile ... (C.H. Spurgeon from a sermon on Particular Redemption)
_____________________________________________________________________
Jesus could have spoken openly to the people but He chose to speak in parables:

Mark 4:11  And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:
Mark 4:12  That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.

Does this sound like He wants all to be saved?

2 Thessalonians 2:11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

Why would God send strong delusion if He wanted all to be saved.
Remember in the book of Mark the paralytic man. His friends lowered him down from the roof so Jesus could heal him of his illness. But what did The Lord do, He forgave him of his sins! He never asked for that.

Mark 2:5  When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.
 
True God never wanted anyone to go to hell but that is where everyone would go. We are so totally lost we can not do anything to save ourselves. Gods salvation is a rescue.
How would a baby believe?

[suzie]

I believe that God is speaking about all people when He states He desires for all to be saved.

Not all will be saved however, because He has made allowance for this. He has allowed us to choose Him or not.

Those as in 2Thessalonians 2:10refused to love the truth
and they will experience the consequences

[Left Coast]

If God desired all to be saved He could do that, He is all powerful. The "all" talked about is ALL the elect. From ALL races and ALL nations, ALL sorts of different kinds of people.
He did not desire that any should go to hell, but every one would unless He saves (rescues) them.
Did "all the land of Judaea" become baptized by John the Baptist?
Or only certain people?

[Ambassador4Christ]

"Salvation So Simple”
Psalms 3:8
By – Connie Spivey
http://www.voy.com/24596/10.html

Salvation is so simple but to a lot of people it is hard to understand, so they can’t believe salvation is free for them! They don’t realize that they can be saved, just by believing. They feel like they should do something to save themselves. In other words pride always believes that everyone has something good in him or her. Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him (Christ) the iniquity of us all. But John 5:24 says Verily, Verily, I say unto you, he that hearth my word and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation: but is passed from death unto life. That verse says to us we cannot do anything to help save ourselves! Isaiah 64:6, but we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind have taken us away. I am not comparing us with monkeys at all, just making an illustration. I understand the way they capture monkeys in Africa; they put something that the monkey likes to eat in a jar that is large enough at the top so they can put their hand into the jar. But it will not come back through the top of the jar! So the monkey will not let go of the food, so he holds on to it! That way, they are trapped and all they have to do is let go of it and pull out their hand. But the jars are fastened down so they capture them and they loose their freedom. That is the way a lot of people are, they will not let go of their own works and so they are trapped by the Devil, and hang on to their works instead of being set free. They can trust the Lord for their free Salvation by accepting the work that Christ did on the Cross-when He died for their sins. He paid the sin debt and it cost God His son, but it is free and did not cost us anything!

[suzie]

Yes, God could make everyone saved. He could also make everyone worship only Him.  However, then it wouldnt be a choice anymore would it. To allow for us to choose, God had to allow for us not to choose. He provides a means for all to be saved, however, there will be those who rebel and not repent.

[Left Coast]

Every commandment God gives us to perform is a work. To believe is a work:

1 John 3:23  And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

The reason a baby cannot believe is because it is a work.
Babies are saved because God changes their heart.
The reason those who have never heard of Christ cannot believe is because it is a work.

Romans 10:14  How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

All sorts of people who have lived on this earth have never heard of Christ. If salvation is based on our believing then they have a legitimate claim that sending them to Hell would be unfair.
Even the devils believe:

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

Believing is often confused with having an intellectual understanding as to who Jesus is. People think their salvation is based on believing intellectually who Jesus is and so they rest on their work. We are only truly saved when we are “born again”. That is something we cannot do. Just as we contributed nothing to our first birth we can contribute nothing to our second birth.

John 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

How can a baby believe?
Alzheimer’s or an accident can render an extremely intelligent and competent person into a helpless human unable to make any kind of decision at all. They would be living and condemned to hell unless they made their freewill decision before their illness. What an awful state to be in!
The mentally retarded sin just like the rest of us, how would a severely retarded individual make this decision?

Luke 24:45  Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

God has to open our understanding.
I’m going to repeat this question:
How can a baby believe?

[suzie]

I would gander a guess that you believe baptism is essential for salvation as well. You are from the Church of Christ theology which teaches works to gain salvation.

[Left Coast]

Very much the opposite. I believe there are NO WORKS that we can do to get our selves saved.
To believe is a work, and thus a result of salvation.
That is why I asked the question:
How can a baby believe?
That is why I brought up the idea taught by Jesus that we must be born again.
When we are born again we become a completely different kind of a person from what we were before.
To be born again means our heart has been changed. Our heart is totally corrupt and will even deceive us.

Jeremiah 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

We become saved when God changes our heart. It is entirely His work:

Ezekiel 11:19  And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
Ezekiel 11:20  That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

[suzie]

YOU SAID

"To believe is a work. Faith is a work."

However we are justified by faith we are not saved and then attain faith. We believe and are saved. We are not saved and then believe.

[Left Coast]

How can a baby believe?

Two brothers attend church together one becomes saved and the other does not.
Why?
Is the one that believes smarter, or more humble, what seperates the two?
The one that believes can boast because he is able to believe and others cannot.
Believing is a work. If salvation is based on believing then it is a works gospel.

How can a baby believe?