Why do baptists think salvation is so easily attained?

[Keachian]

But if you believe in election then how do you have assurance? How do you know you are saved? Maybe He didn't chose you? I'm just saying....

My focus is not on whether I am or am not saved, God will do right. I serve him and seek to bring him glory in all that I do.

 

[phoenixdem]

Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.


If you believe that God saves some and others He makes reprobates then you are attacking the assurance of salvation.

How? Because one doesn't really know if he has been elected by God and therefore he questions salvation in Christ alone.

Many Christians have done just fine over the years trusting in God for salvation. Trusting in God is what it is all about, and yes, God has sovereignty over His Creation. Man didn't create the Universe and Man doesn't say he has salvation in his own strength.

That trust and hope is our assurance as is a personal relationship with Christ. Are you Baptist?

 

[SeventhValley]

If God gave faith to all men, as you interpret this verse, then all men would be saved (universalism) but that is far from the biblical truth since some will not be saved (the wicked), therefore, your interpretation creates a contradiction (incongruity).

Matt. 25
46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

This is why the idea of Prevenient grace makes more sense to me in certain respects.

Roger Olson said in a podcast I was listening to that if God only gives faith to only some then God is the cause of sin in man. But that if God gave Prevenient grace to all man then only man can be the cause of sin preserving God's goodness. Man would also not be able to get to God on his own but only through God's Prevenient grace making saving faith a work of God alone.

I also like John Edwards quote

"In efficacious grace we are not merely passive, nor yet does God do some and we do the rest. But God does all, and we do all. God produces all, we act all. For that is what produces, viz. our own acts. God is the only proper author and fountain; we only are the proper actors. We are in different respects, wholly passive and wholly active."-http://christian-quotes.ochristian.com/Jonathan-Edwards-Quotes/

 

[SeventhValley]

To do nothing (hyper-Calvanism hersey)or to say we have no need of God's grace(Pelagianism hersey) Anything inbetween from Semi-Augistianism/Peagianism,Molinism,Arminianism,to Calvianism can all be supported biblically depending on how you read the NT.

 

[SeventhValley]

Justin Martyr around 150 A.D. said, “I have proven in what has been said that those who were foreknown to be unrighteous, whether men or angels, are not made wicked by God’s fault. Rather, each man is what he will appear to be through his own fault.”-http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/justinmartyr-dialoguetrypho.html

TATIAN around 160 A.D. said We were not created to die, but we die by our own fault. Our free-will has destroyed us; we who were free have become slaves; we have been sold through sin. Nothing evil has been created by God; we Ourselves have manifested wickedness; but we, who have manifested it, are able again to reject it. -http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/tatian-address.html

 

[SeventhValley]

Matthew 3:6
and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

Matthew 5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

Matthew 5:30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Matthew 18:6
but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

 

[Hentenza]

Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.


If you believe that God saves some and others He makes reprobates then you are attacking the assurance of salvation.

How? Because one doesn't really know if he has been elected by God and therefore he questions salvation in Christ alone.

"Each" in the verse you cited refers to those in the body of Christ as the context shows.

Here is the verses following the one you cited.

4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, [f]according to the proportion of his faith; 7 if [g]service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; 8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with [h]liberality; he who [i]leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Are "each" believers or everyone in the planet?

 

[SeventhValley]

Psalm 37:21-24

English Standard Version (ESV)

21 The wicked borrows but does not pay back,
but the righteous is generous and gives;
22for those blessed by the Lord[a] shall inherit the land,
but those cursed by him shall be cut off.

23 The steps of a man are established by the Lord,
when he delights in his way;
24 though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong,
for the Lord upholds his hand.

Predestination according to this verse is established when man delights in God. It is a paradox God will not let us know which came first the chicken or the egg. Because that would not suit his purpose if we knew it is a holy mystery.

 

[Setyoufree]

My focus is not on whether I am or am not saved, God will do right..

Yes He will and He will not force some to be reprobates and others to be saved. That's a doctrine from hell itself!

 

[Setyoufree]

Are "each" believers or everyone in the planet?

Again, how do you know you are saved? You might be excercising a futile faith because God has elected you to be lost!

See what utter nonsense this doctrine presents? It kills the assurance of salvation to the person who has accepted Christ by faith.

 

[Setyoufree]

2 Corinthians 5:14-15, Paul teaches:

14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.


Christ's redemption was for all men - not just the elect. All men are sent the Spirit of God to convince them or their need of Christ's righteousness.





​

 

[Hentenza]

Again, how do you know you are saved?

Because God called me righteous when He justified me by His grace through faith in the son.

You might be excercising a futile faith because God has elected you to be lost!

My love for Christ is not a futile faith. The elect are merely those who are in Christ. I do not believe in double predestination.

See what utter nonsense this doctrine presents? It kills the assurance of salvation to the person who has accepted Christ by faith.

Assurance of salvation does not come from what you think but from God.

 

[Setyoufree]

There is one thing that we can be sure of. If God calls a person to salvation that person is saved.

As long as that believer's faith remains in Christ. Clearly Christ can be rejected through deception according to the Bible, but if you make Christ your righteousness until the end, you shall be saved.

So, then, a Christian may say with confidence that he is saved on the one hand, but at the same time he must confess that he is being saved, and that he will be saved. Yes, as believers we are already saved from all condemnation and, therefore, have peace with God (Romans 5:1; 8:1); but at the same time we are being saved from indwelling sin as we continue to “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Tim. 6:12). And, finally, we look forward to His glorious appearing when we shall be saved from the corruption of sin that has infiltrated every member of our bodies (1 Corinthians 15:51-57; Philippians 3:20-21)

 

[Setyoufree]

I do not believe in double predestination.

What does that mean?

Assurance of salvation does not come from what you think but from God.

Yes, but if you cloud that with false doctrine you might begin to question if you are saved. That's my point.

Jesus says that if I believe in Him I am saved. That's assurance.

Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ

 

[phoenixdem]

As long as that believer's faith remains in Christ. Clearly Christ can be rejected through deception according to the Bible, but if you make Christ your righteousness until the end, you shall be saved.

So, then, a Christian may say with confidence that he is saved on the one hand, but at the same time he must confess that he is being saved, and that he will be saved. Yes, as believers we are already saved from all condemnation and, therefore, have peace with God (Romans 5:1; 8:1); but at the same time we are being saved from indwelling sin as we continue to “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Tim. 6:12). And, finally, we look forward to His glorious appearing when we shall be saved from the corruption of sin that has infiltrated every member of our bodies (1 Corinthians 15:51-57; Philippians 3:20-21)

Do you then believe that a Born-again Christian can lose his salvation?

 

[Setyoufree]

Do you then believe that a Born-again Christian can lose his salvation?

I believe what the Bible teaches: Hence it is possible to abandon Christ and go back to the world that the believer has renounced. The issue is faith! We must keep our faith in Christ. If we do we are once saved always saved. Keep the faith. It's rather simple.

 

[phoenixdem]

I believe what the Bible teaches: Hence it is possible to abandon Christ and go back to the world that the believer has renounced. The issue is faith! We must keep our faith in Christ. If we do we are once saved always saved. Keep the faith. It's rather simple.

It sounds as thought you are preaching salvation through works. Are you a Baptist?

 

[Hentenza]

I believe what the Bible teaches: Hence it is possible to abandon Christ and go back to the world that the believer has renounced. The issue is faith! We must keep our faith in Christ. If we do we are once saved always saved. Keep the faith. It's rather simple.

There are several kinds of faith. The parable of the soils explains the differences. Those with a nominal faith can loose their faith but those with saving faith can not.

Matt 13
23 And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”

 

[FredVB]

All men were saved in the doing & dying of Christ, but not all will keep their faith in Christ.

1 Tim 4:10 "who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe."

Paul is writing to Jewish believers:

Heb 3:3 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest....

Verse 12: See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.

So these were Christian believers. What was the warning? Don't give up Christ.

Why would Paul go to all this trouble warning believers not to give up Christ if it wasn't possible? Makes no sense....

The actual salvation that is promised, from Yahweh God, is the work of God, through the righteous life of Christ through his works and atoning sacrifice, and work of his Spirit in believers, from God's grace, according to the essential faith of salvation with which believers respond to the revelation for it given to them. As it is the work of God, it does not fail.

Passages speaking of salvation for all men are speaking of gospel salvation to be made available for any of all nationalities. And what you suggest makes no sense indeed does not make sense, with your interpretation. But Hebrews, whether from Paul or not, just like other epistles, is written to assemblies of believers, and as it is with all assemblies, there may be some there with some belief, but not that essential faith of salvation, and so it is sinful, unbelieving hearts that turn away from God, this is not said to happen with those saved according to the essential faith, that is the work of God, but all in an assembly should make sure of their convictions, so true believers can be assured, and those who are not can be aware of it and truly come to salvation rather than hardening and turning away from God's grace. And good works, though not saving any, do accompany the believers of the true essential faith.

 

[Setyoufree]

Those with a nominal faith can loose their faith but those with saving faith can not.

Saving faith is keeping your faith in Christ. It's choice. I wish that you wouldn't make it so complicated.