is salvation an experience???

[zuchipeviewk]

delineate it's implications??

 

[AvgJoe]

is salvation an experience???

It's an experience that lasts a lifetime, or more precisely, forever and ever. Now, the moment of salvation is different for everyone. For some its highly emotional, for others it is not.

delineate it's implications??

So, what's the point of being saved? What do I need to be saved from?

The wrath of God. (Romans 2:5-6)


Why do I need to be saved?

Your sin has cut you off from God. (Isaiah 59:2) To sin, means to “miss the mark.” The Bible declares, “all have sinned; all fall short of God’s standard.” (Romans 3:23)


What is God’s standard?

To perfectly keep His Law, the Ten Commandments, for your entire life. Keep all of the Law and God will let you enter Heaven. Have you ever:

• 
  used God’s name as a curse word? _____Yes _____No

• stolen anything? _____ Yes _____No

• told a lie? _____Yes _____No

This is just three of the ten. Answer yes to any? Uh-huh! You are guilty of breaking God’s Law. You have sinned. The “wages (penalty) of sin is (physical & spiritual) death.” (Romans 6:23)

If you die, without being saved, you will be eternally separated from God and your loved ones. After death, life does go on, either in Heaven (with God) or in Hell (away from God), depending on your acceptance or rejection of God’s plan of salvation.

God’s Plan of Salvation​

The Futility of Human Effort

The Bible teaches that no amount of human goodness, human works, human morality or religious activity can get anyone into Heaven. Being a good person, belonging to a religious family, being baptized, going to church, none of these can save anyone. Everyone still falls short of God’s perfect standard. (Isaiah 64:6, Romans 4:1-5, Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5-7)

The Only Way

Jesus said to him, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by (through) me.” (John 14:6) God stepped out of heaven and became a man (Jesus), lived a sinless life, thus meeting the standard of perfection that the Law requires, then gave up His life as a sacrifice for me, you and all of mankind. He paid everyone's sin debt (the wages of sin is death). To all that repent and believe in Him and His sacrifice, will be clothed in His righteousness, be made right with God and will not face the second death (spiritual death).


What must I do to be saved?

1) Realize that you’re are a sinner. (Romans 3:23, 5:12; 1 John 1:10)

2) Decide to turn from sin (repent).

• Jesus said: “…unless you repent (have a change of heart and turn away from sin), you will all perish and be lost eternally. (Luke 13:5)

• …now God charges all people everywhere to repent. (Acts 17:30)

3) Believe that Jesus Christ died for you, was buried and rose from the dead.

• We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in the same way, no matter who we are or what we have done. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger (wrath) against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed His blood, sacrificing His Life for us. (Romans 3:23, 25)

• For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)

4) Go to God in prayer, confessing Jesus as Lord and your need for forgiveness of your sins. Give your life to Jesus, making Him the Lord of your life.

• For it is believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. (Romans 10:10)

• For anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.(Romans 10:13)

Well, how do we know that all of this is true? The simple answer is, because the Bible says so. BUT, that begs the question, how do we know that the Bible is true?!

If the Bible is true, Christianity is true and the God of Christianity is the one, true God, and by extension, all other religions are false because they all have one, or more, beliefs that contradict the essential truths the Bible.

The Bible was written over a period of 1,600 years, by 40 God chosen men, who lived on 3 separate continents and they all wrote about the same thing, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There were no mail delivery trucks, no drop ship planes, no Federal Express, no UPS and no email, yet when all of the writings were put together they present one unified message. The Bible is truly the inspired Word of God.

If the Bible is true, Christianity is true. How much research have you done on proving the validity of the Bible? Following are some topics and links I hope you will look into, concerning the validity of the Bible. Please lay your doubt aside and proceed with an open mind, and heart, and see what the evidence has to say.

An excellent ebook on the subject: In Defense of the Bible's Inspiration

Proof of Textual Evidence
Old Testament: The Dead Sea Scrolls and Biblical Integrity
New Testament: http://www.carm.org/questions/textualevidence.htm
More on the Bible: http://www.carm.org/bible.htm

Proof of People Living at the Time of Christ
http://www.carm.org/questions/extrabiblical_accounts.htm
http://www.carm.org/questions/Josephus.htm

Proof of Archaeology
http://www.christiananswers.net/archaeology/home.html#general
http://www.biblicalarcheology.net/
http://www.carm.org/questions/evidence_archaeological.htm

Proof of Science
Statements Consistent With Paleontology
Statements Consistent With Astronomy
Statements Consistent With Meteorology
Statements Consistent With Biology
Statements Consistent With Anthropology
Statements Consistent With Hydrology
Statements Consistent With Geology
http://www.clarifyingchristianity.com/science.shtml
http://www.carm.org/bible/ms_science.htm
http://www.eternal-productions.org/101science.html

Proof of Prophecy (Messanic & dealing with nations)
http://www.clarifyingchristianity.com/m_prophecies.shtml
http://www.clarifyingchristianity.com/fulfill.shtml
http://www.carm.org/bible/prophecy.htm
http://prophecyrevealed.com/friendbook9thPrinting.pdf (awesome eBook)
http://www.clarifyingchristianity.com/b_proof.shtml

Biblical prophecy is one of the strongest proofs for me. No one, but God, can tell you what's going to happen, before it happens, with 100% accuracy. Two, of the many, incredible prophecies of the Bible is the foretelling about what would happen to the city of Tyre~~~> http://apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=13&article=1790 and the Rebirth of the nation of Israel in 1948~~~> http://www.grantjeffrey.com/pdf/JeffBIBLE-EzekVision2.pdf.

If the Bible is true, Christianity is true. In Christianity, faith is required but it does not have to be a blind faith.

 

[WirSindBettler]

To perfectly keep His Law, the Ten Commandments, for your entire life. Keep all of the Law and God will let you enter Heaven.

The Law is far, far more then just the 10 Commandments, brother.

 

[ViaCrucis]

delineate it's implications??

My immediate response would be that no, salvation is not an experience. Salvation covers the entire act of God saving--rescuing--the world; even the very whole of creation.

In Christ God is, as St. Paul says, reconciling the world to Himself, an essential part of that, and why it's good news for us, is that it means God is rescuing, restoring, and reconciling us as part of His redemptive purpose for all creation. In Christ God has become man, and by Him He has suffered death for our sake, and by which we have forgiveness of all our sins; and by His death He tramples over death, for having been raised from the dead He has become (as St. Paul says) the firstfruits of the dead. The first harvest of the resurrection, the One who is God's promise to us that we are not abandoned to death, but will be raised up to everlasting life in the Age to Come.

So our own salvation has happened, historically, in Christ--His death and resurrection.

Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father, having sent the Holy Spirit and commissioned the Church to preach the Gospel, baptizing all nations means that you and me are taken into Christ by the promise of this Gospel, namely "All who are baptized into Christ have put on Christ" and "All of us who were baptized were baptized into Christ's death" and if we have shared in His death, we too share in His resurrection life. And we are, then, in Christ new creations, born again.

And further, at Christ's coming on the last day will raise us up, this mortal putting on immortality, this perishable putting on imperishable, the very resurrection of the body, life everlasting in the Age to Come, new heavens and new earth, all made new, all things restored and made right.

Salvation--our salvation--begins and ends with and in Christ. There are certainly experiences of that salvation: We have heard the Gospel and believed, we are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we receive the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion, we hear God's promise of our forgiveness of sin even as we confess those sins in repentance. Those are our present experiences of God's salvation for us, but salvation itself is not "an experience" one has; it is the reality of the crucified and risen Jesus for you.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[ViaCrucis]

The Law is far, far more then just the 10 Commandments, brother.

Indeed, the Greatest Commandment isn't even mentioned in the Ten Commandments.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[aiki]

is salvation an experience???

delineate it's implications??

Salvation is a Person: Jesus Christ.

1 John 5:11-13
11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

John 3:36
36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

When one is born-again, or saved, one enters into a new life in Christ. (2Cor. 5:17) Such a person is "regenerated" spiritually (Eph. 2:1-10); they receive spiritual life for the first time by the advent of the Spirit of Christ -or the Holy Spirit as He is more commonly called - into heart of the new believer. Is this something a new convert experiences? Eventually, yes. Initially, though, the fact of one's salvation is based, not on an experience, but upon the declaration of Scripture. A person is saved, not because they feel they are, or have had some extraordinary experience at the moment of their conversion, but simply because the Bible says they are.

Over time, the presence of the Spirit of Christ within a person is evidenced in their behaviour taking on a Christ-like character. This is, obviously, something that the Christian experiences. This transformation, first of one's inner being and then of one's outward conduct, is what the apostle Paul describes as the "working out of one's salvation." (Phil. 2:12)

Selah.

 

[hedrick]

In the Gospels, salvation seems to be used primarily of final salvation, i.e. what will happen at the End. A few times it is used of someone who repents, in the sense of changing the direction of their lives. In neither case is there an emphasis on any particular "experience."

 

[Receiver]

"he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ" (Titus 3:5-6)

delineate ...

ok, lets look at lines of scripture that describe that experience ...

"they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance ...
Therefore (Jesus) being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear ... the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." (Acts 2:4, 33, 39)

... that means you and me.

I got it 29 years ago, all members of the church I'm in have it.
How are you doing Zuchi?

 

[zuchipeviewk]

many are confident that their salvation has been garnered — yet continue to experience some suffering; anyone know the rationale behind this?? after all Jesus Christ assured followers that they shall achieve greater things???

 

[Albion]

delineate it's implications??

Strictly speaking, salvation is not an experience. It's a condition. But being saved by Faith is an experience and that is knowable.

 

[Hospes]

many are confident that their salvation has been garnered — yet continue to experience some suffering; anyone know the rationale behind this?? after all Jesus Christ assured followers that they shall achieve greater things???

Those who are saved are assured of suffering, but also of even greater reward. (Suffering does not get eradicated until after life.) Joy, contentment, hope, purpose, acceptance by God, peace, happiness, etc. are the growing attributes of a person reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.