I was chatting with a co-worker who kept telling me how she was saved and if I wasn’t saved, I was sure to go to hell. So, I asked her what saved means, and don’t you know that I never could get an answer… her answer was if you don’t know what saved means then you’ll never know.
So, I’m asking here… what are “saved folks” saved from?
Hellfire?
So they’re saved from hellfire from the point they are saved and hence forth regardless of what crap they do cos this lady does so much crap yet claims to be saved.
Interesting… Thanks. Now I see why she’s a jackass. She believes she’s already in heaven. Thanks again.
She is saved from suffering in Hell for eternity. That was an easy question to answer.
That’s what my upbringing tells me.
Well, specifically, the message of salvation I was raised to believe boils down to John 3:16 (sorry, it really is the most succinct version): God loves us, so he sent his son to serve as an atonement sacrifice for all human sin so that no one would have to suffer his judgment and live in eternal damnation.
This presupposes several facts, perhaps most obscurely that all of us have eternal souls which cannot die, so the important thing is what becomes of them after this life.
Answering the question of why it’s God’s job to save us from his own judgment (rather than just skipping the whole judgment thing), well, that gets us into GD.
So what happened to folks before Jesus came and folks who never ever heard of Jesus or the Bible?
What happens to those folks - off to hell - wherever it is I imagine huh?
Wikipedia says that the Roman Catholic Church still says the same thing Dante believed: limbo. I believe more fundamentalist Christians believe those folks go to hell, go straight to hell, and don’t concern themselves too much with the details. That’s why they’re so anxious to get everyone saved, as I understand it.
Missed the edit window: Sorry, all that only answers the “folks who never ever heard of” part. I was taught that Jesus was the New Covenant between God and men. So anyone who died before Jesus gets judged by the Old Covenant. Circumcision. Kosher. Whatever.
That’s the way i understand it also. Saved by WORKS.
And that was for the Jew only.
The new Covenant is for ALL Believers. Its not saved by works, just by faith.
There is much debate over the Once saved, Always Saved belief. I do not believe we can go on sinning after being born again, as being a Christian would impel us to live a better life. That we would live for Christ not sin.
Yep, hell and then Christ descended to hell to save them while He was dead.
You’re right that some folks claim to have accepted Christ as their savior and believe that they are saved no matter what they do. Instead, He says one is saved and should go sin no more.
The Catholic Church has pretty much backed off the idea of Limbo. It was never official Church teaching anyway (as the Wikipedia entry makes clear).
The Church says that the unbaptized can indeed be saved. The “invincibly ignorant” (i.e., those who haven’t heard of Christ or the Church, or those who cannot, for whatever reason, be receptive to the idea of Christianity) can be saved. Yes, baptism is necessary for salvation, but there is such a thing as “baptism of desire,” which pretty much covers the virtuous non-Christians.
I always thought “saved” was the result of how you answered the question “Do you accept jesus christ as your lord and savior?”
If you accept him “ta-da” you’re saved.
If you deny him “bzzzt” you burn.
Ignorance fought.
There are numerous references in the New Testament to people being “saved,” often without a definition or explanation of what they’re saved from.
From passages such as this one
it appears that “being saved,” having eternal life, and entering the kingdom of heaven are all roughly synonymous.
Can someone expand on the “baptism of desire” thing? Or should I just Google it?
:: cracks knuckles, prepares to Google ::
Doesn’t the RCC reject that “faith alone” is the way to salvation? I seem to remember there was a bit of a scuffle on this point, although of course that was 500 years ago, so things may have changed.
Some Protestant denominations believe even that faith cannot save you – some are chosen by God for reasons of his own, some are not.
–Cliffy
This is at least a denominational thing. Some have the “once in grace always in grace” theory although sometimes they have the out if you do really bad things you were never really saved. The church I attended as a child had the concept that all that mattered was your status at the instant of death. That is, the most evil person could potentially be forgiven right before they died and go to heaven. The most “good” person could commit a sin right before they die and go to hell.
You apparently haven’t spent much time playing computer games. You’re advised to save your game often, so that if you die (or if the power goes out)—hey, no problem: you’re saved! 