Are Christians Already Saved?

The thickness of the Bible reveals that salvation is not just as easy as eating peanut – this is what I learned when I was in the midst of reading it verse by verse.  Salvation, unlike what others think about it, is a process where faith, work and endurance are very much essential to finish this process. Faith without work is dead and work without endurance is in vain. Salvation is a course that everyone who desires it must have a serious decision. The book of Hebrews stated,

“Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” (Hebrews 10:38)

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This is the reason why I’m wondering to those people who, at the very day they allegedly accepted Christ as their Lord and personal Savior, so easily declared that they were already saved. The Bible is a book full of righteous principles and commandments of God where our faith must be rooted in. And by faith we must live  first upon all these precious teachings, and not just with some five or six verses often read by many evangelical preachers. Paul said,

 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. (I Corinthians 15:1-2)

Believing is not enough for us to be saved. You need to live and endure on what you believe. While it is true that we can have the assurance of salvation even today, assurance is always depend on how we live upon the gospel. Living upon the gospel shows that we are saved, but to cease means loosing from salvation. There is no such thing as “eternal security”. Our salvation will be secured as long as we live upon the condition taught in the gospel. Christ said,

 “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;” (John 8:31)  And then Paul states,

“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”  (Phil. 2:12)

Now the question is, “are we (living Christians) already saved?” Not yet. We are still in the process. We may have the assurance now, but if we failed in this process, that assurance can be forfeited. Lets take for example the humble apostle Paul when he said, ” Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:13-14) Paul, unlike some people who boast for their false claims, never count himself to have apprehended or already saved, but what he did is he pressed toward the mark of the prize by forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. And on the days of his coming departure, then he finally claimed for himself the crown of life,

“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” (II Timothy 4:6-8)

As long as man cannot overcome his weaknesses, he can’t say, ‘I am saved.’ “It is not he that putteth on the armor that can boast of the victory; for he has the battle to fight and victory to win. It is he that endureth unto the end that shall be saved. The Lord says, ‘If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him’ (Heb. 10:38).  If we do not go forward from victory to victory, the soul will draw back to perdition. . . . God’s holy law  is the only thing by which we can determine whether we are keeping His way or not. If we are disobedient, we are not in harmony with God’s moral standards, and we are deceiving ourselves if we say, ‘I am saved.’ No one is saved who is a [deliberate, habitual] transgressor of the law of God.

The Gospel That Gives License To Sin

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12)

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“Yes. I’m already saved.“, this was the bold reply of a friend of mine when I asked her about salvation, seeming that she received a limitless passport  to heaven on the day she accepted Christ as her personal Lord and Savior. Carmela, that friend of mine, was just one of those people who have been planted by this kind of false hope as they listen to the preaching of some Born Again and Evangelical pastors who made salvation as a simple statement of mouth.

Like her, many Born Again and Evangelical members believe that in order to be saved, the only thing which we should do is to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and personal Savior by faith. And once you accepted Him through faith, you have now an assured salvation in heaven. No need of good works or following the commandments of God, but through faith alone, we will be saved according to them.

Sorry to say this, but I think this kind of belief is not just unbiblical but shameful, careless and dirty in its entire content. Imagine a person who thinks he was already saved and destined to heaven no matter what he will do, whether he do evil or not. Remember what happened in LA Fitness Gym in Pennsylvania on August 4, 2009? When a man named George Sodini fired 50 rounds into an aerobic class before turning the gun on himself. The shooting resulted four deaths (including Sodini himself) and nine injured. George Sodini was a member of the Tetelestai Church where he sat quietly for many years, listening to the deceptions of his preacher. Talking about the pastor of his Church, Sodini wrote in his blog dated Dec. 31, 2008,

“this guy” (Alan “Rick” Knapp) “teaches (and convinced me) you can commit mass murder then still go to heaven. Ask him.“

And in a post dated August 3, 2009, Sodini said;

“Maybe soon, I will see God and Jesus. At least that is what I was told. Eternal life does NOT depend on works. If it did, we will all be in hell. Christ paid for every sin, so how can I or you be judged by GOD for a sin when the penalty was already paid. People judge but that does not matter. I was reading the Bible and The Integrity of God beginning yesterday, because soon I will see them.

Excerpt From Sodini's Blog

After the horrible incident in Pennsylvania, Pastor Knapp’s deacon, Jack Rickard commented on Sodini’s death and said;

“George is going to heaven, but he’s not going to get his rewards,” (SOURCE )

Kenneth Nally, another believer of this unscrupulous doctrine, committed suicide in 1980 after he was taught that even self-murder would not stop a person once saved from going to heaven. Definitely! This kind of belief would reclaim many people to Satan, the author of all lies and abominations.

I also remembered a certain time when I tried to ask a Born Again pastor who preaches about the assured salvation. I asked him, “Pastor. If doing good works is unnecessary for salvation so that I decided to cease from giving my tithes, am I still saved?”  The pastor answered and said, “Definitely not, son. If you will cease from giving your tithes and offerings, you will become a robber, because the Bible said, ‘ye rob God’.” See??? Born Again and many Baptist and Evangelical pastors who hold this kind of shameful doctrine are just after to our tithes! They don’t care about our salvation. They don’t care whether we will become evil or not, but what matters most is our money. They telling their members that in salvation, good works are unnecessary things, except the giving of tithes and donations!

Born Again and Baptist preachers founded this kind of unscrupulous belief by misunderstanding the Pauline text mentioned in Ephesians, where it says;

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8,9)

If we will meticulously read the verses, which many illogical Evangelical and Baptists preachers misunderstood, we will notice that the salvation mentioned here by Paul was written in past tense, signifying that this kind of salvation was already a past experience. What was that experience? From what they were saved? In verse 5 it says;

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Before they became Christians, believers in Ephesus are chained in darkness and in sins. They are pagans and victims of evil rulers of darkness. Paul said; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. (verse 12). From this state, they were saved. Since they are in darkness of ignorance, and that they don’t any knowledge about the truth, of course, they don’t need to work to be saved. In the first place, what kind of work they must do if they were ignorant about truth? Any work done outside the truth means personal works and personal righteousness, and these are the works that are unnecessary to be saved from sins. Salvation from sin is a gift from God. It is through faith alone and no need of any work SINCE they are ignorant about the truth. Thus, Paul stated;

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.

Sadly to say, many Evangelical pastors mis-interpreted the Ephesian texts. They neglected to read the following verses that would defy their careless interpretation. Paul said;

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (v.10)

From the power of darkness and sins, people are transferred into the kingdom of the Son in light through the grace of God. Paul said,

“Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.(Colossians 1:12,13)

And again,

For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (Ephesians 5:8)

Now that we are in the light, we should not make ourselves idle. We must work with God. We must work in the light where we were translated. Paul said to Timothy;

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 

That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works; (II Timothy 3:16,17)

We cannot do anything for God if we are still in darkness. And everything we will do to save ourselves, without the workings of God in our lives, are all in vain. But God translated us into the light of His Son so that we will able to work for salvation. This same experience happened to the Ephesians after they were saved from sins. The book of Revelation declared unto them;

I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. (Revelations 2:2-5)

Paul himself testified that Christians must not let themselves to become idle. He said in his epistle;

For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. (II Timothy 6-8)

Christians should finish their course. We should do our assignments. Unless we finished the track prepared before us by God, we will never receive the crown of life that awaits us in heaven.

Before I end this article, I’m challenging all pastors who preach about the assured salvation. Prove to me that Paul was mistaken when he said;

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12)

And for Christians, particularly those who had been deceived by false salvation that Born Again and Evangelical pastors preached to you, READ YOUR BIBLE. Discover the deepest part of salvation taught by the gospel. Do not be lazy, and do not let these pastors of hell to exploit your pockets and then finally bring you into perdition.