Is faith in God enough to get you into Heaven?

Question

Scenario:
If a person believes there is one true God and Jesus was His son, prays, has faith in God's plan for their life, etc. but does not attend church regularly or has not been officially Baptised, can they still go to Heaven based on their beliefs/deeds?

And if a person accepted Christ as their saviour many years ago but did not maintain the "walk" with God, is it all voided even though they still believe?

Hope that makes some sense. Apologies if it is difficult to understand. These are just a few things I was thinking about today after hearing of the death of a family friend.

Thanks.

Answer 1

faith alone gets you into heaven, good works get you rewards. you don't have to be baptized to go to heaven. when Christ was crucified he has hung on a cross in the middle of two criminals that were hung on their own crosses. one of the criminals was calling Jesus a fool ect. but the other thief choose to believe Jesus and Jesus said to the newly believing criminal that on this day you will be with me in paradise.the thief wasn't baptized or were his works good but he had the most importing thing he had faith in Jesus Christ our savior.

Answer 2

In the final analysis, only God knows the condition of the human heart. We can only speculate based on outward behavior. Generally, true faith in Christ is seen by a person's actions. If a person does not act like a believer- does not attend church regularly- it may indicate that the person's faith is not a living faith but a dead faith. Dead faith does not save.

Answer 3

Going to church and being baptized is something that people who have already repented of their sins and accepted Jesus (Christians) do. They are not qualifications to become or be a Christian. However, if one had claimed to be a Christian but didn't regularly attend church, read the Bible or get baptized, I would be concerned as to whether the conversion was true or not.

God shouldn't be a secondary thing in a true Christian's life. God should be that person's life. If they aren't living for God, and who are they living for? Deeds would not get someone into Heaven. Only repentance and faith in Jesus will. Of course, when Jesus accepts a repentant heart, there should be a big change. Thus, if a person claims to be a Christian but lives in sin (possibly saying they do bad things and then get forgiven for it later) is probably not a Christian. Christians stumble, but to actively go to sin (looking for porn, sexual relations, looking for a way out of a scenario by lying, etc.) is a sign of an unsaved person.

It really depends on the person, and only God knows their heart. However, there are certainly signs and if you talk to the person and ask him a few things, you can find it pretty quickly and easily whether or not the person is a Christian. They might think they're saved, but if they aren't walking with God (and I'm glad you used the same term), they probably won't be when they die.

Cindy: We do have a loving and forgiving God. However, God makes His judgment on the dead when they die. It doesn't matter whether or not your fiancee was angry at God. What matters is whether he repented of his sins (asked for forgiveness and turned away) and put his faith in Jesus. He would fail on two qualifications if he was angry at God. It would seem that he did not put his faith in Jesus. One commandment is to put God first in one's life. Being angry at God makes it seem like God was last in his life.

Cindy, you cannot pray for the dead because your fiancee's eternity was decided the moment he died. God either accepted him into Heaven or sent him into Hell. By the way you've described it, it sounds like he's in Hell. It is a sad thing to think. Prayer won't change it because it has been decided. God is a just God, meaning he won't let sin go unpunished. Unless your fiancee asked Jesus into his heart (through repentance and faith), the one who paid for his sins, he is not in Heaven.

I agree-many people leave the church because of that. That is their own doing, and their own opinions/feelings getting in the way of the truth of eternal judgment. Forget the church for a moment. Read the Bible. The Bible says all of what I have said. If a pastor preaches that people like your fiancee (as you have described) are in Heaven, I'd leave that church. I mean no offense in what I have said-just speaking the truth.

Answer 4

There is no such "faith" in existance as you descibe it.
. If a person would believe these things; pray, trust God's plan.....they WOULD be baptised and fellowship with God's people.

True faith/saving faith, WILL lead to obedience to God and will cause a person to seek to do all that God has asked.

The devil believes more about God than we do. But he is full of hate and anger toward God.

Matt 7:16-20
16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
(from New International Version)

Answer 5

1. If a person believes God and believes in God and have been walking according to HIS plan, but do not attend church regularly, they are living in disobedience. Because God said,"forsake not the assembly of the saints". Either be obedient 100% or not. All scripture is a commandment.

2. Repentance then continuance in the "walk"

3.Mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice.

Answer 6

This is the only way you will get into heaven

Will you receive Jesus Christ right now?
Here is how you can receive Christ:
1. Admit your need (I am a sinner.)
2. Change your attitude that you can save yourself. Change your attitude to the fact that only Christ can save you by what He did on the cross (Repent...means a change of mind or attitude)
3. Believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you and rose from the grave.
4. Through prayer, invite Jesus Christ to come in and control your life through the Holy Spirit. (Receive Him as Lord and Savior)

Answer 7

According to 2 Cor 2:15, you are either BEING saved or you ARE perishing.

I don't think you can look back and say, oh, i was saved when I was 17 when i walked down the aisle and signed a little card and then never read the Bible or pray or anything.
If you are truly saved, nothing can snatch you our of your Father's hand.

Salvation is your life and lasts a lifetime. Follow Jesus.

Answer 8

Salvation is definitely necessary to go into Heaven. faith on my own won't get you there. enable me complicated. I see your avatar or photograph has a maroon or pink beret. that's some thing that basically a go with few of the armed forces ever get to positioned on, legally. Air stress PJ's, to illustrate, and armed forces Airborne (i think of, please forgive me if i'm incorrect) are 2 of those somewhat elite varieties. Having faith you will desire to earn the the terrific option to positioned on that reddish beret is all properly and robust. yet except you have surpassed the checks, and except you have joined the armed forces, there is not any criminal foundation so you might legally positioned on that beret. interior an identical way, human beings could have faith in numerous issues: no longer unavoidably faith in Jesus Christ on my own. somewhat, some human beings think of and coach that there is countless different stuff or "extras" to accomplish as a manner to earn God's prefer==or maybe then, there is not any assure, in accordance to them, which you will ever be beneficial of your salvation. The Bible, particularly the recent testomony, provides some very sparkling practise. some have already listed or shared John 14:6, the place Jesus emphatically publicizes He and He on my own is the single and basically way, fact, and existence; definitely no person gets to the daddy by using any potential in any respect except and till they arrive to Jesus Himself and no person else (very unfastened rendering per Dr. Wuest's elevated translation). Others have quoted or reported Ephesians 2:8-10, and different verses like Romans 6:23 additionally communicate to this subject be counted. you additionally can decide to study Romans 3:10 and Romans 3:23 and notice what Paul pronounced approximately righteousness. it would desire to be hard to swallow in spite of the undeniable fact that that's the fact. Now which you have seen the mild and experienced the fact, you're able to do your section by using telling human beings what's surpassed off to you. if your mum and dad are nevertheless unsaved, there is a few cloth which could be effective. Google for "the conversion center" out of North Carolina and supply them your tale! See in the event that they have some thing that would grant help to describe what surpassed off to you and the thank you to share that tale. be at liberty to digital mail me and that i'll do my terrific to respond to your questions as terrific i will. God bless.

Answer 9

Ecc. 9:5 "For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten."

Ecc. 9:10 "All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol, the place to which you are going."

Eze. 18:4 "Look! All the souls--to me they belong. As the soul of the father so likewise the soul of the son--to me they belong. The soul that is sinning--it itself will die."

John 11:11 "He said these things, and after this he said to them: 'Lazarus our friend has gone to rest, but I am journeying there to awaken him from sleep."

Gen. 3:4 "At this the serpent said to the woman: 'You positively will not die."

John 3:13 "Moreover, no man has ascended into heaven but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man."

The immortal soul is not found in the bible. The serpent started that lie when he told Eve that she would never die. After death we are asleep waiting to be resurrected. Death is a punishment not a reward. God punished us with death because we sin. Why would you punish someone and then reward them with paradise? When the meek our resurrected they will live forever on earth not in heaven. Remember the Lord's Prayer.

Answer 10

When someone asks a question such as this I think of a Christian, German concentration camp guard at Auschwitz in 1944. He has a loving family who he takes to church every Sunday without fail. On this day, he is leading a family of Jews to their deaths in the gas chamber. Here's where things get confusing for me. According to the bible, all the German guard must do is accept Jesus as his savior and the son of god and ask for forgiveness of this terrible sin of multiple murders of innocent victims, and he will dwell in heaven forever when he dies after living a long and fruitful life. The innocent Jewish family, however, because they don't believe just as the German does, after having their lives cut miserably short and not allowed to bring up children have, grandchildren and enjoy the other niceties of life like the German will enjoy, will burn in hell for eternity. That's just sick man.