Does your church lie to you with saying: to accept Christ, and then you will be saved?

Question

Many churches teach this, but the Bible says that no man can “accept” Christ because all men are spiritually dead:
We read in Ephesians 2:1 And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.

The problem is that the Bible declares that man is spiritually dead in sin and totally incapable of mustering up faith in himself to salvation:
And there is none that calleth upon Thy Name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of Thee:… (Isaiah 64:7)
There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. (Romans 3:11)
No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him:… (John 6:44)

God has written the Bible in order to bring us to a knowledge of our wretched condition; and also to show us that salvation is absolutely not within man’s ability to achieve. God Himself must do all the work in the matter of saving the sinner:

When His disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? 26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:25-26)

As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. (Romans 9:13-15)

The church age is over but fellowship continue, E-Bible Fellowship: http://www.ebiblefellowship.com

Answer 1

I'm a pastor, and what I tell people is "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

If it was good enough for Paul, I figure it's good enough for the rest of us.

(By the way, do you use words like "thy" and "hath" and "seeketh" in common conversation? "Where are thy car keys, I seeketh them and hath them not." You do understand that Jesus didn't speak in Middle English, right?)

Godspeed you on your journey of discernment.

Answer 2

Salam

There is no evidence on the face of the earth that if you accept anything here or that came here that your saved just in that moment of revelation.
A human must go back and fix the knots that where made and then repent sincerily to Allah SWT or The Lord as you wish arabic or english. The sheer fact remains that if he is the path then you have to go on that path and you just don't do that by accepting a man or something that came. I can happen through accepting the One and only Lord and that will begin the process.
You walk to Allah SWT and he will run to you, but be ready for the trial for there is tests all the way through the life of a believer and non believer alike.

Answer 3

Yes, there are various things involved in getting saved. We must take in accurate knowledge of God’s purposes and his way of salvation. Then we must exercise faith in the Chief Agent of salvation, Jesus Christ, and do God’s will the rest of our lives. (John 3:16; Titus 2:14) Salvation is sure for those who follow this course. But it involves persevering right to the end of our present life or of this system of things. Only “he that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved.”—Matthew 24:13

Answer 4

In essence, I agree. No one comes to Christ lest the Father draws them.

Joh 6:44 No one is able to come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up in the last day.

Those whom He has elected, chosen out for salvation, will be saved. They are awakened from their dead condition, indwelt with the Spirit, and their eyes and ears are opened to the truth.

Joh 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God, to the ones believing into His name,
Joh 1:13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but were born of God.

But, I disagree with your proposition that the church age is over. The Church is still on earth, still indwelt with the Spirit, and will remain here until the last one chosen is awakened. The Church age ends when we are removed from the earth, and we meet Christ in the clouds.

Answer 5

Well, yes, and of course 'salvation is by grace through faith'.

With your comments in mind, what's the point of the 'Great Commission' as commanded by Jesus?

Looks a bit like selective reading to me.

Answer 6

How many times are you going to ask this same question?

"Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve..." (Joshua 24:15)

You quoted, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." Yet unilaterally, God showed mercy on those who accepted and obeyed his words!

God showed mercy on Noah because he followed God. The rest of the people, on the other hand, did not and they centered their minds and sought to do evil. The Old Testament is full of examples where God blessed His people when they obeyed Him and he punished them when they disobeyed.

Jesus is "the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him"! (Hebrews 5:9)

This obedience does not earn salvation, but it is submitting unto His will and it is how God has stipulated that we will receive the gift of salvation!

James 4:8 says, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” Do you have God drawing nigh to you before you draw nigh to Him! Notice this verse again says, “Draw nigh to God AND HE WILL draw nigh to you.” It does not say, “Draw nigh to God because he already has drawn nigh to you.”

Jesus said, “He that believes and is baptized SHALL BE SAVED” (Mark 16:16). I suppose you think one is saved before he believes. That’s not what Jesus said.

In fact, Jesus said, “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” (John 8:24) John 3:18 says, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Who is incorrect when they say there is something you must do to be saved? James? Jesus?

How does one come to believe? Romans 10:17 says that hearing the Word of God is how faith comes! (See Acts 11:14 also.) So, if you have faith, you must first hear (something else to do). Yet, without faith it is impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6)

By saying a person doesn’t have to do anything, he stands in direct contrast to the authority of God! God has the authority to determine if there is anything we must do!

Several times in the New Testament, there is the question “What must I do to be saved?”! Not once do you read a response, “There is nothing for you to do!”

In fact, when Saul (Paul) asked what he needed to do, he was told to go into the city where it would be told to him what he “must do”! (Acts 9:6)

When those in Acts 2 asked “What shall we do”, Peter told them to “Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins” (Acts 2:38 - quoted from American Standard Version). This is exactly what Jesus had commanded! (Mark 16:16, Matthew 28:18-20, Luke 24:47)

I ask, why were none of these told “There’s nothing for you to do”?

Answer 7

whats this then, see who can believe the most stupid lie day. There is no god one day you will die anhd that is it. Why dont you rean harry potter instead of that poxy lie ridden bible. i have a bible in my house which i use for reference purposes only, i will now wipe my @ss on it and burn it and i bet i will still be alive tommorrow.

Answer 8

Hey man take a chill pill, sounds like you go to one of those deacon possessed churches. We all know what they, why argue about semantics.....get a grip and go and tell others about Christ instead of splitting hairs.

Answer 9

WOW! Talking about picking and choosing.

Pray for discernment through the holy spirit.

Answer 10

spiritual food the word of God...Spiritual dead...Lack of the word..many do not understand God m.o........take no thought about the physical but more importantly your spirit..this is what we all should be concern with...but you have to live a certain way in the flesh