I have met many Christians who struggled with the assurance of their salvation. The good news is that you don't need to worry friend. It's like walking into a dark alley. You feel scared, not because of the darkness, but because you don't know what might be lurking in the darkness, It is natural as humans to feel scared or apprehensive about things which we don't fully understand.
The same is true about God's simple plan of salvation. From my experience I have learned that many people are not familiar with the Gospel. They have heard pieces here and there, but no one has ever presented to them a clear understanding of the Gospel (i.e., the Good News) of Jesus Christ crucified on a cross, buried and bodily risen the third day from the dead. According to 1st Corinthians 15:1-4 this is the Gospel by which all who believe it are saved (cf. Romans 1:16).
I Wrote A Helpful Book Titled, 'SALVATION'
By God's grace, I wrote a 42-chapter free book titled, "SALVATION," to help others who have been struggling with the assurance of their salvation. The first thing that you need to know is that it is not YOUR salvation, salvation is of the LORD (Jonah 2:9). God does the saving, not you. Although you probably already knew this, I find that many folks who struggle with assurance of salvation are guilty of constantly second-guessing what they said, knew or prayed on the day they got saved. And to clarify, you DON'T have to pray at all to be saved, you could just BELIEVE. What saith the Scripture? John 6:47, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” Beleiving is enough to get to Heaven!
I made this horrible mistake myself after I got saved at age 13. For the next several years, I worried whether I was saved or not. I kept foolishly wondering what I had prayed when I got saved. “What if?” I kept wondering. “What if?” “What if?” “What if?” Those “What if?” questions drove me crazy, worrying that maybe I didn't fully understand the Gospel when I got saved. I also made the foolish mistake of constantly wondering what I had prayed, which I couldn't remember, and that caused an impossible dilemna. How could I ever find the assurance of salvation I sought, if I couldn't even remember what happened the day I was saved years earlier?
Beware Of The Unnecessary 'Sinner's Prayer'
A big part of the problem was that I had been woefully lied to by every Baptist preacher I had heard, and lied to in every religious tract that I read. All of those preachers and tracts ended with asking me to pray a Sinner's Prayer. You cannot show me anywhere in a King James Bible, where we are required to pray to be saved. We are simply taught to BELIEVE on the name of Jesus. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” In hundreds of places throughout the Scripture we are taught simply to believe on Jesus to get to Heaven.
This is why I am strongly against requiring someone to pray a Sinner's Prayer to be saved. I have been unjustly and maliciously attacked by the New IFB for exposing their Satanic lie that you cannot be saved without praying a Sinner's Prayer. Reliigous punks like Pastor Jonathan Shelly in Texas are a disgrace to the cause of Jesus Christ. He preached an entire sermon to discredit, trash and attack my ministry, all because I disagree with their corrupt teaching that you cannot be saved unless you pray a Sinner's Prayer. I love Pastor Steven Anderson, but he is a bully, and his NIFB followers are a cult of bullies.
They are a Personality Cult, and Steven Anderson is their illustrious leader. There would be no NIFB if it weren't for Pastor Anderson, who started the Faithful Word Baptist Church in 2006. As much as I support their aggressive soulwinning and hard preaching against sin, I am unalterably opossed to the NIFB's woeful hatred of unrepentant sinners, their shameful lack of unconditional love for people, their demonic teaching that you cannot get to Heaven unless you pray a Sinner's Prayer. I also 100% disagree with the tainted NIFB that homosexuals cannot be saved. Brother Anderson means well, but he is a loose canon!
I recently shared this blog that I wrote on Facebook, in which I list 11 things that I humbly disagree with Pastor Anderson about. One of the nutty NIFB followers went ballistic toward me, angry and running his mouth about how wrong I am, and how much he fully agrees with everything Brother Anderson teaches. The guy has "fool" written all over him. I unfriended him, because I won't be bullied by punks in the New IFB. I am a loving person, but the New IFB have a lot of abusive, angry and intolerant bigots in their cult.
I am a Baptist, period. I reject this new strange Steven Anderson concept of the "Old" versus "New" Independent Baptist movement. There are no old or new Baptist churches, there are only belligerent fighting pastors who cannot get along with each other. Pastor Anderson and his cronies concocted the unbiblical term "New IFB" to set themselves apart from other Baptists who refuse to accept their Prewrath Rapture heresy, their Repobate Doctrine heresy, their requirement to Pray to be Saved heresy, their Jesus burned in Hell for 3 days heresy, et cetera. I reject all of that GARBAGE!!!
Lordship Salvation Will Hinder You From Finding Assurance
I have received countless emails over the years from hurting, and confused churchgoers, who have been deceived by the Devil's fraud of Lordship Salvation. What is Lordship Salvation exactly? I will let my ministry friend, Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold, explain what it means...
“Lordship Salvation is the unsupportable and unbiblical belief that the performance of good works, the promise of good works, or the evidence of good works, must accompany faith in Christ to establish or provide evidence that such faith has resulted in eternal life.” —Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold, “Jesus Versus John MacArthur”
“Salvation is one thing and service is another, and never the two goes together. No man is saved because he serves, and no man has to serve because he is saved. Gotta keep them separate. And if you don't do it, the Scriptures will be confusing to you. You'll not rightly divide what God has to say.” —Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold, "Why Lordship Salvation Is Wrong"
If you sincerely have been lied to by a corrupt preacher, to falsely think that you have to give up your sinful bad habits to get to Heaven, then you are going to painfully struggle with sin and the assurance of God's salvation for the remainder of your life on earth. I have received emails from people, who said they had contemplated suicide because of Lordship Salvation; and this includes the Devil's lie of Misunderstood Repentance. The preceding links are to some helpful writings by Pastor Jack Hyles. This is the heresy which says faith is not enough to be saved, but in addition, you must first be willing to turn from your sinful ways. Anyone with common sense understands that turning from one's sins is an IMPOSSIBLE task. NO ONE has ever turned away from their sinning. Even the best Christian still sins continually (Romans 7:14-25). You are a wicked sinner dear reader, and so am I (1st John 1:8-10).
Misunderstood Repentance and Lordship Salvation are closely related damnable heresies, which are oftentimes found together in sermons and religious literature, to confuse and curse their victims. You'll never find the sweet peace of God's free gift of eternal life, as long as you sincerely and foolishly think that the life you live here on earth impacts God's promise to save you. Your performance, attitude and sins as a Christian, have absolutely NOTHING to do with by faith receiving Christ's sacrifice on the cross as full-payment for your sins, burial, and your faith in His resurrection from the dead three days later. If this Good News (Gospel) is your only hope for forgivness of sins and eternal life, then you are forever saved dear friend.
Every Believer CAN KNOW You Are 100% Saved
Dear reader, you can know that you are saved. There is no reason for you to wonder, fear or doubt if you will go to Heaven when you die. You weren't born trusting Jesus, so if you are trusting Him now, then obviously at some poijnt in your past you made the decision to fully trust Christ to save you, and that is when you were saved. You should be able to remember a place and time in your life, when you realized that you were a guilty SINNER in God's sight, and that Jesus is the only SAVIOR, and you trusted him with a childlike faith.
But don't you need to repent? Yes, absolutely. But Bible repentance is simply "a change of mind" from unbelief to belief in Jesus. The only thing you need to change your mind about regarding sin to be saved is to admit that you are a guilty sinner. That's it. Christ does the saving, all of it. You only part in salvation is to get out of the way and let Jesus do all the saving (Hebrews 4:10-11). Just believe friend that Jesus did it all for you through Calvary's cross.
You DON'T need to turn from even one sin to be saved. Nor do you have to "be willing" to turn from any of your sinful bad habits, which would be works instead of grace. Nor do you have to "be sorry" for your sins to be saved. Whatever changes in your behavior that God wants to see happen in your life, is a separate matter of growing in grace and discipleship (service), and not of sonship (salvation). Eternal life is a free gift which Jesus paid for in full with His blood. All you need to do to appropriate that gift is to TAKE IT by faith in Christ. Simply by faith (accept God's Word as true) receive Christ's sacrifice on the cross as full payment for your sins, believing that He was buried but then physically resurrected from the dead three days later.
Again, I encourage you to read my book, SALVATION, which I wrote to help others (based upon my own struggle with assurance)...
God bless you friend and THANK YOU for reading my ministry blog.
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