Can a christian doubt his salvation OR fail to get saved?

I've always felt like if you needed to ask or question your salvation, then you are not really saved. The day I was saved there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that I had indeed been saved. I believe, "The (Holy) Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God..."

 

When it happened to me I was alone and praying in the livingroom with the front door open. The only way I know to describe it is, it was like the Holy Spirit rushed in and made me feel light as a feather. Immediately I felt the presence of the Lord and all of the doubt, despair and fear vanished. One of the reasons I ran from the Lord when He dealt with me was fear of exactly what was going to take place or how it was going to happen. When I totally surrendered and asked him to save me, the Lord replaced my fear with such joy that I had never experienced before in my young life. (I was 16)
I began to sing Amazing Grace and enjoying this new salvation that made me feel and think I was never going to sin again in my life.(We all know how that turned out..) Anyway, after that I rode up to my Aunt's house where many of them were and shared with them what had taken place and we all rejoiced in the Lord! :godisgood:

 

Can a christian doubt his salvation OR fail to get saved?

Sure, I think a Christian can doubt their salvation. Doesn't mean they are not saved just means they doubt. I live in Maryland and we have a bridge that goes from Annapolis to the eastern shore. When I am driving over it I may doubt (especially if the winds kick up) that it can support the car and not collapse. But, just because I doubt doesn't mean that it will collapse.

Our salvation is not based on a feeling but, rather, it is based on the promise of God. I won't go over all the verses but God says that if we believe on His Son then we ARE saved. Pretty much the end of the argument.

As for "fail to get saved." Not to be too insensitive but that's just plain silly. That's like asking if you can go through a wedding ceremony, say "I do" and fail to get married. Not possible. If you say, from your heart, that you trust Jesus as your only way to heaven then, according to God, you are saved. If you ask Jesus to save you (and you only have to ask once) then, no matter what you do the rest of your life, no matter if you doubt or not, you are saved. God has promised His children that nothing can seperate us from His love.

When you are born into God's family you take on His DNA. He doen't ever take it back.

 

What do these verses mean to you?

Mar 13:13 And ye shall be hated of all [men] for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Hbr 3:14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

2Pe 2:20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

1Pe 1:17 And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning [here] in fear:

2Pe 1:5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
2Pe 1:6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
2Pe 1:7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
2Pe 1:8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make [you that ye shall] neither [be] barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2Pe 1:9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
2Pe 1:10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
2Pe 1:11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

1Jo 2:24 Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.

1Jo 2:25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, [even] eternal life.

1Jo 3:24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

1Jo 4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

2Jo 1:8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.

Many others.

 

Cutter, I am not doubting a word of what you say. In fact, I have experienced a similar event. But can you say how your experience is any different than what Mormon's call "the burning in the busom" that confirms the supposed truth of the Book of Mormon?

 

1 John 5:11-13
And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life,[a] and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

John 5:24
24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

Just believe....

 

Interestly, I look at this in an opposite way. Doubting is not always the opposite of faith. Sometimes it is simply part of faith. It is the "ants in the pants" of faith -- it keeps our faith alive.

Personally, I've never met a non-Christian who doubted his or her faith -- "Gee - I'm concerned I'm not really saved." Instead, most are not really concerned about spiritual matters at all.

Thankfully, my salvation is based upon God's finished work upon the cross for me - not my own faith - my hope is built is built on Jesus' love & righteousness -- as the song goes.

 

I have no knowledge of the Mormon's faith or experience. I equate mine more to the rushing wind of Acts. Like it rushed into my heart through the open door. All I was trying to do was put into words my experience. I'm sure everyone has their own personal testimony. That's another thing I think stands out in the life of the believer is the day, time, and place of the day they were saved. (Not necessarily the exact date and time of day.) I'm glad mine was so real that I have never had to question whether or not I was saved. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! :thumbs:

 

Seems you underestimate the importance of faith.

 

A Christian can sometimes doubt his or her salvation (or put it another way, Christians can sometimes lack assurance). But in bible terms, a Christian means somebody who is saved. A sinner doesn't first become a Christian, then at some later date get saved.

 

Didn't need to watch. If he is saying it is complicated to get saved and a person can fail to get saved then he is preaching another gospel that is not another (i.e., he is preaching a false gospel).

It really is not complicated at all. A preacher that makes it difficult to get saved should not be preaching.

There is only one thing required to be saved. Do you believe/trust that Jesus died for your sins? You see, God says that whosoever believes in Jesus shall not perish but have everlasting life.

If you THINK you are trusting in Jesus as your only way to heaven then you ARE trusting in Jesus as your only way to heaven. Instead of worrying about your own salvation you need to put the devil behind you and start working on getting other people saved.

 

Hi xdisciplex,

I honestly think you are being influenced by some really warped peolpe. You need to stick with what the Bible says and ONLY what the Bible says.

Getting saved is NOT difficult and it is NOT hard. It is the easiest, yet most important, decision a person will ever make.

Let me suggest an experiment for you. All 4 gospels were written with a different aspect of Jesus as the focus and a different audience in mind. The Gospel of John was written to emphesize Jesus' diety and it was written to unbelievers. It is the gospel that explains, in the easiest terms, how to be saved. My suggestion to you is to study the Gospel of John (without using any outside helps) and see for yourself.

Some things to keep your eyes open for while studying John:

How many times John uses the word "repent" or "repentance"
How many times John uses words like "faith" and "believe"
What Jesus says in the gospel about getting to heaven.
What John says (as narrator) about how to get to heaven.

I think you will find what a lot of others on this board already know - the gospel is simple to understand and just as simple to accept.

There are other books in the New Testament that address the false gospels you are talking about (Galatians and 1 Timothy, for example). But I'd start with the Gospel of John first.

 

Salvation is not a complex matter. The Christian walk that follows is the challenge.

 

It saddens me to read how some find a reproach in the way a man preaches. Just as we are all individuals and have different mannerisms and characteristics, ministers have differences in delivery styles, too. Of all things, to have a problem if a minister sweats when he preaches or gets a little loud. God told Isaiah to cry aloud and spare not in Isaiah 58. If a man sweats or gets loud do you automatically dismiss the message before you hear what it is being said. I believe many need to be told, as were the Pharisees by Nicodemus in John 7:51, Doth our law judge [any] man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?
When you take into consideration all of the things that the OT prophets were told to do, i.e. sleep on one side x amount of days, marry a harlot, prophey to the forest, etc... I do not find it difficult to believe a man can preach in the Spirit and power of God.
PS. This is not an endorsement of TD Jakes, rather a defense of preaching. More powerful, authoritative preaching is needed these days, but just like everything else in society, preaching has been sissified and toned down to appease the super sensitive.

 

I must admit that I hadn't watched the clip - I was just replying to the question of the thread title. But now I have watched it. I think I see where the misunderstanding has come. The thread title question is: "Can a Christian doubt his salvation or fail to get saved?" But Paul Washer doesn't say that the man was a Christian before he was saved, just that he had some intellectual understanding of the way of salvation. Mere intellectual understanding won't make anyone into a Christian. That man became a Christian/was saved when God caused him to realise the truth of the gospel message, that point in the video clip where he says something like, "Yes! I am saved! I believe those words of John 3.16!" (Sorry, I cannot get the clip to run again to get the exact words).


It is God Who saves sinners; sinners don't save themselves. Salvation is not a matter of us struggling to make sure that we have followed some complicated set of rules for being saved. What Paul Washer was warning against (as I see it) was the sort of defficient preaching that seems to suggest that people can become true Christians simply by repeating a set of words - words that they may well understand intellectually, but mean nothing to their hearts. This is sometimes called "easy believism". An Evangelical Times article says that "easy-believism" people:

....will invite people to indicate their ‘decision’ for Christ by raising a hand, or signing a card, or repeating a prayer. It then glibly offers an assurance of salvation based on a kind of logic which goes like this: (1) God promises to save all who believe; (2) You just indicated that you believe; (3) Therefore, you must be saved.
We sometimes describe this as ‘easy-believism’. It would be foolish to suggest that no one has ever been truly converted through such an approach. God is sovereign, and will save his elect, however inadequate the means he may use.
Nevertheless, the tragedy is that many people are deluded into thinking they have become Christians when in reality they have not. They soon become disillusioned and write off the Christian faith altogether.

​

I don't know anything about Paul Washer, so I cannot say whether or not I would agree with him on everything, but what I heard in that clip sounds fine.

In trying to find out a bit more about him, I came across another clip of his that might relate to this matter. It is called, "How do you Know you believe?" I haven't heard it all the way through yet. It is at: http://vintagechristianity.wordpress.com/2007/07/23/how-do-you-know-you-believe-paul-washer-jam/

 

There have been a lot of people throughout history that have endorsed what is being called "easy believism." The first to put forth such a theology was Jesus. He said, "whosoever believes in me shall be saved." Pretty easy if you ask me. Peter was a big proponant of "easy believism" at Pentecost when he said, "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Phillip pushed "easy believism" when he basically told the Ethiopian that he could be baptized (a symbol of his decision to accept Christ) as long as he believed in Jesus. Paul also thought "easy believism" was the way to go when he told the jailer, "believe on the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved."

If a person believes he is trusting in Jesus as his only way to heaven then he IS trusting in Jesus as his only way to heaven.

And, xdisciplex, there is no such thing as only the "elect." Jesus died for everyone. And anyone that wants to trust in Him will be accepted by Him. Don't let anyone tell you different.

Believing IS "easy."