Terms we use

"But what does it say? 'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart' (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, 'Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame'".
Romans 10:8-11 (NKJV)

Looks to me like one has to do SOMETHING. (Very un-Calvinistic, I'm sure!)

 

So we would say those "good works" (repent, believe, call) are done to show our ACCEPTANCE of salvation? Our AGREEMENT with our salvation? Our THANKS for our salvation?

I see your point, Dr. Bob...just looking for how we would describe the "good works" AFTER regeneration.

 

I have a real problem with it and I am not a calvinist. It does smack as easy-believism, yet some are saved in spite of what they do when they believe and trust in Christ. Many times I ask if they will take my hand as an outward sign of believing in thier heart. This is after a long time in scriptures dealing with sin, death, hell, judgement and the substitutionary death of Christ. I then pray with them and ask them if they would thank God for saving them by faith in His Word. Too many people have answered my question concerning their salvation by, "I prayed the prayer!".
Thanks -----Bart

 

What about the words, "with child", instead of pregnant. We should still be using that term in training our boys and girls.
Thanks -----Bart

 

To me the argument can be summed up in two different terms:

1. Get saved (commonly used today)

2. Be saved (commonly used in scripture)

#1 is an active verb--our initiative.
#2 is a passive verb--God's initiative.

 

Jim, I think those terms came about because we make such light use of the word "believe." The word in the Greek means much more than intellectual affirmation, which is something we use it for everyday. The biblical 'believe' means to put one's trust in, to rely on, to have faith in, etc.

So while we do have the 'easy believism' of 'say these magic words and you will be saved,' or 'just agree with what the Bible says and you will be saved,' the term as used by Paul when he told the jailor that what he must DO to be saved was 'believe' means much more than that.

The biblical concept of 'believe' is to rely on, to have faith in. In an effort to go back to some of these early meanings, some of the above phrases came into use. But they also have been misused, as in "Jesus is my COpilot" when the fact is that Jesus must be (to use the same allegory), my PILOT, and I'm the cabin attendant!

The ideal meaning behind asking Jesus into one's heart or praying to be saved is that of completely dying to self and casting one's entire faith and reliance on Christ, which is definitely what the Bible tells us to do.

This also has nothing to do with Ephesians and other 'predestination' verses, as these passages tell us that those who believe have been predestined to and for certain things, not that they were predestined to believe and the rest of the world excluded from God's love and grace. That is denying the essential character of God Himself.

The phrases you mentioned are probably not good, and are widely misused, but I think they are attempts to get past the idea that it is enough to simply agree with intellectually, which James tells us even the demons do....and shudder.