I have a very valid question here.

Who determines that somebody is saved?

Is somebody who claims to be saved more intelligent than others, only
due to the fact?

And is being proud of being saved considered a sin?

As we all know, pride is one of the deadly sins, so how does it apply
here?


“disclaimer: I’m well aware that some people will jump at the question
because it was ME asking it.
This is a valid general question that I would like
to be answered as objective as possible”

Well Christ will be the ultimate decider. I love the bumper sticker I
see sometimes that says...I'm not perfect but I am saved. Being saved
means that you give your life to Christ. That you put Him and His will
for you first in your life. I am saved and very glad of it. As far as
being proud. I am proud that I have a Savior that was willing to die
for even me.

I prefer the bumper sticker that says

Jesus Saves ... but Pele nets on the rebound!

This is a very good answer, thank you.

What I would like to know now of you is: Do you consider yourself
better able than others to interpret the bible?

Do you think you have a better insight due to the fact that you are
saved?

The Bible does say that the one that is filled will the Holy Spirit can
interpret the Bible better than others. It does take the whole thing to
understand it. I do not understand everything in it even though I have
read it several times. I believe that is why I go to Church. I don't
always believe everything a pastor says and have in fact have disputed
several but I do believe that if you are in a good Church that really
studies the Bible you have a better understanding of its meaning.

pagrby I like your answer.

I have a question for you.

Do you think that a person must be a christian to have the holy spirit?

I believe that they must know Jesus. That they have accepted Him as the
only way to the Father. What you call yourself doesn't matter. Its Who
you know.

I have to agree with pagrby...Christ would be the ultimate decider.
Once saved, I found that I understand so much more than I used to. This
is where I begin forming a "walk" with Jesus...a relationship. I am
still a baby in that walk but everyday is a blessing and I learn so much
from my relationship with Jesus.

I wouldn't say that being proud of being saved is a "deadly
sin"...depends on how far you take it...I suppose. Blasphemy against
the Holy Spirit is the only unforgivable sin I know of.

pagrby....

great answer only through Jesus Christ!!!

I agree, i am also saved and it IS a supernatural book. One who doesn't
believe, is only given "head knowledge" It does require the holy spirit
to reveal many things in it. We are not more intelligent, we are reached
through theHoly Spirit to receive God's wisdom, and it doesn't come all
at once. It is a book to read and pray about for your entire life. A
great book to help a nonbeliever understand our faith drive life, is
called "The purpose driven life" After studying it with a very special
lady in my life she accepted Jesus a her Lord and savior. Prior to our
studying the book she was a firm "new age" believer. She has let all of
it go. In her own words she said. "new age philosophy is an incomplete
ideology. Before we studied it i asked her where her new age journey
took her. She said "all i know is it keeps coming back to Christ. Praise
God!!

1 Corinthians 1:31
-------------------------------------------------------------
so that, just as it is written, "LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD."
-------------------------------------------------------------

There is nothing wrong with boasting about knowing God or being saved.
If there is anything that you can do, of which you should be proud,
establishing a relationship with God is it.

I'm agreeing with so many posts, this thread makes me smile.

So all in all it does mean I only have to have faith, I don't have to
belong to a church and I don't even have to be a
Christian to be able to read the bible and receive the message?

Dear invisible, If you really do want to know if our belief is real,get
byyourself somewhere and ask God, not haughtily, but with a heart of
searching, ask him to reveal this all to you, ask him to prove that this
is true. If you do this with a genuine thirst for the truth he will
answer. Keep your eyes and ears open . Something big is gonna happen.

So then if you must accept christ that would mean the the Prophets of
the Old testament where not touched by the holy spirit.

I just can not buy that. The spirit is a gift from God all men have it.
Some (including christians) do not listen to it.

invisible...

sounds like Jesus is at work in your life right now. Seek and you shall
find...

I’d seriously like to know just what it is that they are being saved
from?

If they are being saved from a life of sin then why are there so many
sinless people out there who have never been saved? Note: By ‘sinless’
I simply mean that sin is not negatively affecting their lives, they are
happy and content and have done thing that burdens them with serious
feelings of guilt. (i.e. they have no need to have any burdens ‘lifted’)

If sin is being saved from eternal damnation, that would only apply to
people who believe in Jesus yet won’t accept him. Because it clearly
says in John 3:16 that those who do not believe shall perish and not
have every lasting life. So it would seem that the only possible way to
go to hell would be a believer who refuse to behave and sins anyway.

Finally, if being saved simply means that a person will be rewarded
eternal life as apposed to an ‘unsaved’ person who will merely perish,
then being saved isn’t necessarily all that important. Especially for
people who don’t mind the though of just perishing when they did. I
have said this many times. According to John 3:16 Atheists will indeed
be correct in their thinking, because if they don’t believe in God then
they will just perish when that die and that’s that. In other words,
from their point of view they were perfectly correct all along because
for them there was no God in the end.

So which of the three above do people think they are being saved from?
Sin? Hell? or Perishing? Or perhaps some people think they are being
saved from all three?

I personally do not feel burdened by sin so I feel no needed to have any
burden of sin lifted from my shoulder. So I have no motivation to be
saved for that reason. I also fear no hell because, first off, I don’t
feel that I have sinned to deserve hell in the first place, and secondly
I don’t believe that Jesus was God’s only begotten son so according to
John 3:16 I would not be granted everlasting life and I would just
perish anyway. Perishing doesn’t sound all that bad to me. Especially
considering the crew I’d have to put up with for eternity I should make
it into heaven. Perishing actually sounds like the better deal.

In short, I’ll take door # 3 please. No need to be ‘saved’ to get into
that door.

Of course I don't believe in any of this myself. I believe that we are
all reincarnated no matter what we believe. Our belief doesn't change
the true nature of our reality.

I just don’t see how any supreme being could possibly expect humans to
only find their way to him via a book that so many people are obviously
not going to buy into. That is just not even a rational idea in my
mind. And I don't believe that God is nonsensical. I don't believe that
a God would give me a rational mind, and then offer me an irrational
path to find him. That would be an under-handed dirty trick. Certainly
not something that an all-loving all-compassionate God would do.

Adventure...

It was a different covenent in the Old Testament. The New Testament
brought for the blood covenent...Jesus dying on the cross for the sins
of all mankind.

What does that have to do with the holy spirit.

We all have it. It is in all things.

If you search the scriptures in the old testament, find the prophets in
their different times and areas, it always mentions them being filled
with the Holy Spirit. Gd holds the power of the Holy spirit. In the new
testament you'll read that Jesus himself was overcome by the Holy spirit
and it DROVE him into the wilderness.