The moment of salvation

[Blien]

I had a vision during the moment of my salvation. A man shining in white light was standing behind me and he placed both his hands on my shoulders and a white object lifted from me and up through him and up into heaven and it brought the man great joy.. that same day i could feel that the spirit inside me was not mine but something else and he was happy floating around (i think it was the holy spirit). Around those days I had a dream of being in heaven with an angle and she was pleading for my life with tears and I saw myself dirty and disgusting, my soul was black and had red marks.. I dont know who the woman was, but I had a feeling she knew me very well. Could it be my gaurdian angel or was it mary? Since I prayed many times "Hail Mary.. pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen"

[Ddavid from NC]

I had a vision during the moment of my salvation. A man shining in white light was standing behind me and he placed both his hands on my shoulders and a white object lifted from me and up through him and up into heaven and it brought the man great joy.. that same day i could feel that the spirit inside me was not mine but something else and he was happy floating around (i think it was the holy spirit). Around those days I had a dream of being in heaven with an angle and she was pleading for my life with tears and I saw myself dirty and disgusting, my soul was black and had red marks.. I dont know who the woman was, but I had a feeling she knew me very well. Could it be my gaurdian angel or was it mary? Since I prayed many times "Hail Mary.. pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen"

What makes you think it would be Mary?

[Blien]

The Angel was a woman, and because of the Hail Mary prayer.

[Grace1479]

I can't really say when I got saved. I grew up in a christian family, mom and dad loved God dearly. Mom still does and dad is in heaven nearly a year now. I know I gave my life to Christ when I was a little girl. I went of the way little bits, but never turned my back on God. A few years ago, I redidicated my life to Jesus and pray daily for help through the Holy Spirit to become more and more like Jesus. He is my everything and I can't imagine a life without Him, also don't want a life without Him.

[stevehut]

Hmmm...

This is an old forum, but I found it very interesting and had to resurrect it.

This is how I see it:

If you don't know how it happened...

And you don't know when it happened...

And you don't know where it happened...

How can you know that it happened?

[stevehut]

I guess it sorta like when you fell in love...who remembers the moment or the progression? Is that what you are trying to say?

Huh?

It's really possible to forget?

[Honeybee88]

Hmmm...

This is an old forum, but I found it very interesting and had to resurrect it.

This is how I see it:

If you don't know how it happened...

And you don't know when it happened...

And you don't know where it happened...

How can you know that it happened?

You have to be careful making statements like that. I grew up with Chrisianity, and I just can't say that I know exactly when my belief became saving. I think it's probably that way with alot of people, and you CAN know that you were saved if you are trusting Him now. 1 John is all about showing us how we know we are saved, so I don't think you should just make a blanket statement that we can't know we're saved unless we know exactly when and how it happened.

[kittylover0991]

Wow, I'm so glad I didn't see this thread so many months ago I think there are those that can pin point a time, and there are those that can not.... for different reasons....

First.... what is it that saves you?

Well, before that, I guess I'll just answer the original question about when I got saved. When I was 8 years old, I first went forward for salvation. I "went forward" many times after that and said the sinners prayer. I point back to that day and say that that first time iswhen I got saved (since you only get saved once), but I may not have understood and say it may have been the time that I was in junior church and I prayed the sinners prayer.

I got baptized a year later, had nothing to do with salvation.

In 2003, 5 years after first going forward, I doubted my salvation and talked to 8th grade sunday sunday school teacher, who led me again through the sinners prayers, sinc eI said I wans't sure if i was serious, if I understood enough to know to get saved when I was 8. I was 13 at the time. That's typically called going for "assurance of salvation". So, at that point, I had no clue what date and time I got saved.

Oh had it ended there.... this past March, well, I guess starting in Februrary, still at the same church, I heard for the first time that saying a prayer has NOTHING TO DO with salvation.... that through me for a spin. I didn't understand. You have to say a prayer, don't you? What happened with "with the mouth confession is made unto salvation"??? Our heart prays, our heart cries out to God, but it is nota prayer that saves us.... it is simply trusting in God.

I went through about 3 days of not knowing if I was saved, possibly the scariest three days of life.... I kept asking God to show me from His word what the truth is, becuase I was mixed up with the interpretations of man..... The bible says in John 3:16 "that whosoever believeth in him shoudl not perish, but have everlasting life". Believe.

John 3:36 says that we are condemned by not believing.... we are not condemned if we believe... not if we say a prayer or do not say a prayer.

In Acts 8, "what doth hinder me to baptized?" The answer: "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest"

Acts 16, I think this was with Silas, you have to believe.... the man didn't have to say a prayer, it simply said to believe.....

We are to compare scripture with scripture, and I'm not entirely sure what that confession is talking about, maybe it's talking about after salvation, or maybe it' talknig about the action (typically prayer) that comes from being saved.

What saves us is simply understanding these four things.... 1. We are all sinners. 2. Becuase of my sin, I dont' deserve heaven. Because of my sin, I deserve Hell. 3. Christ was that blood sacrifice on the cross, he paid for my sins 4. We need to accept that gift.

We need to trust Christ ALONE to take us to heaven.... THAT is what saves us.

I may have gotten saved back when I was 8 becuase I may have, by simple child-like faith, trusted Christ to take me to heaven, and it may have been after that that I found out I had to pray.... I'm not sure. So to answer the question, I don t'know WHEN i got saved, but I can tell you HOW I got saved, based on the Word of God, no doubt, and that's what matters.

I had a vision during the moment of my salvation. A man shining in white light was standing behind me and he placed both his hands on my shoulders and a white object lifted from me and up through him and up into heaven and it brought the man great joy.. that same day i could feel that the spirit inside me was not mine but something else and he was happy floating around (i think it was the holy spirit). Around those days I had a dream of being in heaven with an angle and she was pleading for my life with tears and I saw myself dirty and disgusting, my soul was black and had red marks.. I dont know who the woman was, but I had a feeling she knew me very well. Could it be my gaurdian angel or was it mary? Since I prayed many times "Hail Mary.. pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen"

So Blien.... I don't know how else to come out and say this, and I mean this with as much love as possible.... please know that if it wasn't because I cared, I wouldn't be asking you this. So.... how do you KNOW? You just mentioned a vision, and I'd rather not go into a debate about whether or not they are biblical, if we can at all help it, but how do you know that you are saved. There is nowhere in the bible says "If you have had a vision, then you are saved" or "If you feel the spirit, then you are saved". We can not base things on feelings, becuase feelings change.

Second, you're asking if it's Christ or Mary, and that's not a good sign. Christ said "I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, NO MAN cometh unto the father BUT BY ME".... Mary can not save us. She is a woman that the bible talks about being blessed among woman, and she's someone that we can look up to sometimes, but just like the rest of us, she's a sinner.

My frind, if you are trusting Mary even the slightest bit to get to heaven, or Hail mary's that you said, then you are not saved. Eph 2:8-9 says taht we are not saved by our works. I think it's Peter that says that if it had been by Abraham's righteousness that he got saved, then he woudl have something to boast about. By saying you said Hail Marys, you are saying you have something to boast about.

Romans 3:23 says that we ALL come short of God's glory. NONE of us are good enough to get to heaven, and we cant' work our way to heaven.

Romans 6:23 says "The wages of sin is death..." Does it say the wages of our sin is being sorry? Does it say that the wages of sin is to say Hail Marys?

If you rob the bank, and you're before the judge and say "But judge, I'm really really sorry", does that work? No. If I say "I'll serve the community!" Does that work? no. The punishment is jail, probably fines, etc. There is a set punishment for doing wrnog, and the punishment for our sin is death in hell.

In the old testament, for Adam and Eve, do you remember where they wore the fig leaves, and then God gave them animal skins for clothes? God killed an animal. There was a blood sacrifice. In the old testament, the Jews had to sacrifice animals for their sins. There had to be a blood sacrifice. Could they worship Moses or Aaron, or anyone else to get to heaven? Did they have to say Hail Mary? They could have, but it woudln' thave done them any good.... they had to give a blood sacrifice.

In the New Testament, CHrist was that blood sacrifice, and Hebrews 9 and 10 says taht he only had to die once. He was the perfect sacrifice for our sins. It is ONLY by Him that we can get to heaven, by trusting in Him.... not by saying Hail marys, not by trusting in a vision.. not by sacrement etc.

Wouldn't it be awesome if someone came into the court room and said "I'll pay her debt. I'll take her place for the crime of robbing the bank". That would be pretty neat!

Back Romans 6:23....

"The wages of sin is death..." but the verse doesn't stop there! "... but the GIFT OF GOD is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord"

If I were to give you my bible, and it had your name on it, and I said, here, this is for you, but you ahve to do A, B, C, and D to get it. If I said you ahd to mow the lawn, rake the leaves, do the dishes, and clean the car, would that be a gift?

No, that would have been something you had to work for, something you had to earn. If I give you a birthday gift but then say "Okay, now give me 10 dollars", was that a gift? No. Salvation is a free gift that we just have to accept. We just have to believe.

John 3:16 says that "For God so loved the world (that's us!) that he gave His Only begotten Son (that's Christ!), that whosoever BELIEVETH in Him should not perish (in hell), but have everlasting life (thats heaven!!)"

We are not saved by doing good works, otherwise it woudln't be a gift of salvation. salvation is a free gift that we accept by believing in God, by trusting in Him to take us to heaven.

We like to have people to say a prayer for different reasons... one is typically for the person witnessing so taht they can see that the person is serious, and the second is so that the person saying the prayer can have a time to look back and say 100% for sure"that is when I got saved".

But it isn't the prayer that saves you....just like it isn't any works that save you... it isn't by being good, going to church, doing sacrements, repeating verses from bible ,Hail Mary's etc.... If it's not Christ alone, then it isn't salvation.

Blien, you may or may not still be on here, but I'd like to ask you this and anyone else who may have read this.... Are you 100% sre you died today if you go to heaven? Are you trusting Christ alone? or are you trusting Christ plus yourself, or Christ plus works?

[stevehut]

I don't think you should just make a blanket statement that we can't know we're saved unless we know exactly when and how it happened.

I didn't make a statement. I asked a question.

Anyone?

[stevehut]

Kitty, your testimony is quite moving. But I don't think it answers the question at hand.