Assurance of Salvation

Dear Readers,

Are you saved? Am I saved?

Sometimes I’m jealous of the Baptists who believe they are saved. I wish I had their confidence.

This guy on my mission kept an interesting item in his wallet. It was his “ticket to heaven.” It was a thick piece of paper about the size a business card, decorated to look like a fancy ticket. It had his signature on it, maybe a Bible verse on it, and the date that he was saved- the date that he had accepted Jesus into his heart. I don’t think the man literally believed that he was going to hand that piece of paper to Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates, but he believed that the mystical experience he underwent as recorded on that “ticket to heaven” absolutely guaranteed him a spot in Heaven.

Quite a few Protestants believe that once you accept Jesus into your heart, you are as sure of going to heaven as if you were already there. They often quote Ephesians 2: 8 and 9: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of woks, lest any man should boast.” Another popular verse is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” I think I heard one girl say that her preacher said that John 3:16 was the only Bible verse anybody needed to know. Both these scriptures emphasize that salvation comes by believing in Christ, and that Christ saves you from your own sins and from this wicked world.

But what does it mean to “get saved?” What does it mean to “accept Jesus into your heart?”

Well first of all, before we make light of some Protestants’ idea of being saved, we should realize that religion nearly always seems weird to outsiders. I know my religion seems weird to outsiders. And lots of religions I learn about just seem weird or funny to me. Like Scientology. But I respect other religions. They’re interesting.

The scriptures also say that religion and spiritual experiences seem weird to other people. 1 Corinthians 2: 14 says, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Philosophers would probably call the Baptists’ notion of “getting saved” a mystical experience. “Getting saved” cannot be rationally explained to the uninitiated. It is an experience that cannot be scientifically proven. “Getting saved” goes beyond the bounds of modern science. An online philosophy dictionary that came up quickly in a Google search (http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/m9.htm#myst) defines mysticism as “Belief in direct apprehension of divine or eternal reality by means of spiritual contemplation distinct from more ordinary avenues of human knowledge.”

All that is to say that we can’t really understand the mystical, subjective experience of “getting saved,” but of course we need to try to understand it as best we can.

The way people have tried to describe “getting saved” to me before is usually through stories like this: “I went to church for a while, and one Sunday the preacher asked if there was any in the congregation who hadn’t been saved. I raised my hand. I was really feeling something. It was Jesus. Jesus was calling out to me. I could feel his Spirit within me. I went forth to the altar of the church while the whole church was singing praises to Jesus, and I could feel my heart yearning for something more than what I already had, yearning for Heaven. The preacher asked me if I believed in Jesus and I shouted ‘yes’. The preacher asked me if I accepted Christ as my personal Savior and I shouted ‘yes’. The preacher told me that I had been saved, but I didn’t need the preacher to tell me that, because from that moment, I knew it in my heart. I knew deep down in my soul that Christ had forgiven me of all my sins, and that I had been saved.”

I’ve heard quite a few stories and explanations of getting saved. Some people can get saved when they hear a televangelist. Some while they attend a Christian concert. Some can get saved while they read the Bible and pray. Often “getting saved” is accompanied by a dramatic life experience, like a car accident, getting off of drugs, or a death in the family. A lot of “getting saved” stories remind me of the Amazing Grace line, “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.” Often the stories usually go, “I used to be really mean to people. But then I got saved and now I’m nice.” Or, “I used to be into drugs. But then I got saved and now I’m clean.”

I’ve had a lot of conversations about grace vs. works. Baptists say that good behavior (works) is a sign of the true believers- works is merely a byproduct of being saved, so Christians tend to be good people. But they assert that works have nothing to do with salvation. According to Baptists, salvation is a free gift from God, and all you have to do is accept it.

I’ve sometimes thought that the act of confessing Jesus as your personal Savior is itself a work, since it involves learning about Christ, at least a little, and then mentally focusing on receiving Christ, which seems like quite a bit of effort- but whatever. I think the works Baptists are talking about are things like ordinances, going to church, preaching, saying prayers, serving others, donating to charity, etc. When explaining salvation, Baptists often cite the thief on the cross who got saved. (See Luke 23: 39-43.) The story goes that the thief was a really wicked dude for his whole life, and then in the last few moments of his life, he gave a deathbed confession, accepted Jesus as his personal Savior, and then was guaranteed a spot in Heaven.

(The LDS interpretation of that scripture, though, insofar as I am qualified to give you the LDS interpretation of scripture, is that the thief on the cross was headed not to the Celestial Kingdom immediately, but to spirit paradise. Even though he believed in Christ, he still had to have the ordinances of salvation administered to him to be saved- baptism, confirmation, ordination to the priesthood, and temple ordinances- and he still had to get resurrected.)

I think some say it’s possible to fall from grace after one is saved, like if you murder somebody after you accept Jesus into your heart then you’re not saved anymore, and you need to get saved again. But I think quite a few people believe that no matter how bad they are, they are covered by the blood of the Lamb. I’m not sure if they’re so confident in their pending salvation when they’re alone and meditative, but when they talked to me (and I’m mostly drawing my knowledge from my experiences in West Virginia, Virginia, and Ohio as an LDS missionary from 2002-2004.) they seemed to say, “I’m absolutely positive without a doubt t-totally sure that I am going to Heaven because Jesus has saved me and I know that the Lord cannot lie!”

One thing I like about the “getting saved” notion of the Baptists is that it turns religion and salvation into a private, personal thing. I recently watched a great PBS program on Martin Luther (http://www.youtube.com/show?p=m8pb-CvuxN8). That show emphasized that the work of Martin Luther took power away from the institution of the Catholic Church and put it into the people’s hands. Luther wanted everyone to be able to read the Bible in their own language, and he wanted people to see that salvation couldn’t be bought with money or by buying indulgences, but salvation and forgiveness were personal matters of the heart. In the Catholic Church, especially in the Middle Ages, believers were dependent on the clergy for salvation. They held the keys that people needed in order to go to Heaven. They also preferred their congregations to be illiterate, I think. Luther’s ideas were a sharp contrast to the Pope’s dogma.

But maybe it’s best to let Baptists to explain Baptist doctrine and to let Catholics explain Catholic doctrine.

My point is, I sometimes found it funny that when I was a missionary, my message to a lot of these people who believed they were saved was, ultimately, that they weren’t really saved. My message was that they needed to be baptized by an authorized priesthood holder and become a Latter-Day Saint. But at the same time that I was preaching to people that they weren’t really saved, I was wondering if I was “saved.”

There I was a missionary, devoting much of my life to God, trying to be good, and yet I wasn’t sure that after I died I was going to the Celestial Kingdom to live forever in a mansion (John 14:2). That’s why I say sometimes I’m jealous of the Baptists who know they are saved. I wish I had their assurance of salvation. (Even though they’re not really saved.)

I still have doubts that I’ll make it to the celestial kingdom because I’ve sinned a lot, and I’m worried that for too much of my life, my heart has not been in the right place. I’m lazy. Even though I write a lot about religion on Telemoonfa Time, I sometimes don’t feel like going to church, and sometimes I entertain wicked, wicked thoughts. Sometimes I worry that I have not accepted Christ’s atonement enough.

And some scriptures worry me, too, like Matthew 7: 13 and 14. Jesus says, “…wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

Here’s another sort-of scary scripture: Matthew 7: 22-23: “Many will say to me in that day, [Judgment Day, I think] Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

I might be one of the many people that Christ is referring to in Matthew 7:22.

One of the good things about school is you know how you’re doing. I’ve been going to school for a long time, and I’ve almost always known what grade I was going to get in my classes. And I’ve been able to track my own progress in a lot of other pursuits in my life- how many push-ups I can do, how far I can ride my bicycle. But as for how I’m doing spiritually- that’s not quantifiable or measurable. Tracking spiritual progress is not a science.

A missionary I worked with said he didn’t think he would go to the Celestial Kingdom. And he seemed like such a hardworking, spiritual, good guy. But it’s hard to get into the Celestial Kingdom, he said. Cuts have to be made.

I remembering feeling like, if this guy didn’t think he was going to get there, what chance did I have? My attitude was, I’ll do the best I can, sort of, and maybe I’ll make it to the Terrestrial kingdom.

Lots of great theologians have felt unsure of their salvation. That insecurity might be what drives them on to further study and works- and eventually to salvation. One of my favorite parts of the Confessions of St. Augustine (OK, OK, pretty much the only part of the book I know because I haven’t really read the whole thing) is devoted to Augustine feeling horrible for his small sin of stealing pears with some of his punk teenager friends as a youth. He laments for pages and pages about how bad he is, and how angry God is at him. Maybe Augustine sought after God so fervently because he wanted to make up for his sins.

Martin Luther also had a fanatical devotion to God when he was a Catholic monk. He was a very austere, faithful monk. A few of the monks in his monastery would whip themselves to purge themselves from sin and bad thoughts. Martin Luther sometimes slept outside in the snow freezing, and his fellow monks had to drag him inside to keep him from dying or getting hypothermia or frostbite. That’s pretty extreme, but Martin Luther was showing his devotion to God and striving to get God’s blessing. I think it could have been Luther’s insecurity of his own salvation that drove him to become such a great reformer.


The righteous prophet Nephi also feels inadequate and unfit for the kingdom of God at times. Now, he was a very very very very good man who diligently sought to know the ways of God. But as good as he was, Nephi writes, in 2 Nephi 4: 17-19, “… O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities. I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me. And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins…”

Joseph Smith was also unsure of his status before God. He writes, in Joseph Smith History 1: 29, “I often felt condemned for my weakness and imperfections; when, on the evening of the above-mentioned twenty-first of September, after I had retired to my bed for the night, I betook myself to prayer and supplication to Almighty God for forgiveness of all my sins and follies and also for a manifestation to me that I might know of my state and standing before him…”

Hey wait a minute- I thought that Joseph Smith was really righteous and squared away with God. Why is the prophet of God in doubt about his own salvation? Shouldn’t he, of all people, enjoy the assurance that he will be saved?

Maybe not.

Maybe part of God’s plan is to keep his followers on edge a little bit. He wants us to hunger and thirst after righteousness, and not to be complacent with our spiritual status. He wants us to wrestle with angels until they give us a blessing. He wants us to not be so confident of our pending salvation that we sit around and do nothing. He wants us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12)

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa