Saved without being lost?

[Reformingstudent]

Can a person be a true believer in Jesus Christ without first being an un-believer? I know a lot of people who were raised in church and have heard Jesus preached every Sunday and considered themselves as believers in Christ but most have not truly showed any real saving faith. Their faith was mainly based upon their experiences of being raise in a Christian home where everyone believed from an early age.
I may not be wording this right but what I am trying to get at is how can someone who has never not believed in Christ see their need to be converted? maybe a dumb question but it had been on my mind.
Thanks.


Tom

 

[Scott Bushey]

One needs to understand the sin problem. Raised in the church, even as a covenant child, does not negate the need. Covenant children must be reared under the same auspices. They must repent. They must believe, accept, receive! If someone in my family does not understand this, I have sinned against God and them as I have neglected the command to rear them in the way they should go........

 

[Texas Aggie]

Growing up, I used to assume that everyone in the church was saved based on their profession of belief in Jesus Christ as well as their regular attendance. Almost all of my friends at the church did not show an outward manifestation of the Spirit outside of Sunday school or other church activities.

Looking back, I would say these guys, as well as myself, were not regenerated. We did believe Christ died for our sins, that there was a God and Christ was God's son, yet continued to live life as we wanted (why not?... we were free in Christ).

Although we were raised in the church and professed a belief, we were still depraved. After all, the devils themselves believe in Jesus Christ.

 

[Reformingstudent]

Originally posted by Texas Aggie
Growing up, I used to assume that everyone in the church was saved based on their profession of belief in Jesus Christ as well as their regular attendance. Almost all of my friends at the church did not show an outward manifestation of the Spirit outside of Sunday school or other church activities.

Looking back, I would say these guys, as well as myself, were not regenerated. We did believe Christ died for our sins, that there was a God and Christ was God's son, yet continued to live life as we wanted (why not?... we were free in Christ).

Although we were raised in the church and professed a belief, we were still depraved. After all, the devils themselves believe in Jesus Christ.

It's like what I heard an old Calvinist Baptist preacher say one time, getting people saved is easy, it's getting them lost is what's hard. How can people who think that they are already right with God ever see their need for His grace if they think they already have salvation?
If someone asked me 20 years ago if I was saved I would tell tell yes
and if asked why I would probably have told them because I prayed with so and so on the T.V. and because of that I am saved. I was never told about true repentance or true saving faith as a gift that only God could bestow upon who He chooses to save. Jesus was more or less just a way to escape hell and nothing more. I praise God that one day He opened my eyes to the truth of how lost I really was and gave me grace to believe.

 

[andreas]

Tom,

The answer to your question is no.



There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.Romans 3:10-11
andreas.

 

[Poimen]

It seems that, hypothetically it is a possibility for a covenant child, regenerated at birth and thus a believer from birth (born again), but it seems to me that this would not be the norm. Precisely because all are born in depravity which only can be undone by the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit who moves wherever and whenever He pleases.

Indeed as Scott pointed out, all who would be saved must repent and believe for the salvation of their souls. This faith will manifest itself in a life of sanctification, an increasing acknowledgment of their sins, an increasing dying away of the old man and an increasing living towards the life of the new. For some this may occur at birth, for others this may occur at the age of responsibility (NOT accountability), for others as they mature in their knowledge of their faith for many years or others on their death bed.

 

[Reformingstudent]

The problem is though that there are so many who have never seen themselves as being in un-belief in the first place. I know a lot of people just like that who have a testimony or who have given their hearts to the Lord thinking that they have believed the gospel all theirs lives but have never truly heard THE Gospel preached to them.
My father and mother in-law is a good example of this. Although they profess a belief in Jesus it's spurious at best and most if not all the time they are mainly trusting in their own works. Going to every church meeting singing their hymns, etc,etc. If you were to ask them if they ever been in un-belief they would more than likely think you were mad.

 

[WrittenFromUtopia]

We recognize our need for salvation not from seeing how many sins we have committed in our lives against the Lord and against other people, but by simply being born.

 

[govols]

Originally posted by Scott Bushey
Raised in the church, even as a covenant child, does not negate the need. Covenant children must be reared under the same auspices. They must repent. They must believe, accept, receive! If someone in my family does not understand this, I have sinned against God and them as I have neglected the command to rear them in the way they should go........

They must, of course be chosen, of the elect. You probably meant that as an assumption.