Expert: J.M.J. West - 1/28/2009

Question
QUESTION: I was thinking today and it bothered me about my salvation because I am unsure about it.

I said the Sinner's Prayer.

I believe and confessed that Jesus is the Son of the only Living GOD and died for my sins and rose again.

I asked Jesus to forgive me.

I do believe that GOD and Jesus exist.

I did this three times.

I confessed all of it with my mouth.

But I did it because I didn't want to go to hell.

I was also baptized when I was younger.

I never really tried to develop a close relationship with Him though nor have I really wanted to but yet I know that He is trying to have one with me.I'm trying to read my BIBLE and I pray every night but I don't know what you call that.I guess you can call it trying to have a relationship with Him.All of this is tearing me up because I don't know anymore and it would grieve me to the upmost if I have never been saved all of this time.I just don't know if I am really trying to have a relationship with Him.I don't know where I am standing with this.It's not that I do't want one with Him but it's not that I exactly do.I am trying to though.

I used to try and read my Bible and go to church and I do pray to GOD every night.I wish that I had a heart to seek Him more but how do I get that kind of heart?

Am I not saved now?

Oh and in your opinion,do you think that Barack Obama is the antichrist or something?

But every time I find myself wanting to draw closer to GOD.I sometimes feel like I do it still because I don't want to go to hell.As I said,I did what it ays in the BIBLE and when I confessed that I believe that Jesus died for my sins and rose again and still lives,I meant it very much because I do know that is what happened.But I still don't know if I want a further relationship with GOD.I asked Him to give me a heart to want to seek Him more.Does this mean that I am not saved?



Well when I confessed my beliefs,I meant it but I also did not want to go to hell.I truly do know and believe that Jesus died for my sins and that He rose again.I'm 13 by the way.I'm not confessing it just to be doing it.I got saved in 2002,2008,and 2009 but now I still feel like it is still not enough.If I am not saved then what's the point of living?I am desperately trying to do everything to get saved.And I am still not saved?I've did what it says in the BIBLE to be saved!I do believe what I am saying when I say it.I just feel like I don't get saved in order to seek GOD but all I know is that I do believe that Jesus died for my sins and that GOD raised Him back up from the dead.And I know that Jesus is still alive too!But the truth is that I confessed what I said in the sinner's prayer because I truly do believe that Jesus died for my sins and rose again and that He still lives and becaus eI didn't want to go to hell.So what is still wrong?



Someone just told me that if I had to ask if I am Saved then obviously I am not. I go to an Apostolic church but I am really Pentocostal.MY beliefs are that if you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour and ask Him for forgiveness from your sins then you are saved.But of course different denominations have different beliefs on what actually makes you saved so if I went to a non denominational church it might make me confused. So if you don't mind,I will ask my question again.- Well when I was about 8,I asked for God's forgiveness but at the time,I did it because I didn't want to go to hell.I didn't really love GOD because I didn't really know Him that well.So then like 2 years later,I got the Holy Ghost but then I felt that my church was trying to really push me into it so I just all of a sudden shut down.About a year ago or a couple of months ago,I just decided that I didn't want to go to church anymore.I go once in a while but not every Sunday and I feel that if I am just going to make people happy and just to be there then that's a vain reason to go.If you're not there for GOD then there's no point in goingI tried reading my Bible and I started from the first chapter and tried to read the whole book in order.Well that got boring and I didn't understand anything so I stopped that too.So now,the only thing that I will do is pray and majority of the time,it's to ask for things.I'm not really sure if I love GOD because I haven't really got to know Him nor hae I really tried anymore.I know I have really backslided in that area.Does this mean that I am not saved?Or at least anymore now?So now I am not saved?!?!?!?!?!?!?!Now I might as well kill myself.The thing is that I don't know if my heart was into when I was eight,at the time,I Was a little willing to get to know GOD better but now I am hearing this?What are you saying now.Now I am not saved?Yes I do believe that He is the son of GOD and that He died for our sins so that we can be forgiven.I asked Him for forgiveness.At the time,I didn't want to go to hell but at the time,I was young and I wanted to I guess know Him better.But after that,I just drifted off.But now I don't even know if I am saved.Does it sound like I am saved?If I didn't ove GOD when I got saved then does this mean that I am not saved?Do I need to get saved again? I know this is terribly off subject.But now I am in even worse trouble if I am not saved.I feel even worse.They told me that I have to accept Jesus as my master which is what I thought accepting Him as my Saviour meant.It make sme want to commit suicide even more than before.Maybe my life is just going down the drain.I mean,I have everything academically and school-wise going for me.But everything else is just terrible. I live with my mom and she is on welfare and medical cards but yet my dad is rich.I don't live with my dad.But I live with my mom in an apartment building that my dad owns,he owns a lot. I guess you could say that my mom is middle class because we aren't poor.My dad always gives us the money to pay our bills and buy food and all of that stuff. So does this mean that I am poor? There are days when my mom doesn't have money.But we don't starve or don't have clothes but there are some days that there is nothing to eat (which is rare)because I eat up everything and she doesn't have time to go to the store or my dad hasn't given her the money. I am stuggling with my sexuality.I'm not pretty.I have bad thoughts and can not seem to get my mind together.And now I might not be saved?Please respond!







I don't feel good.I'm not alright.This makes me want to do something drastic.Like suicide!I asked Him into my heart but at the time,it was because I didn't want to go to hell or anything.Am I not saved then?Do I need to get saved again or something?







Also I am wondering if I have blaspemed.Sometimes when I say the word gay or something similar,I suddenly look at a picture of Jesus even though I wasn't talking about Him.Sometimes when I say the word gay or something similar,I suddenly look at a picture of Jesus even though I wasn't particulary talking about Him.And sometimes I think things that are blasphemous.I don't mean to think that way.And if I think,I don't say it.But after I do all of this,I ask for forgiveness.But it says that real Christians don't commit blasphemy so that means that I am not a true Christian and that I was never saved.But that means that I have to get saved all over again and I am getting sick of doing it over and over and over!I don't want to blasphemy either because I know what happens to people that do.So what do I do?Am I not saved or a Christian?And sometimes I think about blaspemy.I don't think that I really mean it if I have ever said or else I wouldn't want His forgiveness.I wouldn't even care for that matter.But I do care.I certainly don't curse GOD outloud habitatly.I do have bad thoughts but I ask for forgiveness right after them because I know that I don't mean to even think them,they just pop in my head.If I have ever said anything against GOD or Jesus,I haven't ever meant it,that's for sure.But it just bothers me.So now I might not even be a Christian?"

I also wonder if I have sold my soul.I sometimes think about selling it.And sometimes I say "If I don't do this then my soul is....."



I don't want to say the rest.I don't know if I have bet on my soul but yet I think that I have but I ask for forgiveness after it.I ask God to forgive me for it.But I don't want to sell my soul.Does this mean that I have?"


ANSWER: CGLLR,

Thank you for your questions, but I'm going to have to ask you to try to limit the size and scope a bit.  I'll answer the key points as I see them, and you're free to follow up to clarify.

YOU WROTE:
"I confessed all of it with my mouth.  But I did it because I didn't want to go to hell."

This is called "imperfect contrition", and it is seemingly satisfactory for repenting of your sins, though the better way is to repent because they are offenses against God and the good.

YOU WROTE:
"I was also baptized when I was younger."

Baptism is efficacious on infants as well as adults, and infant baptisms were practiced in the early church very commonly, and are alluded to in scripture.  Baptism opens our souls to receive the grace of God, but we can even after being baptized turn ourselves away from God.

YOU WROTE:
"I never really tried to develop a close relationship with Him though nor have I really wanted to but yet I know that He is trying to have one with me.I'm trying to read my BIBLE and I pray every night but I don't know what you call that.I guess you can call it trying to have a relationship with Him.All of this is tearing me up because I don't know anymore and it would grieve me to the upmost if I have never been saved all of this time.I just don't know if I am really trying to have a relationship with Him.I don't know where I am standing with this.It's not that I do't want one with Him but it's not that I exactly do.I am trying to though."

The simply answer is that Jesus didn't leave us merely a 2000 page book in foreign languages, but a Church, founded on Peter and the Apostles, which has real authority to bind and loose on the believers, and has exercised this authority in an unbroken line for 2000 years.  Apart from this Church, you are going to get a watered down version of Christianity.  Know the Body of Christ (The Church), and you'll know the Head of the body (Christ).

"See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Christ Jesus does the Father, and the presbytery as ye would the apostles. Do ye also reverence the deacons, as those that carry out the appointment of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude also be; by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church." Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Smyrneans, 8:2 (c. A.D. 108).

YOU WROTE:
"Am I not saved now?"

Salvation comes at the end, and you are working towards that salvation now.  You could live righteously all your days until the end, then grievously turn from God; conversely you could live sinfully all you days and then genuinely repent at the end and be saved.

I am already saved (Rom. 8:24, Eph. 2:5–8), but I’m also being saved (1 Cor. 1:8, 2 Cor. 2:15, Phil. 2:12), and I have the hope that I will be saved (Rom. 5:9–10, 1 Cor. 3:12–15). Like the apostle Paul I am working out my salvation in fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), with hopeful confidence in the promises of Christ (Rom. 5:2, 2 Tim. 2:11–13).

YOU WROTE:
"Oh and in your opinion,do you think that Barack Obama is the antichrist or something?"

I doubt he's THE anti-christ, but some people are't so convinced.
I found this either funny or scary:
http://www.mark-shea.com/obama.html

YOU WROTE:
"I've did what it says in the BIBLE to be saved!"

Salvation isn't earned through merely following forms and recitations, but some things (i.e. sacraments) were given to us by Christ to impart the grace of God into us.  
YOU WROTE:
"I go to an Apostolic church but I am really Pentocostal.MY beliefs are that if you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour and ask Him for forgiveness from your sins then you are saved"

I mean no disparagement to your church, but it' snot "apostolic" if the leaders of the church weren't ordained by one of the apostles OR one of those who succeeded after the apostles.

"And thus preaching through countries and cities, they appointed the first-fruits [of their labours], having first proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and deacons of those who should afterwards believe. Nor was this any new thing, since indeed many ages before it was written concerning bishops and deacons. For thus saith the Scripture a certain place, 'I will appoint their bishops s in righteousness, and their deacons in faith.'... Our apostles also knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and there would be strife on account of the office of the episcopate. For this reason, therefore, inasmuch as they had obtained a perfect fore-knowledge of this, they appointed those [ministers] already mentioned, and afterwards gave instructions, that when these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed them in their ministry...For our sin will not be small, if we eject from the episcopate those who have blamelessly and holily fulfilled its duties." Pope Clement, Epistle to Corinthians, 42, 44 (A.D. 98).

"But if there be any (heresies) which are bold enough to plant themselves in the midst Of the apostolic age, that they may thereby seem to have been handed down by the apostles, because they existed in the time of the apostles, we can say: Let them produce the original records of their churches; let them unfold the roll of their bishops, running down in due succession from the beginning in such a manner that [that first bishop of theirs] bishop shall be able to show for his ordainer and predecessor some one of the apostles or of apostolic men,--a man, moreover, who continued steadfast with the apostles. …To this test, therefore will they be submitted for proof by those churches, who, although they derive not their founder from apostles or apostolic men (as being of much later date, for they are in fact being founded daily), yet, since they agree in the same faith, they are accounted as not less apostolic because they are akin in doctrine…Then let all the heresies, when challenged to these two tests by our apostolic church, offer their proof of how they deem themselves to be apostolic. But in truth they neither are so, nor are they able to prove themselves to be what they are not. Nor are they admitted to peaceful relations and communion by such churches as are in any way connected with apostles, inasmuch as they are in no sense themselves apostolic because of their diversity as to the mysteries of the faith." Tertullian, Prescription against the Heretics, 33 (A.D. 200).

YOU WROTE:
"I don't feel good.I'm not alright.This makes me want to do something drastic.Like suicide!I asked Him into my heart but at the time,it was because I didn't want to go to hell or anything.Am I not saved then?Do I need to get saved again or something?"

Suicide is the exact opposite of what you need to consider.
If you are really considering suicide, please get help.  You can call
The Boys Town National Hotline (boy or girl can call) 1-800-448-3000

YOU WROTE:
"Also I am wondering if I have blaspemed.Sometimes when I say the word gay or something similar,I suddenly look at a picture of Jesus even though I wasn't talking about Him.Sometimes when I say the word gay or something similar,I suddenly look at a picture of Jesus even though I wasn't particulary talking about Him.And sometimes I think things that are blasphemous.I don't mean to think that way.And if I think,I don't say it.But after I do all of this,I ask for forgiveness."

The devil has a large bag of tricks to keep you off the right track.  Thought that pop into your head from seemingly nowhere have a cause.  If you didn't choose to have them, then you are not guilty for having them - BUT, if you then dwell on them, you could be more culpable for carrying on with the thought(s).

YOU WROTE:
"I also wonder if I have sold my soul.I sometimes think about selling it.And sometimes I say "If I don't do this then my soul is.....""

You do not have the authority to "sell your soul", popular fiction aside, because your soul does not belong to you.  But you do have the authority to turn away from - or towards - God.  This is the path to heaven or hell, and sin turns us away, repentance turns us back.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: So am I saved?I have to get off the subject for a second and ask a serious question.Okay there is this older guy(I'm 13) that I talk to over the internet and we have very sexual conversations,now I haven't ever had sex before but I guess we do what you can call cybersex.Does this mean that I lost my virginity and is this a sin and can I be forgiven?

ANSWER: YOU WROTE: "So am I saved?"

I cannot judge that.

YOU WROTE: "...there is this older guy(I'm 13) that I talk to over the internet and we have very sexual conversations,now I haven't ever had sex before but I guess we do what you can call cybersex.Does this mean that I lost my virginity..."

Virginity generally has do to with whether or not you've ever had actual, penetrative sex.  You have acted lustfully and imprudently, but such action would probably no render you non-virginal.  My advice: stop it right now.


YOU WROTE: "...and is this a sin and can I be forgiven?..."

Every sin can be forgiven.  God gave us the sacrament of confession for a reason (cf. John 20:20-21)

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: But how do I stop talking to this guy without hurting his feelings?

Answer
This is like saying "how do I stop talking to my heroine dealer without hurting his feelings".  The there are a variety of ways, but the simplest is to just not talk to him.  If you must, tell him that this is not healthy, and leave it at that.

Good luck and God bless.

-J.M.J. West