amanda_nicole82:
I completely agree with you. I am not afraid, I know that I am a child of God and I am going to Heaven. The Bible makes it clear that there is only one way to Heaven, and that is through His Son, Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have eternal life John 3 v16.
Once we accept Christ into our life we no longer have to wonder and worry about where we will spend eternity, we can rest assured that we will spend eternity with God. That does not mean that we should live our lives as if we can do anything we please because we are going to Heaven for sure. It is our job and responsibility as Christians to live our life for Christ, in a way that is pleasing to Him.
The phrase “accepting Christ into your life” is never used even once in the Bible. With all due respect, you are reading your Evangelical tradition (which is a very modern tradition) into the Bible. In John 3:16, the verb “believe” in the Greek (pisteuo) is in the present continuous tense, which means that the person must believe continously, not a one-time act of faith. A better way to translate it is “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes and keeps on believing shall not perish, but have etenal life”.
Jesus said that we needed to “repent and believe” the gospel (Mark 1:15). Both verb, “repent” and “believe” are in the present continous sense in Greek, which means we must live a life of repentance and a life of faith. Living a life of repentance is what we Catholics mean by living a penitent life.
Jesus said “Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.” (Matthew 7:21). We must do God’s will to enter heaven. God’s will is to keep His commandments. It is not enough to say “I accepted Christ” (again, this phrase is never even used in the Bible. This phrase is a modern invention that was not even used until the latter half of the 20th century)
I used to be a Protestant, and used to believed that I was saved because I accepted Christ. Satan used this idea to make me do all sorts of sins, I even visited prostitutes. These ideas came into my head: “Why not visit a prostitute? You are save anyway? Just confessed it to God!” And I fell into sin, as well as other sins. I remember an Evangelical gay Christian tried to pursuade me to have sex with him. He also gave me the argument that I was saved so I did not need to fret. I did not give in to that sin, but I did not give in to other sins because I felt I did not have to worry because I was “saved”.
Brother, this is a very dangerous doctrine that I am convinced came from the Devil.