Is Salvation a process, or simply instant?

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I am trying to looked at faith alone. I need to understand. please explain?
 
Process for us. A one time event though, at Christ’s death on the cross.

This event and the graces of it are applied to us over a lifetime, so never our salvation is never just simply an event in regards to our life and growth in holiness.
 
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Both. For the thief on the cross, it was a one time event. Baptism is a one time event. Therefore, it is no stretch to think of Paul, on the road to Damascus, who saw his conversion there, an event set at one point in time, yet also as a race in which he ran until the end.

As said above, salvation came at one point on the cross. For us, it is okay to see a single pivotal point of conversion in our life, or even points, yet also understand that we have a lot of work to do. Think of it as a physical race. When do we run it? You can say I ran it in the afternoon, or at 3:00pm when the starting gun was fired.
 
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What about the saying that I am saved, being saved and I hope to be saved?
 
From Crossing the Tiber by Steve Ray…

How does one receive salvation, justification, new birth and eternal life? Well scripture says…

By believing in Christ
By repentance
By baptism
By the work of the Spirit
By declaring with our mouths
By coming to the knowledge of the Truth
By works
By grace
By His Blood
By His rightousness
By His Cross

These are all involved and necessary.
 
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It’s quick and final. Read Ephesians 2:8-9. Sanctification on the other hand is a lifelong process. Catholicism has to say that salvation is a process in order to make room for their sacramental system. Rome’s Gospel doesn’t give anyone peace. You can lose your salvation at any point, so you have to keep coming back to those sacraments in order to have a right relationship with God. It’s nothing more than a spiritual treadmill.

Once you get saved, you begin to see Rome’s Gospel as faulty. That’s what it is, but the truth is that you can get saved at any moment.
 
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It’s not just a Catholic thing. The Church taught the same things, until the Reformers.

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” - 1 Cor 9:24-27

This is an Apostle! A P O S T L E. One who apparently visited the third heaven… and yet he still thinks he has a chance of being disqualified.

edit: Mind you, most of them were facing death at this time too… and those who gave into Rome in those first few centuries certainly did not find salvation. And weren’t even treated well by the church on earth either. It disgusted other believers. If Salvation is once and for all, it makes even apostates saved. Yet we have records that people didn’t even want them in their churches afterwards.
 
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Paul was simply having doubts. It’s natural to doubt. Sometimes temptations can be so intense that we doubt if we’re really devotees of God. As for apostates, that is another topic altogether, but I believe that if someone strays, they were never saved to begin with.
 
drac16 said:
Paul was simply having doubts. It’s natural to doubt. Sometimes temptations can be so intense that we doubt if we’re really devotees of God. As for apostates, that is another topic altogether, but I believe that if someone strays, they were never saved to begin with.
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This sounds like you’re just saying the same thing, but using different words. Calvinists say people demonstrate their faith by being Sanctified. But that’s pretty much what Catholics or Orthodox say too. They just don’t separate them all into convenient little bullet points, the way Calvin did (or rather Calvinists do, with the “TULIP” principles and whatnot).

And if you say someone wasn’t saved to begin with by going apostate, in practice this isn’t different than saying a person lost their faith. You’re only making an inward judgement on their soul to begin with (kind of dangerous territory imo), while the Catholics or Orthodox will just say that that person demonstrated they weren’t saved by their action.
 
I have been saved.

I am being saved.

I shall be saved.

It is all three.
 
But don’t forget to read verse 10 also!

Part of the confusion is that Catholicism views sanctification as part of justification. That is why we say justification is a process. We use the same words but they mean different things to us so we will always talk past each other unfortunately.

Protestant “justification” = Catholic “initial justification”
Protestant “sactification” = Catholic “sanctification/progressive justification”
 
jlhargus said:
I have been saved, I am being saved, I hope to be saved. We must persevere to the end.
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Yes …
Therefore, consider God’s kindness and severity: severity toward those who have fallen but God’s kindness toward you–if you remain in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. (Rom 11:22)
 
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