What do you say when asked "are you saved"?

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Zooey

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So, anyhow, I have been lurking at another board for a bit…Just passing time.
Only, I noticed that several people asked questions that I knew something about. (Cat care; homeopathic medicine–for humans & pets;Methodist/Wesleyan theological beliefs).
Now, I know I am not in their “target group” which is young mothers, but there are a lot of other people there, too…So, I thought, sign up & talk…
They needed my email address, which is standard…Except, I got this full page letter, which requires me to fill out all the answers, including: “Are you saved? How long have you been a Christian? How do you know that you are a Christian? Please give your testimony.”
Ummmmmm…OK…And then the kicker: “We will get back to you for further details about your answers to these questions”.
Would you just throw up your hands? Would you;) make them throw up their hands??
Are they too crazy to bother with, or am I being too sensitive? I mean, I just want to post on their dang site; I:nope: wasn’t planning on:rolleyes: adopting their children or:eek: marrying their brother-in-law…
I said what I have read here, which I feel is very accurate & sensible: I have been saved, I am being saved, & I will be saved…
I have the distinct feeling that it won’t be enough. And I can’t figure out what I am supposed to say any different…

(I don’t know where else to post this; if it needs moving, forgive me. I:confused: couldn’t figure where it belonged otherwise…)
 
just the standard reply, I have been saved, I am being saved, I have hope of salvation. I am perfectly capapble of frittering away all my free time right here on CA, no need of other discussion forums.

I am reminded of a news story from my old hometown, when my kids were little, about a big fire in an old apartment building. Bystanders and fire fighters managed rescue several of the people living there, but some people did die in the fire. among those rescued was a woman who insisted in running back into the building for some personal possession, her purse, photos, I don’t know just what. She died of course.

Many, but not all, were saved. One was saved, but threw away her salvation thru attachment to material possessions. All could have been saved had the building been equipped with properly functioning smoke detectors and sprinklers. why this sticks in my mind is that the firemen and bystanders who helped were injured as well some badly, one at least on permanent disability. The news story I recall told how they felt their sacrifice had been wasted by the persons who tried to go back into the burning building, yet they rejoiced in those who were saved.
 
puzzleannie said:
just the standard reply, I have been saved, I am being saved, I have hope of salvation. I am perfectly capapble of frittering away all my free time right here on CA, no need of other discussion forums.

I am reminded of a news story from my old hometown, when my kids were little, about a big fire in an old apartment building. Bystanders and fire fighters managed rescue several of the people living there, but some people did die in the fire. among those rescued was a woman who insisted in running back into the building for some personal possession, her purse, photos, I don’t know just what. She died of course.

Many, but not all, were saved. One was saved, but threw away her salvation thru attachment to material possessions. All could have been saved had the building been equipped with properly functioning smoke detectors and sprinklers. why this sticks in my mind is that the firemen and bystanders who helped were injured as well some badly, one at least on permanent disability. The news story I recall told how they felt their sacrifice had been wasted by the persons who tried to go back into the burning building, yet they rejoiced in those who were saved.
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WOW! I think you just summarized the Catholic understanding of salvation by this story. As well as how Catholics understand Our Lady’s salvation. Good story. I’ll try to remember it.
 
How I would respond:

I have trusted Jesus as my Savior. I love Him with all of my heart. I try to live each day pleasing Him. Someday I will stand before Him in judgement on that day, I will trust in His grace and mercy.
 
I say what is in my sig line (plus there are scriptural references to back it up!)
 
I respond with “What exactly do you mean by that?” :ehh: And I usually get a standard answer to the effect of they have accepted Jesus so heaven is assured, ergo “saved.” When I ask if that means they can sin & not worry about the loss of salvation I usually get 1 of 2 remarks. One is that “yes” they can sin all they want and not worry about a thing :yup: the other is that they never sin after becoming saved :whistle: I just smile & go on.

For the most part I think Protastants are well meaning :hmmm: , just confused :whacky:

BTW Zooey I love your signature & I can relate 😃
 
I say yes, I’m Catholic.
I’m with puzzleannie though on this: This website is
sufficient to take up my time. What can you talk about
somewhere else that you can’t talk about here?
 
You guys are great!!!
Annie, I really, really like that story about the fire. That makes perfect sense, & it says just what I believe, but sometimes have trouble explaining!!
 
Zooey said:
So, anyhow, I have been lurking at another board for a bit…Just passing time.
Only, I noticed that several people asked questions that I knew something about. (Cat care; homeopathic medicine–for humans & pets;Methodist/Wesleyan theological beliefs).
Now, I know I am not in their “target group” which is young mothers, but there are a lot of other people there, too…So, I thought, sign up & talk…
They needed my email address, which is standard…Except, I got this full page letter, which requires me to fill out all the answers, including: “Are you saved? How long have you been a Christian? How do you know that you are a Christian? Please give your testimony.”
Ummmmmm…OK…And then the kicker: “We will get back to you for further details about your answers to these questions”.
Would you just throw up your hands? Would you;) make them throw up their hands??
Are they too crazy to bother with, or am I being too sensitive? I mean, I just want to post on their dang site; I:nope: wasn’t planning on:rolleyes: adopting their children or:eek: marrying their brother-in-law…
I said what I have read here, which I feel is very accurate & sensible: I have been saved, I am being saved, & I will be saved…
I have the distinct feeling that it won’t be enough. And I can’t figure out what I am supposed to say any different…

(I don’t know where else to post this; if it needs moving, forgive me. I:confused: couldn’t figure where it belonged otherwise…)
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I was banned from a couple of sites before I even got a chance to post because when they saw I was a Catholic, they did not think I could possibly be saved. Maybe they give the questionnaire to everybody else, but apparently some of these sites just automatically ban Catholics.😦
 
I like all of the answers above. Here’s what I would have said:

**Are you saved? **

Not yet, since I have not yet been judged. I will have been saved when I arrive in Heaven.

Right now, I’m on a journey. I can stay on the path to Heaven, or I can decide to stray off of it. I hope that I will have the strength to persevere in the path until the very end, but the older I get, the more I realize that I can’t predict my future behaviour.

How long have you been a Christian?

Since my baptism on October 8, 1961, at the age of about 6 months.

How do you know that you are a Christian?

Because it says so on my Baptismal certificate. This information is also reaffirmed on my Confirmation certificate, and also on my wedding certificate.

Please give your testimony.

Gladly. 🙂 It’s right HERE.
 
Zooey said:
They needed my email address, which is standard…Except, I got this full page letter, which requires me to fill out all the answers, including: “Are you saved? How long have you been a Christian? How do you know that you are a Christian? Please give your testimony.”
Ummmmmm…OK…And then the kicker: “We will get back to you for further details about your answers to these questions”.
Would you just throw up your hands? Would you;) make them throw up their hands??
Are they too crazy to bother with, or am I being too sensitive? I mean, I just want to post on their dang site; I:nope: wasn’t planning on:rolleyes: adopting their children or:eek: marrying their brother-in-law…
I said what I have read here, which I feel is very accurate & sensible: I have been saved, I am being saved, & I will be saved…)
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I would answer like this:
Are you saved? Yes I am saved by Jesus who established only 1 church: The Catholic Church
How long have you bee a Christian? SInce my baptism on dd/mm/yy
How do you know that you are a Christian? I was baptized in the only church established by Jesus Christ, not by Luther, Wesley, Calvin, etc.
I know the answers will not easily result in membership but keep close to the truth.
 
I have been saved, I am being saved, I have hope of salvation
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I don’t understand this.

“I have been saved” is the present perfect, it implies “one time in the past I was saved”.

“I am being saved” is the present progressive, it implies “I am in the process of salvation”

“I have hope of salvation” is the future, it implies “I am not saved now, but I hope to be in the future”

The 2nd and 3rd go together fine enough, because process can be incomplete, but the 1st one (I have been saved) only makes sense if you were saved once, but lost it and had to start the process again.

Could someone shed some light on this?

God Bless,
Rev
 
Revelation13_16 said:
I don’t understand this.

“I have been saved” is the present perfect, it implies “one time in the past I was saved”.

“I am being saved” is the present progressive, it implies “I am in the process of salvation”

“I have hope of salvation” is the future, it implies “I am not saved now, but I hope to be in the future”

The 2nd and 3rd go together fine enough, because process can be incomplete, but the 1st one (I have been saved) only makes sense if you were saved once, but lost it and had to start the process again.

Could someone shed some light on this?

God Bless,
Rev
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Good hair split. Do you think that “having been saved, being saved and hoping for salvation” all taken together leaves a void?
 
I usually say I have the ability to be saved and what I do with that ability is sometimes in question do to my sinfulness.
 
Revelation13_16 said:
I don’t understand this.

“I have been saved” is the present perfect, it implies “one time in the past I was saved”.

“I am being saved” is the present progressive, it implies “I am in the process of salvation”

“I have hope of salvation” is the future, it implies “I am not saved now, but I hope to be in the future”

The 2nd and 3rd go together fine enough, because process can be incomplete, but the 1st one (I have been saved) only makes sense if you were saved once, but lost it and had to start the process again.

Could someone shed some light on this?

God Bless,
Rev
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Nope, what “I have been saved” means is: At some point in my life, previous to now, I began life as a Christian believer. There is no connotation of that going away. (Although, since I don’t believe in OSAS, I will say, that we all, myself well & truly included, have strayed from the path I began on, when the waters of baptism went upon my head).
But it could also simply refer to the fact that a person had received baptism, at one point in the past, and that process was (in point 2) continuing on.
St Therese of Lisieux–somewhere I read that she had made general confession, & that she was told that she had never committed a mortal sin. That would mean that she never had “lost it”, but she still had had to receive it in the first place…at some point in time–which is to say, at baptism, she received all the grace that she needed to live as a Christian.
Now most of us are not(–:o obviously! )St Therese. But God still poured out just as much grace on each of us, as each of us needed. Most of us have never come close to what she was, but that is no surprise…

What I had found troubling, was what I saw as a suggestion that at some time in my life, I would have to come up with a dramatic moment of “salvation”, when, you see, I kind of grew into it…(My best friend went from believeing in basically nothing to being a passionate, practicing Baptist. A real "Saul/Paul on the Damascus road kind of experience. But that doesn’t make the rest of us, who have fumbled the ball over & again, but never given up on believineg, less Christian…)

That’s why I had said whjat I did in the beginning: that I have been saved (when I was baptized), I am being saved (as I live as best I can as a Christian, trusting in the grace that is given, ), & I have the hope of salvation (because in Heaven, we will be saved from the very presence of sin).
Have been; am being; will be/have the hope of being.

And don’t get hung up on that word hope; it has been stripped of much of the meaning that was in it, when the apostles used the word. We today may think of it, as “I hope I win the lottery”, but that is not hope. Hope is one of the many gifts that God gives to us, as Christians. It is the knowledge that the penalty for sin was paid at Calvary…Indeed, one might say, truthfully, “I was saved 2000 years ago, on a Roman cross,” & it would be no less than the truth.
And yet, we struggle with temptation. All of us. Even the greatest of saints. (Indeed, Jesus Christ Himself spent 40 days in the desert, in spiritual warfare against satan…The servant is not, you see, greater than:) the Master).
 
Zooey said:
. . .Ummmmmm…OK…And then the kicker: “We will get back to you for further details about your answers to these questions”. . .
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IOW, they’ll judge whether or not you are truly “saved”. :rolleyes:
 
Zooey said:
Nope, what “I have been saved” means is: At some point in my life, previous to now, I began life as a Christian believer.
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Hi Zooey,

The usage is unfortunately incorrect though, saying “I am in the process of being saved and hope to be saved” is quite sufficient.

To say “I have been saved, I am being saved et al” conflicts.

Saved denotes a past action that has been completed, if your salvation is ongoing and therefore incomplete, it cannot have been completed and still incomplete without one salvation ending and another beginning.

Which would imply the first was lost, and the second begun.

Example:

Say you’re on top of a house and flood water is rising, eventually it’s going to overtake your house and you’re going to drown.

If you see a helicopter, and a man shouts out “Hi there, we’re going to get you out!” you can say “I have been saved”, but if the waters rise before he lowers the ladder, then you haven’t been saved, because now you’re dead. (you were almost saved)

In that situation it’s more accurate to say “I am being saved”, that way, if the waters drown and you die, the process was incomplete and you are unsaved or if you grab the ladder and get into the helicopter, you can say you are saved then.

But to say “I have been saved” implies that while you’re standing there on top of the house waiting for the man in the helicopter to lower the ladder, you recall a time in the past similar to this one when you ‘had been saved’ but now it is over, and this is a new situation, and a new salvation.

In closing, it’s correct to say “I am being saved, and hope to be saved” - to which you can tell people when that process began (baptism, confirmation etc) - rather than saying “I have been saved” which is unfortunately, incorrect.

God Bless,
Rev
 
When I say “I have been saved”, Rev,I am referring to that one time only event, when I was baptized!
The graces that were given to me, in the waters of baptism, & the washing away of original sin, is something we don’t repeat over & over . (Although I know several people who have been baptized every time they go to a new church…I think they don’t understand baptism. )
That event was years (decades!) past. Right now, I am, in the words of the Bible, “working out my salvation in fear and trembling”.
 
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