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And my experience was that "receiving Christ" was accompanied by a whole lot of baggage that some Christians say is necessary to truly have received Christ. If you receive Christ you MUST/WILL believe the bible is inerrant/infallible, Jesus is God, the Trinity, the virgin birth, penal substitution atonement, eternal hell, etc., etc., etc. You, yourself, iirc, agree that most or all of these doctrines are essential to being a Christian (or "receiving Christ" as you say).
I no longer believe any of that has to do with "receiving Christ", but I did for a long time, and that I regret.
I believe Reverend Graham is saying that people who received the Lord as their Savior were glad they made the commitment and that means everyone he met.
Savior from eternal hell? Yes, I regret having believed that "receiving Christ" meant believing that Jesus died to save me from the wrath of God and eternal separation from God. I regret that.
As I said, "iirc". If you don't, that's fantastic, and by all means share the things on that list that you do not think are a part of "receiving Christ" or being a Christian.
As I said, "iirc". If you don't, that's fantastic, and by all means share the things on that list that you do not think are a part of "receiving Christ" or being a Christian.
Penal substitution atonement is the only one necessary to receive Christ.
Penal substitution atonement is the only one necessary to receive Christ.
A belief in penal substitution hinges on a belief that Jesus is God, and probably that Jesus was born of a virgin. Do you think that penal substitution would have been necessary if you didn't need to be saved from eternal hell? And then of course, this brings up other hinge beliefs like original sin. So, quite a few things ride on the tail of that one belief. But I think it's great that you can accept that belief in an inerrant/infallible bible isn't necessary. Nor the Trinity ... that's kind of a biggie. There are people who would say that if you don't believe in the Trinity then you are worshiping a false God. So, you're more accepting than some.
Regardless, in my experience, all those things I listed were the baggage that came along with "receiving Christ", and I regret it.
A belief in penal substitution hinges on a belief that Jesus is God, and probably that Jesus was born of a virgin. Do you think that penal substitution would have been necessary if you didn't need to be saved from eternal hell? And then of course, this brings up other hinge beliefs like original sin. So, quite a few things ride on the tail of that one belief. But I think it's great that you can accept that belief in an inerrant/infallible bible isn't necessary. Nor the Trinity ... that's kind of a biggie. There are people who would say that if you don't believe in the Trinity then you are worshiping a false God. So, you're more accepting than some.
Regardless, in my experience, all those things I listed were the baggage that came along with "receiving Christ", and I regret it.
I believe all those things, but they're not necessary to receive Christ.
Christianity has a flavour for every taste bud - putting Baskin Robbins to shame.
And yet they all scoop from the same holy vat!
It's some kinda' miracle....
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