3 classes of people - "saved or not" (salvation, hell, quote)

[westcoastcountryboy]

This is NOT repeat NOT a question of Heaven or Hell, God or Jesus etc., etc., etc.

It is a survey to see where you stand on the subject of salvation.

I found a blog from a theologin that states he believes that there are 3 classes of people in this world. They are
1) Those that are saved and know that they are saved
2) Those that are unsure of their salvation but hope that they are saved and
3) Those that are not only unsaved but, indifferent to it.

I admittedly put myself amongst the third group as I believe salvation is a christian concept and me, not being a christian am not "saved".

I would like to see where the majority stand on this subject.

Please don't ask me for the link because I am absolutely terrible at remembering these things. I find something, read it, remember it but then can't find it again.

[ChristyGrl]

True...Salvation or the need for a savior is strictly a Christian concept. Christians see themselves as born in sin, hence, they need a savior. It truly astounds me that their religion creates their disease (born in sin) and then provides the cure (savior) which is really no cure at all but serves only as a placebo designed to keep mankind ensnared to their ideology for all eternity. Human beings are not born in sin or born sinners, by any stretch of the imagination, therefore there is no need for a savior of any kind.

[AREQUIPA]

How many of these polls create a puzzle since we don't know what we are voting on. What do you mean by 'saved'? If you mean guaranteed a place in heaven by sheer Faith in Jesus then it is an unjustified assumption that there is any such thing as being saved, therefore it would be stepping into a 'Beating your wife' fallacy to say 'No' as it would be a tacit admission that there was salvation and I hadn't got it.

Therefore I say the poll query is incorrect and slanted. But then probably most of them are.

[ptsum]

Hmmmm, Saved or Not Saved from What....... if this is not a question about Heaven or Hell, Jesus or God.. and is supposed to be about Salvation how can you not include those four subjects, salvation is about religion and the Christian religion specifically, so your question is a little bit of an oxymoron that can't be answered without going down that path of Christianity.

[stuckinbalad]

Is there a such thing as good and evil? Simple yes or no answer would be good.

If the answer is yes, then what/who is the judge of good vs evil?

If the answer is no, then what stops you from killing your neighbor for their money, or for that matter, what stops anybody from defiling another to better themselves?

[LookinForMayberry]

Seems to me you forgot a couple of options.

• If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.
• Was never lost

[edub]

Humans are born with the capacity for great evil. And when we as a society have no benchmark against which to measure our conduct, it is quite easy to allow our morality to slip. This is happening all around us today. It seems like everyone is trying to get over on the next guy and what is "right" more often than not depends on where one stands.

The Jews sought to combat this problem through ethical monotheism. They created a moral code they called an ultimate truth and made it a benchmark. Later, Jesus came along and argued that one can not simply conform to a set of laws and accomplish ultimate morality. He argued that people must also be genuine in their intentions and that those intentions must be guided by the heart. See, in Jesus' mind the Jews in his time got caught up in the details of the laws and lost sight of the point of the laws. He was probably right.

So, what Jesus actually said was that the only path his father's kingdom (a life with God) was through his philosophy.

Centuries later when Christianity split from Judaism an idea was invented that a simple belief in Jesus would somehow "save" a person's soul. Nobody would disagree more than Jesus himself.

Ultimately, a person is saved when they come to the understanding that we can not just live any way we choose and expect good results - in fact, it would be wise to expect the opposite. It is only when we recognize that the wisdom of the great thinkers before us is as true today as when it was written years ago. Jesus was one such thinker and there were many more. Benjamin Franklin was another.

I am not a particularly religious person, but I am a thinker and I do believe that salvation is determined not by the belief in a religious dogma but through a belief in the essence of the wisdom of a truly brilliant man who understood and preached life's greatest truths.

[westcoastcountryboy]

These are all good points and I have also posted the same (similar) question on the Christian sub-forum. It'll be interesting to compare the difference.

Saved from what? Exactly!!! I feel most Christians will either go down the path of saved from Hell or saved from eternal death as they believe in Heaven of some kind.

As a non-believer myself I believe when I die I'm dead so, there is nothing to be saved from. The question is, what about other religions? Is there anything they need to be saved from? I really don't know.

[ChristyGrl]

Originally Posted by stuckinbalad

Is there a such thing as good and evil? Simple yes or no answer would be good.

If the answer is yes, then what/who is the judge of good vs evil?

If the answer is no, then what stops you from killing your neighbor for their money, or for that matter, what stops anybody from defiling another to better themselves?

Most would call it their conscience.

[edub]

Originally Posted by ChristyGrl

Most would call it their conscience.

I'm old enough to remember when people had those. I'm not sure many do today. Then there is the problem of what to do when people's conscience (providing they have one) becomes colored by what works best for them.

A conscience is a great thing, but it must be rooted in something or it, like everything else, becomes a matter of where one stands.

You would be amazed at how many ways people rationalize stealing from their employers. "My boss takes advantage of me. My boss makes all the money while playing golf while I bust my behind all day. The company doesn't care that I have to pay for my kid's college." The list goes on and on. So much for conscience.