My belief is...Absolutely.

While Ephesians 2:8 says we are saved by grace, it also says through faith. And Acts 16:31 says "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved."

When one encounters Jesus, their only requirement is to believe. When they believe, they are saved by the grace of God. At this point God grants them faith, and begins a work of change in their heart. This change of heart leads to the fruits of the Spirit and ethical living as the believer grows in the knowledge of God and his will.

**DISCLAIMER**

Lest any of you read this and fly into a panic, this is not the sum total of my current theological understanding. I also recognize that the thoughts expressed above could require clarification, which I will be happy to do, providing one does not try to pull some asinine interpretation from them.

Nadi, do you believe fear has anything to do with the believing in Jesus?

The short answer is "NO" (with many caveats and disclaimers), therefore much depends on what is meant by "fear" and how that is applied. This could very easily become a lengthy discussion.

The point of Paul (to the Ephesians) and Peter (in Acts of the Apostles) was that, IN THEIR AGE, the two competing worldviews were:

1. Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God as in THE ONLY Divine Man ever who still lives.
2. Jesus of Nazareth was a crucified Jew, dead and buried, period.

Calvary was the nexus of those two competing ideas. "What do you see on the cross" was always the implicit question being asked of every individual being witnessed to. And so, the leap from the belief that #2 was true to the belief that #1 was true, required faith -- and that faith was rewarded by the grace of God unto salvation.

The argument over whether one should be circumcised, refrain from eating pork, look solemn on Saturdays while going to church, denounce anyone who didn't know who was the beast, believe in Ellen White ... all the things that have risen up among SDA to blur and blackout the purity of the GOSPEL (i.e. GOOD NEWS) -- all of it is just trivial.

Faith bears fruit in a loving character, sound mind and courage reflective of the Divine nature. And so we become the children of God and heirs of the promise of salvation in the age to come. Repeatedly, we are encouraged to rejoice because of that! We ought NOT to worry as SDA do as they wring their hands for ALL their uncountable sins in their imaginary investigative judgment: the huge hammer over their head.

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Thanks Nadi.

The reason I ask is because I don't believe the doctrine of "once saved, always saved" is Biblical. I do believe John 14:15 is Biblical though. Love is a hard lesson to learn I believe and it takes this commitment to Christ to teach us.

I hope I was clear.

Nor do I. I believe the conditions for "staying saved" are the same as for "getting saved." That is, to believe.


Yes, it's in the Bible. However, this statement seems to be a classic example of the fact that it's not so important what it says as how one interprets what it says.