Will Most Baptized Christians Go To Heaven?

[AppyPappy]

Christians go to Heaven. Period.

[imardmd1]

I’m glad, because if it were up to me, and not the convicting Holy Ghost, I’d have been re-lost long ago. The early stages of coming into line after salvation can get a little rough (Heb. 12:6-11). Glad He loves me toughly!

[imardmd1]

Christians go to Heaven. Period.

Personally, I'd reword that to say, "Only those who get into Heaven are real Christians." John 14:6

[imardmd1]

Let me add:

Sorry for those poor b . . . ds who refused the free opportunity . . .

[AppyPappy]

I don’t think there is such a thing as a fake Christian.

As a Methodist, I believe people can fall from Grace but they are not Christians at that point. They have abandoned the faith

[imardmd1]

I don’t think there is such a thing as a fake Christian.

Bible truths are not based on what you think, but on spiritual discernment, which is taking Scripture at face value whether it is couched in literal language or figurative-literal language, no matter what your previous assumptions have been.

As a Methodist, I believe people can fall from Grace but they are not Christians at that point. They have abandoned the faith.

But as a confirmed member of the Methodist Church, in fact you believe that Methodists also can fall from grace into Hell, by preference of sinning rather than obeying Jesus, don't you? (If not, you fibbed when you were confirmed and accepted into membership.)

That's because your denomination subscribes to the standard (non-Jakob-Arminius) contrived Wesleyan Holiness Arminian view that you can lose your salvation.

As a converted, regenerated Methodist PK, saved at the age of 34, I can tell you that if you think you can lose your salvation, either you already have and cannot get it back again (Heb. 6:4-6), or the person "losing his faith" never really committed to it from the get-go. And total commitment is really the thrust of the true Gospel.

The original ground for Wesleyan doctrine of depending on Scripture, experience, tradition, and human reasonings (The Quadrilateral)(click here) was not much different than the Anglican/Roman Catholic concept of theological foundations. Which leaves one with the fact that three sides of the argument is human-based, rather than depending on Christ alone for salvation.

Subscribing to that automatically means that the supplicant is not willing to leave it all behind and cling to the Christ of the Cross alone--which is the absolute non-negotiable Scriptural basis for eternal life in Him.

I know you're not going to like this, but your mindset strongly indicates that you might not be or never were saved. Even mentioning Methodism in the same breath as eternal salvation causes the true Christian to take in his breath sharply.

Sorry to have to break this news to you, but I'd advise that without further ado that you take into account very seriously 2 Corinthians 13:5:

"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"

Here's a link that might help you with that exercise:

http://www.sermonaudio.com/new_details3.asp?ID=21546

Two Scripture passages come to mind for you and for the initial poster "pinochet":

"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and
broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many
there be which go in thereat:
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of
thorns, or figs of thistles?" (Mt. 7:13-16 AV; my emphasis by bolding).

Are you following the obvious fruits of Methodism and its leadership?

"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and
mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters,
yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me,
cannot be my disciple. . . .
So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all
that he hath, he cannot be my disciple" (Lk. 14:26,27,33 AV; again,
my bolding to emphasize).

That means leaving anything in the world you hold dear, even your own physical life, and clinging to Him alone. Have you contemplated and accepted that?

It is, indeed, pretty awesome.

As Jesus says, most will not.

Q. E. D.

(Acts 14:22, 2 Tim. 1:12)

[imardmd1]

Yes, the fig tree is identified with Israel; probably specifically Jewry that returned from Mesopotamia, only to be scattered again until 1947.

[Agamemnon]

Respectfully, many call themselves Christians.

Back to what you originally wrote:

Not true. Matthew 7:21-23 shows that many Christians will not go to heaven.

Your statement above conflates those who merely call themselves Christian with those who actually are Christians in faith and practice.

Those who just call themselves Christians are not in fact Christians by merely having said so.

There is not one true Christian who will not go to heaven, because, speaking of those who are true Christians ... "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

FReegards!

[imardmd1]

There is another credible viewpoint that the water Jesus was referring to was neither the water of disciples baptism nor water of parturition (amniotic fluid), but rather the God-applied water of washing by the word, a spiritual event, leading to a spiritual birth, not a physical one.

At least, it sounds more convincing to me. That is, spiritual rebirth comes by faith, and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the (spoken) word, and the spoken word by a human preaching the words and will of God (which He spoke and were written down by men of old chosen for it by the Holy Ghost).

[Jan_Sobieski]

I have seen too many scriptures warning about turning away from Jesus (I.e Hebrews) and too many Christians fall away from the faith in my 25 years of walking with Him hold the false doctrine of “once saved always saved”. I suggest you do like Paul warned you in Phillipians and Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Guess I’m not saved for quoting scripture, huh?

[imardmd1]

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

You can't work it out if you don't have it, and you can't get it by working for it. Don't quote Scripture if you don't understand what it says.

Tremble? Yes, I do, for the human who thinks he/she can get it by merely professing. Like the pig talking to the hen about ham and eggs, "For you, its a supporting gift, but for me it's a real commitment."

Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, I persuade men. (2 Cor. 5:11a,b).

I don't think it would be a good idea to take a defensive-aggressive posture on this. Twenty-five years is commendable, but I've been at it for 45 years, and sorrowfully seen men and women die who were no longer able to make that commitment, some of them my own relatives whom I will see again only once, and that briefly. Some were just too proud to be wrong, right up to their last breath.

Guess I’m not saved for quoting scripture, huh?

I dunno--I'm not your judge. But it's true that lots of people who are not saved quote scripture left and right (often incorrectly), but have not put it to work for themselves in terms of eternal life. To them it's just religion.

[MHGinTN]

Don’t look now but you have rightly attached the use of water to the ritual an observant Jew would use for reciting the Laws of Moses, especially when away from a designated place for worship. There was a tool included with the ten which indicated if the water to be used had motion, an indication of spiritual connection.

[imardmd1]

I guess I’m kind of dense, Bro. Would you explain, please? Thanks!

[daniel1212]

A person of faith performs good works because the spirit of the Lord dwells within them. So if someone declares they are a person of faith, but there iare no works that can be seen in their life, then their faith is dead. But works follow faith. Any works that get ahead of faith are useless, hollow attempts to be good enough to earn eternal life. And eternal life is far too precious for any sinner to earn. It must be freely given and freely accepted.

Amen.