Saved?

[WelshJesusFreak]

Hi i'd like to ask like all the denom's opinion on what it takes to be saved? e.g. speaking in tounges, adult baptism etc. General Denom' teaching and personal opinion. If you could keep like discussion low and kinda put it in like bullet points would be reallllly good. thanks you so much x

[PaladinValer]

The Anglican Communion (and I'm sure those churches of the Anglican tradition as well) holds that all persons who have been baptized have been sealed as the Christ's own. If they are baptized as children or infants, they are expected to confirm their status upon appropriate age (16-17 years). This is the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Faith (and works for a number of us too) is/are also needed, but what seals us is our Baptism.

[Polycarp1]

Well said, PV.

An anecdote you may like: A scholarly (college professor) priest my wife and I knew was shopping downtown in our home town, wearing his clerical collar, when he was accosted by a street-corner self-appointed lay evangelist who demanded to know if he'd been saved. He responded politely, "Yes, of course." The accoster then asked, "When were you saved?" And the priest responded, "Same time you were: Good Friday, 29 A.D.!" :)

[TomUK]

Faith (and works for a number of us too) is/are also needed, but what seals us is our Baptism.

You refer PV to a point i have been considering a lot recently, especially after reading a number of similar posts by our Catholic brothers. Hopefully this won't derail the thread, but it is a relevant point - what is the significance of works in our salvation, as Anglicans?

[Polycarp1]

Over on the Orthodox forum Momzilla said that salvation is not an event or a process, but a life. "It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me," said Paul.

I see it as three elements ineluctibly intertwined and working together:

First and most important, the essential element that underlies the rest, is God's grace. "By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself; it is God's gift, lest any man should boast." We are not saved by faith or works, but by the unearned gift of God's grace working in our lives.

We accept that gift through faith. But "faith" is a word with a variety of meanings and shades of meaning. What I take it to mean here is having trust in God. Pure and simple. Believing that He is faithful to keep His promises. Having the assurance of His love. And faith too is His gift -- you cannot "make yourself believe" if the gift is not there. "If you believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and confess with your lips that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

But having accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord, important as it is, is not the end towards which salvation goes. If you truly mean that He is Lord of your life, you will then do what He commands. The entire content of the Christian Life is quite simply walking the walk now that you have talked the talk, showing by your life that you meant what you said, and mean what you say, in confessing Him as your Lord.

Important in this process is something that Anglicanism doesn't have a catchy phrase for, but which the Wesleyans call "entire sanctification" and the Orthodox "theosis," in which the Holy Spirit gradually transforms you more and more into what God would have you be. "He became as we are in order that we might become as He is."

[PaladinValer]

"Faith without works is dead," IMO (and according to the Letter of St. James).

[Filia Mariae]

Well said, PV.

An anecdote you may like: A scholarly (college professor) priest my wife and I knew was shopping downtown in our home town, wearing his clerical collar, when he was accosted by a street-corner self-appointed lay evangelist who demanded to know if he'd been saved. He responded politely, "Yes, of course." The accoster then asked, "When were you saved?" And the priest responded, "Same time you were: Good Friday, 29 A.D.!" :)
:D :P :D