Can You Be Saved If ... ?
Channel: People of the Free Gift
Date: 2019-06-26

Can You Be Saved If ... ?   

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One of the most important things we can settle in our minds and our hearts is the answer to the question, “What must a person believe, and what practices are required, for a person to be saved?” On the group end
of things we would ask, “What must a group believe or practice, to be considered Christian?”

One of the reasons this is important is once we settle the answer to this question, it will set us free from feeling the need to discuss and argue and convince people about almost 99% of the essential points one could discuss with these groups. In fact, about 99% of the topics this book covers. Quite honestly, it’s good to be ready with an answer on these topics, but Christianity is about the gospel and how to come into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

I want to share my answers to these questions and how I came to these answers.
As I have been working with LDS people, God has taught me much about his grace, and he’s also helped me clarify what are essentials and what are not. There are a couple of key moments that have helped me along the way. I have had conversations with several people, but one conversation in particular stretched me. I got into a dialogue, and still do occasionally, with a New Testament professor at Brigham Young University named Shon Hopkin. My conversations with Shon have forced me to ask the question, “If somebody believed x,y or z, could they be a Christian?” That is why I called this chapter “Can you be saved if ...?”

I started to ask questions like, “If somebody believed in the Book of Mormon, could they be saved?” “If they were still part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints, could they be saved?” “If they hold to continuing revelation or baptism for the dead, could they be saved?” “Could they be saved if they believed in a pre- existence?” All these different types of scenarios started running through my head.

I also started questioning why Christians would exclude the LDS, JW’s and fill in the blank group from Christianity and their claim to Christianity when there are mainline Christian groups who share the similar teachings.

The other moment that shaped my answer was hearing the testimony of Jerald and Sandra Tanner.78 If one is new to researching cults, and particularly the LDS, they need to know about Jerald and Sandra Tanner. Jerald has passed on, but Sandra is continuing their work through Utah Lighthouse Ministry, and they have a bookstore across from the minor league baseball park in Salt Lake City. One can find pretty much any book dealing with these groups through their ministry, and their website, www.utlm.org, is phenomenal when researching LDS.

When Jerald and Sandra were first together as a couple, Jerald was asking some tough questions about Mormonism’s history and credibility. Both of them came from pretty prestigious families within the LDS church. Sandra is a direct descendant of Brigham Young. Sandra went on a journey with Jerald to visit all of the splinter groups that had broken off from the LDS church because they were starting to believe the mainline LDS church wasn’t all it claimed to be. But they thought one of these splinter groups would be able to help them.

Ye are my witnesses, saith the lORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. (Isaiah 43:10)
I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. (John 8:24)
And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. (1 Corinthians 15:17)
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8-9)
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
And every spirit that confesseth not Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (1 John 4:3)

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