Have You Accepted Jesus Christ as Your Lord and Savior?

[Four is Enough]

As a cradle Catholic, meaning I was baptized as an infant, I was born with original sin, of course, that was washed away in the baptism. However, my Catholic school teachings led me to believe that baptism wasn't the only thing required for me to get into the kingdom of Heaven. This is the difference between Catholicism and fundie-ism, IMO.. they believe "get saved once" and I believe "getting into heaven is up to the way I behave here on earth"..

[louisa05]

I think that the question itself is a kind of dumbed down version of the emphasis on having a conversion experience that emerged in the Second Great Awakening in the U.S. which was a Protestant Religious movement that began in the 1830s. Most historians of religions mark this as the emergence of American evangelicalism. The teachings emphasized revivalism, conversion, emotional experience and personal interpretation of scripture (as opposed to relying on learning theological interpretation from trained clergy).

This article is a good summary:

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tse ... vanrev.htm

If you want to read more, I would recommend the book The Democratization of American Christianity by Nathan O. Hatch.

[hellbound]

I grew up United Methodist in western PA, and this was a big thing in the church. I remember it starting after we had a evangelism conference one summer, probably about 1974. The conference leaders spoke to Sunday school classes and during church services and recommended asking people if they had accepted Jesus as their lord and savior. There was a lot of emphasis on "witnessing" too. I really don't think many church members ever actually had these conversations with strangers, but that was what we were supposed to do to save souls.

[Rachel333]

It's confusing. I grew up hearing stories of people who had been serving in church all their lives and believed in Jesus, but found out when they were older that they weren't saved because they never asked Jesus into their heart. Despite having all the right beliefs, they would have gone to hell if they had died before praying the sinner's prayer.

It scared me, so I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, confessed my belief that he died on the cross, and asked him into my heart many, many times. Looking back I actually think there may have been a bit of ocd involved.

I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior! :dance: I got baptized and spent most of my life living for the Lord. It ends up, at least according to some Christians, none of it was real because I have asked Jesus to leave my life. Apparently it is easier for some Christians to believe that I was never really one of them rather than accept that real Christians can lose their faith.

I would love to know the history of this too.

Yes, that is so frustrating. I took my faith really, really seriously, which is ultimately what led me to leave it. According to all the Christians I grew up with, though, that means I never really understood it in the first place.

[formergothardite]

It's confusing. I grew up hearing stories of people who had been serving in church all their lives and believed in Jesus, but found out when they were older that they weren't saved because they never asked Jesus into their heart. Despite having all the right beliefs, they would have gone to hell if they had died before praying the sinner's prayer.

It scared me, so I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, confessed my belief that he died on the cross, and asked him into my heart many, many times. Looking back I actually think there may have been a bit of ocd involved.

Yes, that is so frustrating. I took my faith really, really seriously, which is ultimately what led me to leave it. According to all the Christians I grew up with, though, that means I never really understood it in the first place.

I remember there being a man in my church who had grown up in the church, been baptized, served in the church for decades and was a deacon, but was told that he hadn't really been saved because, even though he believed in God, that he was a sinner and that Jesus needed to save him, there had never been a moment in his life where he confessed his sins and asked Jesus in his heart. To keep his position in the church he had to "get saved", get baptized again, and come to the front of the church during altar call to make a public announcement. Everybody was shocked because he seemed like he was a Christian, but since he never had that moment he wasn't. :angry-banghead:

I think some Christians want to say that people who leave the faith didn't understand it or weren't really saved because the alternative is terrifying for them. But it is so frustrating for people to tell me that all the time I spent as a Christian was fake.

[louisa05]

I remember there being a man in my church who had grown up in the church, been baptized, served in the church for decades and was a deacon, but was told that he hadn't really been saved because, even though he believed in God, that he was a sinner and that Jesus needed to save him, there had never been a moment in his life where he confessed his sins and asked Jesus in his heart. To keep his position in the church he had to "get saved", get baptized again, and come to the front of the church during altar call to make a public announcement. Everybody was shocked because he seemed like he was a Christian, but since he never had that moment he wasn't. :angry-banghead:

I think some Christians want to say that people who leave the faith didn't understand it or weren't really saved because the alternative is terrifying for them. But it is so frustrating for people to tell me that all the time I spent as a Christian was fake.

This is basically teaching that came out of the Second Great Awakening that I wrote about above. The idea began then that anyone who did not have some sort of conversion experience could not truly be a Christian. This played out in that time with people, many of whom were lifelong committed church goers, experiencing emotional conversions at public revival meetings in the first versions of today's "altar call".

[PennySycamore]

I remember there being a man in my church who had grown up in the church, been baptized, served in the church for decades and was a deacon, but was told that he hadn't really been saved because, even though he believed in God, that he was a sinner and that Jesus needed to save him, there had never been a moment in his life where he confessed his sins and asked Jesus in his heart. To keep his position in the church he had to "get saved", get baptized again, and come to the front of the church during altar call to make a public announcement. Everybody was shocked because he seemed like he was a Christian, but since he never had that moment he wasn't. :angry-banghead:

I think some Christians want to say that people who leave the faith didn't understand it or weren't really saved because the alternative is terrifying for them. But it is so frustrating for people to tell me that all the time I spent as a Christian was fake.

Billy Graham had talked or written about his late wife Ruth who was the daughter of missionaries to China. He has said that Ruth never had a conversion experience; she just grew up a Christian -it was something that she always was. He may not have thought her experience was normative, but he seemed to accept that it was valid.

[ariel9]

I think the phrase came about via testimony and people picking up the wording of different people. For my church if meant repenting,being baptized, and getting the Holy Spirit.

[RachelB]

So, I'm not terribly Calvinist anymore, but this question remains incoherent to me. As if Jesus were a traveling salesman, and as if signing a one-time contract with him were what determined one's Christianity. My theological objections to it aside, it doesn't track with my experience of God's love, which I experience as irresistible and powerfully motivating, though the motivations it exerts on me are very different from those fundamentalists seem to experience.

God is my source and strength. Jesus is my comfort and my company. I'm much more concerned with living a life that is acceptable to God than with me speaking some magical formula in order to indicate that I've accepted God.

[Bethella]

I think that the question itself is a kind of dumbed down version of the emphasis on having a conversion experience that emerged in the Second Great Awakening in the U.S. which was a Protestant Religious movement that began in the 1830s. Most historians of religions mark this as the emergence of American evangelicalism. The teachings emphasized revivalism, conversion, emotional experience and personal interpretation of scripture (as opposed to relying on learning theological interpretation from trained clergy).

This article is a good summary:

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tse ... vanrev.htm

If you want to read more, I would recommend the book The Democratization of American Christianity by Nathan O. Hatch.

The emphasis on conversion experience predates both the First and Second Great Awakenings. Although (as far as I know) they didn't use the exact terminology "Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your lord and savoir," in the 1600s the Puritans required people to testify to their personal experience of God in the form of autobiographical conversion narratives in order to receive full church membership.

http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/purdef.htm

[louisa05]

The emphasis on conversion experience predates both the First and Second Great Awakenings. Although (as far as I know) they didn't use the exact terminology "Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your lord and savoir," in the 1600s the Puritans required people to testify to their personal experience of God in the form of autobiographical conversion narratives in order to receive full church membership.

http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/purdef.htm

The Second Great Awakening version is, I think, closer to today's evangelical/charismatic version as it emphasized public and emotional experiences at revivals and the "altar call" style decision in a moment that the "accepting Jesus" prayer formulas emphasize. The Puritans emphasized more of a private personal experience and, as you note, required that the church member present written evidence, not have the experience at the altar at the end of Sunday service or at a revival, etc...And, again, it is the Second Great Awakening that really is the dawn of American evangelicalism both in theology and practice.

I would guess that the specific language and formulaic prayers comes out of the Jesus movements of the 1960s. Although, that is only a guess.

[anniebgood]

When I was in my late teens and early 20's I hung out a lot at the beach. There were roaming groups of Jesus People who'd come up to you and interrupt you and ask you this question. Mind you this was in the early 70's. It's not a new thing and it's jut gotten more aggressive as the years have gone by. My soon to be SIL asked me this before I married her (Now atheist) brother in 1985. What do I say?

I was washed by the water of baptism as an infant and accepted the course laid for me as a confirmand. I've strayed, but I've always stayed true. I may not go to church every Sunday but I still believe in the loving and gracious God that cared for me.

[PennySycamore]

I think it's weird how this terminology has become so accepted among evangelicals that they probably think it's in the Bible.

[Moonbeam]

Thanks for all the great responses! I'm going to look at the links shared tomorrow.

I'm a cradle Episcopalian from Norman, Oklahoma. I was routinely asked as a tween and teen if I'd been saved. This was initially a very confusing question for me. Saved from what? Lions and tigers and bears? Oh my! I don't think I actually heard the phrase about accepting Jesus as my lord and savior until later, but I'm not sure. A few years ago I had a conversation with a "friend" from high school who is now the home schooling mother of nine. She was unconvinced in my salvation by simply believing in God and attending an Episcopal church. She asked me repeatedly when I had accepted Jesus as my savior. I answered very truthfully that I didn't remember a time I had ever not accepted Jesus as my savior. The whole idea seems silly to me. When did she accept herself as a woman? When did she realize that she was heterosexual? For me it's about the same thing. The response to "have you been saved" that I was taught growing up in the Episcopal church in bible belt was "I was saved 2000 years ago when Christ died on the cross and was resurrected." Although it's not satisfying to the questioner, it does tend to stop the questions.

[RosyDaisy]

Yes I have, but I have never been asked that by an employer or potential employer.

[Palimpsest]

I was asked this question by different Baptist pastors at the annual Sunday School picnic until I was about 7. That's when the family officially became CofE (Episcopalian).

So I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior at least 3 times because apparently I didn't get it right the first time.

[Burris]

Well, I found myself in front of an Orthodox Jesus - this cross was designed to be troubling; to disturb - and thought to myself that he was a non-citizen killed for his politics by an occupying power. But all accounts of his character were such that he would look down at me from that hideous height and say he understood how this came to be; that he was indeed a holy man, come to demonstrate that he was more than what the Romans had done to him, more than the crowd that stripped him bear and mad crude jests.

'Did you really ask God to forgive them?'

[nokidsmom]

I grew up Lutheran (ELCA, but LCA back then) and never heard of this until the '70s when I was at church camp one summer. The leading pastor and some of the counselors were rather Jesus People like which was big at the time. Pastor did a "save yourself from the pit" talk at vespers one evening. I had a cabin mate who needed to give her "testimony" and it was the first time I ever heard of that. Went back home to my traditional Lutheran congregation and never encountered it again until I went to a conservative Christian college with a lot of evangelicals / some fundie lites running around. My ex-fiance was morphing from a Lutheran to the "Jesus is my personal savior" type of evangelical though that was not the reason why I decided that he was not to be Mr. No. As much as I tried to understand it, this personal savior thing was something I couldn't wrap my arms around, in part because it I never saw any reference to it in the Bible but also that, to me, it inferred that no other understanding of Jesus or other experiences were valid.

[louisa05]

I think it's weird how this terminology has become so accepted among evangelicals that they probably think it's in the Bible.

In my experience with evangelicals, many of them are surprised to find out it is not in the Bible. Then they will start twisting up various verses to try to say that is what they mean. The most common ones are the one in Revelations about Jesus standing at the door (3:20) and Romans chapter 10. The wiki entry on the "sinner's prayer" cites Billy Graham and Campus Crusade for making that element of it popular.

The concept was not part of Christianity for centuries and the evangelicals I know are either not aware of that or go with the Baptist theory of a hidden true church that did everything like they do in hiding while the Catholic hierarchy destroyed the faith for the rest of the world.

[Californiacicle]

Thanks for all the great responses! I'm going to look at the links shared tomorrow.

I'm a cradle Episcopalian from Norman, Oklahoma. I was routinely asked as a tween and teen if I'd been saved. This was initially a very confusing question for me. Saved from what? Lions and tigers and bears? Oh my! I don't think I actually heard the phrase about accepting Jesus as my lord and savior until later, but I'm not sure. A few years ago I had a conversation with a "friend" from high school who is now the home schooling mother of nine. She was unconvinced in my salvation by simply believing in God and attending an Episcopal church. She asked me repeatedly when I had accepted Jesus as my savior. I answered very truthfully that I didn't remember a time I had ever not accepted Jesus as my savior. The whole idea seems silly to me. When did she accept herself as a woman? When did she realize that she was heterosexual? For me it's about the same thing. The response to "have you been saved" that I was taught growing up in the Episcopal church in bible belt was "I was saved 2000 years ago when Christ died on the cross and was resurrected." Although it's not satisfying to the questioner, it does tend to stop the questions.

I like that response. I may have to try it. I have been asked many times over the years and those folks are never satisfied by my evil cradle Catholic answers.

[N The Prayer Closet]

That is interesting, since I was raised a Methodist in small town Kansas through the 60s and the late 70s. and we didn't ever have altar calls....we didn't use the term "saved" or talk about born again or read Revelation. We got a little "jesus people" influence when my older cousin came back with some Jesus People Friends, but the church itself was leaned left... more left than my parents, but they were certainly not fundie.

Just curious about what area of Kansas you are from? I grew up in Larned and there was a church on every corner. People vote straight ticket Republican, conceal and carry, and wear camouflage to work :(

[ExMW]

Yes. I was seven. It was pretty much forced on me because my aunt was the teacher for the "Good News Club" we were ALL required to go to by all the parents at the church we were forced to attend with them. There was really no choice to it. You did it or you went to hell. :roll:

[nokidsmom]

I like that response. I may have to try it. I have been asked many times over the years and those folks are never satisfied by my evil cradle Catholic answers.

They aren't satisfied with evil Lutheran ones either.

I also answering something about grace by faith also blows their minds.

[moodygirl86]

As an agnostic, not technically. But I haven't rejected him either. If it's all true, fine. If not, I was doing fine without him anyway.

[Terrie]

Read the subject line and had the most random thought that it sounded like I was being asked to enter into a BDSM relationship with Jesus. My brain is a strange place.