Accepting Christ

[ksuheather]

As a Catholic I am a Christian (though fundies would argue that ;) ) and I was batptized into the faith as an infant and was then a Catholic. I made the choice at 14 to be confirmed as a Catholic - basically sealing the promises made for me at my baptism. I call all three of my littles Catholic and Christian since they've all been baptized. I think fundies are big into this because they don't have sacraments like Catholics but I don't know.

[Hane]

I flirted with him a bit, but never accepted the proposal. ;-)

::thumbsup::

I spent most of my life as a devoted "born-once" Catholic. But then I reached a point at which I could no longer pretend I believed in the literal truth of the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection. Christian teachings still define my personal morality and ethics, though, so I decided to join the UU Church.

[helloemi]

I "accepted Christ" at 23 after walking out of an emotionally abusive marriage to gay/transgendered ex-husband. Going through THAT would make anyone want to seek comfort in some shape or form. So I wandered into the nearest church, was saved that night and tried to play good Christian girl to ease the pain.

3 years later I am remarried and going through some health problems, and I just can't find comfort in the church any more. Before I was "saved" I was agnostic with spiritual leanings, so all of this feels so awkward and forced for me. I don't enjoy going to bible study or church and the life long, saved at age 5 Christians in my church group leave me feeling excluded and jump on me if I say anything they disagree with. I don't know how much longer I can keep up the Christian act. Problem is that my amazing husband and I met at our old church and there is no way he would stop going and I don't want to cause problems in our marriage. I want to check out the UU church as a compromise, but he said that he can't go there everyweek. Sigh... what's a girl to do.

[Lostie]

I "accepted Christ" at 23 after walking out of an emotionally abusive marriage to gay/transgendered ex-husband. Going through THAT would make anyone want to seek comfort in some shape or form. So I wandered into the nearest church, was saved that night and tried to play good Christian girl to ease the pain.

3 years later I am remarried and going through some health problems, and I just can't find comfort in the church any more. Before I was "saved" I was agnostic with spiritual leanings, so all of this feels so awkward and forced for me. I don't enjoy going to bible study or church and the life long, saved at age 5 Christians in my church group leave me feeling excluded and jump on me if I say anything they disagree with. I don't know how much longer I can keep up the Christian act. Problem is that my amazing husband and I met at our old church and there is no way he would stop going and I don't want to cause problems in our marriage. I want to check out the UU church as a compromise, but he said that he can't go there everyweek. Sigh... what's a girl to do.

Could you two compromise? Go to the UU Church sometimes, and to the current one sometimes?

[Avalondaughter]

I accepted Jesus at age 10 when I started going to my friend's Sunday school with her. The Catholic Church didn't teach me I had to officially ask Jesus in my heart to go to Heaven. This Protestant church did. I was afraid of sin and Satan and Hell, so I signed up pretty quickly.

I didn't really feel much. I accepted Jesus again at age 12.

I figured it didn't stick. I accepted again at age 13.

It still didn't really do what I thought it would. I accepted again at age 14.

At this point, after not feeling particularly saved and and not really knowing how to proceed, I said, "Screw it. When I'm ready to make the commitment, God will let me know and I'll be ready and I'll be sincere about being saved and I'll feel it this time."

God never told me anything. I was never ready. I'm not saved I'm afraid. For years I was convinced I was on the path and would eventually be saved. I was very good at acting the part among my various religious leaders too.

[PennySycamore]

I don't need to be born again because I was born ok the first time.

[godlytomatosoup]

I became a Christian when I was about seven or eight, but my parents are hardline agnostics, and none of my friends were seriously Christian, so I didn't know it involved 'accepting Christ' or anything, so I didn't do that. At twelve or thirteen I switched to paganism for a few years, and after that I wasn't really any religion.

Now I'm thirty-one, and sort of toying with Christianity again, but I haven't made the plunge. The main thing that's stopping me is the Bible, and what a giant asshole God sounds in it. I love the idea of a personal relationship with a benevolent god and a loving community of people who sincerely want to be good, but what I see is a big bully and a lot of scared people. Take the idea of salvation vs damnation. If I accept Jesus and go to heaven, and have lived a whole life of being a good and loving person, then I'm supposed to be okay with the idea that other people are suffering for eternity, and I can't even get them a drink of water?

So if I do this thing, I'm going to have to discount nearly everything I read in what's supposed to be the instruction manual. That scares me and angers me. And it also makes me feel inadequate - what makes me think I know better than the Bible? And what makes me think I could completely discount large swathes of the Bible and still appropriate the name 'Christian'?

[fluttershies]

Same here! Except I though "Oh hurrah" and went and got popcorn.... :lol:

It's not 'most Christians' when you take self-identification into account. It's only 'most Christians' to that relatively small subset of Christianity who believe that 'the only True Christians' are those who have said the Sinner's Prayer.

Again, it's only a 'common analogy' among the relatively small subset of those who subscribe to the 'born again' beliefs. You can say what you like to whom you like, but it doesn't make you right or mean you have a monopoly on what a Christian is. For some who identify as Christian, going to church is synonymous with being a Christian.

I was 'born again' myself, age 14, until I became increasingly apostate in my 20s. I was scared of God right from being a little girl, and I 'accepted Christ' quietly when I was 13, but for some reason I didn't count myself as 'born again' until I made a public response to an altar call age 14.

Oh yes - this!

There are of course two options - the other being that you were never truly saved in the first place. But friends seem to prefer the option that I am 'saved by the skin of my teeth' and will scrape my way into heaven, though possibly with fewer crowns to give to Jesus than if I had remained a more fervent believer in this life.

So the moment someone enters a church, they become a Christian? How does that work?

I don't believe there has to be a specific moment of praying 'the sinner's prayer' (because of course you could pray that and not mean it, rendering it null and void), but there surely has to be a moment of believing. That's what I meant - sorry I didn't make it clearer. You can't sit in church while not believing and still be a Christian.

[Guest Anonymous]

So the moment someone enters a church, they become a Christian? How does that work?

I don't believe there has to be a specific moment of praying 'the sinner's prayer' (because of course you could pray that and not mean it, rendering it null and void), but there surely has to be a moment of believing. That's what I meant - sorry I didn't make it clearer. You can't sit in church while not believing and still be a Christian.

I suspect that you are being disingenuous here.... I don't think anyone has suggested that they are a Christian because of the physical act of sitting in a church, but very many Christians (eg Catholic, Luteran) do not trace their belief back to a single moment that they 'accepted Christ' or were 'born again'.

[deborahlynn1979]

I remember, back in my Southern Baptist days, a preacher telling us all that if we couldn't remember the exact date, the exact MOMENT we were born again, that maybe we weren't born again at all.

[fluttershies]

I suspect that you are being disingenuous here.... I don't think anyone has suggested that they are a Christian because of the physical act of sitting in a church, but very many Christians (eg Catholic, Luteran) do not trace their belief back to a single moment that they 'accepted Christ' or were 'born again'.

No, I'm not. I suspect we just misunderstood each other, because re not tracing belief back to a single moment was what I was getting at with the CS Lewis thing - I can't find the quote in full but essentially he compares coming to faith to passing from one country to another on a train. One might be aware of going from one state to another, and one might not, but the important thing is that it happened. I myself can't trace my belief back to one particular moment and being an Anglican myself I know many other Christians in the same boat.

I was talking more about people who go to church without being a Christian (by which I mean, they do not believe at all and are open about it) - often they go for hymn-singing or social reasons.

[Hane]

What anniec said. Please, don't let's get into a pissing match over what defines a "real" Christian.

[Guest Anonymous]

No, I'm not. I suspect we just misunderstood each other, because re not tracing belief back to a single moment was what I was getting at with the CS Lewis thing - I can't find the quote in full but essentially he compares coming to faith to passing from one country to another on a train. One might be aware of going from one state to another, and one might not, but the important thing is that it happened. I myself can't trace my belief back to one particular moment and being an Anglican myself I know many other Christians in the same boat.

I was talking more about people who go to church without being a Christian (by which I mean, they do not believe at all and are open about it) - often they go for hymn-singing or social reasons.

I think I did understand you. Earlier you said "You must at some stage acknowledge Christ as your personal saviour. " There is quite a spectrum of beliefs within Christianity between that and going to church " for hymn-singing or social reasons". Now I'm feeling surer that you were being disingenuous....

[fluttershies]

I think I did understand you. Earlier you said "You must at some stage acknowledge Christ as your personal saviour. " There is quite a spectrum of beliefs within Christianity between that and going to church " for hymn-singing or social reasons". Now I'm feeling surer that you were being disingenuous....

Er, I wasn't being disingenuous. I do believe that you must at some stage acknowledge Christ as your personal saviour but I think that this can happen at a subconscious level and/or part of a general coming to faith. I said before that I don't think it has to be one big moment.

[breadprincess]

I was baptised, raised, and confirmed as a Lutheran, and Lutherans don't really put any emphasis on the whole "born again" thing. If you complete your confirmation you are considered a full member of the church, and are therefore accepting Christ as your savior. I was actually an atheist during the whole process though, and didn't seek out Christ again til I was 21. At 22 I was baptised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and accepted Christ as part of my baptismal covenant with Heavenly Father. I think that if someone wants to let Christ into their life, however they choose to do it is a valid method, be it confirmation, being "born again", quietly praying to Him, going to church, etc.

[fluttershies]

I was baptised, raised, and confirmed as a Lutheran, and Lutherans don't really put any emphasis on the whole "born again" thing. If you complete your confirmation you are considered a full member of the church, and are therefore accepting Christ as your savior. I was actually an atheist during the whole process though, and didn't seek out Christ again til I was 21. At 22 I was baptised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and accepted Christ as part of my baptismal covenant with Heavenly Father. I think that if someone wants to let Christ into their life, however they choose to do it is a valid method, be it confirmation, being "born again", quietly praying to Him, going to church, etc.

This is what I believe.

[Red]

I never really understood what I was "supposed to do to be saved" because different people told me different things.

"Just pray and accept Jesus into your heart, and you'll be saved!"

"You have to pray publicly!"

"No, the baptism is the public part!"

"If you it more than once, you lose your salvation!"

:shock:

I peed when I was baptized, at age four, so I was sure I was going to hell.

[Kaylee]

This is what I believe.

Me too. I'm pretty hardcore Baptist/fundie, but I think a lot of churches do people a disservice by trying to make it all about a specific time & date or experience of walking the aisle or praying a specific prayer. I think people have different salvation experiences and the important part is knowing that you have faith in Jesus as savior, however and whenever that happened. I really dislike churches that make a big deal about people who lived all wild or came from another religious background and coverted, but then seem to ignore or dismiss the people who grew up in church and came to believe at a young age or believed later in life but didn't have some big backstory to go with it.

As of my experience, I did the whole go forward and repeat a prayer thing at 10 at a youth revival/camp thing, but it was mostly to fit in and because I knew that was what was expected of me. I can look back now and say I really didn't understand much about the Bible or God then, much less enough to make a real decision. Despite spending must of my teens and tweens in very religious environments ("Christian" girls homes, Christian school, and a Christian/fundie college & church 3+ times a week when I was living with my parents), I didn't really get saved until I was 24, after leaving religion altogether for a couple years.

[Red]

I do remember that a friend and I basically felt like we were the best in our church because we were "saved" at three and four. I lied and said I was saved at three, to sound as good as my friend. The denomination I was raised in was the Southern Baptist denomination. My parents were first-generation Baptists.

[darareaksmey]

I was baptised, raised, and confirmed as a Lutheran, and Lutherans don't really put any emphasis on the whole "born again" thing. If you complete your confirmation you are considered a full member of the church, and are therefore accepting Christ as your savior. I was actually an atheist during the whole process though, and didn't seek out Christ again til I was 21. At 22 I was baptised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and accepted Christ as part of my baptismal covenant with Heavenly Father. I think that if someone wants to let Christ into their life, however they choose to do it is a valid method, be it confirmation, being "born again", quietly praying to Him, going to church, etc.

I can't speak to the LDS part of your experience, but as a Lutheran, I agree that they place no emphasis whatever on "accepting Christ." In fact, we're taught that we don't choose Christ; he chooses us. I was taught in Sunday School at about age 12 that if anyone ever accosted me to ask if I was saved, I should tell them yes, I was saved when Christ died on the cross and rose again.

I have always had a hard time understanding my friends who can cite the time and date and what they were wearing when they "became a Christian." I believe that my infant baptism accomplished that for me, and when I got oldenough to choose what to do I decided to continue in the Christian faith; but getting confirmed didn't start it, it just continued it.

[celestial]

FWIW, I was raised Methodist, and at least at my church there was also zero talk of getting saved, accepting Christ, being born again, etc. I never heard about the notion that there was supposed to be one "moment" in which you became a Christian. Nor was there any mention of Christ as a "personal savior." (I imagine everyone at my childhood church would be pretty surprised to hear that this means that they're not really Christians! :lol: )

[Feralnostalgia]

I peed when I was baptized, at age four, so I was sure I was going to hell.

ahaha, that's amazing. I "accepted christ" at age...5ish, probably. I remember my mom having to stop me from evangelizing my younger brother, who accepted Christ multiple times as soon as he started talking, since I toddled around explaining how he would burn in a fiery lake of agony forever if he didn't repeat after me. my parents didn't consider these conversion experiences valid until he was about 6. apparently terrifying children into rote repetition of a prayer only works when they're old enough to really internalize the narrative permanently, or when it's adult-on-child hellfire preaching. child on child doesn't stick. =/

[tabbytiger]

I accepted Jesus as a child, got baptised, the whole big deal. I don't think I really had any idea what I was doing, it was just something you were expected to do. But since I was raised "once saved, always saved." I'm still a Christian in my family's eyes even though I'm not really. That decision as a child to give my heart to Jesus out weighs my decision as an adult to take it back.

I had a similar experience. At the time, my family was at a southern baptist church, and there was lots of pressure to make a declaration of faith and get baptized. My parents would always bug me about when I was going to be ready to make it official. I remember feeling crappy about it every time someone else got baptized.

Finally at age 10 I said I was ready. I met with the pastor, he was very kind and asked me if I loved Jesus and believed he had died for my sins. I answered yes (which was true in the sense that I hadn't questioned anything I was taught up to that point - I did believe the bible stories I'd been told and that Jesus loved me). I repeated the sinners prayer after the pastor, and we sealed the deal on christmas day, with a big public baptism that my parents made a huge fuss over.

The only problem - I never FELT anything. No change in my heart, or the holy spirit, etc. I badly wanted to feel, and felt so much guilt over it. I privately asked Jesus into my heart several times in the future, but never got this mystical experience I'd been told about. I felt pressured into faking emotions I didn't feel, and that made the guilt even worse. It continued for years, throughout high school and into the first year or so of college, at which point I finally decided to listen to my own heart instead of someone else's notion of what my heart should be saying. So yeah, I think the whole approach can be pretty unhealthy.

But hey, at least I know I can't lose my salvation! Ha! :/

[takers401]

I am Catholic so this concept of "accepting Christ" has always been foreign to me. I have noticed that naming the specific date/time of accepting Christ into their lives seems to be with people who were not raised with faith, but found it later in life (obviously, this is my personal experience and not a statement of fact for everyone). Whereas those raised within a faith structure don't have as much of an emphasis on a date/time as we've always been surrounded by faith/church/God/etc so picking a moment may be harder.

[slh12280]

I grew up Baptist so of course "accepting Christ" was very important. I guess you would say that I was saved when I was 7 since I said the prayer and everything and I remember the day. But if I am honest I have repeated the prayer multiple times when in doubt. I guess if you wanted me to define a moment I would say that but I feel like faith was something that developed in a way.

I think for some people faith is more of a gradual process and that is okay. A specific prayer is not being a Christian. A Christian is someone who believes in Jesus and acknowledges they are a sinner.

*Yes sometimes I still doubt that I was saved the right way hence the repeating of the prayer. But I figure if someone puts more emphasis on a prayer or an experience than on Jesus himself that is a problem.