Are only smart people saved?
That is a resounding NO!
Hang on to your hats! This is going to be an adventure in perceptions.
Some might think that you need to be knowledgeable to be saved?
Some might say that you have to understand the scriptures to be saved?
I could say that I have heard it all, but I am sure that I have not.
From the other end of this perception I have had people say to me that you cannot be spiritual if you are educated or knowledgeable of the scriptures ….How does that work?
Are Christian colleges anti-spiritual, so if you know the scriptures, the ancient languages, cultures, and history, you cannot understand the spiritual?
Most of this is about people that are not knowledgeable and are self conscience about their lack of understanding, trying to edify themselves….A lot of times unnecessarily.
I was a gifted child and spent my life in formal schooling of one sort or another researching Christianity and as a child I decided to make it my purpose to find the truth about Christianity. I believe God gave me my talents and skills and opportunities to find the truth….but my mom being Catholic and my dad being Southern Baptist and the ensuing debates might have been a factor. LOL
I don’t think that I was even a teenager before I realized that most had missed the point.
SALVATION IS NOT ABOUT HIGH EDUCATION, OR EVEN DEEP BIBLICAL STUDY OR UNDERSTANDING!!! IT IS NOT EVEN ABOUT BEING RIGHT!!! AND SURPRISINGLY ENOUGH IT IS NOT ABOUT THE BIBLE. YOU MAY FIND THIS SHOCKING?!
As it is the details of the scriptures are why the church fractured into thousands of pieces. Not that the scriptures are at fault but because, for various reasons, a lot of people could not agree on the meaning of them. And the insistence on being right caused strife and animosity within Christianity.
At this point we have become so use to people believing different things that the evil beliefs are tolerated. Can you imagine some one coming up to Peter or Paul and telling them that Christ was not a God or the Son of God and that Hell did not exist? What do you think they would say? Then you have the whole robot Christian thing!
So anyway, how much do you need to know to be saved or to be a “good Christian?” Do you need to read the Bible to be saved? Do you need to study the Bible to be saved? Do you need the Bible at all to be saved? The answer to these questions is absolutely not. And I can prove it!
The truth is, in the beginning the scriptures were not available and then went on to be withheld from Christians… For the Protestants the Bible became a great focus…you know the terms….Bible only, sola scriptura, fundamentalists. They are actually concepts that are misleading. But still after being feed so many false beliefs from the Catholic Church, Christians were hungry for God’s Word….the scriptures….a chance to determine the truth for themselves. Almost like a defense mechanism the Protestants tried to rely only on the Bible, and by doing so cut out most of Christian history.
You cannot blame them! Centuries of corruption and abuse and false beliefs generated by the Catholic Church! Ironically even though they were looking for the truth, the Protestants accepted some of the false beliefs of the Catholics like…. the one God formula for the Trinity and Original Sin and that females were not equal members in Christianity….these false beliefs went on to cause other false beliefs, false theological clichés that skewed the meaning of the scriptures, caused inaccurate perceptions, and wrongful applications of Christianity which went on to cause a lot of misery and suffering and even deaths.
So we have the Bible, and it is a good thing to read, a good thing to study, but still the truth is, it is not a requirement for salvation. And one should always keep in mind that you are reading an ancient text from a modern perspective and most have a head full of false beliefs that filter and skew the meaning of the scriptures as they read them. What good is the Bible if you are trying to teach it?
So as it was, the first bound book….the first bound Bibles are known as the 50 Bibles of Constantine, circa 350~ AD. Hand written in Latin and illustrated and decorated and the Catholic Church took them and chained most of them to the pulpit(s). Physically and figuratively. The Catholic Church did not want the public to have Bibles of their own and persecuted anyone that tried to translate them into the native languages and get them out to the public. The Catholic Church wanted people to believe what the Catholic Church told them to believe….
The primary false belief being that the Catholic Church was the only Christian authority on earth and it controlled salvation and anyone that preach something different than what the Catholic Church preached were heretics. Of course that means that the Catholic Church believed that all Protestants were heretics! LOL
So at this point Christians are not being told the truth, so in general there are no knowledgeable Christians because the truth is not available to them. I am saying this as a whole….Regional churches had copies of some of the New Testament texts and may have read them to there congregations…but if they preached something different than the Catholic Church, they were labeled heretics and persecuted. But still people were being saved, even if they had never seen a Bible.
So now I am going back to the biblical era…..Christ and the Apostles preached the good news…the Gospels ….how to be saved, people were being baptized and being saved, but they were not handing out Bibles or texts, people are believing and learning how to be saved by word of mouth.
Of course the New Testament had not been written yet, so no one is studying the New Testament scriptures…. But thousands are being saved without ever seeing New Testament writings. They are being told to believe in Christ as Lord and Savior and to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20). And this was enough to save them, tens of thousands of them. Were they knowledgeable Christians by our modern standards? No. Were the scriptures available for them to read and study at home? No.
As time went on some of the Apostles wrote the Gospels and letters and epistles to the churches and they could read them to their congregations, but they were not handing out texts either. But some were writing down what they heard, maybe favorite scriptures or something they heard….I saw a small pamphlet in a museum that was a few small pages bound by a single metal ring. Just rough wording, no chapters or verse numbers….that does not occur until much later. But people were being saved, by tens of thousands.
And moving forward, this was the way it was….Not all churches had the same texts and they were preaching from them and reading them to their congregations. Some of these texts did not make it into the Canon. Knowledgeable Christian and literate Christians being few and far in between….but still Christianity went on for centuries and for centuries people were being saved….without Bibles.
So the bottom line from all this is that being saved is one thing and it only takes that basic truth. That truth is believing in Christ as Lord and Savior and being baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As the umpire would say SAFE! Also the old Apostle’s Creed is a good guideline.
From there what else is to know about Christ and the Apostles and Christianity … well that is where the Bible comes in ….but even with that people are taught false beliefs that skew the meaning of the scriptures but usually they are still saved ….they may get the details wrong….but the truth they did receive saves them. But if you seek Christian knowledge and understanding, that is all up to you….But you were saved from the start. So you do not have to be smart, or educated, or knowledgeable to be saved or a good Christian. Love God and each other and be good and do good…..the Johnny Appleseed of Truth.
That is a resounding NO!
Hang on to your hats! This is going to be an adventure in perceptions.
Some might think that you need to be knowledgeable to be saved?
Some might say that you have to understand the scriptures to be saved?
I could say that I have heard it all, but I am sure that I have not.
From the other end of this perception I have had people say to me that you cannot be spiritual if you are educated or knowledgeable of the scriptures ….How does that work?
Are Christian colleges anti-spiritual, so if you know the scriptures, the ancient languages, cultures, and history, you cannot understand the spiritual?
Most of this is about people that are not knowledgeable and are self conscience about their lack of understanding, trying to edify themselves….A lot of times unnecessarily.
I was a gifted child and spent my life in formal schooling of one sort or another researching Christianity and as a child I decided to make it my purpose to find the truth about Christianity. I believe God gave me my talents and skills and opportunities to find the truth….but my mom being Catholic and my dad being Southern Baptist and the ensuing debates might have been a factor. LOL
I don’t think that I was even a teenager before I realized that most had missed the point.
SALVATION IS NOT ABOUT HIGH EDUCATION, OR EVEN DEEP BIBLICAL STUDY OR UNDERSTANDING!!! IT IS NOT EVEN ABOUT BEING RIGHT!!! AND SURPRISINGLY ENOUGH IT IS NOT ABOUT THE BIBLE. YOU MAY FIND THIS SHOCKING?!
As it is the details of the scriptures are why the church fractured into thousands of pieces. Not that the scriptures are at fault but because, for various reasons, a lot of people could not agree on the meaning of them. And the insistence on being right caused strife and animosity within Christianity.
At this point we have become so use to people believing different things that the evil beliefs are tolerated. Can you imagine some one coming up to Peter or Paul and telling them that Christ was not a God or the Son of God and that Hell did not exist? What do you think they would say? Then you have the whole robot Christian thing!
So anyway, how much do you need to know to be saved or to be a “good Christian?” Do you need to read the Bible to be saved? Do you need to study the Bible to be saved? Do you need the Bible at all to be saved? The answer to these questions is absolutely not. And I can prove it!
The truth is, in the beginning the scriptures were not available and then went on to be withheld from Christians… For the Protestants the Bible became a great focus…you know the terms….Bible only, sola scriptura, fundamentalists. They are actually concepts that are misleading. But still after being feed so many false beliefs from the Catholic Church, Christians were hungry for God’s Word….the scriptures….a chance to determine the truth for themselves. Almost like a defense mechanism the Protestants tried to rely only on the Bible, and by doing so cut out most of Christian history.
You cannot blame them! Centuries of corruption and abuse and false beliefs generated by the Catholic Church! Ironically even though they were looking for the truth, the Protestants accepted some of the false beliefs of the Catholics like…. the one God formula for the Trinity and Original Sin and that females were not equal members in Christianity….these false beliefs went on to cause other false beliefs, false theological clichés that skewed the meaning of the scriptures, caused inaccurate perceptions, and wrongful applications of Christianity which went on to cause a lot of misery and suffering and even deaths.
So we have the Bible, and it is a good thing to read, a good thing to study, but still the truth is, it is not a requirement for salvation. And one should always keep in mind that you are reading an ancient text from a modern perspective and most have a head full of false beliefs that filter and skew the meaning of the scriptures as they read them. What good is the Bible if you are trying to teach it?
So as it was, the first bound book….the first bound Bibles are known as the 50 Bibles of Constantine, circa 350~ AD. Hand written in Latin and illustrated and decorated and the Catholic Church took them and chained most of them to the pulpit(s). Physically and figuratively. The Catholic Church did not want the public to have Bibles of their own and persecuted anyone that tried to translate them into the native languages and get them out to the public. The Catholic Church wanted people to believe what the Catholic Church told them to believe….
The primary false belief being that the Catholic Church was the only Christian authority on earth and it controlled salvation and anyone that preach something different than what the Catholic Church preached were heretics. Of course that means that the Catholic Church believed that all Protestants were heretics! LOL
So at this point Christians are not being told the truth, so in general there are no knowledgeable Christians because the truth is not available to them. I am saying this as a whole….Regional churches had copies of some of the New Testament texts and may have read them to there congregations…but if they preached something different than the Catholic Church, they were labeled heretics and persecuted. But still people were being saved, even if they had never seen a Bible.
So now I am going back to the biblical era…..Christ and the Apostles preached the good news…the Gospels ….how to be saved, people were being baptized and being saved, but they were not handing out Bibles or texts, people are believing and learning how to be saved by word of mouth.
Of course the New Testament had not been written yet, so no one is studying the New Testament scriptures…. But thousands are being saved without ever seeing New Testament writings. They are being told to believe in Christ as Lord and Savior and to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20). And this was enough to save them, tens of thousands of them. Were they knowledgeable Christians by our modern standards? No. Were the scriptures available for them to read and study at home? No.
As time went on some of the Apostles wrote the Gospels and letters and epistles to the churches and they could read them to their congregations, but they were not handing out texts either. But some were writing down what they heard, maybe favorite scriptures or something they heard….I saw a small pamphlet in a museum that was a few small pages bound by a single metal ring. Just rough wording, no chapters or verse numbers….that does not occur until much later. But people were being saved, by tens of thousands.
And moving forward, this was the way it was….Not all churches had the same texts and they were preaching from them and reading them to their congregations. Some of these texts did not make it into the Canon. Knowledgeable Christian and literate Christians being few and far in between….but still Christianity went on for centuries and for centuries people were being saved….without Bibles.
So the bottom line from all this is that being saved is one thing and it only takes that basic truth. That truth is believing in Christ as Lord and Savior and being baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As the umpire would say SAFE! Also the old Apostle’s Creed is a good guideline.
From there what else is to know about Christ and the Apostles and Christianity … well that is where the Bible comes in ….but even with that people are taught false beliefs that skew the meaning of the scriptures but usually they are still saved ….they may get the details wrong….but the truth they did receive saves them. But if you seek Christian knowledge and understanding, that is all up to you….But you were saved from the start. So you do not have to be smart, or educated, or knowledgeable to be saved or a good Christian. Love God and each other and be good and do good…..the Johnny Appleseed of Truth.
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