Poll: Saved or Unsaved?

[Valerie]

I took too long going back to correct typos - timed me out, sorry

[NedFlanders]

After the resurrection Christ had deeper truths to share until His Ascension. After His Resurrection the Holy Spirit was poured out on every convert that believed and was baptized - and the promise of them being sealed with the
Holy Spirit.

Acts: 2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:

3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Mark 9:1
And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.

[Valerie]

After the resurrection Christ had deeper truths to share until His Ascension. After His Resurrection the Holy Spirit was poured out on every convert that believed and was baptized - and the promise of them being sealed with the
Holy Spirit.

Acts: 2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:

3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Mark 9:1
And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.

As I said, NO one is denying the preaching of the Kingdom of God- read through all the Apostles Epistles, the focus on reaching the lost, for it is by Grace we are "saved" through faith and not of "ourselves" .
Anabaptists FOCUS on one part of the New Testament and Evangelicals FOCUS preaching another- both are preaching the Gospel.

I asked me y former Amish friend who was Amish 50 years, I think he feels the need to reach most of Anabaptists with the focus evangelicals have- I understand him better now

[NedFlanders]

After the resurrection Christ had deeper truths to share until His Ascension. After His Resurrection the Holy Spirit was poured out on every convert that believed and was baptized - and the promise of them being sealed with the
Holy Spirit.

Acts: 2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:

3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Mark 9:1
And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.

As I said, NO one is denying the preaching of the Kingdom of God- read through all the Apostles Epistles, the focus on reaching the lost, for it is by Grace we are "saved" through faith and not of "ourselves" .
Anabaptists FOCUS on one part of the New Testament and Evangelicals FOCUS preaching another- both are preaching the Gospel.

I asked me y former Amish friend who was Amish 50 years, I think he feels the need to reach most of Anabaptists with the focus evangelicals have- I understand him better now

I know and am friends with many evangelicals(3 contact multiple times a week and more less than that) that tell me that I am a bit of a freak because they don't evangelize even close to me, so your comments are not accurate for my personal experience - but maybe my church is a bit strange too because I have seen much effort in it to evangelize. It wasn't like that when we were members of an evangelical church. At the evangelical church it was me and the pastor knocking on doors and typically no one else would show up. At my CA church I tell everyone we need to split up better so we don't intimidate people with so many of us when we have gathered in some way to reach out.
Saved people can't help but to want to reach out and share Christ living out His kingdom principles - that is where I find myself. So your comments and conclusions are inaccurate in my experience.

[Valerie]

As I said, NO one is denying the preaching of the Kingdom of God- read through all the Apostles Epistles, the focus on reaching the lost, for it is by Grace we are "saved" through faith and not of "ourselves" .
Anabaptists FOCUS on one part of the New Testament and Evangelicals FOCUS preaching another- both are preaching the Gospel.

I asked me y former Amish friend who was Amish 50 years, I think he feels the need to reach most of Anabaptists with the focus evangelicals have- I understand him better now

I know and am friends with many evangelicals(3 contact multiple times a week and more less than that) that tell me that I am a bit of a freak because they don't evangelize even close to me, so your comments are not accurate for my personal experience - but maybe my church is a bit strange too because I have seen much effort in it to evangelize. It wasn't like that when we were members of an evangelical church. At the evangelical church it was me and the pastor knocking on doors and typically no one else would show up. At my CA church I tell everyone we need to split up better so we don't intimidate people with so many of us when we have gathered in some way to reach out.
Saved people can't help but to want to reach out and share Christ living out His kingdom principles - that is where I find myself. So your comments and conclusions are inaccurate in my experience.

Visa versa, the churches I attended had numerous ways of evangelizing, it was assumed we would want to be used of God that way, the Great Commission, our personal experiences probably influence where we are with this. I didn't enjoy knocking on doors st homes, but have done that type, I find there are all kinds of ways to evangelize

[Sudsy]

I know and am friends with many evangelicals(3 contact multiple times a week and more less than that) that tell me that I am a bit of a freak because they don't evangelize even close to me, so your comments are not accurate for my personal experience - but maybe my church is a bit strange too because I have seen much effort in it to evangelize. It wasn't like that when we were members of an evangelical church. At the evangelical church it was me and the pastor knocking on doors and typically no one else would show up. At my CA church I tell everyone we need to split up better so we don't intimidate people with so many of us when we have gathered in some way to reach out.
Saved people can't help but to want to reach out and share Christ living out His kingdom principles - that is where I find myself. So your comments and conclusions are inaccurate in my experience.

In my experience, most evangelical believers are not much involved with direct one-on-one spreading the Gospel in words. Many leave this up to an 'evangelist' who comes to their church occasionally and they see their part is to bring an unsaved person to come and hear him preach the Gospel. Some regard any evangelism (as in sharing the need and how to be born again) as a special gift that is given to some but not all believers.

However, the role of an evangelist is “to equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Eph. 4:11-12). I have been in evangelical churches where there are specific courses I have taken, and there is a variety of these methods, to teach people how to lead people to salvation in Christ. These churches believe everyone is to evangelize (meaning the use of words to lead people to Christ). We used a couple of these courses in the Mennonite Brethren church I attended and also in Pentecostal and Baptist churches.

Does everyone join in and get involved ? No, usually a small number do. Why ? A variety of reasons. One of them being, some see evangelism is something they can do without using words. They think the way they live should be example enough to draw people to Christ. Although a good example is important, Romans 10:13 says, words are necessary. When professing Christians don't show much or any interest in being involved in reaching the lost, I wonder why ? And I question myself in this also when my zeal to see others saved is weak.

It seems you have found a local church that is quite active in evangelism. I agree with either one-on-one method or a maximum of two as the one not doing the speaking can observe and learn. The JWs in our area do this quite well and are usually quite well trained in their message. They really are good examples in evangelism although I don't agree with their message.

I am interested in what outline you use to evangelize when you go door-to-door or wherever you evangelize ? And also, what has been the results ? When I say results, I mean, is this approach resulting in the people you speak to making a decision to follow Christ and they follow that with coming to your church ?

[Outsider]

I get weary of how many evangelicals claim Amish aren’t saved because they don’t tick the right theological boxes.

I agree Josh. It's always confounded me why some evangelicals feel a need to send "missions" to the Amish. What makes them think that somehow making the Amish conform to the wider society is a good thing leading to salvation?

I can't get my mind around it.

[Outsider]

I get weary of how many evangelicals claim Amish aren’t saved because they don’t tick the right theological boxes.

You can talk to former Amish about why all they left. I have listed to countless testimonies. None of them say all Amish are lost nor that an Amish can't be saved, but they certainly have added to the Gospel and I suppose if we agree with them on what the Gospel actually means, we would all be Amish- but as you point out, they split over things like E-Bikes, hat brim widths, plumbing or no plumbing and on and on

Matthew 23:24:

This is something which has happened a lot in the Denomination I was raised in. Split over whether to fund orphanages, whether to have Sunday schools, and other things.

I think it's fine to have a congregation agree on how it would like to apply biblical principles, but I don't think "the ban", or "disfellowship" (as it's called in COC), or "ex-communication" is needed for things that aren't clearly described as sinful in the Bible.

[ken_sylvania]

I get weary of how many evangelicals claim Amish aren’t saved because they don’t tick the right theological boxes.

You can talk to former Amish about why all they left. I have listed to countless testimonies. None of them say all Amish are lost nor that an Amish can't be saved, but they certainly have added to the Gospel and I suppose if we agree with them on what the Gospel actually means, we would all be Amish- but as you point out, they split over things like E-Bikes, hat brim widths, plumbing or no plumbing and on and on

Matthew 23:24:

Which Amish division was over hat brim widths? Which one was over e-bikes?

[Josh]

I agree Josh. It's always confounded me why some evangelicals feel a need to send "missions" to the Amish. What makes them think that somehow making the Amish conform to the wider society is a good thing leading to salvation?

We have a few people here on MN who claim that the reason the Amish need to convert to other denominations is because...

the Amish have had denominational splits.