We’re all familiar with the many euphemisms used in christianity concerning salvation—things like “accepting Christ into one’s heart,” or “praying the sinner’s prayer,” or “dedicating one’s life to Christ,” or “asking forgiveness for one’s sins,” or “repenting of all one’s sins.”
The problem with every one of those notions is that they are not salvation. Teaching that those things are salvation is based on bad doctrine and false interpretations of scripture. And yet, they are pretty universal within christianity. Anybody who says he has done any of those things is thought by other christians to “be saved.”
And, here’s the problem with that: for the most part, christians don’t even know what it means to be saved. To most christians, being “saved,” means that someone made a decision—they chose to “be a christian,” even though “being a christian” has nothing to do with being saved.
No true believers in scripture ever called themselves “christians,” because, during that era, the label was a term of shame—it was used ONLY by the world AGAINST believers. It meant “little messiahs,” and was a pejorative. Peter likened the label to being called a “murderer, thief, evildoer, or busybody” (1 Peter 4:15-16).
It wasn’t until after all the New Testament apostles died, when christianity was invented, and ultimately codified in the fourth century, that people started embracing the epithet, which they gave a completely different meaning. By that time, it simply meant someone who was an adherent of christianity—and christianity is the name of the new religion that Constantine codified.
The new religion that was called christianity abolished the Father’s traditions, because those early christians had their roots in paganism, and they hated the Jews bitterly. So, they couldn’t stand the notion of doing anything the Jews had been doing—and, what the Jews had been doing was honoring the Father’s traditions.
When the Gospel of Yahoshua the Messiah, which came THROUGH THE JEWS, was opened to all mankind, the Father didn’t abandon His own traditions. No, those who believed in Messiah Yahoshua were ADDED to THAT Gospel. But, the early pagan christians wanted NO PART of that, so they created their own religion by stripping the faith of its foundations, and replacing those foundations with the paganism they were familiar with.
Well, the saddest part of that new counterfeit of the faith is that, by eliminating the Father’s traditions, the true path to salvation, which was represented within those traditions, was jettisoned; so, christianity had to create a way to explain salvation and how it is obtained. Christianity came up with the notion that man decides to be saved, and that, at the moment man believes in Christ, he is saved (if he says the right words, and then lives the right way).
That is NOT salvation. The path to salvation is pictured for us in the Passover journey. But, christianity rejected the Passover. The path to salvation is represented for us in the way of the tabernacle, but christianity abolished the teachings of those ordinances, which are physical details that foreshadow future revealed spiritual real substances.
So, christianity’s top myths concerning salvation became, “I accepted Christ,” “the Bible confirms my salvation,” “I changed my life enough to prove I’m saved,” “the Holy Spirit entered me at the moment I made a decision,” and “I know I’m saved because I could feel it.”
Every one of those is a myth. And, sadly, most christians who think they’re saved by stating one of those notions won’t even take the time to learn why they are myths that will not lead to where they think they will spend eternity.
For more information: Top 5 Christian Salvation Myths