Salvation & Conversion

Are you saved? Is it the same thing as conversion? Many are asked that question as if the two things are the same! No one in the Bible ever spoke of the day that they "got saved" as so many people do in this time. What does the Bible say about the subjects of salvation and being saved?

Jesus said that he who endures to the end will be saved. Paul wrote of the "hope of salvation" and Peter spoke of salvation being the end of our faith to be revealed in the latter time. What is the truth? Are you already saved, or not?

Study this page to learn the truth about Salvation. There are also audio clips taken from the What Must I Do to be Saved CD teaching series. Click on an article title in the box in the right column to read from a range of articles covering different aspects of the truth about salvation.

What Must I Do to be Saved CD Set

What Must I Do to be Saved? examines an issue that everyone needs to understand. Confusion and error are everywhere on this subject and your eternal fate depends on understanding these things. Learn about salvation, being saved and the things you must do to be saved. This 4 CD set available at cost price from our eBay store

. This is vital understanding for walking with the Lord.

Thought for Today
Dec. 26

ERRORS IN THE KING JAMES VERSION NO. 3 - GROW UNTO SALVATION

1Peter 2:2

The Word of God is perfect, and if the Bible is the Word of God, then it, too, must be perfect. If errors exist in any translation of the Bible, then that translation of the Bible cannot be the Word of God, for the Word of God is without error. After considering this example of mistranslation in the King James Version of the Bible (KJV), ask yourself whether it or any other version of the Bible is the perfect Word of God.

This particular error found in the KJV of the Bible was one of omission. In translating 1Peter 2:2, the translators wrote, "As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." What Peter originally wrote, however, was this: "As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation." In other words, born-again children of God must be fed the word of God in order to grow until salvation comes. That means, of course, that the KJV translators understood salvation to be a future hope, not a synonym for conversion.

Millions of Christians testify of the day in the past when they "got saved!", but the translators of the KJV were not of that breed. In fact, no Christian in all of the recorded history of Christianity was of that breed. The claim of "I got saved" is a relatively new phenomenon in history. It began in earnest near the beginning of the twentieth century.

The writings of the men called the founding "fathers" of Christianity contain no testimonies from any one of them of "getting saved". Even as far from right as they had drifted, they understood that salvation is the future hope of the body of Christ. They all taught that a holy life had to be lived so that one may receive the reward of salvation that Jesus will bring with him when he returns. To teach that when Jesus returns, he will save only those who have obeyed God's commandments is a doctrine that is anathema to Christians today who claim to already have "gotten saved", but it is the truth, and Christians throughout the centuries, including the translators of the KJV, knew it.

So, I cannot believe that the KJV translators left out the last part of 1Peter 2:2 intentionally, to promote the idea that one receives salvation when he is converted. They did not believe that any more than Peter believed that. Their error of omission in the King James appears to be just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill mistake. But in the Word of God, there are no mistakes.

So, while the King James Version of the Bible is the best of all translations I have read, it cannot be the Word of God because it has mistakes in it.

You can trust your soul to the Word of God. But when it comes to trusting the Bible, as with trusting anything produced by a man, you need to know the truth first so that you can know whether or not that man has really heard from God. Only those who have heard from God can recognize who else has heard from God. As I said before, the only way to be able to recognize the truth of God is to get in touch with God for yourself. That way, you will be able to understand and recognize the fundamental difference between the Word that proceeds from the Almighty and a word that comes from the pen of a frail human.