In order to be saved, you have to do what?
Well, that depends on whatever institution or doctrine or belief you subscribe to.
It may even depend on the rite of passage and prescribed rituals you have to go through and perform.
And even if you conformed and did all this, you might never be certain because you may remain a sinner according to the specific institutional church you subscribe to.
Doctrinal church says it's what you do and how you do it
In the Afrikaans Neder-Duits Gereformeerde Kerk, to which my family subscribed when I was growing up, we had to do Beleidenis en Aflegging van Geloof or confession of faith, which was more of a confession and public agreement to subscribe to the church doctrine than anything else. Teenagers of 16 and 17 years old were subjected to this kind of brainwashing week after week after week, for a year to get right with the church.
The persons responsible for the catechism school were usually the dominee (minister/reverent) and the ouderlinge (church elders). For a full year you had to attend classes and were taught the doctrine of the NG Kerk and where it came from. I remember that Jesus was a mere distant by-thought.
At the end of the catechism term we were required to write a test and if you failed or dared to miss too many classes, you had to do it over again the following year.
At the end of the catechism term we were required to write a test and if you failed or dared to miss too many classes, you had to do it over again the following year.
The catechism concluded on a set day whence the whole congregation would gather and all catechists were required to ceremoniously confess and declare the church doctrine based on the protestant Catechism, or Christian Instruction, according to the Usages of the Churches and Schools of the Electoral Palatinate, as it was called when originally drafted by Zacharius Ursinus and a bunch of others in 1563 in the German town of Heidelberg.
As a Catechist, you were dressed up with new clothes, preferably a suite, tie, dress, shoes and all that goes with it. Family members came from far and wide to witness this event. Lavish meals were prepared for celebrations afterwards and gifts were given. All this happened in the name of Aanneming en voorstelling (confirmation) and Jesus was just a side-thought, if at all.
As a Catechist, you were dressed up with new clothes, preferably a suite, tie, dress, shoes and all that goes with it. Family members came from far and wide to witness this event. Lavish meals were prepared for celebrations afterwards and gifts were given. All this happened in the name of Aanneming en voorstelling (confirmation) and Jesus was just a side-thought, if at all.
If you failed to go through this process, you were not permitted to take holy communion, marry in the church, baptize your children (sic ... and sick) or even have a funeral in the church.
As proof that you successfully completed your catechism, you were given a copy of your certificate or testimonial called a attestaat. The original was kept and safe-guarded by the church office. you were also given a Bible with a specific verse and told that you must now uphold the precepts and what the law commanded of you, as well as the church doctrine. In the event that you might transgress against the church doctrine, you ran the risk of being excommunicated.
Today it remains more or less the same.
Not much different from the doctrines and recipes and precepts and instructions and visions and missions of all other institutional churches worldwide, aren't they?
As proof that you successfully completed your catechism, you were given a copy of your certificate or testimonial called a attestaat. The original was kept and safe-guarded by the church office. you were also given a Bible with a specific verse and told that you must now uphold the precepts and what the law commanded of you, as well as the church doctrine. In the event that you might transgress against the church doctrine, you ran the risk of being excommunicated.
Today it remains more or less the same.
Not much different from the doctrines and recipes and precepts and instructions and visions and missions of all other institutional churches worldwide, aren't they?
Traditions and like things ...
Definition please
According to the Oxford dictionary, catechism is a summary of the principles of Christian religion in the form of questions and answers, used for religious instruction.
It is religious instruction in general, a series of fixed questions with fixed prescribed answers, precepts and instructions to control you and to get the most out of you.
It is religious instruction in general, a series of fixed questions with fixed prescribed answers, precepts and instructions to control you and to get the most out of you.
What?
Yes, it is a tool to control. It is religion in the truest sense of the word. Nothing to do with Jesus!
No Biblical basis
Religious instructions, precepts, tests (questioning and answers) are nothing but rules and regulations the same as under the law of Moses - the very same law that the Jews were freed from. It is the very same law that we gentiles were never under, even though some of us still think that we were or are ... the traditions of man and man-made structures and systems ...
... the very traditions and like things that we do, that God's Word warns us against and that make his Word, Jesus (His Grace and Love and Provision ...) to non effect.
What about the sinners prayer?
Well, that's not in the Bible either!
Charismatics, Pentecostals and others all have this formula to get saved. "Say the sinners prayer after me and get a free ticket out of hell ..."
And then, even having said the prayer, you better watch out! One wrong step and you are bound for damnation again. "Get right or get left (behind)", is what they say.
It is all your own effort and has little to nothing to do with the complete finished work of Jesus on the cross.
Years ago when I did the Campus Crusade course, we were taught that people generally do not know whether they were saved or not and that if this is the case, then generally they are not. They have to be absolutely sure. And you have to convince them. Unless they agree with the CC 4 spiritual laws, they are ready for damnation.
The 4 laws revolved around CC man-made doctrine. (1) God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life (Well, if you study scripture, you will find that God does not have a plan for your life. His life in you, is His plan for you). (2) Man is sinful and separated from God, thus he cannot know and explain God's plan for life. (This flies in the face of what Jesus did and what He says. He dealt with sin completely on the cross and said that ALL of your sins are forgiven once and for all and that you are holy as He is. He said that His Spirit will abide in you and will never leave you nor forsake you.) (3) Jesus Christ is God's provision for man's sin through Whom man can know God's love and plan for his life. (The Plan, I have explained. But, Jesus Christ is not just God's provision for sin. He IS our life. He is the One in whom we live and move and find our being!) (4) We must receive Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord by personal invitation. (Really? Where does it say in the Bible that we have to receive Him by personal invitation?)
Really?!
This is just one example of the many recipes out there in the doctrinal-world dreamed up for you to achieve self-righteousness.
Saying the sinners prayer, just like the catechism school, will not bring you in relationship with Jesus ... and if it does, I'll rather attribute it to the powerful, loving work of the One Who abides in you.
But, what is the prerequisite, then?
Nothing!
What does Jesus say?
Joh 1:12 But as many as receivedG2983 him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name ...
ReceivedG2983 is the Greek word lambanō, which is a prolonged form of a primary verb, meaning to take up, lay hold of, to make your own, to carry away, to take what is one's own, to closely associate with, to apprehend, to catch, to choose, to gain.
... no recipe.
Everywhere Jesus (and the apostles) speaks about the kingdom of God and the heirs in His kingdom, He uses the word lambanō.
Just lay hold.
This is exactly what a beneficiary to a will (Testament) does. The beneficiary receives. He takes up what is his. He makes it his own. He carries it away and gains what he did not have.
It gets even simpler
Let's turn to everyone's favourite Bible verse - John 3:16. John 3:16-17 makes it even simpler.
For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world
to condemn the world;
but that the world through him might be saved.
Notice the word there have? It is the Greek root word echō, which, surprisingly enough, means to have, to own, to hold.
Sinners-prayer?
Catechism school?
No!
Have Him!
Everywhere Jesus (and the apostles) speaks about the kingdom of God and the heirs in His kingdom, He uses the word lambanō.
Just lay hold.
This is exactly what a beneficiary to a will (Testament) does. The beneficiary receives. He takes up what is his. He makes it his own. He carries it away and gains what he did not have.
It gets even simpler
Let's turn to everyone's favourite Bible verse - John 3:16. John 3:16-17 makes it even simpler.
For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world
to condemn the world;
but that the world through him might be saved.
Notice the word there have? It is the Greek root word echō, which, surprisingly enough, means to have, to own, to hold.
Sinners-prayer?
Catechism school?
No!
Have Him!
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