Sir:

I have some questions concerning some of the articles I have read about salvation. It seems to me that true salvation is obtained when we have endured until the end. What does “endure to the end mean”? What about those who call on the name of Jesus; are they saved? I understand that faith without works is no faith at all. What does it mean to be saved? How does one know if they are saved after asking Jesus to be saved? Is being forgiven associated with being saved or vice versa? What hope and assurance does one have when they ask Christ to save them?

Thanks for your help. D____

Hi D____,

Thank you for your questions.

You ask, “What does ‘endure to the end’ mean?” It means to remain faithful to all of the Words of Christ and to never deny any part of His doctrine until the end of this life in this “vessel of clay.”

Luk 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Salvation is an ongoing process. It must be “worked out” in each of us by “dying daily” until our dying is over.

1Co 15:31 (b) … I die daily.

To say, “I was saved at such and such a time” is to deny Matthew 22:14 – “He that endureth to the end shall be saved.”

You ask:

What about those who call on the name of Jesus; are they saved?

I think we have just answered that question. No, they are not saved, but rather they are being saved and if they “endure to the end they shall be saved.”

Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Again, there are many Christians who call Christ Lord but who hate His doctrines:

Luk 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

You ask:

What does it mean to be saved?

Again, you must remember that Christ never tells His disciples that they are saved. Christ always told any who came to Him that in Him they were “being saved” and that if they “endured to the end [they] shall be saved.” Here is Paul’s assessment of where we are in Christ while yet in these vessels of clay:

Php 3:7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things [but] loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them [but] dung, that I may win Christ,
Php 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Php 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Php 3:11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Php 3:12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

“I count not myself to have apprehended…” means that Paul did not consider himself as having been saved but as being saved. Paul speaks of those being saved and of those who “are perishing.”

When the disciples thought their boat was going under the waves they awoke Christ and told him:

Mat 8:25 And, approaching, they rouse Him, saying, “Lord! Save us! We are perishing!” (CLV)

This is the same Greek word ‘apollumi‘ which is translated ‘are perishing’ in this verse:

2Co 2:15 for we are a fragrance of Christ to God, in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing:” (CLV)

Our Babylonian training has us hating the mind of God which does not take us into His confidence to the extent of letting us know beyond any possible doubt that we are indeed God’s elect. We are God’s elect if we are bringing forth the fruit of His spirit. When we cease to do so, then rest assured we will all “reap what we sow.”

Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

1Co 10:12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

You ask: “How does one know if they are saved after asking Jesus to be saved?”

Mat 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Mat 7:20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

There is Christ’s answer to your question about others being saved and about you yourself being saved. You know if you are being saved by your fruits. If you have been changed from within, then Christ is effectuating that change. If there is no change, then the fruits speak for themselves. You don’t “know them” by their doctrines. You don’t “know them” by their gifts of the spirit. “By their fruits you shall know them.” That is the litmus test. Now it so happens that “the doctrine of Christ” is part of those fruits, because “you cannot say you love God whom you have not seen if you love not your brother whom you have seen.”

1Jn 4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

1Co 6:15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an [spiritual] harlot? God forbid.

Luk 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

As I have pointed out so many times, there is the difference between life and death in being a disciple of Christ and being a “disciple indeed.” The difference is in “continuing in My Word.”

Joh 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

You ask:

What about those who call on the name of Jesus, are they saved?

Jesus and Paul and James and Peter and Jude and John, one and all reply in unison with our Lord:

Luk 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

In closing I will quote the apostle Paul who was writing under the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit when he made this statement:

Rom 11:19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.
Rom 11:20 Well because of unbelief they were broken off , and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
Rom 11:21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
Rom 11:22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

“You also shall be cut off” is not meant to keep us in constant fear. It is intended to keep us in constant vigilance. Contrary to what you hear in Babylon, there is no contradiction whatsoever between being “confident that he who has begun a good work in you is able to finish it” and being constantly vigilant:

1Ti 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

You ask:

What hope and assurance does one have when they ask Christ to save them?

Here is the only scriptural answer you will find in God’s Word. There simply is no way around the need for faith and hope:

Php 1:6 Being confident [Greek: peithō – trusting, persuaded] of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

“The day of Jesus Christ” is, was and will be being fulfilled in the lives of God’s elect until we are separated from this vessel of clay. This is the part of God’s Word that is so hard for the natural man to comprehend.

You ask:

“What does it mean to be saved?”

Nowhere is scripture are we told that anyone other than Christ IS saved. To rephrase your question in a scriptural context, what is meant by “being saved” is that you are being given a new life. It will by design require time, and you will learn to “continue in” and “abide in the doctrine of Christ,” but you will be strengthened to have “dominion over sin” in your life. You are being saved from sin and death. That is what it means to be saved:

Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Rom 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Rom 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 6:13 Neither yield ye your members [as] instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness unto God.

There are those who “fear that I will soon be saying that the resurrection is already past.” Well, since it was the apostle Paul who made the assertion that we are yet to be resurrected, I will just pour some fuel on the fire of my detractors by also agreeing with the apostle Paul that we should all “yield ourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” So the life of a resurrected saint is begun now while yet in this vessel of clay. This vessel of clay cannot inherit the kingdom of God and must be disposed of. For those blessed and holy few who endure to the end, there will be a resurrection to a spiritual body which will be capable of materializing as “flesh and bone” and will be given power over the nations and will be commissioned to “rule the nations with a rod of iron and crush them as a potters vessel.”

I hope this is all of some help to you and has answered your questions. You are so right, “True salvation is obtained when we have endured to the end.”

Mike