Do Mormons Believe in Being Saved?
So the first thing someone will ask you when you get off the plane into Utah is, "Have you tried fry sauce?" The first thing that someone will ask you when you get off the plane into Kentucky is "Have you been saved?" While both of these are life changing questions, the second one really took me off guard. "Have I been saved?" I asked myself. I had no idea what that meant. Of course I wanted to be saved! But HOW?
We were all saved through Christ's atonement. There's not one of us on this earth that isn't saved because of Him! But this salvation is "conditional," as Dallin H. Oaks says. He also explains through scripture use, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee,” Jesus taught, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5; see also Mark 16:16; Acts 2:37–38). "Believers who have had this required rebirth at the hands of those having authority have already been saved from sin conditionally, but they will not be saved finally until they have completed their mortal probation with the required continuing repentance, faithfulness, service, and enduring to the end."
If there's one thing that I've learned on my mission, it's that salvation is not easy. Nor should it be! "We are saved on the condition of continued faithfulness." says Stephen E. Robinson. "Members of the church are "in until they're out." That is, all who are in the covenant are God's children now, and they will remain in the kingdom until they choose to leave. And if we accept His training and His discipline- if we endure to the end- we will STILL be His children at the great day."
"If we use the word salvation to mean “exaltation,” it is premature for any of us to say that we have been “saved” in mortality. That glorious status can only follow the final judgment of Him who is the Great Judge of the living and the dead" says Elder Oaks. Christ did not just make sure that He was baptized and felt God's love for Him at one point in His life. He knew that in order to return to His Father in Heaven, He needed to endure faithfully, keeping the commandments, and repenting daily in order to fulfill the requirements of salvation. Yes we are saved by grace! But we are only saved by grace after ALL we can do. And the only judge of our salvation is God Himself. We are continually going to be tested until the last day.
Robinson gives the example of a fishing trip that he took his daughter on (I went fishing for the first time the other day, by the way!). He really wanted her to catch the fish, so he set the line up for her, and waited until he felt a bite. Then he gave the pole to his daughter and she got to reel it in. Once we are baptized with the proper priesthood authority, our "fish is caught". The only way that we will be saved though, is if we reel that fish in. We can do so by following the commandments, going to the temple, and enduring to the end. The fish will always be hooked, but we need to do our part as well.
Brother Robinson then goes to speak about how when we are baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, we reach the kingdom of God; we are inside the gates of Heaven. Nothing on that side of the gates will kick us out. It is us STAYING in the Kingdom that is the hard part, and is up to us. If we sin and don't repent, fall away from the church, break our covenants, or don't do our best, we are stepping out of those gates and further away from the Kingdom. I picture God trying to grab me and keep me in the gates as I play a game of stupidly jumping in and out of the Kingdom throughout my life.
So the question that people should ask you when you step off the plane into Kentucky is not "Have you BEEN saved?" but "Have you STAYED saved?" The only judge is God, and it will be up to Him to save us with His grace "after all we can do"; after all He is a just God as well. I know that if we continue doing what we're supposed to, staying as close to Christ as we can, and always using the atonement as we try and perfect ourselves, that we will not need to fear our salvation. You are given a place in the Kingdom of God when you are baptized by someone holding the proper priesthood authority. Try your hardest to stay in the Kingdom.
"Following Christ (The parable of the divers and more good news)- Stephen E. Robinson
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