{"id":10670,"date":"2019-05-08T16:29:44","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T16:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=10670"},"modified":"2019-05-08T16:29:44","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T16:29:44","slug":"the-get-saved-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/10670\/the-get-saved-madness\/","title":{"rendered":"“The “Get Saved” Madness"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read your gospel tract, “What Is Salvation?”<\/a> Very good teaching. So hard in this day to convince people to live holy.<\/span><\/p>\n

David H.<\/span><\/p>\n

=========<\/span><\/p>\n

Hi, David.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The “get saved” madness that took root in the early 20th century has now swept multitudes of believers off their feet and carried them away. It is one of the strongest “winds of doctrine” ever to have blown through the vineyard of God. In 1925, my father was a student at the Ayden Seminary in Ayden, NC. One day a visiting speaker from California addressed the students there and made a strange claim. The following is an excerpt from a biography I wrote about my father,<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

George Clarence Clark, Sr.:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

To Ayden, Then To God<\/span><\/p>\n

In the fall of 1925, twenty-three-year-old George Clarence Clark entered the Free Will Baptist Seminary in Ayden, North Carolina. Having only a surface knowledge of religion, he had assumed that the professors of the Bible would agree concerning the Bible\u2019s teachings. He had not been in Ayden Seminary long before he learned that there were deep disagreements among the professors concerning key Biblical doctrines, including the foundational doctrine of salvation. One camp taught that those who believe in Jesus will be saved in the end regardless of their deeds in this life, while another group taught that obedience to the will of God is the way to salvation and that without obedience, no one will be saved, including born-again people. He was confused. Who was right?<\/span><\/p>\n

The early twentieth century was a pivotal time in history for the saints in America. The non-Biblical concept of \u201cgetting saved\u201d, now commonly taught and accepted among believers, was just beginning to take root. Clarence had grown up as a Free Will Baptist, and he had never heard the phrase, \u201cgetting saved\u201d. Among the vast majority of Christians of the time, conversion was called conversion, or \u201cborn again\u201d, but never \u201cgetting saved\u201d. The first time Clarence ever heard of someone \u201cgetting saved\u201d was during a lecture at the Seminary by a visiting speaker from California. When the speaker claimed that he had \u201cgotten saved\u201d, Clarence turned to his fellow seminarian and good friend, a young man from Florida named I. J. Blackwelder, and asked, \u201cBlackwelder, what\u2019s he talking about when he says that he \u2018got saved\u2019?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Blackwelder replied, \u201cI don\u2019t know, but I think he means \u2018converted\u2019.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Clarence and Blackwelder decided they should do their own study of the Scriptures and see about this new phrase, \u201cgetting saved\u201d. They went to the seminary library, did their research, and concluded that the guest speaker was in error. There was no such phrase in the Bible. \u201cConversion\u201d, they learned, is not a synonym for \u201csalvation\u201d. Conversion is, as they had always heard, an experience to be had now in this life, and salvation is the promised reward to be given to the converted (if they are faithful to Jesus) when the Lord returns. They shrugged off the lecturer\u2019s strange doctrine of \u201cgetting saved\u201d and returned to their seminary studies. Neither of them expected that the new doctrine of sinners \u201cgetting saved\u201d when they repent would become standard doctrine among evangelicals in their lifetime. At the beginning of the twentieth century; it was not the normal confession of believers. By the end of the twentieth century, \u201cgetting saved\u201d had become the very heart of the gospel for many millions of Christians around the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

I tell the folk here that the “get saved” madness has become so big that the best we can do is simply to live a holy life in the fear of God, as Jesus said for us to do, as examples for whoever is searching for what is truly right.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you for writing, and may God bless you and those there with you. Please stay in touch, as you feel led to do so.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Your servant in Christ,<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

John<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

PS You can find most of the things I have written at www.GoingtoJesus.com<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read your gospel tract, “What Is Salvation?” Very good teaching. So hard in this day to convince people to live holy. David H. ========= Hi, David. The “get saved” madness that took root in the early 20th century has now swept multitudes of believers off their feet and carried them away. It is one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}