PROVO, Utah -- Mormons are sometimes thrown off by the question, "Are you saved?" This is, in part, because members of the LDS Church have a different idea of what "saved" means.

Ted M. Bair, a retired Church Educational System teacher, explained to a class at BYU's Campus Education Week on Thursday, Aug. 20, not only how to be saved, but also showed that several Christian religions have different ideas of how people are saved.

Bair said there are three general ways that other Christian religions think about being saved.

1. We are saved by grace no matter what.



You make a public declaration or something equivalent of your faith in Christ and you are saved. "Then, no matter what happens, you're saved," Bair said. "It's a done deal."

2. We are saved by grace, but God takes care of the details.

Bair quoted Rev. Billy Graham who said that Jesus "came down from heaven to pay the full penalty for our sins. ... All we must do is trust him and not our own good works for our salvation."

3. God saves and it doesn't matter at all what we do -- it's up to God.

Bair said this is like the early Presbyterian or Calvinism doctrine. God chooses to save whomever he will.

Bair contrasted these doctrines with the Bible, which also emphasizes works along with grace. "If you took all of the works passages out of the Bible, how big would it be?" Bair held up his thumb and forefinger to indicate the New Testament would be very thin.

Jesus was asked once, "What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?" Christ's answer was, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments" (Matthew 19:16-17).

Bair said the New Testament uses the word "saved" 40 times. Six of those times it talks about it as being "by faith." Thirty-four of those times it is in the context of works.

The Mormon view of salvation is expressed in the third Article of Faith, "We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel."

"What must I do to live the gospel?" Bair asked.

Bair said many Mormons fall into a "to-do list" trap: Pray, start my journal, study the scriptures, do family history, plant a garden, jog, eat some wheat, burn satanic CDs, write a missionary, visit the sick, bottle some fruit, read all the church publications, eat some more wheat, write in my journal, spend time with each family member, get a 72-hour kit, plan a family reunion, do home and visiting teaching, write my congressman, bake bread for the neighbors, study Sunday School lesson, floss, become perfect and get translated.

But this is not what is meant by living the gospel. Jesus explained what the gospel was in the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi 27. Bair said Christ said there were five things: Faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.

To illustrate the interaction between faith, works and grace, Bair told a story about a person named Francis: Francis is happy in the forest until he trips over a rock and plunges over a cliff. Luckily, a branch stops the fall. The good news was he wasn't falling anymore. The bad news was he was no longer in the forest. Suddenly, a rope drops down from the forest above. He grabs a hold and yells that he is ready to be pulled up, but nothing happens. He decides he has to climb out himself. As he does, he becomes stronger and stronger almost as if he is receiving strength from the rope, until he comes back into the forest.

Bair explained that the forest is the presence of Heavenly Father. The rock is sin. The branch is this world. The rope is the grace of Christ.

"We don't have many lessons on grace in Sunday School," Bair said. "Why don't we have many lessons on grace? We don't do anything about grace. That's not the problem. Having grace is not the problem, it's doing something about grace. That's the hard part. That's why all of our lessons ... have to do with the climbing of the rope. But let's not forget the rope."

We didn't pray for grace. We didn't earn grace. We are not worthy of grace. But the Atonement is done and without it, we can't be saved.
E-MAIL: mdegroote@desnews.com