Should we Reformed be uncomfortable with/opposed to the common evangelical phrase "when I got saved..." (as in, "back in April of 1996, when I got saved...")? Should we accept it as valid/proper theological language to be using -- for us and/or for our non-Reformed evangelical brethren -- or is it incompatible with Reformed soteriology?

Thanks.

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Nathan Tyler
Reformed Baptist
University of Toronto (Student: Hons. B.A. in Philosophy)
Ontario, Canada

1689'er

http://nathantyler.wordpress.com

No, we shouldn't be uncomfortable with it, unless it's oneself that's saying it about himself and it, for whatever reason, is burdening his conscience. What we want to avoid is making some kind of rule that a person should have some kind of specific date, etc. that his/her conversion occurred. As for me, the Lord convicted me of my sin and brought me to then end of myself on Thursday, June 16th, 1988 at a Vacation Bible School meeting in a . . . get this . . . Freewill Baptist Church. But my "conversion experience" is not supposed to be some sort of standard. God saves the way He pleases.

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Josh Hicks, Chloë's Dad
Christ Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church, RPCGA
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It is God that multiplies our sorrows.... God, as a righteous Judge, does it, which ought to silence us under all our sorrows; as many as they are, we have deserved them all, and more: nay, God, as a tender Father, does it for our necessary correction, that we may be humbled for sin, and weaned from the world by all our sorrows; and the good we get by them, with the comfort we have under them, will abundantly balance our sorrows, how greatly soever they are multiplied. - Matthew Henry

Right, nothing wrong with it except for style: it uses the passive voice to describe God's active work.

I am always pleased when I hear a new believer say "when God saved me" or something similar, but I don't think the common way of putting it should be a big deal. Certainly, if someone says "I got saved", they aren't saying they saved themselves.

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Raymond Victor Bottomly
Providence Reformed Baptist Church, Tacoma, WA

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