Why do certain Christian denominations use the expression "saved" and others don't?

Catholics don't tend to use it because it implies that salvation is a one time only thing. That idea isn't supportable either biblically or theologically.

Catholics understand that since Christ died and rose again, all of us have salvation, if we want it. It's now a matter of working it out in our daily lives.

There are actually three aspects of the concept of salvation - past salvation (the exact point of Christian conversion, i.e. the new birth experience, Ephesians 2:5, 8; Romans 8:24, Romans 10:13), present salvation (our ongoing salvation experience through God's keeping power - Hebrews 2:3; Philippians 2:12; 1 Corinthians 1:18), and future salvation (the redemption of our bodies and our eternal reward - Matthew 10:22; Romans 5:9; 2 Timothy 10:13).

The term "get saved", as near as I can tell, was coined in the Southern Bible belt. For some reason, that terminology has always annoyed me, probably because it sounds unbiblical. I prefer the terms "born again" and / or "converted."

Incidentally, Acts 2:38 is the first example of a true conversion experience: "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." No other method of "getting saved" can be found in Scripture. A Scriptural baptism must be done "in the name of Jesus Christ" (not in the "titles" Father, Son and Holy Ghost) and repentance and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost are not optional. :-)

Yes, it is because the various denominations look at salvation differently. Some believe salvation is something you work out your entire life and salvation is obtained when you actually reach heaven. Others look at salvation as just having faith in Christ and believing in Him. Some believe that just because you believe in Jesus you are going to heaven, so they believe themselves to be saved.

Not all denominations interpret "salvation" as to mean you are in heaven or going to heaven though. Some seem to view it as a point in your life when you have accepted Jesus, and so it has more to do with the relationship they have with Christ. They were given the opportunity to hear about Jesus and they accepted and believed in Him so they were 'saved'; prior to that they did not know of Him, and were not 'saved'.

the once "saved" always saved belief is definitely a man made doctrine of faith alone. It is probably about from 1-500 yrs. old.It's roots are calvinistic.

The bible states that "we are NOT saved by faith alone"

It also states that we be "doers of the word, not hearers only"

It says that we are "being saved" which definitely infers a process.

Paul states before he was killed that "he had run the race he kept the faith"

The catholic church teaches that redemption was what Jesus ackomplished by his life death and ressurection. He died for all men, for all time, While he lived he taught a specific doctrine and gathered the would be leaders of this specific doctrine , He reported in the gospel that he would build his church, and chose one specific apostle to "feed his sheep" and "strengthen your brothers" Jesus gave to Peter the keys (which all through the old testament keys always denoted leadership) these apostles would then be the men that the Lord would use to teach all nations and baptize them. We see from scripture that after Judas died, they simply replaced him, "let another take his place", and so on they added to their number day by day, after Peter died, Linus was "chosen" to be the Leader, and it has continued for 2,000 yrs in an unbroken line of sucession.

Salvation is NOT redemption. Jesus ackomplished redemption alone without our cooperation, however, our salvation we must use the means that Jesus left to us through the teachings and the doctrines and the sacraments he put in his church, and the apostles were the means by which these sacraments would be administered to people as a means of grace and growing in holiness and the likeness of Jesus christ.

They simply don't understand the difference between redemption and salvation, they are not the same thing. When we sin, we have a sacrament to utilize which is not some made up catholic invention, but it is biblical too, Jesus breathed on the apostles saying "recieve the holy spirit, who's sins you shall forgive, they ARE forgiven them, and who's sins you shall retain, they ARE retained". Jesus knew we would struggle in life with sin, but he gave us the sacrament of reconsilliation which down through the centuries has been administered through the church, it's not a private thing we tell our sins secretly to God and ask for forgiveness, NO, we must confess our sins one to another, just as the bible states!! the one to another is the priest or bishop (apostle), he has to actually "hear" our sins to know our heart if he is to grant absolution (forgiveness ) or to retain them, due to lack of amendment or giving up the sin ie living in sin without marriage. you'd have to express willingness to move out of the sinful situation. so you see, our salvation is a daily process as we are "being" saved. Redemption---RE-Opened the gates of heaven to us, but it is NOT a collective gauranteed entrance for anyone. We must believe and do all Jesus told us to. hope this helps.

I am a Catholic. I tend to view conversion as a process rather than as an event. The death of Christ has saved me and this saving of me is continuing in the present and into the future by the grace of God. In this process I will come to know and love God more fully and to more love my neighbor as myself.

I really don't think it has to do with the doctrine of justification. I don't really have that in mind when I hear someone saying they are saved or when I avoid using that expression to describe my relationship to God and my fellow humans.

The initial step of conversion, the rejection of my former way of life, is not a single one act, but a conviction that is renewed frequently. Perhaps I am mistaken and the word "saved" means what I am trying to say to others.

Part of being a member of a congregation or a part of a faith community is that you can use its vocabulary to talk about your and my and our forebears experiences using consistent words to describe similar experiences. Crossing from one community to another the words make sense but sometimes sound funny so are not used. I compare it to an American listening to Australian or Pakistani English. It is English, but you know it is not the way you are used to using it.

Yes, they have different beliefs about salvation. Catholics and Episcopalians believe that, although Christ's sacrifice was for all people, it is up to the believer whether to cooperate with this gift of salvation. One does that by living a virtuous life in relationship with God and the Christian community. God judges one's whole life in determining one's final destination. The last part of Matthew 25, where Christ bases his judgment on what has been done "to the least of my brothers", is the model of this judgment.

Protestants, especially evangelical Protestants, believe that salvation depends entirely on a specific, deliberate profession of belief in Jesus Christ as lord and savior. Anything one does before of after is irrelevant, as long as that one profession is made. So by saying, "Are you saved?" they mean "Have you made your solemn profession yet? (Are you heaven-bound?)" They want to make sure you don't forget.

The reason they believe this way has to do with how the Protestant church came to be. It began as a protest and reform movement against some abuses that had crept into the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, church leaders weren't interested in reform at the time and Martin Luther, the leader of the reform, faced excommunication. He had to undermine the overarching authority of the Church to save the reform effort. And to do that, he had to prove that the Church didn't have the authority it claimed. He did this by using a few carefully chosen scripture verses, particularly one in which Abraham was shown to have become God's friend through his faith, not by his own effort. This implied that human effort is meaningless, that only faith is important. While Catholics believed one took part in working out salvation, Protestants were taught that it's all up to Jesus, you just have to agree, once.

You may also hear the argument about "faith vs works". Many Protestants like to accuse Catholics of trying to earn their way into heaven through human "works", thereby devaluing Christ's efforts. Catholics counter-argue that these "works" are actually the "fruits" of their faith, and point to verses that say "by their fruits you shall know them" and "faith without works is dead". That argument never seems to end.

all religons seem to have different beliefs and its confusing..some believe once your saved you are automatically getting into heaven.etc

for example they might take this as : thats all you have to do is believe in him..but is that the case?

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (King James Version)

but that leaves a question what is it that you believe?

That he is the Son of God? By all means! And since the Bible calls Jesus "Teacher" and "Lord," must we not also believe what he taught, obey him, and follow him?'—John 13:13; Matthew 16:16.

What does it mean, then, to follow Jesus, and how can we do that? Well, what did Jesus do? Was he immoral? a fornicator? a drunkard? a liar? Was he dishonest in business? Of course not! 'But,' you may ask, 'do I have to clean all those things out of my life?' For the answer, consider Ephesians 4:17 through 5:5. It does not say that God will accept us no matter what we do. Instead, it tells us to be different from the worldly nations who have "come to be past all moral sense, . . . but you did not learn the Christ to be so . . . Put away the old personality which conforms to your former course of conduct . . . Let the stealer steal no more . . . Let fornication and uncleanness of every sort or greediness not even be mentioned among you, just as it befits holy people . . . For you know this, recognizing it for yourselves, that no fornicator or unclean person or greedy person—which means being an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of the Christ and of God."

It's a matter of focus. Even if you stick entirely to the Bible, there is a huge breadth of material there.

Some focus on salvation, some on repentance, some on "I come not to bring peace, but a sword", and some on love and unity. And many more variations.

Even if we say that they all believe the same things, it would be fair to say that each prioritizes them differently. Which works out to very different behaviors when you have to choose between two conflicting high-order values.

That's basic ethics for you. It's not just what's important, but what's more important than what.

once saved always saved?

that kind of thought makes me wanna think that hell doesnt exist

when Christ Died

That was both Redemption and Salvation

The term 'saved' is often seen as a slogan by certain denominations. That is why it is not universally used. But the truth is that Catholics believe we are saved by the death and resurrection of Christ. Receiving the free gift of salvation through baptism we are saved. Once we have received baptism we continue to be saved by the transformation of the holy Spirit in us into the image of Christ. Both baptism and transformation are a gift of God (grace). If we yield ourselves to the holy Spirit working in us he will perfect us into Christ's image for our final salvation to be complete. If we reject Christ through mortal sin then we lose grace (1 John 5:16-17) and puts us in risk of hell. But if we repent and confess our sins God is faithful and Just and will forgive us our sins (1John 1:9).

If this process of sanctification is not completed and we die in a state of grace, not in a state of unrepentant mortal sin, then we go to purgatory which is a place of purging to continue this sanctification process to remove those last sinful tendencies. There are some Protestant groups who believe in some kind of purging after death prior to heaven. Purgatory is guaranteed heaven but is necessary to perfect us because nothing unholy can enter God's presence. We don't know how long it will last. It could be 30 seconds on the way to heaven for all we know or it could be much longer. There is no concept of time in purgatory or in heaven.

Purgatory is not a contradiction that some Protestants think that it says that Christ's death was not enough. Their view of justification is different then ours. They say that God declares them to be righteous legally rather than actually. So God justifies the ungodly. The sinner is simply covered in Christ but not actually made righteous, only declared to be righteous, prior to justification. Catholics affirm that God declares us to be righteous in Christ but adds to that, that when God declares us to be just, he does what he declares. Like when he declared 'let there be light', and then 'there was light'. By the power of his word he makes come to pass what he declares. For God to leave us in a state of sin actually would not be true righteousness. He makes us righteous by transforming us into the image of his Son by the power of his Spirit (2 Cor 3:18). So it is by grace. And this grace comes from the merits that Christ has won for us through his death and resurrection. So we are not saying his death was not enough but we are saying because of his death and resurrection we have the grace to be transformed into the image of Christ. And this transformation process continues until God's declared word becomes actual whether that happens in this life or in purgatory.

The concept of 'saved' by some churches gives the idea that you could not fall away and lose salvation. Most protestants don't accept the idea of once saved always saved because there are so many bible verses that contradict it. Like this one that says ""Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." (Mt 7:21)

It is also not very practical because as you can imagine if you tell someone it doesn't matter what they do after they get 'saved' then they think it frees them from any obligation to live a holy life or to obey any of Jesus' commands. Of course if we do not obey Jesus' commands it will not go well for us as in the scripture above.

I am Methodist and I am not sure if they use the expression "saved". But maybe I should show up to church once and a while...