“Unless Ye Have Believed In Vain.” What Does Believing In Vain Mean?
Biblical Christian Salvation is to Believe The Gospel Only to be Saved. If You Add Anything to, or Subtract Anything from the Gospel (1st Corinthians 15:1-4.) You are Not Saved. Because You Have Not Believed The Gospel Only for Your Salvation.
The Gospel:
1st Corinthians 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
What Does it mean to Believe in Vain?
A Vain Belief in the Gospel is to Add Works to the Gospel or to Subtract Something from it.
To Subtract any of the following: “how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”
If Your Belief is that You have to REPENT OF SIN to be Saved than your Belief is In Vain. It is In Vain because REPENT OF SIN is NOT PART OF THE GOSPEL.
REPENT OF SIN IS NOT IN THE BIBLE. REPENT OF SIN IS A FALSE GOSPEL.
People Go to Hell Because they would Rather Believe the Lies they Hear in their Church, on TV, on the Radio, on their Computer etc…, than to Believe what the Bible Plainly Says.
Salvation is a Personal Choice. Salvation is a Personal Decision.
Do, Not Let Your Father, Your Mother, Your Brother, Your Sister ANYONE, Drag YOU to HELL / THE LAKE OF FIRE with them.
Other Examples of what Believing In Vain is:
Your Doctor Tells you: “The, Garlic you are eating is Killing You. Stop Eating Garlic and You will Be Healed. The Only Way to Be Saved from Death is to Stop Eating Garlic Your Doctor Repeats… (Stop Trusting in Your own Works, Eating Garlic, Believe Jesus and Be Saved from Death / Hell.)
An In Vain Belief is to Not Completely Trust in Jesus Only to Save You. To Add Works to the Gospel.
In the Above Example the Patient Does Not Believe the Doctor completely. He thinks… “Well, Everyone I know Eats Garlic…, I think I am Just eating too much Garlic so what I will Do is be careful to reduce the Garlic I eat. I will eat half as much Garlic from Now On and this will Save me…”
Adding Garlic / Works to Salvation
Repent of Sin, Water Baptism, Obeying the Sabbath, Penance, Saying the Rosary, Believing You can Lose Your Salvation, Trusting in Church Membership, Trusting in the Apostle’s Creed, Trusting in anything other than the Gospel Only for Your Salvation is to Believe In Vain.
Believing In Vain From the Collins Dictionary:
in vain
Phrase
If you say that something such as someone’s death, suffering, or effort was in vain, you mean that it was useless because it did not achieve anything.
“He wants the world to know his son did not die in vain. His Son’s Life was Productive, Valuable, had Worth, etc…”
****NOTE**** In Vain, Universally means: A Useless Belief. A Useless Effort. Or Just Simply Useless.
In Vain: “There is a large hole in a tire. Trying to pump it up with air is a Useless Effort.”
“Trying to Clean Dirty Laundry with Muddy Water.”
Believed In Vain, is Not Hard to Understand. Salvation is Not Hard to Understand. How to be Saved is Not a Mystery.
https://plain-talk-christian-ministries.com/2023/09/25/is-the-romans-road-biblical-salvation/
In Anything Other than Christianity People who only have a 3rd Grade Education level will Immediately Understand what In Vain Means when they are given an example of it.
Over and Over Again in Movies, on TV Shows, in Books, etc…, People will understand what In Vain Means from just watching TV or from Reading.
A Perfect Example of doing something IN VAIN is in the Classic Novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
The main Character Pip Tries IN VAIN to Win the Love of Estella. Pip tries for Decades. In the Novel Estella is the same age as Pip, 10 years old, when they meet for the 1st time.
Pip met Estella at Miss Havisham’s home. Miss Havisham Hates Men Because on her Wedding Day her Groom Never Showed up to Marry her. She was Forever Embarrassed by him. This Caused An Undying Hatred in her for Men. She Raised Estella (She Carefully Taught, Trained Estella in Every Imaginable Way) to be Cruel to Men. Estella was taught the art of Seduction…
Estella caused Men to Fall in Love with her and then she would be Unloving, Uncaring and Cruel to them. Miss Havisham took the Greatest Pleasure in this.
Pip and Estella Grew up Together. He was Told Countless Times by Miss Havisham and by Estella that she would Never Love him, that she would Only Break his Heart… Pip wasted his Life In Vain Attempting to get Estella to Marry him to Fall in Love with him.
You might find a Publisher’s update to the Book, and Movie / Versions with a Happy Ending. In those Versions: In the Novel a Few paragraphs are added to the end that is intended to give the Novel a Happy Ending. At the end of the Movie. The Movie Versions will usually have a Brief Scene Decades later where they wind up Together. They will be middle aged…, or older.
This is One Novel I have read a few times, with the Alternate Ending Added After the Charles Dickens Ending. Titled “This is the Publishers Alternate Ending.” So you read the Entire Book and After you have read it there is a Page with the above Title followed by a Page and a half of the Alternate Ending that Does Not Fit the Novel at All. It is like Watching The James Cameron Movie Titanic All the way Through and Seeing Jack Die than have this happen:
Decades Later Jack finds Rose they meet again and Live Happily Ever After in a Very Brief 2 or 3 minute additional scene… If you buy this type of thing I deeply Question your Sanity. Seriously you saw Jack Freeze to Death and Fall Beneath the Water… You saw him Die…
There have Been Countless other Movies / Books about People Trying to Do the Impossible, Doing Something In Vain.
At the End of the Movie / Book: “My Husband Lived his Life In Vain. He was Obsessed with Finding Oil on this Land. He Bought this land for almost Nothing Because People Tried for over 20 years to Drill for Oil here and they All went Bankrupt. The Oil Rig finally Killed him after 30 years…”
The Point I am making is it is Not Hard for Hollywood to show people what In Vain means.
People have the Mental Capacity to understand what In Vain means but when they Read it in 1st Corinthians Chapter 15 they Completely (99.9%) miss the meaning of In Vain here.
Or they just Reject Every Scripture that goes against what they were taught, which is the Truth for most people I have this Conversation with.
They will say something like: “I have Believed The Gospel Only to Be Saved. But I Also Believe that you Have to Repent of Sin to Be Saved…”
If You think like this You are just Lying to Yourself.
This Behavior, way of thinking, believing, is Not an Accident it is Spiritual Blindness. This Happens with People who have Rejected the Gospel as the Only Way to Heaven.
These People will Repeatedly Say: “I Believe the Entire Gospel. I Believe Jesus Is the ONLY way to Heaven. But You will Go to Hell if you Do Not Repent of your Sins…”
REPENT OF SIN is Not part of the Gospel. REPENT OF SIN is Not in the Bible.
If You are Someone who Thinks You are Saved because You are Trusting in the REPENT OF SIN, FALSE GOSPEL, or Something Else Besides the Gospel ONLY than Your Belief is IN VAIN.
You are Trusting in Yourself to get into Heaven. You Have NEVER BELIEVED THE GOSPEL.
The Gospel:
Belief is All or Nothing.
A Breakdown of the Gospel:
1st Corinthians 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
1: The Gospel has to be Received. Meaning Just Hearing the Gospel and knowing All of the Words Does Not Save You. You have to Receive it / Believe it. Received the Gospel means you heard it, You understood it and you Accepted it Completely. So Simply put to Receive the Gospel means you have Believed the Entire Gospel without Adding Anything to it.
2: Believing the Gospel is How a Person is Saved.
3: Believing In Vain means you Either Do Not Believe the Entire Gospel or You are Adding to the Gospel.
1st Corinthians 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
In verse 1 the Apostle Paul is speaking to a crowd of People who are Followers of Jesus. We know this because he uses the word Brethren. Like ALL Good Preachers he Doesn’t Assume that Everyone he is speaking to is Saved, a True Follower of Jesus. The purpose for his speech is to Ensure that Everyone Present has Understood his Preaching on the Gospel.
Verse 2 makes this Clear:
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
By which also ye are saved, if: IF, IF, IF… IF is such a Huge Word!!!
Paul is Repeating his Previous Preaching to this Church . (Paul as a Missionary traveled from Church to Church. He had Previously Preached at this Church and he mentions this. Obviously he makes Sure to Always Preach the Gospel Each time. Here in 1st Corinthians 15:1-4 Paul is making it as Clear as Possible that a Person is ONLY SAVED by Believing in the Gospel ONLY. Any Other Belief is IN VAIN. To Trust in ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE Complete Gospel is an IN VAIN BELIEF, that will Not Save You.)
The IF: if you keep in memory what I preached unto you… So Paul wants them to think about his Previous Gospel Message he had Preached to them the last time he was there.
Paul warns them that they are NOT SAVED, (IF… YE HAVE BELIEVED IN VAIN. If they are NOT TRUSTING ONLY THE GOSPEL TO SAVE THEMSELVES.)
So Finally Paul Repeats the Gospel which he had Previously Preached unto them in verses 3 and 4.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
You have a Choice to Believe the Gospel ONLY and Be Eternally Saved or Reject the Gospel and Go to Hell / The Lake of Fire For Eternity.
Holding to any other Way to Heaven is to have Believed In Vain.
Believed In Vain is Trusting in Anything Other than the Gospel Only to Save You.
Believing in Jesus to be Saved is Not a Test of Your Faith.
False Teachers will Try to Destroy Your Belief in the Gospel to Save You by Telling You:
You Must Have Saving Faith… They Falsely Claim that You must have a Certain amount of Faith to Believe.
The Bible Does Not Teach this.
The Thief on the Cross was Saved by Simply Believing on Jesus he Asked Jesus to Save him:
Luke 23:42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. 43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
As soon as You Believe the Gospel Only to Save You than you are Immediately Saved.
The Thief on the Cross: “Lord, Remember Me…
Jesus: “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”
This is Salvation as Plain and Clear as Possible.
Notice Jesus Did Not say: “No. You Cannot Be Saved because You Never Lived a Christian Life. You Never Repented of Your Sins…
Jesus Did Not Question his Faith!!!!
The Entire Passage.
Luke 23:39 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. 40 But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. 42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. 43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Another Example:
Acts 16:27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. 29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Salvation is Simple. It is Not a Test of Your Faith. It is Not Anything that You have Done. It is Simply Believing the Gospel Only to Be Saved. Trusting in Jesus Only to Save You.
Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
