“I don’t know the exact time and date I was saved. I’ve been told that I should know this if I’m truly saved. Is this true?”

Knowing your spiritual birthday is not required at all. Whether you know in your heart that you’ve placed your faith in the gospel of grace that Christ died for your sins personally, was buried, and rose again is what is required for your salvation (Eph. 2:8,9; 1 Cor. 15:3,4).

In my own life, I have no clue as to the exact time and date that I was saved. I grew up in a home where the gospel was constantly before me. In my father’s pulpit ministry, his hell-fire sermons scared me to death. I can vividly remember praying in the pew, telling the Lord that I believe. I did this many times. Eventually I stopped, because I knew I was right with the Lord and saved from my sins.

The idea that you have to know an exact time you were saved doesn’t come from the Bible. It comes from man. Our confidence for our salvation shouldn’t be in a date anyway. Our confidence is in Christ, His Cross, and the Word of God. “The Lord knoweth them that are His” (2 Tim. 2:19), and if you’ve placed your faith in Christ that He died for you and rose again, you are His. Praise the Lord!

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.