[LWC]

Islam, IN THEORY, is one of, if not the, most peaceful religion in the world. However, just as with Christianity, things can be taken out of context.

A few bad apples can spoil a bunch. Westboro Baptist claims to be Christian, just as Al-Qaeda claims to be Muslim. Nobody believes Westboro and hopefully nobody believes that Al-Qaeda is true peaceful Islam.

I always encourage people that come to me with questions about "so-and-so is a Christian but they do *insert immoral thing here*, why should I be one?" I encourage them to open a Bible up and read Matthew 5-7, and see what Jesus teaches. The Sermon on the Mount is full of peace, love, compassion, virtue, holiness. There is no hypocrisy, gossip, hate, scorn, sin, etc... "Christians" that choose to live a life of sin, hate others, etc... are not really Christians at all.

I will say this, after studying so many other religions, Christianity gives the most free-will. This is bad and good for the Gospel message to be spread.
Starting in about 1950, for some strange reason, salvation started being preached and taught as a stepping stone or a 1-time-thing as opposed to a walk, an everyday event. So many people believe that a person can "get saved" and then live however they want to. This has absolutely killed the Gospel witness in America.

While I do believe that a person can be assured of salvation, (Wesley-Armenians AND Calvinists believe that, which means UMC, Nazarene, Baptist, Southern Baptist, etc...) however, if America started looking through their Bibles they would see that while all CAN be saved, and God will never leave us, the definition of salvation has been misconstrued.

In the process of salvation:
1. A person has to have faith in God. Has to believe that God exists, that God sent Jesus to pay the price for the sins that we cannot pay for on our own and be in relationship with God.
2. A person has to repent. Repentance is where, IMO, the message has been so blurred. Repentance is not just being sorry for what you have done. Repentance is not "I'm so sorry, not I will go live however I want again." Repentance is a true sorrow for your sins and a genuine desire to change your life and for God to change your heart. A truly repentant person, while they may still stumble, will not have the same desire to sin. They WANT to live for Jesus and live their life for the Lord. This completes the process of justification.
3. Regeneration or rebirth, is where God changes your heart. He comes into your life and he heals your soul of wrong. For every person that says "I'm saved, now I can live however I want" I turn them to John Chapter 3.

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”[d]
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[e] 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f] 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”[g]

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. [B]19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Notice the bold verses: We must be born again, we must allow God to change who we are inside. Also, we have to live by the light (the truth, the Gospel, the teachings of Jesus). We cannot live as we please, in terms of sinfulness. If we have been TRULY changed by God, we should no longer want to do those things.

Also,

You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

When we find full and complete salvation, we understand that God has set us free from sin. Sin no longer has power over us. Sometimes we slip up, sometimes we stub our toes and shout curse words, sometimes we get angry and start sinning when we see someone hurting a child, woman or someone we love, it happens. However, that sin no longer holds us down, it no longer enslaves us. We can choose to walk in the light. We can choose to live our lives in peace and love and grace and mercy.
Please do not be put off by the slaves to righteousness terminology. That is basically saying, we are servants, we made the choice to serve righteousness and holiness. It is not saying that we are being forced by God to do his will, we choose to want to do these things.