The Pharisees all knew the scriptures too .. it is not knowledge of the scriptures that saves.. it is the one of whom they write that saves..
Games like "bible trivia" do not expect one to understand the meaning or the context.. only the proof texts they test.. for a catholic to understand that they have to go to Rome
John 1:11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
One is not Born into being a Christian, nor baptized into being a Christian, not "churched" /educated into being a Christian. One must be born again of God..to be HIS child.
You mean like thusly? Ye Must Be Born Again (John 3:7)
Good words...
I was having breakfast with the local Catholic priest and a few family members one morning and we were talking about our favorite Bible passage. I said mine was Ephesians 2:8,9:
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
The priest's response was, "That sounds Protestant to me.".
I must say I was surprised seeing as the Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible says it almost identically:
For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God; Not of works, that no man may glory.
You are quite correct about the difference between knowing the word of God and knowing the Word/Jesus.
Why do you have to be so insulting?
Presuming that one is saved is ... perhaps sinful.
Pride is a sin.
We are weak vessels, and easily deceived, even with gross physical means like chemicals. Mushrooms and LSD can lead to misleading “religious” convictions. So can obsessive contemplation of ones spiritual state. There are many forms of madness and eccentricity.
The proper approach is a humble doubt in our spiritual state.