So then what??? You're going to throw out half the New Testament because you don't know what to do with that verse???
"Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven."
So tell us, what is the will of the Father for these Jews living under the law of Moses in Matthew chapter 7 ???
You guys admittedly don't even believe the Bible and yet you pick bits and pieces of it to convince someone they don't know if they're going to heaven...That won't work with a Bible believin' Christian...
I'm not throwing out anything. If both concepts are present in the Bible, then there has to be a harmonization. The only people throwing anything out are those who claim that "works" are inconsequential. The Catholic Church has always taught that man is saved by faith through grace, but that doesn't relieve us of the mandate to "bear good fruit". Having faith is "doing unto yourself", which is fine and well, but Jesus made it clear that we must "do unto others" and "invest our talents" wisely. Without works that bear fruit, faith is pointless. Like the winemaker who told those just standing around, "You go into the vineyard, too", we're all called to participate in the harvest. Saying you're saved and discounting the need to bear fruit is just a whole lot of "standing around."
I apologize for the acerbic wit of my previous posts, but some things that are said about Catholicism are so outlandish that it defies restraint...
That's laughably absurd.
Matthew 7 is easily summed up by Matthew 7:12
"All things therefore whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them."
As I mentioned in an earlier response, having your own personal relationship with Jesus is nice, but what are you doing for others? No fruit, no harvest.