Posted on 05/03/2007 12:50:55 PM PDT by siunevada
CARAPICUIBA, Brazil (Reuters) - For years, Ronaldo da Silva's daily routine consisted of drinking himself into a stupor until he passed out on a sidewalk.
Now he spends his days praying and singing with hundreds of fellow Christians at the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in Carapicuiba, a sprawling shantytown on the outskirts of Sao Paulo where Pentecostal congregations are found on just about every block.
"I'd probably be dead or in jail if it weren't for this church," said da Silva, a 38-year-old former Catholic who claims God cured him of epilepsy and helped him straighten out his life when he converted to Pentecostalism a decade ago.
Conversions like da Silva's are increasingly common all over Brazil, where a boom in evangelical Protestantism is steadily chipping away at the supremacy of the Roman Catholic Church.
The trend, which is playing out all across Latin America, poses a major challenge for Pope Benedict, who arrives in Brazil on May 9 for a five-day visit largely aimed at blunting the decline of Catholicism in this continent-sized nation.
Although Brazil still has more Catholics than any other country in the world, with about 125 million, the percentage of believers that practice the Vatican's brand of Christianity has been dropping rapidly in the last three decades.
When the late Pope John Paul II visited Brazil in 1980, 89 percent of Brazilians identified themselves as Catholic. By 2000, when the last census was taken, the share of Catholics in the population had fallen to 74 percent.
The number of evangelical Protestants nearly tripled in the same period to 26 million, or about 15 percent of the population.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“Rom. 5:2 - we rejoice in the “hope” (not the presumptuous certainty) of sharing the glory of God. If salvation is absolutely assured after accepting Jesus as Savior, why would Paul hope?”
That is true to Paul said we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling meaning we must stay in a repentant, broken, state and trust in God’s grace. People can fall away and sucessfully repent. There is a big difference between assurance and presumption. The Pharissees were very prideful and presumptuous and drew Christ’s ire.
This is an excellent article:
Can I Be Sure Of My Salvation?
Many Christians have the distressing experience at one time or another of doubting their salvation. Such doubts may surface after a time of separation from God, perhaps a lapse into sin, a time of personal crisis when God seems distant, or even after hearing a fervent sermon emphasizing God’s judgment. For others, troubling doubts constantly fester just below the surface of their spiritual life. Yet God wants us to have the full assurance of salvation that comes from relying on his promises rather than on our own performance or emotions (Philippians 4:6-7).
To overcome these doubts one must begin with the most important fact about salvation: that it is God’s gift to us (Ephesians 2:8-9). There is nothing we can do to earn it, and none of us is good enough to deserve it. God gives it to us freely when we confess our sin to him and ask Jesus to come into our lives as Lord and Savior. God is not just trying to manipulate or toy with people when he offers them his mercy and grace. He was serious enough about saving us to be willing to send his Son to die for our sins (John 3:16-17).
So when a Christian’s assurance of salvation has been shaken, the first question to ask is whether he or she was serious in the decision to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ. If a person was sincere in accepting God’s gift of salvation at the time of that initial commitment, God is just as serious about welcoming him/her into a vital relationship with him as his child (John 10:27-29). We do not have to doubt our salvation, because it does not depend on us—it depends on God.
Often when people begin to doubt their salvation, what they are really doubting is their emotions. The joy of salvation may be expressed in terms of feelings, but the assurance of salvation is found in God’s redemptive act in Jesus Christ. We are not saved by feelings, but by a Person. We can trust him even when our own faith is weak or when we have done wrong. The promise in I John 3:19-21 is very helpful at this point.
Another stumbling block seems to be the tendency to compare one’s experience with that of others. When people hear others speak in glowing terms of their salvation experience or their personal, joyful communion with God, they sometimes wonder, “Why don’t I have that kind of relationship? I don’t sense God’s presence or leadership on such an intense level. Does that mean that I really don’t have the Spirit, that Christ does not really live in me? Am I really a Christian?”
When plagued by such doubts, we need to keep in mind the uniqueness of human personalities and relationships. One person may not relate to a spouse in exactly the same manner as others do with their mates. Why should s/he expect to relate to God just like someone else who may have a different temperament or background of experiences? We can affirm and celebrate the dynamic way God has revealed himself to another person without feeling that if our own experience is less dramatic, it is wrong or inadequate or even an illusion.
Many people worry about their initial salvation experience—Was I really saved then? Should I be baptized again? Such doubts are especially common in those who made their initial profession of faith at a very early age. Then the questions come, Did I really know what I was doing?
For others, doubt comes after a time of falling away from God. They fear losing their salvation because they think their sins will cause God to reject them. Somehow they have not understood that being a Christian does not mean that we will never again be tempted, that we will never sin or make mistakes. Of course we are to strive for purity, but we are still human and have to work at growing in Christ. I John 1:8-9 tells us how to deal with our times of failure.
The thing to keep in mind is that salvation is both event and process. We are saved at a particular point in time, when we realize our need, confess our sin, and turn to Christ. But we are being saved through the process of sanctification. This involves a constant recommitment and renewal of the relationship with Christ on a daily basis.
It is rather like a marriage: a couple are thoroughly married at the point when they say, “I do!” and the minister pronounces them husband and wife and signs the marriage license. But they really have no concept at that point of all that being married means. The newlyweds and the couple celebrating their fiftieth anniversary are equally married in a legal sense, but in a relational sense, what a difference!
So we ought to be more trusting of those first tender responses to God’s call, and not discount them because at that time we did not fully know what being a Christian really means. All Jesus said to his disciples was, “Come, follow me!” The criterion was not whether they experienced a certain emotion or said the right words or followed a specific formula. What made them a disciple was that they left their nets and followed him.
So anxious Christians should not be so concerned about whether they fit into a certain mold or formula prescribed by some religious rite. Nor should they burden themselves with guilt or anxiety about their mistakes or failure to maintain their Christian commitment.
Rather they should focus on the genuineness of their response in saying “Yes” to Christ’s invitation, “Come, follow me.” If we have committed ourselves—to the extent that we know ourselves and understand ourselves—to God as he has made himself known to us, we have his assurance of our security as believers. If we have sincerely asked forgiveness for our wrong choices, we can trust God’s loving mercy toward us (Isaiah 55:7).
We can then involve ourselves in worship, study, prayer, ministry, and other activities that produce growth, resting on his power to do what he has promised. When doubts come, we can examine them carefully to see whether God is giving us a message about an aspect of our lives that needs his healing grace. We can do what is necessary to address that need, and then resolutely put away all anxiety and self-condemnation. We can be assured—
—If God is for us, who can be against us? Certainly not God, who did not even keep back his own Son, but offered him for us all! He gave us his Son—will he not also freely give us all things?...For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below—there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-32, 38).
or "do this", that is, partake of His body and blood, in remembrance of Him. This we do.
John 20:23 - Jesus says, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained." In order for the apostles to exercise this gift of forgiving sins, the penitents must orally confess their sins to them because the apostles are not mind readers. The text makes this very clear.
This is a pretty slippery slope. WHO is actually forgiving the sins? WHO can actually see into the heart of the person and know if they are repentant?
It's the same as Jesus telling the Apostles to go out and heal the sick and cast out demons. Was it really the Apostles doing the healing? Who has the power to heal? Who bore the stripes. Whose name is like no other?
To your own comment, the apostles are not mind readers. Many people will say things out of their mouth that don't reflect what is in their hearts.
Only our Lord can see into the hearts and minds of a person and impart forgiveness. Man can pray with someone, hear the confession, and then assure the person that when we confess our sins, GOD is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and GOD will cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
The power, and the glory, and the honor all go only to our Lord.
Nice article! But I believe Jesus said a lot more than that to His disciples.
Really? Did she die for you?
“Nice article! But I believe Jesus said a lot more than that to His disciples.”
I think the author knows and realizes that too, but since the focus of the article was on a specific subject, a 50-100 page dissertation was not called for nor required. Lighten up.
INDEED. Many good posts of yours here. Thanks.
Much appreciated the long one on confidence in The Lord and one’s relationship with Him.
LUB
The last gift Our Lord gave to us while hanging on the cross was for His Mother to be our Mother!
= = =
What a quaint mythological fantasy. Not what the Bible says, of course.
But that hasn’t stopped a whole industry built up around Mary. She must be so disgusted she rarely dares to look earthward.
What is new is that there are a lot of people who were (for lack of a better term) “social” Catholics who are now joining other churches. Many were not really Catholic to begin with. Much the same way that there are a lot of illegal aliens joining Evangelical churches. They aren’t so much leaving the Catholic church as they are having the opportunity to actually join ANY church in a meaningful way.
INDEED.
. . . As Scripture warns . . . in the last days . . . many . . . having
a form of Godliness
but
DENYING THE POWER thereof.
Sadly, even a lot of Pentecostal churches have gone that dry husk route.
The evidence is otherwise.
No doubt some will return for various reasons.
The evidence is that the vast majority will not.
Once one has a vibrant, POWERFUL, more or less face to face contact with Almighty God in the here and now . . .
dry husk forms of religion—just do not remotely measure up any more.
And dry husk religion is in all denominations and in almost all congregations.
Yeah, I guess glaring numbers and congregations rubbing one’s failures in one’s face could be a problem.
Especially with healed folks running around loose wondering why the RC edifice had never managed to touch their need in decades of ritual and dry husk forms of RELIGION vs RELATIONSHIP.
Ahhhh . . . .
so, the magicsterical and Mary have now declared latin sacred?
Yet anothe evolving trumped up “truth” from the ‘always perfect; always holy; always unchanging” RC edifice.
When was the last time you checked those statistics?
God NEVER, in NT times to this
gave
A MONOPOLY
ON CHRISTIAN RELATIONSHIPS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
to any HUMAN political organization.
He’d be a mighty foolish and puny God were he to be so unwise as to do so.
“I don’t particularly like or feel comfortable with Catholic charismatics.”
But God commands us (not suggests us to) that we love one another as Christians in spite of our differences. To disobey a command is rebellion and sedition.
I wonder how much this quaint fantasy has detracted and distracted folks from fellowship and dialogue
WITH JESUS?
Nice rationalization.
But the main issue is
The POWER AND LOVE OF GOD
VS
NO POWER AND TOO LITTLE ANYTHING CLOSE TO LOVE.
Not sure of your point but
a minority seems to be a thing of the past in region after region.
Hogwash. Not according to my Bible.
Given everything which has taken place in the Catholic Church in the last half century, the only surprise to me is that the exodus from the Catholic Church has not been greater.
= = =
Thank you.
Does that mean we can now lay to rest the straw dog that the RC edifice has always been . . . one gets the impression . . . from the moment Christ was conceived in the sacred womb . . . until now . . .
100% pure, 100% the same, 100% teaching the same fantasies; 100% unaltered doctrinally; 100% unaltered in terms of what Christian behavior is etc. etc. etc.
???
Never did believe that fantasy anyway.
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