Posted on 10/28/2007 5:11:19 PM PDT by pinochet
I am a Catholic who is trying to understand Protestant history and teachings, in order to better understand the history of Christianity. There is one issue that I do not understand.
According to Protestant teachings, if a person becomes saved, are his future sins forgiven? Can a person lose his salvation? If not, can assurance of salvation become a license to sin?
If Ted Haggard had gone to be with the Lord early last year, while in the process of getting a "massage" from his male "friend", would he have gone straight to heaven?
Care to be a tad more thorough?
But is an issue that is of interest to most people here.
A CA Guy pretty well summed up my thoughts on this in post #2.
I will add that I have a very low opinion of those people that think being saved is a license to willingly sin further without repercussions.
What about people that haven’t been saved, but do not feel like sinning?
“If You Are Saved, Are Your Future Sins Forgiven?”
No. Then again, if haven’t yet comitted them....what is to forgive?
Just because one becomes saved, does not mean that you need not confess your sins, I have been a Christian many years and still cling to 1 John 1:9 like a drowning man to a life preserver.
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Doesn’t God already know what/where/when/how you are going to sin in the future? Even before you are born?
“If you are saved, then you won’t feel like sinning any more.”
Oh. My. Goodness. You didn’t REALLY mean to sound that silly did you?
“How many of your sins were in the future at the time Christ died? All of them.”
Good answer.
No...GREAT ANSWER!
Not true, if you are saved as a kid and try to sin no more it is one thing.
Now let’s say you found Christ as a child, but you go evil and start to kill a few people for no reason as an adult, we’ll unless you found Christ again, I do not think you are in good shape.
>>Your question brings me back to our Q&A sessions in Catholic school, back in the 3rd grade during catechism class<<
In Catholicism, you get stuck in purgatory, if you did not die in a state of grace. But the Protestants do not believe in purgatory.
Yes, that is the case.
Grace implies union with God through Christ. But this is an inherently unstable state in a mortal man, kind of like a radioactive isotope. You know it can’t last, the only question is when will it decay.
The bigger problem that I pointed to is self-deceit. Men believe they are saved, and believe they are no longer sinning, but looked at objectively this is not the case, and in fact, cannot be.
BTW, I am not exacatly a Christian, but I am pretty good at technical theology, both Protestant and Catholic. It is a series of one knotty problem after another, from Augustine to Aquinas to Martin Luther to today.
‘According to protestant teachings?’ Which protestants? Classical Lutherans? Calvinists? Zwinglians? Methodists of the sort who actually adhere to the ideas of the Wesleys? Methodists of the sort who don’t seem to have much by way of fixed doctrine? Mennonites? Baptists? (of which sort?) Pentecostalists? (again of which sort?) . . .
Each protestant is his own infallible pope, so if you ask enough questions, you’ll get as many different doctrines as there are protestants.
I was born and raised Catholic, but I married a Presbyterian and We attended service there. I have always considered it Catholic Light, with one third less guilt.
The blood of Christ cleanses all. However, there is one sin in the bible which is unforgivable.
That’s why we need the lord, because we are not perfect.
“Bah! I’ll trust in God’s mercy and the blood of Christ !!!”
Best plan I’ve ever heard of.
Of course He does. That's what Omnicscience is all about.
Yes.
Can a person lose his salvation?
Only if they commit the unpardonable sin
If not, can assurance of salvation become a license to sin?
The apostle Paul speaks about this in Romans 6
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. 19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. 20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. 21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. 22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
I’m with you, i. What we don’t know for sure about the details of the mind of God would fill libraries and kill billions. We take our best shot at doing what we honestly think we should, and trust that God will take it into account. We acknowledge that however the universe was created, it wan’t done by us, and we’re damn lucky to have it. We believe that something intangible connects all of us, past, present, and future, and we draw strength and meaning from that connection. Whatever the true nature of The Universe And Everything is, it is beyond the scope of our perception or comprehension to pretend that we can see it all. We give thanks for the possibilities laid before us, and pray for guidance and humility.
There is no Biblical basis for that.
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