Posted on 06/17/2008 7:55:24 AM PDT by NYer
When I was in law school, I had a classmate named Barry (not his real name). At the time, I was not practicing the faith and by no means was a paragon of virtuous living. Despite my own low standards, I thought Barry’s carousing lifestyle crossed the bounds of propriety. He even confided to me that while he was home one weekend he made his girlfriend procure an abortion, because he was not willing to take responsibility for his actions.
One day, months later, Barry out of the blue told me, “It’s time for a revival.” It was only then that I learned that he was a part-time preacher who from time to time would go barnstorming through Missouri and Arkansas, inviting people to become “saved.”
I was shocked. I admitted that I had no room to talk, since in my estimation I was no longer a Catholic or even a Christian. Even so, the disparity between Barry’s faith and his ongoing debauchery confused and scandalized me. He eventually explained that I had to learn to separate faith from daily life. I told him–with less refinement and charity than I’d use today–what I thought of a religion I could test drive but not take home. My burning intuition was that a religion that did not affect who I was and how I lived was not worth my time.
An analogous situation arises today in the context of funerals. As many of us know, the dominant mindset is that the deceased is “in a better place,” and thus the funeral rite itself becomes nothing other than a mini-canonization.
Assuredly we entrust the deceased to the mercy of God, who alone judges hearts. We also must console those who are mourning, offering them solid grounds for hope that their departed loved one is indeed with the Lord. In this regard, it is entirely fitting to recall the good deeds and accomplishments of the deceased to buoy our hope in his or her resurrection.
Yet the current trend goes even further. Our contemporaries assume the deceased is in heaven, so the only real concern is helping friends and family cope with the temporal loss. This approach effectively does away with the need to pray and offer sacrifice for the deceased, which Scripture describes as a “very excellent and noble” practice (cf. 2 Mac. 12:43; Catechism, no. 1032). It also derails a teachable moment: The reality of death affords all of us the opportunity to consider our own mortality and thus seek to be in right relationship with God. An objective observer at many funerals today could easily conclude that it really doesn’t matter how one lives, because everyone’s eternal fate seems to be the same.
Both my encounter with Barry and the experience at many funerals today reflect the error of presumption, which takes many forms (cf. Catechism, no. 2092). One form of presumption is the timeless heresy of Pelagianism, which holds that happiness is attainable by merely human effort, without the necessity of grace. This is manifested today by those who place all their hope in technological progress. Another example of presumption, commonly seen at funerals, is the attitude that in the end God will forgive us irrespective of our cooperation with grace. Following this view, heaven is the inevitable and more or less universal sequel to this life.
Christian fundamentalism is yet another form of presumption. Granted, Barry’s case is an extreme example of the “once saved, always saved” mentality. Most Bible Christians would be aghast at Barry’s lifestyle. Further, they rightly affirm in the midst of our largely secular and indifferent society the centrality of our faith in Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 4:12; 1 Cor. 3:11). Even so, the necessity of a “born again” experience is often explained in a way that leaves no room for human freedom. Once “saved,” the individual can’t “lose” his salvation, even through mortal sin. (Click here for CUF’s FAITH FACT entitled “Persevering to the End: The Biblical Reality of Mortal Sin.”)
“When will I come to the end of my pilgrimage, and enter the presence of God?” This antiphon, taken from Monday Morning Prayer, Week II in the Liturgy of the Hours, summarizes the proper attitude of the Christian in this life. This attitude can be summed up in one word: hope.
Once Saved Always Saved?
• We must persevere "to the end" (Mt. 10:22; 24:13) "in the kindness of God" (Rom. 11:22) in order to reign with Christ (2 Tim. 2:12).
• Scripture mentions several cases of Christians who have fallen away through sin (e.g., 1 Tim. 5:8; Heb. 6:4-6; Jas. 5:19-20; 2 Pet. 2:20-21).
• Saint Paul, who had one of the most dramatic and profound conversions in 2,000 years of Christianity, writes, "I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified" (1 Cor. 9:27).
• Saint Paul further advises those who are already Christians to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12).
• Christians are called to cultivate the theological virtue of hope, which is the confident expectation of divine blessing and eternal life with God (Catechism, no. 2090).
• Hope is not based on our own strength or ability to resist temptations, but on the mercy and goodness of God poured out upon us by the Holy Spirit (Catechism, no. 1817; cf. Rom. 5:5).
Here is the key clarification. "Assurance is of the essence of believing in Jesus for everlasting life. That is, as long as a person believes in Jesus for everlasting life, he knows he has everlasting life (John 5:24; 6:35, 47; 11:27; 1 John 5:9-13)."
In other words until a person believes that what he has received from the Lord Jesus is permanent and cannot be lost, whether he understands that as eternal life, salvation or living forever with Him in His kingdom, he is not yet born again. A person cannot believe in Christ alone for his eternal destiny and also believe that he can do something to keep it since he didn't earn it in the first place.
Let's say you are witnessing to someone and he indicates that he has come to faith in Christ as a result of what you said. To make sure he really got it, you ask him a diagnostic question: "What if you leave here and you fail to live your life for Christ; you don't join and attend a church; you don't read the bible; and instead you become an alcoholic and a womanizer and then next year you commit suicide? What would your eternal destiny be then?" If the person sad, "Oh well, then I'd go to hell," you would know that the person didn't understand. By his death on the cross the Lord Jesus took away the sins of the world (John 1:29; 1 John 2:2).
Sin is no longer an issue. Works is no longer the issue. Life and death is the issue. Once a person believes in Jesus for eternal life (John 3:16; 1Tim 1:16), they know they have eternal life.
They know falsely. It depends what one does with his belief (Matthew 25, Apoc. 22:12, Romans 2:6-9, 1 Cor. 3:9-17, James 2:17-26, 2 Peter 1:2-1).
Huh? Sin is very much an issue. Heb. 9:12 tells us that Christ's sacrifice secured our redemption, but redemption is not the same thing as salvation. We participate in and hope for salvation. Our hope in salvation is a guarantee if we are faithful to Christ to the end. But if we lose hope and fail to persevere, we can lose our salvation. Thus, by our own choosing (not by God's doing), salvation is not a certainty.
I understand that they have pride in their particular belief system, but they need to remember that Jesus looked upon pride as a sin as it produces a persecuting and contentious spirit, just like what we are seeing coming out of the Catholics lately. Geez..why can't we all take charge of our own individual souls (Catholics can hand theirs over to the Pope if they choose), just agree to disagree and let God sort it out in the end?
True believers hang in there. Period. No exceptions.
As an example, Do YOU intend to stop believing?
For this Christ left us with the Sacrament of Penance (John 20:22).
That is a rather nebulous statement; can you be more specific by citing an example of Catholic tradition?
Even true believers can stumble and fall, like Judas. As Paul reminds us in Romans 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?
1 John 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. 7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
What Divides Catholics and Protestants?
There are many differences in the belief systems, some on the Catholic side are not considered Biblical by non-Catholics, myself included. However, lest I be accused of Catholic bashing, which is certainly not my intent, I agree with the following statement in the article...
Differences aside, Protestants and Catholics do share several core beliefs including the Trinity, the deity of Jesus, and the fact that he was sinless, that he died on the cross for man’s sin and rose from the dead and ascended to heaven.In light of that, I just don't understand the recent vitriol coming from the Catholic side of the fence, it seems to be increasing.
I have taken charge of my own soul and whether or not I am saved isn't up to interpretation by the Catholic authorities or any other Church for that matter. I have a personal relationship between myself and Jesus Christ and no one, especially a mere mortal (of which the Pope is included), can tell me that won't get me to my heavenly reward.
Anyone up for a round of Kumbaya? ; )
Perseverence = saying the Rosary 15 minutes a day...
...What a wonderful consolation to know that we can be assured of salvation by giving just fifteen minutes a day to praying the Rosary....
Are you referring to a specific verse? What document are you quoting from?
The is the first general epistle of St John.
Of course, -- but they do so not merely because they have an intellectual assent to the Gospel but because having believed in the Gospel, they also make a conscious free-will effort to obey it in their works, and seek absolution from the Church when they fall. We are not saved by faith alone, the Holy Scripture teaches.
That’s your idea of the process. The point is that they come out the other end having persevered.
If we had a continuum that at one end says 100% God and the other end says 0% God, then you have them on the continuum somewhere in the middle.
I’d have them closer to the God end. But that’s just us talking process. Some have it 100% God and 0% human.
The bottom line remains that they come out the other end on the good side.
The Scripture wouldn’t give us lesson after lesson of forgiveness of sin and perseverance if nothing were required of us but to say “Lord, Lord” once, so these 0% percenters haven’t read the Scripture very closely, if at all.
Just because a person believes in imputation does not mean they don’t also believe in obedience.
They are not mutually exclusive concepts.
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