And from my heart I CANNOT nor would I want to "come home" to the Roman Catholic Church. I cannot because I KNOW that Scripture tells me quite clearly that I CAN know I have eternal life and that my deeds are not what saves me. I have assurance of my salvation because the Holy Spirit has confirmed in my heart that I have heard the truth from Scripture. By going back to the RCC, I would have to give up this assurance because it teaches no person CAN know they are saved and won't know until they die and face judgment. But this is NOT what Scripture says and is why I have no desire to "come home". I already AM home and I AM part of the Body of Christ because I have received Him as Savior. I don't "reject" good works that God has prepared for us to do, but I see them in their true context - not as a means to merit the gift of eternal life.
The "heresy" here is in presuming that God does not reward those who diligently seek Him - something He DID promise to do. The heresy is in denying that God wants us to have the assurance of our salvation which He offers to us as a gift through His grace and which we receive by faith alone. The heresy is perverting the Gospel of grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone and making salvation dependent upon the works done in the flesh and calling it "cooperating with God's grace". The heresy is in calling everyone who disagrees with the Roman Catholic Church a heretic and presuming Scripture is not perspicuous or plain to the understanding especially because of clarity. Irenaeus said:
stpio, remember, we are only witnesses. it is ironic that someone would quote Irenaeus, and yet reject the Faith that Irenaeus believed:
And when we come to refute them, we shall show in its fitting-place, that this class of men have been instigated by Satan to a denial of that baptism which is regeneration to God, and thus to a renunciation of the whole [Christian] faith. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book One, Ch. 21)
For as we are lepers in sin, we are made clean, by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord, from our old transgressions; being spiritually regenerated as new-born babes, even as the Lord has declared: Except a man be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Ibid., Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus, Ch. 34
note Irenaeus states “instigated by Satan to deny baptism...” hmm....