Providing definitions only reinforces my posting. However, were Scriptures the only source of Truth and the flawed translations within Strong's Concordance (G1680) of any concern to me I might have taken your input seriously.
"SPE SALVI facti sumus”—in hope we were saved, says Saint Paul to the Romans, and likewise to us (Rom 8:24). According to the Christian faith, “redemption”—salvation—is not simply a given. Redemption is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present: the present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey. Now the question immediately arises: what sort of hope could ever justify the statement that, on the basis of that hope and simply because it exists, we are redeemed? And what sort of certainty is involved here? - Pope Benedict XVI Spe Salvi
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to convert your otherwise wasted bandwidth into a teaching moment.
Peace be with you
So, should we believe what Pope Benedict says or the Holy Spirit according St. Paul?
Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.) (Romans 8:18-25)
Verses 24, 25. - For by (or, in) hope we were saved; not are saved, as in the Authorized Version. The aorist ἐσώθημεν, like ἐλάβετε in ver. 15, points to the time of conversion. The dative ἐλπίδι, which has no preposition before it, seems here, to have a modal rather than medial sense; for faith, not hope, is that whereby we are ever said to be saved. The meaning is that when the state of salvation was entered upon, hope was an essential element in its appropriation. A condition, not of attainment, but of hope, is therefore the normal condition of the regenerate now; and so, after shortly pointing out the very meaning of hope, the apostle enforces his previous conclusion, that they must be content at present to wait with patience. (Pulpit Commentary)
Well thank God for God, he answered that question just a couple of verses away from where your pope dropped onto the page...
Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Rom 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Rom 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Rom 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Now if you nor your pope have that confirmation from the Holy Spirit, You'd probably ought to do some soul searching...WE, have that confidence and confirmation...
You may ask, how can we have that confirmation and you don't??? Forget about Tradition and:
Joh 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
We ARE, right now, children of God...Heirs of God...Not will be, or hope that some day we will be...ARE...Right Now...
Heb 6:18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
Heb 6:19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
Our hope is not a wishy-washy, maybe, if I'm good enough, someday, dangle the carrot kind of hope...Our hope is an anchor...It is sure and it's steadfast...
Now we haven't seen the end result even tho we know what it is...So we have confident, assured hope...
Like if you pick the car of your dreams off the showroom floor...You have a good job, a great credit history and a friend of yours put down a hefty down-payment for you...The salesman even hands you the keys and you put them in your pocket...
Now, you have to sit there and wait for the loan to clear the bank...
You sit there and think to yourself; 'I sure hope the loan clears...I hope the fax machine doesn't break...You know the loan will go thru...The car dealer knows it...The bank manager knows it...But until you actually see it, it's a confident expectation, HOPE...
"SPE SALVI facti sumus”—in hope we were saved
The actual verse says,
Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
We were not saved in hope...We ARE saved BY hope...