Posted on 05/15/2014 8:58:50 PM PDT by Salvation
But not as meaningless as yours when you put down Catholics.
Peter says.....Acts 4:11-12 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
It's through the head, not the body.
Besides, you can't have it both ways.
Either salvation is through the Catholic church period, and nobody is saved outside of it. Period.
Or salvation is possible outside the Catholic church, at which point, no Catholic can tell anyone they have to go through Catholicism to be saved.
The pillar and foundation are not the thing that pillars and foundations support. What they support is separate in nature from them, even though connected.
The church is not the truth. The word is truth. It's in your Bible.
John 17:17 Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth.
And Jesus is truth.
John 14:6 Jesus saith to him: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me.
Either salvation is through the Catholic church period, and nobody is saved outside of it. Period.
oh wait, nevermind I thought you were having a Damascus moment there.
What difference it makes has to do with integrity.
What I see is that accuracy and honesty apparently mean little to Catholics.
Preach it brother.
Great post.
Show me where I put down Catholics.
Post numbers please.
If you’re going to make accusations about someone, you need to back it up, or for the record, if you don’t, it will be proof to anyone reading that the accusation is false and all you are doing is bearing false witness.
Every post that you have ever replied to from me has been a putdown of the Catholic Church. I have no intention of going back and listing all the posts. It is all of them. Every last one of them. You have never replied to any post concerning Catholicism in a positive manner. When you weigh in it is the same negative putdowns. It is as certain as the sun coming up in the morning.
I can’t remember ever having a response from you before. If I have and I have forgotten, my apologies. The reason I say this is because your response is one that came from reading what I wrote and responding with a thoughtful and caring answer. Thank you for that:)
And thank you for allowing that the point I was making is reasonable given the Scripture I offered.
I agree that we cannot save ourselves. God is our Creator and the power to save is His alone. Praise God that He sent Jesus and we believe, for it is His will and not ours that has led us to the Truth.
God’s seal is His promise of eternal life with Him if we live faithfully. That is why we believe Jesus when He says, If you remain in me, I will remain in you. We know His words are true because He was given as a first installment on that promise. Again, Praise be to God.
What I wrote about the OSAS doctrine I take to be more a caricature than a straw man. I have no doubt that there are protestants who believe this which is why they are secure in their sins. I also have no doubt that there are Catholics who believe that they are saved merely because they attend Mass every Sunday.
****Real faith makes you a new creation in Christ. You change. You really do become a new person. You don’t ever just stop with saying some magic set of words and that’s it. Those words, Paul says, come from a heart that really believes, and if you really believe that Jesus is Lord, you cannot help but act on that belief. You change. Old lusts literally die. You get a whole new set of motivations. You love God, you want always to please Him. You begin to love others in a new way. There is healing, reconciliation, peace, a new way forward. It’s amazing. ****
I believe this wholeheartedly for I have seen it in my own life. What I find interesting is the phrase that one cannot help but act on that belief. That is what the Catholic Christian believes also. We act out of love for Jesus and through the prompting of the Holy Spirit. But, again, it is an act of the will.
St. Paul uses the analogies of a soldier and an athlete to convey what he means when exhorting us to train our minds and our bodies to love God and follow His commands. In Romans 7, he explains that the Law did not cause sin, rather, it reveals it to us so that by our love for Jesus we are repentant and do not desire to remain in sin.
That is why he is anxious to die and be with the Lord. Once we are out of the body, we no longer have a desire to sin.
This is all an act of our will. We must be vigilant and constant in our protection of our souls, leaving behind our old lives and clinging to the new. Paul warns us to eshew the company of non believers and unrepentant sinners. He urges us to quell the desires of our body and replace them with the love of Jesus.
We battle against one who hates us and wishes us harm. We must stay as close to Jesus as we can in order to defeat that battle within us and the closer we are to Jesus, the more we love as He loved, the easier the victory.
Jesus has won the ultimate battle and secured the victory of salvation for those who believe and ACT ON THAT BELIEF.
Interesting that you are responding to a post from one thread in a different thread.
*****It’s through the head, not the body.*****
Salvation is through Jesus, the head of the body which is the Church. He founded His church to spread the Good News to all the world, making disciples of all nations and baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Deny it if you will, hate it if you must, but the truth is that the KNOWLEDGE Jesus and the assurance of salvation through Jesus came to you through the Church.
Actually, what is most certain is that the Roman Catholics on FreeRepublic will continue to complain and misrepresent when those of us (that hold the truth of Scripture over tradition) make a representation with which they do not agree. It is difficult to argue with close-minded individuals who have been indoctrinated all their lives. They will incessantly continue to post endless attempts to proselytize and make a knee-jerk reaction when they are called for it. They are not unlike the Muslims with their strict adherence to the teachings of their leaders, even when it requires them to depend on membership in their group for any hope.
The Roman Catholic organization cannot withstand a proper exegesis of Scripture, so it demands strict adherence to its' cathechismal teachings, which too often are at odds with God's Words. It doesn't matter that most of it made up to keep their people from knowing how easy it is to find salvation. They want to (like Peter) make the people follow after manmade traditions which defy the simplicity of the Gospel. They want to put their trust into their own hands (and the hands of theircult leaders) and take away the role of the Holy Spirit!
Romans 4: 13 It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, 15 because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.
1 Timothy 4: 1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3 They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
6 If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. 7 Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.
Deny it if you will, hate it if you must, but the truth is that the KNOWLEDGE Jesus and the assurance of salvation through Jesus came to you through the Church.
KNOWLEDGE *of* Jesus
God has answered all my prayers, sometimes the answer was yes, and other times it was no.
Now don’t go moving the goalposts here. That lacks integrity.
I see what’s going on.
You switched it from *putting down Catholics* to *putting down the Church*.
Not the same thing. Show me where I put down Catholics, as in the individuals, as you initially accused me of doing.
No, I'm not. I responded to your comment in post 222. Go back and read it. You're the one who made the comment about the head and the body.
Aside from the fact that no Catholic I have ever met has assurance of their salvation, it is simply not true that the Catholic church gives anyone any assurance of salvation.
The assurance we have of our salvation if through the Holy Spirit and from God Himself when He breathed out Scripture and told us so Himself.
Ah, my mistake. I have confused two different conversations. Sorry for the mistake.
“What’s not in the Bible? Luther’s doctrine of the Bible ALONE as the sole rule of faith.”
Ah, Aquinas, you didn’t look too hard. The doctrine of sola Scriptura states that the Inspired Scriptures are alone authoritative and sufficient for ever matter of salvation and Christian maturity.
What isn’t in the Scriptures is sola ecclesia.
Well, living among and worshiping with Catholics every day, I find that most are confident that God’s promise to them will be fulfilled.
Catholics do not run around scared all the time that they are not going to be saved. That is a fallacy. What Catholics do however, is constantly take stock of their lives and their faith striving always to remain in Christ and to obey His commands.
We do not live in fear, we live in faith.
The more you post such desperate propaganda then more absurd your defense becomes. The fact is that Rome has doctrinally changed under the premise of interpretation, and the SSPX and sedevacantists have enough sense to see that, while she has even more radically changed based upon the Scriptural criteria for what constitutes what anyone believes. And which condition is not the first time.
RCs who deny this (not all do) are simply living in denial, and all the irrelevant damage-control ranting about liberal Prots will not change that.
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