Posted on 05/12/2015 4:21:27 PM PDT by RnMomof7
Let us begin with a church history exam question. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (15421621) was a figure not to be taken lightly. He was Pope Clement VIIIs personal theologian and one of the most able figures in the Counter-Reformation movement within sixteenth-century Roman Catholicism. On one occasion, he wrote: The greatest of all Protestant heresies is _______ . Complete, explain, and discuss Bellarmines statement.
How would you answer? What is the greatest of all Protestant heresies? Perhaps justification by faith? Perhaps Scripture alone, or one of the other Reformation watchwords?
Those answers make logical sense. But none of them completes Bellarmines sentence. What he wrote was: The greatest of all Protestant heresies is assurance.
A moments reflection explains why. If justification is not by faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone if faith needs to be completed by works; if Christs work is somehow repeated; if grace is not free and sovereign, then something always needs to be done, to be added for final justification to be ours. That is exactly the problem. If final justification is dependent on something we have to complete it is not possible to enjoy assurance of salvation. For then, theologically, final justification is contingent and uncertain, and it is impossible for anyone (apart from special revelation, Rome conceded) to be sure of salvation. But if Christ has done everything, if justification is by grace, without contributory works; it is received by faiths empty hands then assurance, even full assurance is possible for every believer.
No wonder Bellarmine thought full, free, unfettered grace was dangerous! No wonder the Reformers loved the letter to the Hebrews!
This is why, as the author of Hebrews pauses for breath at the climax of his exposition of Christs work (Heb. 10:18), he continues his argument with a Paul-like therefore (Heb. 10:19). He then urges us to draw near in full assurance of faith (Heb. 10:22). We do not need to re-read the whole letter to see the logical power of his therefore. Christ is our High Priest; our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience just as our bodies have been washed with pure water (v.22).
Christ has once-for-all become the sacrifice for our sins, and has been raised and vindicated in the power of an indestructible life as our representative priest. By faith in Him, we are as righteous before the throne of God as He is righteous. For we are justified in His righteousness, His justification alone is ours! And we can no more lose this justification than He can fall from heaven. Thus our justification does not need to be completed any more than does Christs!
With this in view, the author says, by one offering He has perfected for all time those who come to God by him (Heb. 10:14). The reason we can stand before God in full assurance is because we now experience our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and bodies washed with pure water (Heb. 10:22).
Ah, retorted Cardinal Bellarmines Rome, teach this and those who believe it will live in license and antinomianism. But listen instead to the logic of Hebrews. Enjoying this assurance leads to four things: First, an unwavering faithfulness to our confession of faith in Jesus Christ alone as our hope (v.23); second, a careful consideration of how we can encourage each other to love and good works (v.24); third, an ongoing communion with other Christians in worship and every aspect of our fellowship (v.25a); fourth, a life in which we exhort one another to keep looking to Christ and to be faithful to him, as the time of his return draws ever nearer (25b).
It is the good tree that produces good fruit, not the other way round. We are not saved by works; we are saved for works. In fact we are Gods workmanship at work (Eph. 2:910)! Thus, rather than lead to a life of moral and spiritual indifference, the once-for-all work of Jesus Christ and the full-assurance faith it produces, provides believers with the most powerful impetus to live for Gods glory and pleasure. Furthermore, this full assurance is rooted in the fact that God Himself has done all this for us. He has revealed His heart to us in Christ. The Father does not require the death of Christ to persuade Him to love us. Christ died because the Father loves us (John 3:16). He does not lurk behind His Son with sinister intent wishing He could do us ill were it not for the sacrifice his Son had made! No, a thousand times no! the Father Himself loves us in the love of the Son and the love of the Spirit.
Those who enjoy such assurance do not go to the saints or to Mary. Those who look only to Jesus need look nowhere else. In Him we enjoy full assurance of salvation. The greatest of all heresies? If heresy, let me enjoy this most blessed of heresies! For it is Gods own truth and grace!
You didn't really challenge Verga...did you????chuckle..chortle LOL
It’s unsettling that someone would take different passages of Scripture and paste them together to make it look like its saying something Scripture never really said.
So is it really OK with you to peddle forgiveness for money?
That doesn’t mean that there were ONLY ten bad popes.
That’s just lists of the ten worst and if you take the time to read the lists, you’ll see that they don’t even agree.
I Love you...I have relatives and dear friends who are protestant and that changes nothing...Catholics are true Christianity...Protestants are either incomplete or in error and there is no challenging of that fact....you don't change the rules after 1,600 years and declare yourselves correct.....you aren't.
Okay... how about a challenge for you:
CCC 841 states that Roman Catholics worship the the same 'merciful God' as Muslims.
Muslims do not worship the One True Living Triune God; they worship a false god. Yet, the Roman Catholic Church states that Catholics and Muslims worship the same God.
So... do you follow the teaching sanctioned and approved by the Roman Catholic Church which states you worship the same false god as Mohammedans, or do you rebel against the Roman Catholic Church and actually worship the One True Living God?
Are you a good faithful Catholic (and thus assuredly apostate), or are you a Catholic heretic by going against "The Church"?
Hoss
No, while they are saved, they are not yet in Heaven and therefore not yet Saints.
Now that's rich. The "rules"?
That's just sad, especially coming from a member of a cult.
Hoss
Actually, it's not so much unsettling as it is an indicator that you're dealing with a Roman Catholic.
Hoss
That would be absolutely true which is why the Catholic Church NEVER borrows a communion wafer from a protestant "denomination" but rather uses a consecrated host from a Catholic Mass to display in the Monstrance.....Remember "THIS IS MY BODY"??? 4 really easy words.
Probably caused the loss of more souls that any other human in history.
Wow... I didn't realize Luther was omnipotent and sovereign. I mean, since Almighty God is the determiner of salvation, I thought he was the only one who determined who was saved or not.
Man... listen to a Catholic and learn something new everyday. Remember Elsie: Luther is omnipotent because he caused the loss of souls! Apparently, Catholics do not believe that God is omnipotent and sovereign.
I never knew those cultists were so smart.
Hoss
Your description of the Catholic Sacrament of penance is blasphemous at best and ignorant at least.....you know damned well that you cannot go to confession, ignore serious sin, say a few Hail Mary's, and be forgiven of anything....it is God who forgives the sin, the priest couldn't care less...and you think that you have fooled God????????Think again,you wasted your time and that of a priest with your childish nonsense.
Ooohhh..... lookeee here....
Someone is trying to manipulate women into silence by using Scripture to bludgeon them into submission with.
Like we’re all supposed to cower and say...”Oh no!! He quoted Scripture and since we’re all Bible literalists, we have to accept his misuse and misapplication of Scripture.”
I. Don’t. Think. So.
John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
John 10:25-30 Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.
1 Corinthians 1:4-8 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledgeeven as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among youso that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 1:21-22 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
2 Corinthians 5:4-8 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdenednot that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
Ephesians 1:13-14 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Colossians 1:13-14 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 2:13-14 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Colossians 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
1 Peter 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3156607/posts?page=313#313
2 Corinthians 1:21-22 Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
For which the Greek, from the Byzantine, is:
2Corinthians 1:21-22 ο δε βεβαιων ημας συν υμιν εις χριστον και χρισας ημας θεος ο και σφραγισαμενος ημας και δους τον αρραβωνα του πνευματος εν ταις καρδιαις ημων
The first word in bold above is bebaion, the idea of confirmation, frequently used in commercial settings to confirm a bargain. Which of course makes sense of the remaining terms used here, which are also elements of a secured contract.
The second word in bold above is sphragisamenos, being sealed is to be marked by the signature, signet ring, or other unique proof of identity, that we belong to God, and this sealing is done by God, who is the one taking action in this verse. We do not and cannot seal ourselves. We do not, by our own powers, have access to Gods signet ring.
The third bolded word above is arrabona, and indicates what we might loosely refer to as earnest money, but in Hebrew culture conveys more the idea of a pledge of covenant, a security given as a guarantee that the deal will go through, though we only receive part payment at the beginning. See ערב for the related Hebrew stem indicating pledge.
Interesting, isn’t it, that those who constantly appeal to works in Scripture at the ones who Jesus is always saying aren’t saved?
That was stupid and i had to scroll back and forth to read it...KISS
No one is, but if you can’t actually refute the argument at hand, it’s so much easier to change the topic and tilt at windmills.
I'll buy that!!
yeah...all 750 of them.
Catholics claim they are the pillar and foundation of the truth, but we Christians know that we have the fulness of truth both in Scripture and living within us.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.