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On a thread recently, a catholic apologist asked if Protestant salvation is just to escape judgment ... did I think of my immediate born from above as an escape judgment pass. I responded yes and was immediately told NO! you will not escape judgment. I missed an excellent opportunity to explain why I believe the born from above escape judgment. Allow me to here explain:

If I do not realize how hopeless is my state before a righteous God, because the laws of sin and death have convicted me of my helplessness, I will 'say the sinners prayer' without true repentance. Without real repentance I do have the broken and contrite spirit which God is seeking like a Physician seeking deadly diseases for which only He has the cure. The evidence of this shallow action is that I will be drawn right back into the world from which I tried by my own power to escape, for a season. If I am not convicted that my 'want to' is utterly condemned, I will hold on to the pride which tells me I'm doing pretty good at being good enough. There is no such thing as the flesh being good enough. No faithfulness to institutional rituals is good enough, no isolation from the world the flesh and the devil is good enough. I have nothing that cures the disease of sin I inherited from Adam.

Until I am totally convicted of my bankruptcy I will keep trying to write checks on my works, one way or another. BUT when I am convicted of my bankruptcy THEN the wealth of God's Grace is mine to hold to . And then, THEN I can say with all confidence that I have believed God and He has counted it for me righteousness. And the life lived thereafter will be a reflection of the life that God puts into the broken and contrite spirit who calls upon Him, "Lord, save me, I'm lost.

When we see people striving to be faithful to rituals and incantations and sacraments, trusting that faithfulness will eventually result in God gracing them with eternal life, we know such are still bankrupt without eternal life in them. The scene on the Day of Pentecost and in the House of Cornelius prove when the Holy Spirit comes into the believers, the broken spirits trusting in the Promise of God. Eternal life starts in the now, not at some ill defined future reckoning. Until the sinner (and we all are don'tchaknow) realizes the utter impossibility of working to achieve the necessary righteousness for eternal life, they cannot receive it. It is by Grace through faithing in Jesus Christ that we sinners receibe His Lifei n us.

TYPO! 'Without real repentance I do NOT have the broken and contrite spirit

The truth never suffers when the light of study is shined on it((((ping))))

In 81 ... I took out fire insurance .... I learned all the rest OJT

Thank you, brother

On a thread recently, a catholic apologist asked if Protestant salvation is just to escape judgment ...

The first or the second??

LOL!