about Salvation

SALVATION

Acts 4:12-“Neither is there salvation in any other:  for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

ROME SAYS

The New Catholic Dictionary defines salvation as follows:  “Latin:  salvare, to save.  In scriptural language, the transference from straightened circumstances and other evils into a state of freedom and security.  As sin is the greatest evil, Scripture uses the word mainly in the sense of redemption and liberation from sin and its consequences.  In Saint Paul‘s Epistles ‘salvation’ usually denotes deliverance from final wrath, as distinguished from ‘reconciliation’ which demotes liberation from present wrath.”

We find the following statement in the findings of Vatican Council II which clearly spells out Rome’s position.  “For it is through Christ’s Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained.  It was to the apostolic college alone of which Peter is the head, that we believe that our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant, in order to establish on earth the Body of Christ into which all those should be fully incorporated who belong in any way to the people of God.” (Decree on Ecumenism, chap. 1, 3 p. 415)

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994 Addition, the following position of the Catholic Church is clearly stated.

171 The Church, “the pillar and bulwark of the truth,” faithfully guards “the faith which was once for all delivered to the Saints.” She guards the memory of Christ’s words; it is she who from generation to generation hands on the apostles’ confession of faith. As a mother who teaches her children to speak and so to understand and communicate, the Church our Mother teaches us the LANGUAGE of faith in order to introduce us to the understanding and the life of faith.

846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the church which is his Body: Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a Pilgrim now on Earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church sums it up thusly:  980-It is through the Sacrament of Penance that the baptized can be reconciled with God and with the Church.  This Sacrament of Penance is necessary for salvation for those who have fallen after Baptism, just as Baptism is necessary for salvation for those who have not yet been reborn. 

 1497-Individual and integral confession of grave sins followed by absolution remains the only ordinary means of reconciliation with God and with the Church.

THE BIBLE SAYS                       

I have studied all of Saint Paul’s Epistles and I just don’t seem to find the teaching espoused by the Roman Catholic Church.  I do however, find many passages that indicate when a person experiences salvation by grace through faith plus nothing, they are reconciled to God for all eternity.  For instance we clearly see the following:  Rom. 1:17- “The just shall live by faith.”

Rom. 3:28- “A man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”

Rom. 5:1- “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Eph. 2:8,9- “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Titus 3:5,6-“Not be works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit; which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.”

Heb. 11:6- “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.”

The other New Testament writers also have much to say about eternal salvation.  We find such passages as:  Act 13:39- “And by him all that believe are justified from all things.”

John 3:16- “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

John 3:36- “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.”   After a careful study of the Scriptures, we must conclude that salvation is strictly a one time event that occurs when we simply trust the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive us of our sins and give us eternal life.  We are clearly told in Eph. 1:7- “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;”  Furthermore, the Scriptures are emphatic in the fact that we can KNOW that we have been saved and therefore have eternal life

1 John 5:13- “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life life and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”

Heb. 5:9- “And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;”

Heb. 9:12- “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”  The bottom line is that salvation is not in a Church; rather in a person, the LORD JESUS CHRIST.

Nowhere in the New Testament do I find even one verse that teaches that baptism is necessary for salvation.  Rather, we are taught that baptism comes after we are saved (believers baptism).  In Acts 8, the Ethiopian Eunuch is baptized after he made a profession of faith.  Also in Acts 16, we clearly see that the jailor is baptized after he is saved.  In verse 30 he asks the question, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  The

Apostle Paul answers the question in verse 31, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”  Paul certainly did not state that the jailor had to be baptized to be saved, JUST BELIEVE.  He was not baptized until verse 33.

Roman Catholics think that they have a verse that teaches baptismal regeneration.  In 1 Peter 3:21 we read, “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:”  In order to properly understand this verse, we need to also look at the preceding verse 3:20- “Which sometimes were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”  According to verse 20, the waters of the flood lifted Noah and his family up above the waters of judgment.  He was saved as by water and not by being baptized.  Notice the word like in verse 21.  In a like manner, the resurrected Christ lifts us up above his judgment.  No water is applied and therefore, we must conclude that it can’t mean water baptism.  Finally, the part of verse 21 that is in parenthesis is a response and clearly states that the baptism did not put away the filth of the flesh of sin; therefore, not baptismal regeneration.