ASSURANCEI 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, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” |
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ROME SAYSFrom The Defender Catholic: THE DEADLY SINS OF PRESUMPTION AND DESPAIRSalvation is not guaranteed! The Catholic Church teaches us that salvation was gained through the agonizing death of Jesus on the Cross, but it is not guaranteed to all people. Many fundamentalist denominations profess that Christ actually promised that Heaven is theirs in exchange for a remarkably simple act; they are only required at one point in their lives, to ‘accept Jesus as their personal Savior’. They might live an exemplary life thereafter, but living well is not crucial and it does not affect their salvation. These groups will quote Galatians 2:21; “The Son of God. Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” They see Christ as their personal Savior and therefore these words are seen as a guarantee of their salvation. The Catholic Church teaches that salvation depends on the state of the soul at the time of death. Christ has redeemed us, but this is not a guarantee of salvation; it is just a necessary prelude. Jesus did His part, now we have to do ours. In order to enter Heaven our soul must be in what the Church refers to as a state of grace; (sanctifying grace). Grave sin, also known as mortal sin, destroys sanctifying grace in the soul of the sinner, thereby causing the soul to be liable to condemnation to Hell for all eternity. The person who has been a lifelong sinner, yet repents on his deathbed and the saint who never committed a mortal sin will each gain heaven, though the sinner will have to undergo a period of suffering in purgatory as atonement for his sins. (The word purgatory is derived from the Latin purgatio, which means cleansing or purifying.) Only a purified soul may enter Heaven. Some might say that God is unfair by putting such an emphasis on our last moment in life, but we are granted many opportunities to repent of our sins during our lives. Grace is always available to us; all we have to do is reach for it. God could not make it any easier for us; He even allowed His only Son to be sacrificed for us, that we could achieve salvation. During the Protestant reformation the reformers saw justification as a mere legal act by which God declares the sinner to be meriting heaven even though he remains in fact sinful and unjust. Justification was considered a form of blanket, which covered all sins, and those who ‘accepted Christ Jesus’ would be saved. No mention was made of Catholic Church teaching which required that all mortal sins be confessed and repentance offered for them in order for salvation to be achieved. Fundamentalist teaching is that God ‘covers’ our sins so we can be saved, even with those sins on our souls. In his booklet called There is Therefore Now No Condemnation, Wilson Erwin writes: “…the person who places his faith in Jesus Christ and His Blood shed at Calvary is eternally secure. He can never lose his salvation.” This is the purest form of fundamentalist teaching, but is in direct confrontation with the teaching of the Church founded by the Son of God, Jesus Christ; the Catholic Church! Many Protestant denominations do not accept this concept but actually follow the lines of Catholic teaching on salvation. If we lead a sinful life in the expectation that we can repent at the end of our life and thus gain salvation we are guilty of the sin of presumption! It is also quite illogical to assume that we will be aware of our last moment on earth and risk our eternal future on this line of thinking, for we never know when “the Master will return.” Our Holy Mother Church teaches dogmatically that is sinful for us to rely solely on God’s mercy for salvation without our repentance. This is the most evil form of the sin of presumption. St. Peter’s Catechism under the heading SIN, states, “We sin by presumption when we trust we can be saved without our own efforts.” The Baltimore Catechism on Page 299, states “Presumption is a rash expectation of salvation without making use of necessary means to obtain it.” The Catholic Encyclopedia: “Presumption-The condition of the soul that, because of a badly regulated reliance on God’s mercy and power, hopes for salvation without doing anything to deserve it, or the pardon of his sins without repenting of them.” THE COUNCIL OF TRENT, SIX SESSION, CANONS ON JUSTIFICATION Canon 13-If anyone says that in order to obtain the remission of sins it is necessary for every man to believe with certainty and without any hesitation arising from his own weakness and indisposition that his sins are forgiven him, let him be anathema. Canon 15-If anyone says that a man who is born again and justified is bound ex fide (by faith) to believe that he is certainly in the number of the predestined, let him be anathema. Canon 16 –If anyone says that he will for certain, with an absolute and infallible certainty, have that great gift of perseverance even to the end, unless he shall have learned this by a special revelation, let him be anathema. Canon 24 –If anyone says that the justice received is not preserved and also not increased before God through good works, but that those works are merely the fruits and signs of justification received, but not the cause of its increase, let him be anathema.
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THE BIBLE SAYS
If I understand the Catholic position correctly, we must have a part in our salvation. Simply stated then, that is why Catholics are taught that they cannot have full assurance of their salvation. Since the official teaching of Catholicism is that the individual Catholic has a part in their own salvation, that is the reason why among other things, the purgatory is necessary. The fact of the matter is that Catholics must work to earn their salvation; therefore, they can lose their salvation. The Bible presents an entirely different picture of our standing before God. The Bible teaches eternal salvation. Furthermore, the Bible is quite clear that works have absolutely no part in the salvation experience. Isaiah 64:6 –“and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;” Ephesians 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 –“Not by 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 Ghost;” Romans 11:6 –“And if by grace, then it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.” I do not have to do any work for my salvation. I did not have to employ any my own efforts to aid or help the Lord out with my salvation. .Simply stated, all I had to do was to “believe.” Jesus Christ paid in full the penalty for my sins. John 10:30 –“When Jesus had therefore received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.” What was finished? II Corinthians 5:21 –“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Romans 3:24 – 25 –“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;” Romans 3:28 –“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” Ephesians 1:7 –“In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;” The Bible clearly teaches that the redeemed have eternal life; they will never come into condemnation, nor will they ever perish. The Bible teaches eternal salvation; furthermore, the Bible is quite clear that we can never lose our salvation (i.e. never fall from grace or lose our standing before God). John 10:27 – 29 –“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” I often ask my Catholic friends to give me the definition of eternal and also the definition of perish. I find usually they are reluctant to do so. Eternal means everlasting, never-ending, forever, without end. Perish means to become worthless, to decay, to be totally unprofitable, or to be dead. So in the above passage Jesus is clearly telling us that His sheep (i.e. those who have experienced true biblical salvation by grace through faith alone) have everlasting or never-ending life. Furthermore they will never be condemned, made worthless or spend eternity in hell. Romans 8:16 –“The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:” I John 5:11 –“And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” I 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, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” The word know means to have complete understanding or complete assurance. Therefore the above verse clearly tells us that we can no that we have eternal life. I know that I have eternal life and this life is in the Son of God. I know without any doubt that my sins have been washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am absolutely certain that I will go immediately to heaven when my life on this earth is over. Do I deserve this gift of eternal life? Absolutely not; all I deserve is hell. Can I keep myself saved? NOPE! God did the saving and God does keeping. Jude 24 –“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.” Nothing that any Catholic and say will ever convince me otherwise, God promised me eternal life; promise me that I would never perish; and promised me that I could know I was saved. What a tragedy it is that the Catholic Church pronounces anathemas on everyone who has been truly saved by God’s grace and has completed shorts of their salvation.
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