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CATH-39.TXT
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1989-06-28
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Answers by Bill Jackson, CHRISTIANS EVANGELIZING CATHOLICS, to NO "ASSUR-
ANCE OF SALVATION" by Karl Keating, CATHOLIC ANSWERS, Box 17181, San
Diego, CA 92117. Excerpts from the tract are in black; the answers are in
green.
Mr. Keating totally misunderstands the biblical basis for salvation.
He says,
They conclude that heaven is theirs in exchange for a remarkably simple
act. Christ has unlocked the gates of Heaven. He did his part and now we
have to cooperate by doing ours.
The Bible teaches that God does give Heaven as a free gift (Rom 6:23),
but that salvation was not procured by a re- markably simple act. That
salvation was purchased by the shedding of the life blood of our Saviour
upon the cross.
If it is true that Christ merely unlocked the gates of Heaven, it would
be necessary for us to do our part to get through those open gates.
However, the Bible clearly teaches us that "For Christ also hath once
suffered for sins that he might bring us to God." Jesus did unlock the
gate of Heaven, but then He came back to where I was as a poor lost
sinner and brought me through that open gate.
If our co-operation is necessary, then our work must be added to
Christ's work. If His work was infinite, we cannot add to it. If it was
finite, then any number of finite values added together can never equal
infinity.
We have to be spiritually alive at the moment of bodily death. True,
but the life God gives us is eternal life, a life that lasts forever. If
it is eternal, it will last to the moment of our bodily death.
You can be Mother Teresa, yet you will go to hell if you do not accept
Christ in the fundamentalists' sense
It is true that you can appear to be the greatest saint alive, whether
Catholic, Protestant or Hindu, and yet if you have not trusted Christ in
the Bible sense you are doomed for eternity. That is simply because Jesus
Himself said, "I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh to the
Father but by me." (John 14:6)
The reason is that "accepting Jesus" has nothing to do with turning a
spiritually dead soul into a soul alive with sanctifying grace.
I John 5:12, "He that hath the Son hath life: and he that hath not the
Son of God hath not life."
Karl begins one of his paragraphs with the bold heading, You Can't Lose
Heaven
The basis upon which that is true is that you did nothing to merit
Heaven, therefore your entrance into Heaven is based upon a different
foundation than your goodness. Since you didn't do anything to gain it,
you cannot do anything to lose it.
How can any fundamentalist know his salvation experience was real? I
John 5:11, "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal
life, and this life is in his Son."
Besides, there are verses that call the whole notion of assurance of
salvation into question. "I buffet my body or I, who have preached to
others, may myself be rejected as worthless"(I Cor 9:27). This follows the
well-known verses that speak of running a race, and the race, of course,
is the race of life, the finish line being entrance into heaven.
(A fundamentalist author) says that Paul "did not want to lose the
reward for service through failing to satisfy his Lord; he was not afraid
of losing his salvation." While that interpre- tation seems to strain the
passage a bit (read the whole of chapter 9 your- self), it is not entirely
unreasonable.
We challenge Karl to see what the Bible really says, and to look
honestly at the context and other passages where Paul mentions the race.
I Cor 9:27 says, "lest I myself should be a castaway". Then just using I
Cor 9 it is very reasonable that the Christian is correct, and when we
compare this with Paul's other writings, we see their conclusion is
inescapable.
Note Rom 9:16, So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
If the finish line is Heaven, then the Holy Spirit would have
contradicted Himself in Romans 9 and I Cor 9. We know that in other
places He has written of the necessity of wise Christian living in order
to be God's best. Another passage that clearly shows this not to be
gaining salvation is I Cor 3:15 where, after talking about the loss that
may be suffered by unwise Christian living, even if a man's work is burned
up, "he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."
Karl would not have been a normal R.C. aplologist if he had not
misquoted Php 2:12, "work for your own salvation." But Karl does admit
other translations say "work out" but concludes that "fear and trembling"
is not the language of self-confident assurance.
The worst part of this exegesis is to assume that a Christian ought to
desire "self-confident assurance." If my assurance of salvation were
determined by my achieving I would have none. The fact that I must stand
before my blessed Saviour one day and give an account of how I have lived
my life for Him makes me realize that the Christian life is serious
indeed. We are not participating in a three-legged race at a Sunday
school picnic. We are living a real life with a real foe, and we should
seriously consider the faithfulness of our walk with Him.
Karl also misquoted John 3:5. He said it says, that a man must be
reborn by water and the Holy Spirit.
Notice what the Bible says. Verse 3: Except a man be born again; verse
5: except a man be born (not re-born) of water and the Holy Spirit; verse
7: ye must be born again. No where is water said to be necessary in the
new birth.
"Are you saved? asks the fundamentalist. "I am redeemed" answers the
Catholic, "and like the Apostle Paul I am working out my salvation in fear
and trembling, with hopeful confidence - but not with a false assurance -
and I do all this as the Church has taught, unchanged, from the time time
of Christ."
The Christian answers with assurance, "Jesus loves me; this I know;
for the Bible tells me so" and he is perfectly willing to entrust his
future with the One Who loved him enough to suffer on Calvary that man
might be redeemed.
The Church might have arguments, but we say, "I need no other argument;
I need no other plea; it is enough that Jesus died, and that He died for
me."