Catholic can you lose your salvation




















What has he written? The text written up to this point includes the following commands. We must confess our sins. We must not be obsessed with material possessions. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. We must love one another. It is clear by reading 1 John in context that John was instructing his readers that they must love and obey God to inherit eternal life. Just like in the example mentioned earlier.

The host of the party wrote the map so that his friends would follow the instructions. The map does no good if the people do not follow the instructions. John writes with this same intention. He is authoritatively giving instructions to his readers. That is, we have to live obedient, godly lives to share in our inheritance of eternal life. Obviously, the things mentioned above confessing sin, loving one another, etc. Nobody says, "I am only going to confess my sins once or I am only going to love other people just at one point in my life.

Clearly 1 John does not prove the "once saved always saved" doctrine. This passage demonstrates the necessity of continuing to obey God and loving one another. With this in mind, look at the passage again. In fact, it strongly teaches against the idea. Fundamentalists often support their belief based on several passages that refer to salvation as a past event. For instance, Ephesians says, "even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ by grace you have been saved.

Fundamentalists understand this past tense use of salvation as scriptural support for their belief in eternal security.

The Fundamentalist is trying to base an entire belief by looking at a few passages while ignoring the rest of the Bible.

It is correct that salvation is in one sense a completed act, but this is only one aspect of salvation. Often overlooked by Fundamentalists are several passages that refer to salvation as a present and future event.

The ongoing and future aspects of salvation are also mentioned in scripture. In 1 Peter salvation is stated as a present tense event, "as you attain the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. If someone were to use only these passages to base a belief on, then they would think that salvation would never be complete because of the present tense treatment of salvation. In reality, we know that salvation will be complete someday.

Salvation is also taught as a future event. In Romans it states, "For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed" and in Matthew , "but whoever endures to the end will be saved. This is exactly the Catholic position. Fundamentalists often site John to defend the "once saved, always saved" doctrine. This verse says, "My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father's hand. At first glance, this verse seems to support the belief of absolute assurance of salvation. However, if you study the passage closely, you will see that Jesus uses present tense words in his statement.

Unfortunately, the Fundamentalist understands this verse to say, " My sheep heard my voice; I knew them, and they followed me. I gave them eternal life. In reality, the Bible clearly speaks of these words as on-going events. For example, following Christ is described as a daily process in Luke This verse states, "Then he said to all, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

If we do this, than nobody can take us from God. This is precisely what the Catholic Church teaches. The verse does not say, as Fundamentalist suppose, that we will never lose our salvation if we decide to stop following Jesus in the future. Romans , "for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

In other words, a Christian can say, "I believed on such-and-such day and was saved. The question is, "Is this how Christians are supposed to interpret the word, believe? For instance, Luke states, "they believe only for a time and fall away in time of trial. In summary, all Romans proves is that those who are current believers in Jesus are saved. This verse does not address those who believed at one time and fall away in the future. Another reason Fundamentalists hold to the "once saved always saved" belief is the "book of life" metaphor used in the Bible.

The Fundamentalist thinks that after he accepts Jesus, his name is eternally written in the book of life and therefore, he is saved no matter what. This is partially true. Scripture does speak of a book which is kept in heaven that has the names of all the righteous people in it. Everyone whose name appears in the book on the last day will be saved.

Only those will enter whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life" Revelation Eternal punishment results if your name is not written in the book of life. Fundamentalists often refer to the 'book of life' passages to support the belief in eternal security. As seen in the previous paragraphs, one can lose his salvation in the future. In Revelation it says, "The victor will thus be dressed in white, and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name in the presence of my Father and of his angels.

Once again, the Fundamentalist belief originates from a select number of passages without looking at the entire Bible. John , "Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me" For the Fundamentalist this verse means that we can never be rejected by the Father, and therefore, never lose our salvation.

While it is true that God will never reject us if we approach him with faith, it is not true that because of this we have an absolute assurance of salvation. This verse does not address the fate of a Christian who abandons his beliefs and turns away from God. This verse says that if you come to Jesus, he will not cast you out.

The Catholic Church fully indorses this belief. If anyone calls on the name of the Lord, the Lord will listen. However, the topic in question does not concern someone who repents and comes back to God, it concerns someone who decided to deny God. These are two separate sets of people. John deals only with the first group and only proves that the merciful Father accepts all that come to him. It does not say that a believer can not choose to leave.

John , "And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. The Catholic Church realizes that it is the Father's will that nobody loses his or her inheritance of eternal life. However, it is also the will of the Father that nobody commits adultery or steal. The truth is that many people do commit these crimes and turn their back on God. The fact that it is the Father's will not to lose anyone does not necessarily mean that they can not be lost.

Proof of this is found in the example of Judas, who was chosen by Jesus but still left him. This is seen in John , "When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled. Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number.

It is important to recall that the topic under discussion is if a person who truly believes in Christ can lose their salvation. Fundamentalists use this verse to show that only those who never believed initially will walk away.

However, a quick look at the context surrounding this passage reveals that the deserters that John is speaking of are not people who actually believed in Christ originally, but rather the deserters are referred to as anti-christs. The verse immediately before this passage says, "Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared.

Thus we know this is the last hour" 1 John John is not referring to the average Christian who abandoned their faith, rather he is referring to people who completely deny and reject Christ. In 2 Peter , St Peter writes, "For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. Peter is saying that it would be better to have not believed at all than to believe and then turn away! Similarly, in Heb it says, "For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt.

Even Jesus Himself unquestionably teaches that a believer can lose his salvation. For instance, in the parable of the sower and the seeds in Luke , He says, "And the ones seeds on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy; but these have no root, they believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.

In the parable of the Sheep and the Goats Matthew , Jesus again makes it perfectly clear that believers can lose their salvation if they do not do the works of charity that He himself calls them to.

Both the sheep and the goats are believers - both call Him, "Lord". But only the sheep go to Heaven. And to the goats, He reserves some of His strongest words in all of Scripture: "'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Protestants have proposed a variety of answers to these questions. Luther, based on the idea of justification by faith alone, held that it is possible for Christians to lose their salvation, but only through a loss of faith. In other words, only the sin of apostasy—the rejection of the Christian faith—would do this. Any other sins, even great ones like murder or adultery, would not. This view remains standard in Lutheranism today. However, some Protestants advocate an idea known as eternal security.

According to this view, if a person ever enters a state of salvation, he will remain in it for all eternity. It thus is not possible to lose salvation. This view was unheard of in Church history prior to the Reformation. The Freethinker. Related posts from Love, Joy, Feminism. Love, Joy, Feminism. Feminists, Repent! Pope lavishes praise on cardinal who remained silent IN January, , outrage was expressed in various quarters after Cardinal Philippe Op-ed: A Carefully Phrased Letter.

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