salvation

[mike2theg]

Hey,

I'm a senior in college and I'm involved in several Christian groups here on campus. I always try to make sure I do things the "Catholic way" and represent the Church the best way I can. We're definitely a minority in the active Christian community.

One big struggle I've had is understanding the Catholic view of salvation and how other beliefs stand up to it. A lot of my friends are pretty fundamentalist (rapture-believing, etc.) and I'm not exactly sure what they believe. Some say that once you say a "sinner's prayer," you're saved no matter what. Others believe that if you don't act like a Christian after you did that, you weren't really saved in the first place.

How do I reply to this?

I decided to ask on here finally because we're helping out with a "Hell house." It's sort of a Christian haunted house. I'm not totally sure about the premise of the whole thing...it seems like they want to scare people into "getting saved."

I would really appreciate a comprhensive answer if anyone's not too busy...

Thanks!

[cappie]

I'm not sure this is what you want....

Catholics and Salvation:

Myth: Catholics believe in salvation by faith and good works. It is the AND part of the equation that puts them outside of being true Christians. It is by faith alone that we are saved.

The Truth of the Matter:

The Bible is specifically clear that "man is justified by what he does and not by faith alone" (James 2:24). Catholics do not have an equation or math formula for what good works a person must do to be saved. In fact the whole mentality of "faith and good works justifies a man" is a heresy when commonly understood by non-Catholics.

Catholics believe man is saved by "Faith working in love" (Galatians 5:6) and not in "faith alone". The faith alone doctrine states that a person has faith by the intellectual acceptance of Jesus Christ as one's personal Lord and Savior. While there is nothing wrong with doing this, it should be an everyday assent of the mind.

To Catholics, justification is by faith, a faith which is obediant to the will of God (Romans 1:5, 16:26). One which follows the teachings of Jesus to be baptized and reborn into the New Covenant, where salvation is found, through our one and only mediator of the New Covenant (1 Timothy 2:5), Jesus Christ. Good works are part of this faith, however, our faith should be a life of good works.

No Catholic "earns" heaven by one's own human merit. This is impossible for the "wages of sin is death" (Romans 3:23). By merit, no person earns salvation, with or without a intellectual acceptance of Christ as the Lord and Savior. The merit or good works a Catholic will discuss as part of the process of justification, to which James 2 refers, is condign merit, that merit which we participate in only through the grace of God and only through his strength. Something that is not of ourselves, but of God. Thus no Catholic would say properly "I am going to heaven because of my good works". If one obligates God to repay them for their works, the only obligation God can repay them with is condemnation.

St. Paul states that our works however "fill what is lacking in the cross" (Col. 1:24). St. Paul does not assert that Christ's sacrifice is not enough, but rather God calls us to "lift up our cross and follow Him"(Luke 9:23).

This leads us to a correct understanding of Catholic soteriology: Whether we do one good work, or one million good works is not the point. The bare bones of it is that we remain in the grace of God. That we "do not sin unto death" (1 John 5:16), that is willfully reject Christ in our actions through mortal sin. Thus it is not by faith alone but through a covenantal relationship through the blood of Christ that we are saved. In this relationship faith is not "alone".