Common Questions & Answers
There are few more confusing
topics, when Protestants and Catholics sit down to talk, than salvation. It
goes beyond the standard question posed by Fundamentalists: "Have you been
saved?" What the question also means is: "Don’t you wish you
had the assurance of salvation?" Evangelicals and Fundamentalists
think they do have such an absolute assurance.
All they have to do, at just one
point in their lives, is "accept Christ as their personal Savior,"
and it’s done. They might well live exemplary lives thereafter, but
living well is not crucial and definitely does not affect their salvation.
Kenneth E. Hagin, a well-known
Pentecostal televangelist from the "Word Faith" wing of
Protestantism, asserts that this assurance of salvation comes through being
"born again": "Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the
According to Hagin, there are many
things that this new birth is not. "The new birth is not: confirmation,
church membership, water baptism, the taking of sacraments, observing religious
duties, an intellectual reception of Christianity, orthodoxy of faith, going to
church, saying prayers, reading the Bible, being moral, being cultured or
refined, doing good deeds, doing your best, nor any of the many other things
some men are trusting in to save them." Those who have obtained the new
birth "did the one thing necessary: they accepted Jesus Christ as personal
Savior by repenting and turning to God with the whole heart as a little
child." That one act of the will, he explains, is all they needed to do.
But is this true? Does the Bible support this concept?
Scripture teaches that one’s
final salvation depends on the state of the soul at death. As Jesus himself
tells us, "He who endures to the end will be saved" (Matt. 24:13; cf.
25:31–46). One who dies in the state of friendship with God (the state of
grace) will go to heaven. The one who dies in a state of enmity and rebellion
against God (the state of mortal sin) will go to hell.
For many Fundamentalists and
Evangelicals it makes no difference—as far as salvation is
concerned—how you live or end your life. You can heed the altar call at
church, announce that you’ve accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, and,
so long as you really believe it, you’re set. From that point on there is
nothing you can do, no sin you can commit, no matter how heinous, that
will forfeit your salvation. You can’t undo your salvation, even if you
wanted to.
Does this sound too good to be
true? Yes, but nevertheless, it is something many Protestants claim. Take a
look at what Wilson Ewin, the author of a booklet called There is Therefore
Now No Condemnation, says. He writes that "the person who places his
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his blood shed at
"To deny the assurance of
salvation would be to deny Christ’s perfect redemption," argues
Ewin, and this is something he can say only because he confuses the redemption that
Christ accomplished for us objectively with our individual appropriation of
that redemption. The truth is that in one sense we are all redeemed by
Christ’s death on the cross—Christians, Jews, Muslims, even
animists in the darkest forests (1 Tim. 2:6, 4:10, 1 John 2:2)—but our
individual appropriation of what Christ provided is contingent on our response.
Certainly, Christ did die on the
cross once for all and has entered into the holy place in heaven to appear
before God on our behalf. Christ has abundantly provided for our salvation, but
that does not mean that there is no process by which this is applied to us as
individuals. Obviously, there is, or we would have been saved and justified
from all eternity, with no need to repent or have faith or anything else. We
would have been born "saved," with no need to be born again.
Since we were not, since it is necessary for those who hear the gospel to
repent and embrace it, there is a time at which we come to be reconciled to
God. And if so, then we, like Adam and Eve, can become unreconciled with God
and, like the prodigal son, need to come back and be reconciled again with God,
after having left his family.
You Can’t Lose Heaven?
Ewin says that "no wrong act
or sinful deed can ever affect the believer’s salvation. The sinner did
nothing to merit God’s grace and likewise he can do nothing to demerit
grace. True, sinful conduct always lessens one’s fellowship with Christ,
limits his contribution to God’s work and can result in serious
disciplinary action by the Holy Spirit."
One problem with this argument is
that this is not even how things work in everyday life. If another person gives
us something as a grace—as a gift—and even if we did nothing to
deserve it (though frequently gifts are given based on our having pleased the
one bestowing the gift), it in no way follows that our actions are irrelevant
to whether or not we keep the gift. We can lose it in all kinds of ways. We can
misplace it, destroy it, give it to someone else, take it back to the store. We
may even forfeit something we were given by later displeasing the one who gave
it—as when a person has been appointed to a special position but is later
stripped of that position on account of mismanagement.
The argument fares no better when
one turns to Scripture, for one finds that Adam and Eve, who received
God’s grace in a manner just as unmerited as anyone today, most
definitely did demerit it—and lost grace not only for themselves
but for us as well (cf. also Rom. 11:17-24). While the idea that what is is
received without merit cannot be lost by demerit may have a kind of poetic
charm for some, it does not stand up when compared with the way things really
work—either in the everyday world or in the Bible.
Regarding the issue of whether Christians
have an "absolute" assurance of salvation, regardless of their
actions, consider this warning Paul gave: "See then the kindness and the
severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s
kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too
will be cut off" (Rom. 11:22; see also Heb. 10:26–29, 2 Pet.
2:20–21).
Can You Know?
Related to the issue of whether
one can lose one’s salvation is the question of whether one can know with
complete certainty that one is in a state of salvation. This is a related, but
still distinct issue. Even if one could not lose one’s salvation, one
still might not be sure whether one ever had salvation. Similarly, even if one
could be sure that one is now in a state of salvation, one might be able
to fall from grace in the future. The "knowability" of salvation is a
different question than the "loseability" of salvation.
From the Radio Bible Class
listeners can obtain a booklet called Can Anyone Really Know for Sure?
The anonymous author says the "Lord Jesus wanted his followers to be so
sure of their salvation that they would rejoice more in the expectation of
heaven than in victories on earth. ‘These things I have written to you
who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have
eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of
God (1 John 5:13).’"
Places where Scripture speaks of
our ability to know that we are abiding in grace are important and must be
taken seriously. But they do not promise that we will be protected from
self-deception on this matter. Even the author of Can Anyone Really Know for
Sure? admits that there is a false assurance: "The New Testament
teaches us that genuine assurance is possible and desirable, but it also warns
us that we can be deceived through a false assurance. Jesus declared:
‘Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord" shall enter the
kingdom of heaven’ (Matt. 7:21)."
Sometimes Fundamentalists portray
Catholics as if they must every moment be in terror of losing their salvation
since Catholics recognize that it is possible to lose salvation through mortal
sin. Fundamentalists then hold out the idea that, rather than living every
moment in terror, they can have a calm, assured knowledge that they will, in
fact, be saved, and that nothing will ever be able to change this fact.
But this portrayal is in error.
Catholics do not live lives of mortal terror concerning salvation. True,
salvation can be lost through mortal sin, but such sins are by nature grave
ones, and not the kind that a person living the Christian life is going to slip
into committing on the spur of the moment, without deliberate thought and
consent. Neither does the Catholic Church teach that one cannot have an
assurance of salvation. This is true both of present and future salvation.
One can be confident of
one’s present salvation. This is one of the chief reasons why God gave us
the sacraments—to provide visible assurances that he is invisibly
providing us with his grace. And one can be confident that one has not thrown
away that grace by simply examining one’s life and seeing whether one has
committed mortal sin. Indeed, the tests that John sets forth in his first
epistle to help us know whether we are abiding in grace are, in essence, tests
of whether we are dwelling in grave sin. For example, "By this it may be
seen who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil:
whoever does not do right is not of God, nor he who does not love his
brother" (1 John 3:10), "If any one says, ‘I love God,’
and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom
he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen" (1 John 4:20),
"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his
commandments are not burdensome" (1 John 5:3).
Likewise, by looking at the course
of one’s life in grace and the resolution of one’s heart to keep
following God, one can also have an assurance of future salvation. It is this
Paul speaks of when he writes to the Philippians and says, "And I am sure
that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of
Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6). This is not a promise for all Christians, or
even necessarily all in the church at
There are many saintly men and
women who have long lived the Christian life and whose characters are marked
with profound spiritual joy and peace. Such individuals can look forward with
confidence to their reception in heaven.
Such an individual was Paul,
writing at the end of his life, "I have fought the good fight, I have
finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me
the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to
me on that Day" (2 Tim. 4:7-8). But earlier in life, even Paul did not
claim an infallible assurance, either of his present justification or of his
remaining in grace in the future. Concerning his present state, he wrote,
"I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby justified
[Gk., dedikaiomai]. It is the Lord who judges me" (1 Cor. 4:4).
Concerning his remaining life, Paul was frank in admitting that even he could
fall away: "I pummel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others
I myself should be disqualified" (1 Cor. 9:27). Of course, for a spiritual
giant such as Paul, it would be quite unexpected and out of character for him
to fall from God’s grace. Nevertheless, he points out that, however much
confidence in his own salvation he may be warranted in feeling, even he cannot
be infallibly sure either of his own present state or of his future
course.
The same is true of us. We can, if
our lives display a pattern of perseverance and spiritual fruit, have not only
a confidence in our present state of grace but also of our future perseverance
with God. Yet we cannot have an infallible certitude of our own salvation, as
many Protestants will admit. There is the possibility of self-deception (cf.
Matt. 7:22-23). As Jeremiah expressed it, "The heart is deceitful above
all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9).
There is also the possibility of falling from grace through mortal sin, and
even of falling away from the faith entirely, for as Jesus told us, there are
those who "believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away"
(Luke 8:13). It is in the light of these warnings and admonitions that we must
understand Scripture’s positive statements concerning our ability to know
and have confidence in our salvation. Assurance we may have; infallible
certitude we may not.
For example, Philippians 2:12
says, "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only
as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling." This is not the language of self-confident assurance.
Our salvation is something that remains to be worked out.
What To Say
"Are you saved?" asks
the Fundamentalist. The Catholic should reply: "As the Bible says, I am
already saved (Rom. 8:24, Eph. 2:5–8), but I’m also being
saved (1 Cor. 1:8, 2 Cor. 2:15, Phil. 2:12), and I have the hope that I will
be saved (Rom. 5:9–10, 1 Cor. 3:12–15). Like the apostle Paul I
am working out my salvation in fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), with hopeful
confidence in the promises of Christ (Rom. 5:2, 2 Tim. 2:11–13)."
[This section quoted from: Catholic Answers,
“Assurance of Salvation?” (
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