A young Baptist woman asked if I believed certain ones in my previous church affiliation (a heterodox Christian sect) would be saved.
"Sure," I replied. "They really believe what they're doing is right. I did, too."
"But do you think sincerity is really enough for someone to get into heaven?"
Her last question stirred me to further thought later on.
Her church believes in "once saved, always saved" -- that is, once you've "accepted Christ as personal Lord and Savior," you can never lose out on salvation no matter what you do.
Southern Baptists are very big into "grace" and "mercy." Even if a "truly saved" person dies immediately following a premeditated series of serious sins, then according to them, he will be saved since salvation is an irrevocable gift.
Naturally, "legalism" is the avowed enemy of Baptist thought. It strikes me as odd, then, that a good Baptist would revert to a legalistic approach salvation.
Let me explain.
The Baptist will say that nothing a person can do can qualify him for salvation. That would be legalism. Salvation is a freely given gift of God's love.
The Baptist will say that nothing a person can do can DISqualify him for salvation. That would be legalism. Salvation is a freely given gift of God's love.
But can a young person who died of starvation in a non-evangelized part of a Third-World country be saved? No, says the Baptist, because he did not explicitly, verbally confess Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
Where's the mercy in that? To believe God only bestows His freely given gift of love when one makes a knowledgable, audible confession of Jesus as Lord does not sound like grace, but an awful lot like legalism!
What says the Church? The Catholic believes baptism is necessary for salvation (cf. 1 Peter 3:21). But Catholic theology allows for God's working outside the boxes He created (the sacraments He instituted). Just as the thief on the cross was to be saved without baptism, so can other non-baptized individuals be saved under certain circumstances. There are such things as "baptism of blood" (martyrdom) and "baptism of desire" (invinsible ignorance) that effect the same results as sacramental water baptism.
Catholics are not so "legalistic" as some of its critics suggest, even though they rightly emphasize obedience and fidelity to the Gospel.
It is true that Paul wrote,
That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)But it is also true that Jesus said,
If you want to enter life, obey the commandments. (Matthew 19:17)These are not contradictory statements, or two different paths to God, but two sides of the same salvation coin. What the Holy Spirit has joined together, let no man separate. As far as salvation is concerned, to confess with your mouth is to walk with your feet, and vice versa.
Chapters one and two of Paul's epistle to the Romans explains how salvation may be granted to those who are ignorant, as well as some of those "in the know."
5 comments:
Darren, you are not righly divideing the truth. Romans 10:9 is speaking to primarily to the gentials. And Matthew 19:17 is speeking to the jews. Remember, the jews said," all these things we will do " or words to that effect. God knew they could not keep the commandments when he gave them to them. they are temporaraly set aside till all the gentiles come in. They will go to heaven when the 1000 years are finished, at the consumation. You see, the jews or israel, are called, then chosen, In Paul's letters we, the body of Christ, are chosen before the foundation of the world, then called,the only requirement is that we be sinners, [ which we all are ] israel has to do " their works " all the feasts, tabernacles, and holy days, to qualify " which they can't ", but they in no wise be left out, for all will be saved eventually.
So that I don't misunderstand, do you seriously mean to say that, for salvation, all a non-Jewish person needs to do is to be a sinner?
Can I break all the Commandments intentionally as a way of life and be saved?
I'd like you to explain what necessary things are expected of us before I can offer any thoughts of my own.
Read Gal 310,11,12.13 Gal 2:16,17,18,19,20,21, Read romans,1st and second corinthians,and galatians. Christ died on the cross while we were yet sinners. Sin past from adam to us,is God too weak to save us all. Is satan more powerful than God? All will bow the knee before God !! Does all mean all, or just some?? Have a good day
I'm not sure where to begin addressing your comments.
The passages you cite from Galatians are referring to distinctly Jewish or Mosaic laws. Those who thought these observances were all one needed for salvation were mistaken and needed to be corrected. It is through Jesus, the substance -- not Mosaic laws, the shadows -- that we attain salvation. The Mosaic law brings us to, and finds its ultimate fulfillment in, the Person of Jesus.
In his epistle to the Romans (both Jews and Gentiles), Paul said that it would be "the doers of the law who will be justified" (2:13), and that when Gentiles do by nature what the law requires, "They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus" (2:15-16).
From the context, it is plain that "the law" in this passage is referring to the moral principles of God that are reflected in (are the basis of) the Mosaic law and also found in the heart of every man. This does not include the practice of circumcision or festivals or new moons -- educative disciplines that were intended for Israel under the terms of the Old Covenant.
The Old Covenant is no longer in effect, so I don't believe that anyone -- including today's Jew -- has a divine mandate to observe distinctly "Old Covenant" laws.
I don't see how the first two or three chapters of Romans allow for two different ways of salvation. Either we choose to do right, or we choose to do wrong. One way leads to eternal life; the other to eternal damnation.
That's what Jesus taught and what Paul taught, for the New Testament Church is to go to ALL nations, "teaching them to observe all that I [Jesus] have commanded you" (Matthew 28:20).
"baptism of desire" (invinsible ignorance)
It had always been my understanding that Baptism of Desire specifically related to catechumens who died before receiving the Sacrament. That in effect they "desired" to be baptised and are joined to the Mystical Body of Christ through that desire. I had heard it was another example of Christ's triumph over death.
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