Are you 100% sure you're going to heaven?

[tvknight415]

Ezekiel 33:13 (RSV): “Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered; but in the iniquity that he has committed he shall die.” Seems a lot of Christians (Protestants AND Catholics) don’t heed that warning.

Jesus offers a way that a person may KNOW that their sins are forgiven, which is John 20:23 (RSV): “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Of course, the only way that one with that authority can know what sins to forgive or retain, is for someone to tell them what sins they’ve committed.

Once the sins have been forgiven, then the other half of God’s warning in Ezekiel comes into play. Ezekiel 33:15 (RSV): “if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, committing no iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.”

Should one fall again according to Ezekiel 33:13 and no longer be righteous in God’s sight, he or she may still seek forgiveness of those new sins in the same manner of John 20:23, and be restored.

But, they also have to put their faith into action. Matt 25:32-46 (RSV): Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. 34 Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? 38 And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? 39 And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ 46 And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Of course, that was James warning in 2:17 (RSV): “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”

So, I’d ask the person if they know for sure which verse of Ezekiel 33 they will fall under when they go to see the Father and stand in judgement; 13 or 15, and if they will be a sheep or a goat.

 

[Robyn_p]

What about people who have heard the Gospel, but never received the grace to believe it even though they wanted to?

God never denies anyone the grace needed to be saved.

If someone doesn’t get into heaven, it’s from resistance to grace on their own part. Not any lack of giving on God’s part.

 

[Robyn_p]

How can we respond to some of these scripture passages this protestant site gives about salvation? Particularly the snatching from his hand part

gotquestions.org/assurance-salvation.html

From the link

God wants us to have assurance of our salvation. We should not live our Christian lives wondering and worrying each day whether or not we are truly saved. That is why the Bible makes the plan of salvation so clear. Believe in Jesus Christ (John 3:16; Acts 16:31). “If you declare 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). Do you believe that Jesus died to pay the penalty for your sins (Romans 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:21)? Do you trust Him alone for salvation? If your answer to these questions is “yes,” you are saved! Assurance means freedom from doubt. By taking God’s Word to heart, you can have no doubt about the reality of your eternal salvation.

Yes, it’s true, the Bible does say that. But all of those passages in Greek are in the present tense. The present tense in Greek connotes continuous, ongoing action. There was a tense in Greek that connoted a simple, one time action, and that’s the aorist tense. But that’s not what is being used in any of those passages.

In other words, we must continue to believe in Jesus and confess him our entire lives. We must persevere in faith.

This doesn’t mean we have to live our lives in constant doubt. But it does mean that we must “work out our salvation in fear and trembling.” (Phil 2:12) We can have certitude that we are in God’s grace, but we can’t say whether or not we will fall away in the future.

Jesus Himself assures those who believe in Him: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:28–29). Eternal life is just that—eternal.

Eternal life is in heaven. Until then, we don’t have it yet. We will receive it if we persevere.

And of course no one can snatch us out of God’s hand. But that doesn’t mean we can’t jump out of his hand on our own free will. We can resist him.

There is no one, not even yourself, who can take Christ’s God-given gift of salvation away from you.

This is just plain unbiblical. There are dozens of places in Scripture that talk about the possibility of losing our salvation. Here’s just a couple.

Now I would remind you, brethren, in what terms I preached to you the gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast—unless you believed in vain. (1 Cor 15:1-2)

And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him, provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. (Col 1:21-23)

Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. (Rev 2:10)

Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you* to fall away from the living God**. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end,* (Heb 3:12-14)

And finally, I think this is the most clear verse that demonstrates it’s possible for Christians to throw away their salvation:

For if, after they have escaped the defilement 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. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, The dog turns back to his own vomit, and the sow is washed only to wallow in the mire.
(2 Pet 2:20-22)

Here we see people who escaped the defilement of the world through Jesus Christ - they had accepted him as their savior - and then they turn away from God through sin. They lose the gift of salvation. It really doesn’t get any plainer than that. Our salvation is dependent upon us persevering to the end.

 

[sallybutler]

I am not 100% certain I am going to Heaven, and it would arrogant and presumptuous for me to think that I was. I just have to hope that God looks kindly on this sinner and cuts me a break.

 

[hu324b]

God will see whats in a persons heart and will judge them accordingly.

I suggest you look deep into yourself - deep into your heart and see whats there before answering the question.

My answer - my hope is in Christ that I will - only he can save me - I can’t do anything to save myself.

Does anyone here claim they did it them-self? Well guess what you didn’t.

 

[guanophore]

The entire human race has been saved by the Paschal Mystery: the Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus. However, we have to, for lack of a better phrase, “cash in” on this salvation through Christ by having faith in Him through the Catholic Church alone and preforming good, charitable works for, in the words of Jesus, the “least of My brethren.”

May God bless you all!

It might be more accurate to say that we were all redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Many choose not to participate in that redemption, so are not saved.

It is as if Jesus paid for all the groceries at checkout, but some of the goods won’t get into the bag and go with Him!

 

[Abu]

Thorns #16
What about people who have heard the Gospel, but never received the grace to believe it even though they wanted to?

No one who “wanted to believe” would be denied the graces necessary for salvation, provided they were ready to cooperate with those graces.

Further no one is “saved” now, but all have been redeemed – salvation is dependant on individuals making the effort to follow their consciences and to know to the best of their ability right from wrong and what God requires of them.

 

[steve_b]

But what about people who through no fault of their own have never heard of Jesus or the Gospel?

847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church: Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.

In extension,

May ≠ will, May ≠ probably, May might only be remote.

For example,

if I say it may rain tomorrow, that’s not a strong prediction. It may rain tomorrow is like saying there is only a possibility of rain.

It’s also

Providing one is truly innocently ignorant and remains innocently ignorant.

Once they know ( iow, have found out about the truth of the Catholic Church), THEN they need to join the Catholic Church. If they don’t do this, they are no longer innocently ignorant, and then become guilty of their situation

iow, 1791 ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin." In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits.

 

[steve_b]

Someone on Facebook posted a picture saying this and people were commenting “yes I accepted Jesus as my personal lord and savior on such and so date”. As a catholic we would say no but can someone explain why and how from the bible can we show that we can’t know for certain our salvation.

As well as all the passages others have given, there is also this one to add

emphasis mine

2 Pet 1: 5 For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do this you will never fall; 11 so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these things, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. 13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body,] to arouse you by way of reminder, 14 since I know that the putting off of my body] will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. 15 And I will see to it that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

If one’s salvation is soooooooooo solid, 100% slam dunk,

Why would Peter say we have to continuously and zealously add to our faith in ever increasing amounts all these attributes, or we will put our call and election in jeopardy and our entrance into heaven doubtful?.

Why would Peter need to make sure he reminds us of this teaching and warning, even after he is gone from this life… till the end of time, unless it’s awefully important for us to know and do this?

If one’s salvation and entrance into heaven is a once for all slam dunk 100% done deal, Peter knows nothing about that.

 

[catholictiger]

I would explain that we hope in our salvation we don’t have certainty of it. Hope is a virtue so I rather hope than have 100% certainty.

 

[Evan]

Someone on Facebook posted a picture saying this and people were commenting “yes I accepted Jesus as my personal lord and savior on such and so date”. As a catholic we would say no but can someone explain why and how from the bible can we show that we can’t know for certain our salvation.

Just a note: we too have a ‘sinners prayer’ that we say at each mass:

“Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. Only say the word and my soul will be healed”

This expression of faith is more powerful that the sinners prayer:

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.

 

[bmonk]

Basically, it comes down to what Jesus himself said, "He who endures to the end shall be saved. (Mt 10:22)

Salvation isn’t a one time event. It’s a process. We can lose it through sin and be cut off from God. (Rom 11:22) We can fall away from grace. (Gal 5:4) Even the great St. Paul himself recognized that he could lose his salvation when he said this:

“Therefore, I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after having preached to others I myself may be disqualified.” (1 Cor 9:27)

If St. Paul couldn’t even say he was 100% for sure going to make it to heaven, then how can we?

I agree.

One formulation I’ve seen is that, as Catholics, we do not have 100% surety of going to heaven–even St. Paul was not sure, and we always must beware of mortal sin–but we do have a moral assurance of heaven, so long as we are careful to live in the grace of God.

 

[bmonk]

How can we respond to some of these scripture passages this protestant site gives about salvation? Particularly the snatching from his hand part

gotquestions.org/assurance-salvation.html

No outside power can snatch us from Jesus’ hand–but we can always choose to leave of our own will. This is why we must beware of sin, and deal with it when it trips us, lest we turn away from salvation.

 

[bmonk]

Right. In addition, many of us, when we die, will be so sure that we’ve followed Jesus well - yet find out in the end that we’ve actually chosen Hell. Jesus Himself stated this in His parable of the sheep and the goats at the Last Judgment. This is actually also the point of Michelle Arnold’s latest blog piece on the front page - the people think they’re in line for Heaven, when they’re really in the line for Hell.

It’s also worth noting in that parable of sheep and goats–it’s not, say, sheep (clean) vs. pigs (unclean). Both sheep and goats were pure animals, acceptable for the Passover or other sacrifices. We may be humanly pure, but not really doing the will of the Father.