The reply ahead of yours seems slightly nebulous - almost like it involves private interpretation, if you know what I mean…
Whose, Cryptic1’s or the one in the Quick Answer?
As for the former… Cryptic1, you’ll have to excuse me for filling in some of the gaps in your post, because it is kind of, uh… you know… I can’t think of the word. Oh yeah!.. cryptic
First, you have to understand that man was created with three parts.
That view of the soul as being the mind (and the spirit as being something other than the soul) seems to be popular in some strains of Evangelical Protestantism. It is not supported by Scripture and always struck me as strange as well. In fact it smells like Gnosticism, setting the “good” spirit against the “bad” soul.
Some visible signs that might manifest are: An incessant desire to talk about Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God the Father.
What I want to know is why such a person would not also turn towards the other children of God the Father who are in Heaven, i.e. the Saints., and especially the Mother of God the Son, Mary Most Holy.
You will start to look at the world differently and realize you are different from most people, who are of the world.
I detect some Calvinism here. But why am I different? It isn’t because God created me to be different because…
[BIBLEDRB]1 Timothy 2:3-4[/BIBLEDRB]
… God wills the salvation of even the worldliest of people.
You will have a compassion and heart for the lost sheep like Jesus did while he was on earth. You will not only desire salvation for yourself and your loved ones, but also for complete strangers as well.
Nothing wrong with that.
You will also have a burning desire to read the bible, the Word of God.
Plenty of people have started reading the Bible and have come to the wrong conclusions. Just because someone reads the Bible or quotes Scripture does not mean they have the Holy Spirit. The devil himself quotes Scripture, as we saw when Jesus was being tempted in the desert.
One such wrong conclusion is bibliolatry, that is, automatically plugging in “Bible” whenever the Bible says “Word of God” or “In the beginning was the Word.” Jesus, not the Bible, is the living Word of God. The Bible is inspired by God, but it is not God. The Bible can be called the Word of God as long as it is understood that it is only the
written Word of God, not the
logos of God, the Second Person of the Trinity.
Being “born through the Spirit” brings to life the “spirit” part of a person and is a necessary change that requires dying to self (the soul and body) in order to enter God’s kingdom.
You correctly note that baptism remits original sin, imparts sanctifying grace and requires the person to die to self in order to remain in that state of grace. No problem here as long as we recognize that we are talking about the Sacrament of Baptism with the proper form thereof (i.e. pouring or immersion of H2O), and not some invisible “baptism of the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus said “wide is the path to destruction, but narrow is the path that leads to salvation”. When you are “born of the Spirit” your spirit is risen, just like Jesus was risen from the dead. That is the new man that the bible talks about.
Nothing wrong with that as long as we recognize that becoming the new man is a lifelong process of sanctification ultimately resulting in union with God in heaven.
When you are renewed, you will become more like Jesus, who was “in the world, but not of the world”.and then you will be able to follow Jesus command to “go into the world, heal the sick, raise the dead and preach the gospel”. If you can do all this, you are on the path to your eternal salvation.
Some saints have actually healed the sick and resurrected the dead, but we have to recognize that these kinds of charismata are extraordinary and, like speaking in tongues, are not something we should count on as indicia of salvation. As St. Paul noted in 1 Corinthians 12-13, love is a lot more important.
