Catholics do you know you are saved?

[Roblox84]

I am posting this due to the fact that i’ve had numerous people close to me throughout my life ask me “do I know that I am saved and going to heaven if I died tommorow?”. I have always been sort of confused about this question because I do believe that God provided a way for us to get into heaven if we just hold on to it, but eventually only God knows who gets into heaven or hell. So I would like to ask how another Catholic would answer this if asked by a fundamentalist.

 

[wmscott]

I am posting this due to the fact that i’ve had numerous people close to me throughout my life ask me “do I know that I am saved and going to heaven if I died tommorow?”. I have always been sort of confused about this question because I do believe that God provided a way for us to get into heaven if we just hold on to it, but eventually only God knows who gets into heaven or hell. So I would like to ask how another Catholic would answer this if asked by a fundamentalist.

From the library here at this site:

*Catholic Christians can respond that they have been saved. This acknowledges the first meaning of “saved” and “salvation” in scripture–Jesus Christ, Savior, by whose act of salvation we are objectively saved–He died, rose from the dead, saved them from sin.

2 Cor 5:17 “So whoever is in Christ is a new creation”

Catholic Christians can also respond that they are being saved. This acknowledges the second meaning “saved” and “salvation” have in scripture–the present experience, God’s power delivering constantly from the bondage of sin.

1 Cor 15:2 “Through it (the gospel) you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain”.

Catholic Christians also respond that they will be saved, that they have hope and confidence that God will give them the grace of perseverance; that they will respond to it; and accept his gift of salvation until their death. This acknowledges the third meaning the words “saved” and “salvation” have in scripture–the future deliverance of believers at the Second Coming of Christ.

**Rom 5:9 **“How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath”. *

There are those that look at “being saved” as a onetime event, Once Saved Always Saved, However, they neglect Philippians 2:12 “So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling”

I am constantly, every day, working on my salvation knowing that I am a sinner and always will be one.

 

[HickmanJosh]

the answer i would give: “Working at it”. We can’t know for sure because we have not yet been judged.

 

[Joe_5859]

I am posting this due to the fact that i’ve had numerous people close to me throughout my life ask me “do I know that I am saved and going to heaven if I died tommorow?”. I have always been sort of confused about this question because I do believe that God provided a way for us to get into heaven if we just hold on to it, but eventually only God knows who gets into heaven or hell. So I would like to ask how another Catholic would answer this if asked by a fundamentalist.

I would say, “I certainly hope so!”

 

[Joe_5859]

From the library here at this site:

*Catholic Christians can respond that they have been saved. This acknowledges the first meaning of “saved” and “salvation” in scripture–Jesus Christ, Savior, by whose act of salvation we are objectively saved–He died, rose from the dead, saved them from sin.

2 Cor 5:17* “So whoever is in Christ is a new creation”

Catholic Christians can also respond that they are being saved. This acknowledges the second meaning “saved” and “salvation” have in scripture–the present experience, God’s power delivering constantly from the bondage of sin.

1 Cor 15:2 “Through it (the gospel) you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain”.

Catholic Christians also respond that they will be saved, that they have hope and confidence that God will give them the grace of perseverance; that they will respond to it; and accept his gift of salvation until their death. This acknowledges the third meaning the words “saved” and “salvation” have in scripture–the future deliverance of believers at the Second Coming of Christ.

**Rom 5:9 **“How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath”.

There are those that look at “being saved” as a onetime event, Once Saved Always Saved, However, they neglect Philippians 2:12 “So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling”

I am constantly, every day, working on my salvation knowing that I am a sinner and always will be one.

Ah yes, this reminds me of another response I have heard recommended:

“I have been saved, I am being saved, and I hope to be saved.”

 

[shondrea]

NO ONE can know if they’re a-goin up or down after they croak. Not even the “saved” oncs who ask you this. BUT, if you live your life faithful to God, and try, try, try, you have assurance of HOPE. You don’t know for sure, but if you’re giving your all, you have little reason to believe you’ll be damned. Afterall, in the Catholic church, damnation requires mortal sin, and you DON’T commit mortal sin and not know it. If you know you have not committed a mortal sin as you lay dying, and you’ve tried your hardest in life, I believe you should have every reason to believe God will be merciful to your veinial sins and welcome you home.

The way my mind works it, you can’t be 100% sure you’re going to heaven, but you’ll have a preeetty good incling if you’re gonna go to hell. No one forgets sins that serious.

 

[srferdave]

We know we will be saved if we obey God. But we can never be certain if we died today if we would be saved. You can have a really good feeling that you are living according to God’s laws and that you will be saved. But the only One to know if we are saved is God. That is why we have to constantly strive to live a holy life.

 

[angelic06]

It is impossible to know for sure, unless God reveals it to them. Persons who say they know they are going to be saved are boasting of themselves, and “God resists the proud”. What we do know is that we can strive, with the help of God. St. Paul tells us to strive to win the race and to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”, not beating our breasts as if we know “for sure that if I died tomorrow, I’ll be in heaven”. What we do know as Christians is that it is God’s will that everyone turn to Him and that it is His desire to give us the kingdom, otherwise He would not give us the Eucharist to strengthen us along the way and a priesthood to ensure that every generation can partake of it. St. Paul says that we can have a reasonable hope that we will be saved if we strive to do our best in this world. Hope by its very nature implies an uncertainty to the thing which is hoped for.

Why do we need to ask for more than this?

Paul

 

[josephdaniel29]

I am posting this due to the fact that i’ve had numerous people close to me throughout my life ask me “do I know that I am saved and going to heaven if I died tommorow?”. I have always been sort of confused about this question because I do believe that God provided a way for us to get into heaven if we just hold on to it, but eventually only God knows who gets into heaven or hell. So I would like to ask how another Catholic would answer this if asked by a fundamentalist.

I know I’ve been saved, we all have, just not sure if I’ll make it to heaven or not.

I guess I would ask them a question in return. If you have been saved then what have you been saved from?

Yours in Christ
Joe

 

[Catholic1954]

He who endures until the end will be saved.

 

[SteveVH]

I am posting this due to the fact that i’ve had numerous people close to me throughout my life ask me “do I know that I am saved and going to heaven if I died tommorow?”. I have always been sort of confused about this question because I do believe that God provided a way for us to get into heaven if we just hold on to it, but eventually only God knows who gets into heaven or hell. So I would like to ask how another Catholic would answer this if asked by a fundamentalist.

I am confident in my salvation today, but I still must work out my salvation with “fear and trembling”, asking for the grace to persevere to the end.

 

[guanophore]

 I am constantly, every day, working on my salvation knowing that I am a sinner and always will be one.

I think this is a big sticking point for our evangelical brethren. They have been indoctrinated that salvation is a “free gift - not of ourselves lest any man should boast” and not because of any “works of righteousness that we have done”. These things are in scripture, of course, but the idea that we obtain salvation by “working on” it smacks of the notion that we think we can somehow “work” our way into heaven. As Catholics, we know that we are saved by grace, through faith, and that the works of righteousness done in and through us are by that same saving grace.

I think we can get more mileage by expressing ourselves differently. When the scripture says “work OUT your salvation with fear and trembling” it gives more of a sense that we are working OUT what is already at work in us (saving grace). This has a much different connotation with our separated brethren than “working on” may have.

 

[distracted]

I am posting this due to the fact that i’ve had numerous people close to me throughout my life ask me “do I know that I am saved and going to heaven if I died tommorow?”. I have always been sort of confused about this question because I do believe that God provided a way for us to get into heaven if we just hold on to it, but eventually only God knows who gets into heaven or hell. So I would like to ask how another Catholic would answer this if asked by a fundamentalist.

I’m in the process of being saved…

a person has to be thoroughly purified before getting into Heaven, where no “unclean thing” will be allowed to enter…

so it takes time to be purified… esp in this crazy age we live in… (one reason i dont watch TV)

i feel sorry for people who go thro life thinking that Jesus did everything for them to purify them… He did everything that was HIs to do… the rest is up to us… Jesus doesn’t force anyone to … “apply” Him… to their sinfulness… That is our choice… and even when we decide to do that… well, we are so fallen, even on our best days, even if we can refrain from sin all day long for several days… we are still in need of purification… hence Purgatory…

God would not be merciful if He didnt’ give us Purgatory…

and the avg stay There is supposed to be 40 yrs… sometimes longer sometimes shorter, but if that the avg…

and from my experiences in … “being saved”… this is not a surprising average… its usually one step forward, 2 steps back…

 

[cruisin]

I’m curious on your thoughts reguarding the following verses from Pauls letter to the Romans CH10;

8 What does it say, then? The word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith, the faith which we preach,
9 that if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and if you believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved.
10 It is by believing with the heart that you are justified, and by making the declaration with your lips that you are saved.
11 When scripture says: No one who relies on this will be brought to disgrace,
12 it makes no distinction between Jew and Greek: the same Lord is the Lord of all, and his generosity is offered to all who appeal to him,
13 for all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

from Catholic On Line New Jeruselem Bible.

 

[distracted]

St Paul said soemthing about wroking out our salvation w/ fear and trembling… phil 2:12

 

[distracted]

I’m curious on your thoughts reguarding the following verses from Pauls letter to the Romans CH10;

8 What does it say, then? The word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith, the faith which we preach,
9 that if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and if you believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, then ***you will be saved. ***
10 It is by believing with the heart that you are justified, and by making the declaration with your lips that you are saved.
11 When scripture says: No one who relies on this will be brought to disgrace,
12 it makes no distinction between Jew and Greek: the same Lord is the Lord of all, and his generosity is offered to all who appeal to him,
13 for all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

from Catholic On Line New Jeruselem Bible.

for one thing, this was probably addressed to devout Christians… but even if not…

it says WILL be saved… doesn’t say ***YOU ARE saved forever and ever, no matter what u do… ***

and that part about “believing”???

if a person believes in something, he will practice it… I believe in eating meat (non-vegan) so what if i never ate meat all my life? then i would be lying if i said i believed in eating meat…

if you beleive what Jesus says, you will believe EVERYTHING HE said… and He said to obey the Comamndments… in order to be saved…

 

[cruisin]

for one thing, this was probably addressed to devout Christians… but even if not…

it says WILL be saved… doesn’t say ***YOU ARE saved forever and ever, no matter what u do… ***

where then is the hope. by your defination one can not know for sure that he has any hope. My Hope is in Christ.
Yes these words are to Christians… for without Christ there is no hope. They were evidently getting something wrong or he wouldn’t have wrote what he wrote. They eveidently needed some assurance. Without assurance there is no hope.

Where does your Hope lie??? is it Really in Christ?

"Will be saved sounds pretty permanent to me."

I believe the Romans fully understood what Paul was saying and by that they could find comfort and encouragement in his words, knowing fully of there salvation as I also believe. Trusting only in him.

I would also suggest reading Romans the 6th chapter.

1 What should we say then? Should we remain in sin so that grace may be given the more fully?
2 Out of the question! We have died to sin; how could we go on living in it?
3 You cannot have forgotten that all of us, when we were baptised into Christ Jesus, were baptised into his death.
4 So by our baptism into his death we were buried with him, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glorious power, we too should begin living a new life.
5 If we have been joined to him by dying a death like his, so we shall be by a resurrection like his; 6 realising that our former self was crucified with him, so that the self which belonged to sin should be destroyed and we should be freed from the slavery of sin.
7 Someone who has died, of course, no longer has to answer for sin.
8 But we believe that, if we died with Christ, then we shall live with him too. Did you die with Christ?
9 We know that Christ has been raised from the dead and will never die again. Death has no power over him any more.
10 For by dying, he is dead to sin once and for all, and now the life that he lives is life with God.
11 In the same way, you must see yourselves as being dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus.
12 That is why you must not allow sin to reign over your mortal bodies and make you obey their desires;

We have crossed over from this world to the next through our baptism. That is why we are told to be in the world but not of this world. We are a part of Christ.

Revelation 7:14

14 I answered him, ‘You can tell me, sir.’ Then he said, 'These are the people who have been through the great trial; they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb.
15 That is why they are standing in front of God’s throne and serving him day and night in his sanctuary; and the One who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.

Show me where these people got in to heaven thru the door of purgatory. the Blood of Christ holds the keys to Heaven.

If there is then no hope then the witness of the Apostles mean nothing.

i’m sure you will come up with some kind of answer. looking forward.

 

[LindaSK]

I may be going out on a limb here, but…

A doctor writes out a prescription for medicine you **must **take for the rest of your life. He drives you to the pharmacy to fill that prescription. He even pays for your medicine out of his own pocket. When he’s done all he can, the responsibility is now yours. You follow the directions and take the medicine for a week, think that’s good enough, then stop taking the medicine. You start to feel sick again. Do you believe the doctor’s advice now and take the medicine again, or choose to get more sick?

Jesus is the Great Physician. Jesus paid the price and told us what we need to do. We are His patient. We can choose or not to faithfully follow His instructions. Good spiritual health - i.e. Salvation - requires us to continue to obey what Jesus said. It is not once and done. It is a lifetime commitment.

Boy, I hope that is fundamental enough, and makes sense.

 

[Prodigal_Son1]

I’m curious on your thoughts reguarding the following verses from Pauls letter to the Romans CH10;

8 What does it say, then? The word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith, the faith which we preach,
9 that if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and if you believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved.
10 It is by believing with the heart that you are justified, and by making the declaration with your lips that you are saved.
11 When scripture says: No one who relies on this will be brought to disgrace,
12 it makes no distinction between Jew and Greek: the same Lord is the Lord of all, and his generosity is offered to all who appeal to him,
13 for all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

from Catholic On Line New Jeruselem Bible.

Does one passage override another?

**Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Mat 24:13 But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved.

Php 2:12 Wherefore, my dearly beloved, (as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but much more now in my absence) with fear and trembling work out your salvation.

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
1Co 10:12 Wherefore, he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall.

Gal 5:4 You are made void of Christ, you who are justified in the law: you are fallen from grace.

Heb 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Heb 6:5 Have moreover tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6 And are fallen away: to be renewed again to penance, crucifying again to themselves the Son of God and making him a mockery.

Heb 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after having the knowledge of the truth, there is now left no sacrifice for sins:
Heb 10:27 But a certain dreadful expectation of judgment, and the rage of a fire which shall consume the adversaries.**

 

[wmscott]

I think this is a big sticking point for our evangelical brethren. They have been indoctrinated that salvation is a “free gift - not of ourselves lest any man should boast” and not because of any “works of righteousness that we have done”. These things are in scripture, of course, but the idea that we obtain salvation by “working on” it smacks of the notion that we think we can somehow “work” our way into heaven. As Catholics, we know that we are saved by grace, through faith, and that the works of righteousness done in and through us are by that same saving grace.

I think we can get more mileage by expressing ourselves differently. When the scripture says “work OUT your salvation with fear and trembling” it gives more of a sense that we are working OUT what is already at work in us (saving grace). This has a much different connotation with our separated brethren than “working on” may have.

I am not making this a “works” issue or am I misunderstanding your thoughts? I know as a sinner that I have to try and avoid those instances of sin. However, being imperfect and weak at times, I will sin, not that I want to, it happens through my imperfect being.

That is why I say that I have to work on it every day, to avoid the sin.