A more accurate wording for my representation of a TB is:
A TB WILL DO good works. They do these good works as a result of being Saved and receiving a new heart. They do not do them in order to be saved.
This is true of the Catholic teaching as well, although we use different words.
Remember when I explained the Catholic teaching a few days ago:
When a man has sufficient faith in Christ that he want’s to change his life, he gets baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. When he does this, God forgives him all previous sins, makes him a member of the Church and gives him the grace to do the good works to which he has been called as a Catholic Christian. (You call it being saved. we call it being in the state of grace) To stay in the state of grace, he must continue to do these works, loving both God and Neighbor. If he falls from grace through mortal sin, he will be condemned unless he reconciles with God through the sacrament of reconciliation. God in his mercy, will allow men to repent and return to him as often as they need to. If you die in the state of grace, you will enter heaven.
If someone professes to be a Believer and does not do good works (i.e. does not show fruit of the Spirit, but rather continual works of the flesh), then they should not be recognized as TBs. It is probable that they have not been Saved and therefore have never been in the faith.
We would say this a little differently. If a person does not do the works he is called to do, he is no longer in the state of grace. Do you remember the parable of the sower (Luke 8: 4-8 with the explanation Luke 8: 11-15)?
The Parable of the Sower. 4* When a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after another journeying to him, he spoke in a parable.* 5“A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled, and the birds of the sky ate it up. 6Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew, it withered for lack of moisture. 7Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. 8And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew, it produced fruit a hundredfold.” After saying this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”
The Parable of the Sower Explained.* 11 “This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of God. 12Those on the path are the ones who have heard, but the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts that they may not believe and be saved. 13Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, but they have no root; they believe only for a time and fall away in time of trial. 14As for the seed that fell among thorns, they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along, they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life, and they fail to produce mature fruit. 15But as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.
All these people believed at one point but all the the last group fell away…
In my understanding A(good works) is not required to obtain B(faith). A(good works) are a result of B(faith).
We would not disagree with this.
You have the wrong order of things if you are basing off my posts. The order is Grace/Faith/Salvation/Good Works
A - Grace
B - Faith
C - Salvation
D - Good Works
A is required for B-D, B is the result of A and required for C-D, C is the result of A-B and required for D, D is the result of A-C
Well, Faith leads to baptism, which provides the grace to do good works. If you do those good works and stay in the state of grace until you die, then you will go to heaven.
If they never repent and return to a God fearing life then it will be known that this person was never a TB and had been a FB for 30 years. They were never Saved.
While I think in general, you are fairly consistent in your understanding with the Catholic Church, you are a bit limited in your need to stay consistent with the Faith alone and the once saved, alwasy saved heresies… This is a problem for you because you need to define every person as a believer or unbeliever, while the fact is (as the parable of the sower shows), that some people simply change what they think or believe for a whole variety of reasons.
1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
You do know that he’s talking about people leaving the Church, right?
TBs do sin, but they will be repentant of this sin and return to right standing with the Lord. However, in their fall to sin, they never lose faith or Salvation. If a person “falls away from the faith” as in, no longer believes Christ is Lord, then they never had true faith and never had been Saved. They were FBs.
Or more simply, they fell from grace.