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OneForTruth
Guest
How Do I Know I am One of The Elect?
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LilyM
Guest
We every moment of our lives have chances to lose our ‘election’ (I would in fact hesitate to call it election since we can certainly lose it as Adam and Eve did) and to regain it.
Jesus makes this clear - ‘not everyone who calls me ‘Lord, Lord’ will be saved’ - as does Paul - ‘let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall’. So there’s no such thing as 100% certainty in such matters - not for Paul and not for you.
However, if you remain in a state of grace to the best of your knowledge and ability and avail yourself of the Sacraments frequently you can attain to a high level of ‘joyful hope’ of salvation, as we call it in the Mass.
Jesus makes this clear - ‘not everyone who calls me ‘Lord, Lord’ will be saved’ - as does Paul - ‘let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall’. So there’s no such thing as 100% certainty in such matters - not for Paul and not for you.
However, if you remain in a state of grace to the best of your knowledge and ability and avail yourself of the Sacraments frequently you can attain to a high level of ‘joyful hope’ of salvation, as we call it in the Mass.
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rocklobster
Guest
I agree with that. I think another way to know is to examine yourself. Are you trying to be the best Christian you can? That’s the way I know I just might be.
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Proletarian
Guest
You won’t know until you arrive in Purgatory. So until then just do your best to maintain your faith and to live a life of obedience to Christ and his Church.
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OneForTruth
Guest
Some people here do not even understand the CC teaching on election. But…does the CC not say that there is a way to know?
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Baraq
Guest
Do you have a true witness?
Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
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VociMike
Guest
There was a time when this man would have answered an emphatic “yes!”
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LilyM
Guest
Then I’m sure you’ll tell us all about it, since you know our faith so much better than we do.
I note the word ‘election’ doesn’t appear in the Index to the Catechism - perhaps you’ll be kind enough to point out where it appears in the body of that document?
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Baraq
Guest
Proverbs 14:5 A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies.
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VociMike
Guest
So the man lied when he said he was a Christian? He lied when he became a preacher? They’re all liars, every one of them? No honest mistakes, no true changes of heart, just lies, lies, lies?
Let’s get right down to the essential question. Does it ever happen that people who truly throught they were Christians, and were truly thought by others around them to be Christians, later turn out not to be Christians? Does that ever happen?
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Baraq
Guest
They might have ‘truly’ thought they were when they werent. They were liars…The best liars think they are telling the truth
Did not the Pharisees claim to love God in sincerity?
Ive seen this type of liar in this forum…
1 John 4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
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VociMike
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OK. If this person truly thought he was a Christian, and it turned out he was not, can the same thing not happen to any Christian? Is it not impossible to know if one is really a Christian before the time of their death?
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RobNY
Guest
By being baptized and living by the gospel in the Church, I can have a moral assurance that I am of the elect. If I should fall from grace I can restore that assurance through the sacrament of Penance.
However, I cannot have an infallible assurance that I am one of the elect.
OneforTruth… what exactly are you looking for?
-Rob
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Daniel_Marsh
Guest
Apply 2 Peter 1, making one’s salvation sure to your life.
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cmancone
Guest
This is really one of my biggest issues with Catholic teachings. The way you describe things makes it sound like it is your works that get you into heaven. You are going to heaven because YOU did your best to remain in a state of grace, because YOU made use of the sacraments. We do not go to heaven because of anything we do, but only because of the grace and mercy of God.
Ephesians 2:8-9
8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.
Although good works are a necessary part of a saving faith, the good works themselves are in no way responsible for our salvation. That comes from God alone.
I’m not quite sure what you mean by “elect”, so I’ll answer a similar question: how do you know you will go to heaven? The answer to that question is quite simple and comes straight out of the bible:
John 3:16-18
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[f] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
If you believe in Jesus Christ for salvation and to deliver you from your sins then you will go to heaven. If you rely on your own works to earn your way into heaven, you are condemned already.
That is why there will be many people who said “Lord Lord” but have no place with Jesus in heaven, because they claimed to follow him but trusted in themselves to earn a way to heaven.
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OneForTruth
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This is witness to the fact that Catholicism will not hold to the whole of the written Word to which you should be very concerned.
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OneForTruth
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Again - nobody has answered my question - does the CC teach that one can know that they are of the elect and what is the condition? Search it out. 
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I_Leatherman
Guest
If you are careful you will see you are the only one who thinks a person can earn his way into heaven, in that argument above.
No-one deserves heaven. But…
Believing is work. It requires effort, action, and a response from us to receive the gift of Life from Him.
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Truthstalker
Guest
Those going through RCIA at some point are called the elect. A quick search will show that “election” is a Catholic concept. Predestination is also a Catholic concept. “Elect” has been bolded by me in the following excerpts from the CC.
kofc.org/publications/cis/catechism/search.cfm
http://www.kofc.org/un/images/1px_t...ttp://www.kofc.org/images/1px_transparent.gifThe Catechism of the Catholic Church
762 The remote preparation for this gathering together of the People of God begins when he calls Abraham and promises that he will become the father of a great people. 157 Its immediate preparation begins with Israel’s **election **as the People of God. By this election, Israel is to be the sign of the future gathering of All nations. 158 But the prophets accuse Israel of breaking the covenant and behaving like a prostitute. They announce a new and eternal covenant. “Christ instituted this New Covenant.” 159
1081 The divine blessings were made manifest in astonishing and saving events: the birth of Isaac, the escape from Egypt (Passover and Exodus), the gift of the promised land, the election of David, the presence of God in the Temple, the purifying exile, and return of a “small remnant.” The Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, interwoven in the liturgy of the Chosen People, recall these divine blessings and at the same time respond to them with blessings of praise and thanksgiving.
1308 Although Confirmation is sometimes called the “sacrament of Christian maturity,” we must not confuse adult faith with the adult age of natural growth, nor forget that the baptismal grace is a grace of free, unmerited **election **and does not need “ratification” to become effective. St. Thomas reminds us of this:Age of body does not determine age of soul. Even in childhood man can attain spiritual maturity: as the book of Wisdom says: "For old age is not honored for length of time, or measured by number of years. "Many children, through the strength of the Holy Spirit they have received, have bravely fought for Christ even to the shedding of their blood. 1262600 The Gospel according to St. Luke emphasizes the action of the Holy Spirit and the meaning of prayer in Christ’s ministry. Jesus prays before the decisive moments of his mission: before his Father’s witness to him during his baptism and Transfiguration, and before his own fulfillment of the Father’s plan of love by his Passion. 43 He also prays before the decisive moments involving the mission of his apostles: at his election and call of the Twelve, before Peter’s confession of him as “the Christ of God,” and again that the faith of the chief of the Apostles may not fail when tempted. 44 Jesus’ prayer before the events of salvation that the Father has asked him to fulfill is a humble and trusting commitment of his human will to the loving will of the Father.
http://www.kofc.org/images/1px_transparent.gif
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OneForTruth
Guest
That work is a gift of God and is ordained by God - and the elect are those that receive those gifts only by God’s grace. He causes us to be born again and is in us to will and to do of His good pleasure.
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