My sins are actually, really, and
completely forgiven, along with all sin-debt:
Colossians 2:13-14Yes… you believe you are forgiven by legal imputation. “Blotted out” in a legal sense but not out of the person - who is completely depraved, yet covered in His grace. That is my point… this is inconsistent with Scriptures, which speak of the *actual *change by “blotting out” in the sense of a cloth wiping out the detritus of sin from the soul, the light actually banishing darkness, etc. You disagree with the actual effects of justification if you hold to Calvin’s doctrine on justification.
sandusky:
OTOH, you’re mistaken about your sins being completely blotted out:
If anyone says that after the reception of the grace of justification the guilt is so remitted and the debt of eternal punishment so blotted out to every repentant sinner, that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be discharged either in this world or in purgatory before the gates of heaven can be opened, let him be anathema.
(Council of Trent, Sixth Session, Canon 30).Your sins have not been “blotted out;” you still have a debt to pay.You are confusing two sepate issues. Temporal punishment does not relate to eternal salvation. Temporal punishment deals with reparation due for already-forgiven mortal sins, and venial sins. It has nothing to do with salvation, or works. My point is that, unlike the scriptures and Catholic teaching, your point of view does not see justification as causing an actual change in the person by actual removal of sins. Instead, you said justification was a mere legal imputation… God “declaring” sins forgiven without actually sanctifying the person. I (and Paul, and Trent) disagree with you and Calvin. We speak of justification as effecting a real change in the person - something more than just a legal declaration of righteousness.
And I’m now assuming you’ve simply abandoned any attempt to answer the question that I keep asking… how does one know with absolute assurance that he or she is predestined for salvation? All you’ve done is cite Rom. 8:30 for the proposition that the predestined will be called, justified, sanctified; but Paul does not instruct that we all can know with absolute certainty that we are predestined. My simple question is how do you personally know you are predestined, with an assurance that negates the possibility that you are merely fooling yourself. Even Calvin seemed to acknowledge this possibility, i.e. that the damned may actually believe themselves saved - all the more reason to merit eternal punishment. Ouch!
Always pursuing his idea, the absolute predestinarian finds among Christians, all of whom have heard the Gospel and received the sacraments, only a few entitled to life everlasting. These obtain the grace which is in words offered to every one; the rest fill up the measure of their condemnation. To the reprobate, Gospel ordinances serve as a means to compass the ruin intended for them. Hereby, also, an answer is made possible when Catholics demand where the Reformed Church was prior to the Reformation. Calvin replies that in every age the elect constituted the flock of Christ, and all besides were strangers, though invested with dignity and offices in the visible communion. The reprobate have only apparent faith. Yet they may feel as do the elect, experience similar fervours, and to the best of their judgment be accounted saints. All that is mere delusion; they are hypocrites “into whose minds God insinuates Himself, so that, not having the adoption of sons, they may yet taste the goodness of the Spirit.” Thus Calvin explained how in the Gospel many are called believers who did not persevere; and so the visible Church is made up of saints that can never lose their crown, and sinners that by no effort could attain to salvation. (New Advent, Catholic Encyclopedia,
Calvinism
)
But see:
The heretical doctrine of the Reformers, that man by a fiduciary faith knows with absolute certainty that he is justified, received the attention of the Council of Trent (Sess. VI, cap. ix), in one entire chapter (De inani fiducia haereticorum), three canons (loc. cit., can. xiii-xv) condemning the necessity, the alleged power, and the function of fiduciary faith. The object of the Church in defining the dogma was not to shatter the trust in God (certitudo spei) in the matter of personal salvation, but to repel the misleading assumptions of an unwarranted certainty of salvation (certitudo fidei). In doing this the Church is altogether obedient to the instruction of Holy Writ, for, since Scripture declares that we must work out our salvation “with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12), it is impossible to regard our individual salvation as something fixed and certain. Why did St. Paul (1 Corinthians 9:27) chastise his body if not afraid lest, having preached to others, he might himself “become a castaway”? He says expressly (1 Corinthians 4:4): “For I am not conscious to myself of any thing, yet am I not hereby justified; but he that judgeth me, is the Lord.” (New Advent, Catholic Encyclopedia,
Sanctifying Grace)
Peace,
-Robert
