In one sentence: tell me how are saved

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lepanto
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
L

Lepanto

Guest
I’m debating with a lapsed (now anti-) Catholic. I need a one sentence summary of how we are saved. Without any flowery language, please.

THANKS
 
That’s the beauty of the Catholic faith. It is so rich that the doctrine regaring salvation cannot be condensed into one sentence based on John 3:16.

Don’t rise to the bait. Tell your friend that you are more than willing to discuss the issue, but it is much more rich than to be described in one sentence.

That’s my view, but maybe somebody else can do it.

Peace,
Iguana
 
40.png
lepanto:
I’m debating with a lapsed (now anti-) Catholic. I need a one sentence summary of how we are saved. Without any flowery language, please.
Click to expand...
The standard of truth is not brevity. Reality isn’t so simple as to be captured in one sentence. But,

“Repent, believe in Jesus Christ, be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38), and bear fruit in keeping with repentance (Mt. 3:8).”
 
Define “saved”. What is this person’s gripe with the church on the concept?

If you don’t want ‘flowery’ language then go to the source: The Catechism. I dont’ think you can find just ONE sentence to cover such a crucial distinction though. Because whatever ONE sentence you use will result in the other party raising an exception to that statement…whereby you’ll be called to address that exception…You’re familiar with the cycle already, I’m sure.

And as you’ll also see from the Catechism, even that gets “flowery”

*"Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience – those too may achieve eternal salvation.

“Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men” (CCC 847-848).*
 
Once sentence statement: We are saved by the Grace of God when we actively seek the truth and do not wilfully reject any truth we find.

This is a GROSS simplification but you asked for a one sentence summary.
 
40.png
theMutant:
Once sentence statement: We are saved by the Grace of God when we actively seek the truth and do not wilfully reject any truth we find.

This is a GROSS simplification but you asked for a one sentence summary.
Click to expand...
Oooh, I like that, the Mutant! :clapping:
 
We are justified by grace:

Romans 3:24
“…they are now justified by His grace as a gift”

Which we have to actively work at:

James 2:17
“So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”
 
Again, this is simplistic but here goes:

We are saved by the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross AND our willingness to accept totally God in his entirety at the time of our death.

For many of us who believe in the mercy of God, this may include our selecting Purgatory to cleanse ourselves of our impurities (all things that resist God or lead us away from God) prior to entering God’s everpresent presence in Heaven for all eternity as nothing unclean may enter Heaven.
 
You can use the one-sentence, condensed and simplified answer contained in the Lutheran-Catholic Joint Declaration on Justification that was signed by the Lutheran World Federation representing 94% of the world’s Lutherans and the Catholic Church in 1999:

“Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works.”

The short answer is that we are saved by grace alone, through faith working in love.

Ave Cor Mariae, Jay
 
T.A.Stobie:
We are saved by the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross AND our willingness to accept totally God in his entirety at the time of our death.
Click to expand...
AMEN! The second item in your summary is the underlying theme of my own previous post.
 
Here is a little bit more than one sentence:
“Outside the Church there is no salvation” is a doctrine of the Catholic Faith that was taught By Jesus Christ to His Apostles, preached by the Fathers, defined by popes and councils and piously believed by the faithful in every age of the Church. Here is how the Popes defined it:
  • There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved. (Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, 1215.)
  • We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff. (, 1302.Pope Boniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctam)
  • The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church. (Pope Eugene IV, the Bull* Cantate Domino*, 1441.)
(from catholicism.org)

In short, to be saved: Be Baptised and remain in the Roman Catholic Church in the state of grace. That is it basically. To be saved you must do that. If you do NOT do that you cannot be saved. God bless.
 
40.png
lepanto:
I’m debating with a lapsed (now anti-) Catholic. I need a one sentence summary of how we are saved. Without any flowery language, please.

THANKS
Click to expand...
God took the whole Bible to tell us how to we can be saved what makes anyone think that they can do it in one sentence? :confused:
 
God doesn’t use the Bible to tell us anything. Nay, He uses the Church, for our faulty interpretation of the Bible has led to the various creeds of heretics. God bless.
 
40.png
EENS:
  • There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved. (Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, 1215.)
  • We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff. (Pope Boniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctam, 1302.)
  • The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church. (Pope Eugene IV, the Bull* Cantate Domino*, 1441.) (from catholicism.org)
Click to expand...
Ok EENS and anyone else…please help me understand why your quotes from 1213, 1302, 1441 supercede those of the current Catechism I posted earlier:

*"Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience – those too may achieve eternal salvation.

“Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men” (CCC 847-848).*

I’m not challenging you, please understand that. It’s just when I see posts like yours quoting past positions it confuses me because I’ve come to form my faith development through the current teachings - as I’ve read that each Pope enhances that understanding of the previous one, while no Pope reverses that position. Does anyone out there know if I’m going about this the wrong way??? :confused:
 
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him on the last day.” John 6:54

Whoever accepts Christ’s teachings and lives them (including receiving His precious Body and Blood) shall receive the gift of eternal life.

In short, we must fully accept our Lord. If we do, He will help us.

“Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.” John 6:57

I hope this helps. God bless you and your friend.
 
The current Pope has said NOTHING infallibly EXCEPT: women cannot be priests. On the other hand, those quotes are from INFALLIBLE councils. Never has an excption been defined by the Church. Certainly the new catechism is NOT infallible, as the Pope himself had to put out CORRECTIONS. God bless.
 
40.png
EENS:
God doesn’t use the Bible to tell us anything. Nay, He uses the Church, for our faulty interpretation of the Bible has led to the various creeds of heretics. God bless.
Click to expand...
The Bible doesn’t tell us anything?? :confused: What then would be it’s intended purpose?
I’m certainly not a Sola Scriptura type but really…
I prefer to think that the Bible is a great source of truth when read through the lenses of the Catholic Church.
 
40.png
EENS:
God doesn’t use the Bible to tell us anything. Nay, He uses the Church, for our faulty interpretation of the Bible has led to the various creeds of heretics. God bless.
Click to expand...
Ummm…I think we need to be careful that we don’t let our view on Scripture contra the sola scripturists push us over into indefensible positions.

I think it was no less than St. Jerome who said that “ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.” Our Lord on one occasion told the Sadducees that their problem was that they didn’t know either the Scriptures or the power of God.

God reveals himself to us through Apostolic Tradition, and unless I’m mistaken, the Scriptures are a primary component of the Apostolic tradition.
 
There are a lot of good answers here already. In another thread I came up with this sentence which may be of value here as well. I can’t emphasize enough, however, the truth of the posters here who have said it is dangerous to try to sum up our Faith in a sentence. Whatever you say, I would preclude it with that caution.

We are saved by choosing to accept the grace freely offered by God for our entrance into Heaven, as recounted in Gospels, and manifesting that choice by willingly living a Holy Life of faith and works thereafter, as described by St. Paul and the other authors of the Epistles.

For a Catholic you could substitute Tradition for the Epistles, but with a non-Catholic it may be better to deal with one issue (salvation) at a time, and looking at Sola Scriptura another time.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top