My protestant friend told me this:

[Chazemataz]

She says this: "There is one simple reason why all Protestants as well as Catholics, Mormons, and Jehovah’s Wittnesses (which I do not agree with her on that, they deny the divinity of Christ) who keep the Ten Commandments will gain entry into heaven:

“…For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Therefore, everybody who believes in Jesus Christ and obeys the Ten Commandments will get into Heaven." Is this true? She does have a good point I must admit.

 

[Eden]

Here are excerpts from a CA article on John 3:16

Full article here:

catholic.com/thisrock/1995/9509fea2.asp

John 3:16 is an important verse with an interesting twist that doesn’t immediately appear in the English translation. I asked my friend if he had ever looked carefully at the tenses of the action words in John 3:16. He hadn’t, and because his tradition tells him that one-time-belief is the basis of salvation, he automatically understood John to mean that, by a momentary mental assent to Christ, one could be assured of eternal security and be guaranteed a place in heaven.

Where I used to say, “I believed in Christ on such and such a date, so I know I am saved” I now say, “I did believe in Christ, I am believing in Christ, and I am being saved.” My Fundamentalist friend has never responded to my explanation of these verses. I hope someday he will see past the high walls of his Fundamentalist traditions and see the great beauty and wisdom of the Church founded by Jesus Christ.