I struggled with this when I left the Catholic Church when I was taught 'liberation theology by the Jesuits and had to register for the required courses in theology and philosophy. One of the course we were given the book by Teilhard de Chardin which the 1962 proclamation condemned his teachings and has not been rescinded.
I went over to Protestantism and traveled from one denomination to another. Protestants have a hard problem with the Pope being the head but I found and observe that if you teach doctrine contrary to that particular denomination or church, you’re kicked out. So I don’t see any difference in the concept. But that is besides the point.
Interesting enough, what brought me back to investigate who holds the truth was a Baptist missionary by the name of Paul Washer that gave a sermon to the youth at the Southern Baptist Convention that went viral over the internet and flew in the face of SBC doctrine. It can be found here and is worth watching:
youtube.com/watch?v=uuabITeO4l8
Then durng my research I came across another Protestant who wrote on the myth of eternal security which blew OSAS out of the water since the word believe in the Greek is present tense aorist which means a continual state of beleiving not a past tense or one time event.
With that said, I was trying to determine who had the truth and so I started on my journey through 3000 years of doctrine, writings and teachings. Since when I started reading Romans, I would get ’ whiplashed’ from going back and forth doctrinally. One chapter would read OSAS, the next Calvin, the next conditional security. It’s been very depressing and discouraging so I went back to the early church fathers. After reading their writings since they were appointed to the position of overseer in the churches bythe apostles through the power of the Holy Spirit and were taught by them and fellowshipped with them to pass on the correct doctrine, then I had to agree with them because logically to dispute them would be to dispute the apostles’ teaching and ultimately Christ. I found the liturgy of the CC as being dull and irrelevant for today but then I came across a fragment discovered that had the liturgy of worship written by the Lord’s brother James Bishop of the church of Jerusalem who was martyred. It’s the same lituryg as today. So if Jesus through his apostles established this is the way God is to be worship, then how can I disagree. Today, so many churches try to make it relevant to the younger generation and in so doing are really telling God, this is way we are going to worship you.
OSAS believes that Jesus paid the penalty for all sins by condemning sin in the flesh once and full all so the righteous requirements of the law be fulfilled and there is no longer anymore sacrifice for sins and that means past, present and future sins. Sin was condemned so that we may be righteous. The penalty for sin was wiped out at the cross for those that believe. So when you accept Christ His righteous is imputed to you so that when God looks at you, He does not see a sinner but the righteousness of Christ through the shed Blood of Christ. The believer is justified not in his work but the work of Christ. When a believer sins, he looses fellowship with God but never a relationship with God. If he continues not to work out his salvation called sanctification, then the Lord disciplines those He loves and will bring circumstances in your life to chastise you to get you back on the path. How you work out your salvation in this life will determine your crowns, rewards or position in heaven never your salvation. For if you were to loose your salvation, then your salvation could not be called eternal but termporary or conditional. He gives us the seal of his Holy Spirit as a guarantee for in Romans he is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them and there are a mulitude of other scriptures supporint the position. In the Gospel of John Jesus prays to the Father that those who are called s He will not loose any of those. So to me at the time was the ‘Good News’
Sorry to be so long winded but the basic fact is that there are a great number of scriptures supporting each doctrinal position, and a great number refuting each doctrinal position, thus the Reformation and my struggles to understand.
It is hard to come back to the CC since an earlier observation about the CC made in this post has some relevancy. I am stuck on some issues of salvation since no man could be found righteous through keeping the law before Chirst and Christ requires a higher standard of not only conduct but thoughts and deeds, how can anyone keep Christ commandments when they couldn’t before? Where is the ‘Good News’ if we are going to be judged by our works before God and we walk through life carrying a scale around to make sure our works are greater then our sins? I agonize over this as well as many CC members which our Protestant brothers say is the fallacy of CC doctinre. No ’ Blessed Assurance’. How do you know you completed enough good works to warrant salvation? If you left the church went in the world for 40 years, how many good works do you need to overcome bearing bad fruit. I cannot find anywhere the forgiveness of Christ for our sins after Baptism having an effect at the great white throne judgement! God states that you will be judged for every work, every thought, every speech done in this life whether good or bad so why no mention that the sacrament of penance has wiped the slate clean? OSAS states that God is judging only the unbelievers but Rev. states all are judge by what they had done. OSAS believes believing in Chist is the work exempting you from damnation. So I fall back at times to St. Augustine’s work of predestined saints. I’m stumped. Any enlightenment? Maybe that is why Constantine and many believers waited until they were dying to receive baptism.
Again, I appologize for being so long winded as it is difficult to find anyone that can explain it clearly.
Seriously, I have enjoyed reading your posts…and I appreciate your contribution in this thread.
. I have only been Catholic a short while, but I am leaning as much as I can.