You are assured of your salvation if you keep it up, but you must be in the state of grace at death. The point is you have no guarantee of heaven if you fail to persist in the faith. There are many Protestants, particularly evangelicals and Calvinists, who believe that by predestination or by declaring belief in Jesus, that they will go to heaven regardless of their behavior on earth.
I guess I’ve never come across anyone who described it this way. And frankly, its a confusing way to put it. it effectively renames indulgences as temporal salvation. I think this is a Jimmy Akin definition to try to explain indulgences in a way that Protestants might understand.
Yeah, that makes perfect sense to me. But there’s no small number of Catholics who say that at any given moment, we can’t know if we’re in a state of grace, and that really puzzles me.
While Ideally you should know, because it is a requirement to be in the state of grace to recieve communion.
I don’t think “ideally” has anything to do with it. I think it’s utterly impossible to be in a state of mortal sin and not know it. I’m trying to figure out what, if anything, I’m missing.
Exactly! You are correct. There are lists of mortal sins in scripture: 1 Cor 6:9-10, Eph 5:5-6, Gal 5:19-21. Notice: With all of these it says you will not obtain the Kingdom of God - that is the definition of mortal sin. This was written to Christians.
Probably right. Although some people’s consciences have become dull…
greetings all,
I totally disagree with this. Let me give you an example: Say you’re masturbating, after trying hard to resist. You used to masturbate frequently but stopped for about a month, then succumbed to the sin again.
But that goes the opposite way. You’re describing a sin which is probably mortal, but due to mitigating circumstances might be venial. So you’re right, you might incorrectly think you’re in mortal sin when you’re not. I’m talking about a situation where a person thinks they’re in a state of grace, but to their surprise turn out to be in a state of mortal sin. Whoops!
The wisdom of the Church says “When in doubt, confess”.
Hmmm…you ask several friends of mine, they know that missing Church is “technically” (paraphrasing them, not my words) a mortal sin, but they find the teaching ridiculous and don’t follow it. So if a Priest asked them for their mortal sins, this would probably not be mentioned.
On the contrary, Bengoshi, that is exactly when this term developed to describe the Church. It first appears in Luke 9:31, and was in regular use by the time the Gospel of John was written at the end of the first century. Why would it be a problem if the NT Church was Catholic?
So, just to be clear, if it is “impossible for those who have been truly saved by the grace of God through Jesus to not do good works” and “good works are evidence of a Christian’s faith”, it then follows that the absence of good works are evidence of a lack of faith and a lack of being truly saved? Yes or No, please, followed by any commentary you wish to add.
Well, the fact is, we simply don’t know who is in heaven or hell, other than the Saints. We know the saints are in heaven through the miracles they work.
what are you referring to?