The Easy Way Out, The Baptist Way

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VIR2010

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I am enjoying my research towards the truth and can not help but see so many errors in the common non catholic way to receive Salvation. First and foremost I am not a Biblical Dummy, I have read the Scriptures time and again, I am not an expert and will never become one, I only hope that my efforts will bring me closer. I wanted to address in this post the topic of Salvation. This is one of many reasons why I am converting to the Catholic Church.

You must understand at one time I was one of the biggest persecutors of the Catholic Church. If you read some of my posts you will see that. I would rant and rave and denounce the Pope as a spreader of Vile lies and a Vicar of Satan. I would condemn the Church as a building filled with superstitious bigots and lying priests. That all changes with studying the Scriptures and asking God to reveal to me the truths of his Precious word.

I did a study on Salvation. I used to believe the simple “Once Saved Always Saved” Philosophy. Simply ask Jesus to Be your Saviour and He will take you to heaven because Salvation is a free gift. Then I looked at the Scriptures.

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. In that verse it states that we are all sinners in the need of saving Grace from God. We all are born of Sin and are as Filthy Rags (Isaiah 64:6) We all need a savior. God gave his Son, Jesus Christ because he loved us ( St. John 3:16). It IS a free gift, we can not earn it. Revelations 3:20 states “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” In that verse it does not say “I will only come in if he prays 4 times a day and eats seafood for the rest of his life” It gives no condition, it plainly says He will come in to you. This is where myself as a former Baptist believed that you can not lose your salvation because it is a free gift and God will not take it back. True. God will never take a free gift back, but you can always throw a free gift away. Because in St. Matthew 24:13 it states “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” I as a former Baptist believed that all you had to do was say the prayer mean it and your fate in heaven was sealed. How silly and what a lie. It is all about enduring to the end. Following God, Serving others, loving one another, studying scriptures, and being unshakable in your faith. I posted a post earlier of a “Catholic Lady Who set an example for me”. She took her faith seriously, she made it a point in her life to “Endure to the End” and it is because of her example that I found the Truth of God’s Word. It is funny to me, the Baptist Church that I belonged to would keep numbers of there Converts, but would rarely if ever try to nurture there new converts in righteousness. It was a big numbers game to us. But that Is why I am so thankful for the Catholic Church. They, as a church ordained by our Lord, have a set list of guidelines from the scriptures on how to serve Christ to the best of your ability. It is not just random self made advice, it is advice straight from the Scriptures. Oh, how retched a sinner I am and how I long to be the best servant for Christ I can be, but it all starts with Baptism and the The Holy Spirit (St. John 3:1-5). It is my hope and prayer that this lie of “Feel Good Salvation” would crumble. The shroud of false lies against the Church is thick, but remember my Brothers and Sisters, Truth Crushed to Earth will Rise Again
 
Very good post. The problem with all heresies is that they put all of their emphasis on certain passages of Scripture, then base all of their understanding on EVERYTHING else in the Bible in light of those few passages. This causes them to twist and distort many opposing passages in order to pull them into alignment with their own foundational passages.

Catholicism by contrast, interprets all of Scripture in light of all of Scripture, so that all passages are in harmony with all other passages.

OSAS and many other fundamentals taught by evangelicals over-stress the few Epistles of Paul while virtually ignoring what Christ Jesus Himself said on the subject!

But the real reason Catholicism “gets” the Bible is because it is guided infallibly by the Holy Spirit, as promised by Jesus Christ. 👍
 
VIR2010 said:
I posted a post earlier of a “Catholic Lady Who set an example for me”. She took her faith seriously, she made it a point in her life to “Endure to the End” and it is because of her example that I found the Truth of God’s Word.Again
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This reminds me of a passage in 2 Timothy (4:6-8), “For I am already on the point of being sacrificed; the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge. will award me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” (RSV-2CE)

Welcome home 👍
 
VIR2010 said:
I am enjoying my research towards the truth and can not help but see so many errors in the common non catholic way to receive Salvation. First and foremost I am not a Biblical Dummy, I have read the Scriptures time and again, I am not an expert and will never become one, I only hope that my efforts will bring me closer. I wanted to address in this post the topic of Salvation. This is one of many reasons why I am converting to the Catholic Church.

You must understand at one time I was one of the biggest persecutors of the Catholic Church. If you read some of my posts you will see that. I would rant and rave and denounce the Pope as a spreader of Vile lies and a Vicar of Satan. I would condemn the Church as a building filled with superstitious bigots and lying priests. That all changes with studying the Scriptures and asking God to reveal to me the truths of his Precious word.

I did a study on Salvation. I used to believe the simple “Once Saved Always Saved” Philosophy. Simply ask Jesus to Be your Saviour and He will take you to heaven because Salvation is a free gift. Then I looked at the Scriptures.

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. In that verse it states that we are all sinners in the need of saving Grace from God. We all are born of Sin and are as Filthy Rags (Isaiah 64:6) We all need a savior. God gave his Son, Jesus Christ because he loved us ( St. John 3:16). It IS a free gift, we can not earn it. Revelations 3:20 states “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” In that verse it does not say “I will only come in if he prays 4 times a day and eats seafood for the rest of his life” It gives no condition, it plainly says He will come in to you. This is where myself as a former Baptist believed that you can not lose your salvation because it is a free gift and God will not take it back. True. God will never take a free gift back, but you can always throw a free gift away. Because in St. Matthew 24:13 it states “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” I as a former Baptist believed that all you had to do was say the prayer mean it and your fate in heaven was sealed. How silly and what a lie. It is all about enduring to the end. Following God, Serving others, loving one another, studying scriptures, and being unshakable in your faith. I posted a post earlier of a “Catholic Lady Who set an example for me”. She took her faith seriously, she made it a point in her life to “Endure to the End” and it is because of her example that I found the Truth of God’s Word. It is funny to me, the Baptist Church that I belonged to would keep numbers of there Converts, but would rarely if ever try to nurture there new converts in righteousness. It was a big numbers game to us. But that Is why I am so thankful for the Catholic Church. They, as a church ordained by our Lord, have a set list of guidelines from the scriptures on how to serve Christ to the best of your ability. It is not just random self made advice, it is advice straight from the Scriptures. Oh, how retched a sinner I am and how I long to be the best servant for Christ I can be, but it all starts with Baptism and the The Holy Spirit (St. John 3:1-5). It is my hope and prayer that this lie of “Feel Good Salvation” would crumble. The shroud of false lies against the Church is thick, but remember my Brothers and Sisters, Truth Crushed to Earth will Rise Again
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Wow! Very good! I cannot improve on it. Yes, we are in a battle every day (Eph 6) and must endure to the end. I’ve been told by Baptists and others that I didn’t believe in the power of the Blood because I believed you could lose your salvation. Then, sometimes, they would also say the opposite by saying someone wasn’t saved but they thought they were at an earlier time! If this is true, how can you really know you are saved? Great post! Priase God!
 
VIR2010,

After Easter, if you have the time, look into attending a local course on the Compendium of the Catholic Church (Pope Benedict’s condensed version of the Catechism).

That class will continue to help define the Sacraments and the sacramental history of Jews and the Early Church.

🙂 Welcome Home!
 
VIR2010 said:
You must understand at one time I was one of the biggest persecutors of the Catholic Church. If you read some of my posts you will see that. I would rant and rave and denounce the Pope as a spreader of Vile lies and a Vicar of Satan. I would condemn the Church as a building filled with superstitious bigots and lying priests.
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🙂 You wouldn’t be the first to have done that, and eventually become a Catholic!
That all changes with studying the Scriptures and asking God to reveal to me the truths of his Precious word.
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👍

My journey to Rome also started with the issue of salvation. I had been a Christian for about six months, and had been diligently studying the scriptures, and I felt the weight of my sins, and the various admonishments by Jesus, in the synoptic gospels, of the perils of sin. So I shared my fears with a protestant friend of mine, whose opinion I respected, and told him that I feared that I was not saved. He responded with a text book reformed answer - “If you have faith, then you are saved”. He quoted various passages from Paul in support of this. I believed him at the time, but the issue kept nagging away at me. Over the next year, I would find that one problem after another came up from my reading the scriptures and comparing it with protestant theology, and over the course of that year the idea started to emerge - “maybe the Catholic Church was right all along”.

As others have said here, the problem with the protestant theology is that it takes one side of an issue (eg. faith, sacraments, priesthood…) which has some scriptural support, and then exaggerates that support, while explaining away the contrary scriptures. The issue of scripture itself (ie. “Sola Scriptura”) is perhaps the most fundamental case of this.

That is all thirty years ago, now, and I never looked back after converting to Catholicism.

~ Edmundus
 
What a cool post! I’ll have to remember that part about our being able to throw away the free gift of Salvation if we so choose.Occasionally I run in to this issue with Baptist friends.I’ve tried to explain our take on Salvation vs redemption, but think I’ll adopt your way of putting it. Thanks! 👍
God bless you!
 
Cracker_Mom said:
What a cool post! I’ll have to remember that part about our being able to throw away the free gift of Salvation if we so choose.Occasionally I run in to this issue with Baptist friends.I’ve tried to explain our take on Salvation vs redemption, but think I’ll adopt your way of putting it. Thanks! 👍
God bless you!
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You can also tell them that is coming from a former Baptist minister and Pastor in training. That may ruffle their feathers 🙂
 
VIR2010 said:
I am enjoying my research towards the truth and can not help but see so many errors in the common non catholic way to receive Salvation. First and foremost I am not a Biblical Dummy, I have read the Scriptures time and again, I am not an expert and will never become one, I only hope that my efforts will bring me closer. I wanted to address in this post the topic of Salvation. This is one of many reasons why I am converting to the Catholic Church.
Click to expand...
Praise be to God!! May you grow ever stronger in your faith!

Welcome home 🙂

God Bless!! 🙂
 
AmbroseSJ said:
Very good post. The problem with all heresies is that they put all of their emphasis on certain passages of Scripture, then base all of their understanding on EVERYTHING else in the Bible in light of those few passages. This causes them to twist and distort many opposing passages in order to pull them into alignment with their own foundational passages.

Catholicism by contrast, interprets all of Scripture in light of all of Scripture, so that all passages are in harmony with all other passages.

OSAS and many other fundamentals taught by evangelicals over-stress the few Epistles of Paul while virtually ignoring what Christ Jesus Himself said on the subject!

But the real reason Catholicism “gets” the Bible is because it is guided infallibly by the Holy Spirit, as promised by Jesus Christ. 👍
Click to expand...
Very good point. Something I would like to add is that any written book by it-self can be interpreted in multiple ways. A book by it-self does not say how it should be read. That is why one needs Tradition and the Church.

The problem with heresies is that they fail to realize this and the fact that words of the Bible can be twisted to say different things especially when read separately from the whole. So without Tradition, the bible alone is indeed a book that can be twisted around by dangerous people to do damage to the faith as these heresies clearly show.

I also thought I would include this video, also by a former a Protestant which I found very helpful in understanding the importance of Tradition
youtube.com/watch?v=SNqBMz8ThFI

God Bless 🙂
 
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