I know that the point of your post is preaching the gospel to the lost, but as an example, an effective way I have found to describe the Catholic view of slavation to Evangelical Protestants is not to avoid faith vs works, but to speak of the birth of faith and the journey to the fullness of faith. I state that we must have faith to be saved, and that is a good place to start, but that Jesus urges us to the fullness of faith, We must be faith-ful. We must reach the point where we have faith+fullness.
You see, I’m not too sure that I disagree that faith alone saves us. But is faith just a feeling in your heart, or must you be full of faith, AKA faithful? I think we have to reach the fullness of faith and exhibit faithfullness to God in our actions, must be willing to “Do” that which is required of our faith. Yes, that includes things like going to Church and being baptized, but that comes later. The important thing is starting on the journey.
Having said that, I really don’t think that the Protestant formula works for Catholicism and have struggled myself to come up with an effective way to communicate salvation to one who has recently come to Christ or who is ready to do so. The best I have been able to do, in comparison to the insufficient “Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you are saved” Evangelical Protestant formula, is to use the idea of the start of faith and reaching the fullness of faith by speaking of ongoing conversion, conversion on a daily basis, as opposed to a single act. Then to speak about the wonderful Church which Jesus left us as a means by which we can effectively acomplish that ongoing conversion and achieve salvation.
I have also discussed Christ’s demand for a radical transformation, and the fact that that is best represented and most achievable in the Catholic Church. This works well for people who are in crisis, ready for a radical transformation in the first place.
Either way, it is a tough sell, in light of the relative ease of the Evangelical formula on salvation.
One thing I am crystal clear about is the need to keep it simple, to not get all doctrinal or to go overboard with minute detail. Very simple. Paul gives us an example of what not to do in his encouter with the Greeks in Acts 17.
*Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: "You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything. (Acts 17:22-25) *
Paul starts off great, speaking about the creator of the universe, the God who made the Heaven and earth and who gives life and breath to all living things, and the Greeks are genuinely interested. But then he goes too far…
…because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world with justice’ through a man he has appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead." When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We should like to hear you on this some other time.” And so Paul left them. But some did join him, and became believers… (Acts 17:31:34)
Paul starts speaking about judgment and the the ressurection of the dead. The Greeks simply weren’t ready for that and Paul looses them It is a lesson to us all, to keep it simple. You don’t grab a Baptist by the collar and start telling him how he has to wear the brown scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel; you speak to him of authority or something like that. You don’t grab a non-Christian by the collar and start telling him about authority; you speak of mercy, healing and most of all peace. People want peace and following the teaching of the Church established Jesus Christ is like following a map or a compass that never fails.
I’m not sure my response helped at all, but there it is for what it is worth. I would welcome anyone’s response and thoughts.
-Tim-
