The Word, Revelation, and salvation

[MysticMonist]

In Catholic theology what is the role of the scripture in personal salvation?
Preaching of the Word (which involves literally speaking of the scripture) is a ministry of the church, right? It’s not a sacrament per say because there are seven of those.

I used the term salvation which I know in a Protestant context means rescue from hell after death. But Catholics also mean something greater with regeneration and daily living and dying with Christ.
I really love how the Greek and Russian monastics talk about salvation as liberation from demonic thoughts and purification thru God’s presence. Protestants might call this sanctification not salvation.

As a Baha’i, our Writings talk about how when we embrace the Revelation of God we embrace God Himself who is known thru His message and Messengers. If we reject His Messengers, we (in a sense) reject God. I was curious on the Catholic view of this idea, the spiritual effect on hearing and accepting the scripture.

 

[CapitalistCatholic]

Sorry if this is irrelevant, but I am not familiar with the Baha’i. Can you explain your theology?

 

[MysticMonist]

Sorry if this is irrelevant, but I am not familiar with the Baha’i. Can you explain your theology?

I’ll try to explain the basics of our view of revelation and salvation. Like Catholics (Aquanis) we believe God is only knowable in the most general sense from natural revelation. God therefore manifests his spirit of Revelation in prophets (called divine manifestations) to each people in every age. There are endowed with the same message, same revelation but it’s tailored based on the readiness of the people to receive it, cultural differences, personality of the prophet, and so on.
Bahais say that we gain blessing and illumination by accepting those who “God made manifest”, and are lost in veils or vain imaginings when we reject them.
Does that help?

 

[CapitalistCatholic]

Yes, this helps very much.

 

[MysticMonist]

I think is a more precise way if asking my question:
It seems to me that reading or hearing the scripture is a sacrament like experience; it’s an outward sign (the actual words) of inward grace (salvation, illumination, regeneration) if accepted. What’s the Catholic take on this?

 

[Genesis315]

Since faith is necessary for salvation, and faith is believing what God has revealed, and Scripture is one aspect of His revelation, receiving the the revelation of God in Scripture is necessary for salvation.

First Vatican Council

1. Since human beings are totally dependent on God as their creator and lord, and created reason is completely subject to uncreated truth, we are obliged to yield to God the revealer full submission of intellect and will by faith.
2. This faith, which is the beginning of human salvation, the Catholic Church professes to be a supernatural virtue, by means of which, with the grace of God inspiring and assisting us, we believe to be true what He has revealed, not because we perceive its intrinsic truth by the natural light of reason, but because of the authority of God himself, who makes the revelation and can neither deceive nor be deceived.

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1. Wherefore, by divine and Catholic faith all those things are to be believed which are contained in the word of God as found in Scripture and tradition, and which are proposed by the Church as matters to be believed as divinely revealed, whether by her solemn judgment or in her ordinary and universal magisterium.
2. Since, then, without faith it is impossible to please God [21] and reach the fellowship of his sons and daughters, it follows that no one can ever achieve justification without it, neither can anyone attain eternal life unless he or she perseveres in it to the end.

 

[MysticMonist]

First Vatican Council

Thanks, an excellent answer. So yes, the scripture does contain salvation but only with proper illumination and in context of the tradition of it’s inheritance (in this case the Catholic Church). The Bahais actually do recognize apostolic succession, we ourselves practice it.

 

[fhansen]

I’ve come to believe that God has revealed Himself, most fully through Christ, and that His revelation has been preserved both in Scripture and the Tradition of the Church, which then has the purpose of interpreting and expounding/ teaching on that revelation so that we may hear it-and be changed by it. Through that teaching we learn of the nature and will of God so that we may respond accordingly, beginning with faith. We’re baptized into the Church whereupon we receive forgiveness of sin and are cleansed/purified of it and adopted into God’s family -and then expected to live according to our baptismal vows, seeking to follow God and grow even more in the purity or justice received at baptism. It’s a package deal, a life-long process where there’s no real distinction between justification and sanctification because we’re expected to continue to do the best we can throughout our lives with the gifts we’ve been given, after which God determines our destiny. Meanwhile we can know that He’s trustworthy and true, has only man’s best interest at heart, and we have nothing to worry about if we’ve been following His will, meaning, in shorthand, that we’ve been transformed such that we love as He does, to the best we can as we cooperate with His work in us, and defined as loving Him with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.

 

[MysticMonist]

It’s a package deal, a life-long process where there’s no real distinction between justification and sanctification

I liked your description of the Christain faith. I think you are right it has to be a package deal. Salvation without sanctification is cheap grace. Sanctification without salvation makes no sense but it is the claim of a narrow understanding of salvation thru Christ (or alternatively that all apparent holiness of devout non-christians is actually satanic influence). Protestantism makes both these errors