Just a quick note to say that if you haven’t been paying close attention, we have slipped back into the 1500′s. What do I mean?
Mostly, that the Roman Catholic Church is giving out indulgences again. Not that they really stopped. Its just being more ‘announced’ again.
For the uninitiated, an indulgence (more specifically called a ‘plenary’ or ‘partial’ indulgence) is a ‘get out of jail early’ card. Not from hell- there is no getting out of that. But one can commute their (or anyone’s) stay in Purgatory in part or whole with an indulgence. Now Purgatory is a lot like hell, it is just not permanent. You have to work off the sins committed in the body so that you will be perfect in God’s presence. How does this happen? Again, very basically, some of the merit earned by others is transferred to your account. Since St. Valentine, for example, was WAY better than he needed to be, his excess ‘goodness’ can be yours. At least the Church isn’t selling them anymore.
I can think of few things more unBiblical or anti-Gospel.
Either Christ saved us completely or He didn’t. Either His death is totally sufficient or it isn’t. Any way that I justify myself before God is a way that He is not or did not. To say that the Church can dispense that mercy in ‘servings’ is to negate it. Saying, in effect, ‘you have done some good things so you can have just a little more grace’ is to make GRACE A WAGE and therefore NOT GRACE!!! (Rom 4:4-5)
I cannot stomach this.
Philp 3:9- [I want] to be found in Him not having a righteousness of my own . . . but that which comes through faith in Christ.
February 20, 2009 at 3:36 pm |
Greg:
Nice to have you back writing posts.
I wasn’t aware that the Catholic Church was again offering indulgences (or at least admitting to it on a wide-spread level). We so often want to “add to” grace as if it weren’t enough. And, further affirming Luther’s comment, “As sinners we are prone to pursue a relationship with God in 1 of 2 ways, religion/spirituality or the Gospel. And the two are antithetical in every way.” I shudder to think of God’s judgment upon my life apart from the grace of God in Christ Jesus. And to think that I would want to stand before Him based upon my merit. Who am I kidding? Anything plus salvation by grace through faith in Christ is simply a works-based theology (haven’t we read Galatians!?!).
Thanks for your teaching my friend! I pray that you would continue & “not shrink from declaring the truth.”
August 25, 2009 at 3:55 am |
The merits of Christ’s redemption must still be applied to each person in order for him to be saved. Thus, a person must repent (Mt 4:17), believe in Jesus (Acts 16:31), keep the commandments (Mt 19:16-17) and live a life of charity (1 Cor 13: 1-3), as Scripture plainly teaches. As I quoted before, St. Paul says “work out your salvation in fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). St Paul even fears losing his own salvation: “I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.” (1 Cor 9:27)
Do Catholics believe we earn our salvation? No, we are unable to do works unless we are in Christ. If we are in Christ, it is by grace and not by our earning. We are received in Christ by baptism – a pure gift – to be born into God’s family. Once in the family, we must be faithful to the family or leave Christ by mortal sin, and loss of sanctifying grace. If I put myself out of Christ, repentance and the sacramental grace earned by the blood of the cross bring me back in Christ.
So, to recap thus far: Christ’s redemptive work is all-sufficient. It is possible for anyone to be saved. However, we can lose salvation through our sins. Now on to grace.
Greg seems to be saying that everyone has the same amount of grace, regardless of how many good works they have preformed (only, of course, by the grace of God). This is ludicrous. Can you really believe that someone who lives a life of complete debauchery has the same favor in the Lord’s eyes as one of his saints, as long as they both believe that Jesus died for them? (Eph 4:7) “But to everyone of us is given grace, according to the measure of the giving of Christ.” Catholics believe in a much more wonderful grace. For Martin Luther, man is a dung heap, and God’s grace covers the dung heap like a layer of snow to make us acceptable to Christ. Catholics believe God’s grace transforms us to a new being, sharing in the very life of God.
Contrast Luther’s words: “Be a sinner, and sin boldly, but let your trust in Christ be stronger.”
With the words of scripture:
(Mt 5:48) “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
(1 Pet 1:15-16) “…as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written, ‘Be holy because I am holy.’ ”
Without perfect holiness, we cannot see God in heaven:
(Heb 12:14) “Strive for peace with everyone, and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” (Rev 21:27) “…nothing unclean will enter it (heaven).”
What is the Catholic belief about Purgatory? Purgatory is a temporary state of purification for the imperfect saints. In Purgatory all remaining reparation for sin is made; all remaining self-love is purged and purified until only love of God remains.
What is an indulgence? A partial or complete remittance of the temporal punishment you still owe for your sins, after they have been forgiven. The Communion of Saints makes indulgences possible, as Catholics draw upon the infinite satisfaction made for sin by Christ, and the super-abundant satisfaction made by Our Lady and the Saints, who do not need this satisfaction as they are already in heaven, and who specifically offered their penances up for the good of the Church. Can their merits be applied to others?
(Col 1:24) “Who now rejoice in my suffering for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the church.
(Note: There is no want in the sufferings of Christ Himself as head: but many sufferings are still wanting, or are still to come, in his body the church, and his members of the faithful.)
(1 Cor 12:26) “And if one member suffer anything, all the members suffer with it, or if one member glory, all the members rejoice with it.”
Indulgences are not “freebies.” Fr. John Laux has the following to say “To gain an indulgence we must (a) comply with the conditions layed down (b) be in the state of grace (c) have at least a general intention of gaining the indulgence. (Contrary to what the pastor said: ) We cannot gain an indulgence for another living person. For the gaining of a plenary (complete) indulgence, confession, communion, and prayers for the Pope are as a rule required… indulgences when properly used promote the spirit of penance, the reception of the sacraments, and the performance of good works.” So, the Church, in her mercy toward sinners, who have willing and with real contrition confessed their sins, applies to them the superabundant merits gained by the saints, who have made satisfaction in their lifetime for the sins of so many.
Now for “faith alone” apart from works. In a nutshell, people misread Romans. Romans 4 is quoted out of context. Chap 14 is the key. This letter is an answer to the question of how to unify the Jewish and Gentile Christians. Ceremonial “works of the law” (circumcision, etc.) had caused a division. The book of James, which Martin Luther didn’t like at all and yanked out of the Bible, shows us the folly of “faith alone.”
(James 2:14-24) “What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
But some one will say, “you have faith and I have works! Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish fellow, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works, and the scripture was fulfilled which says ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness’; and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.”
My final word:
Scripture was collected and preserved by the Catholic Church. It is contradictory for Protestants to accept the Bible and yet reject the authority of the Catholic Church. Logically, Protestants should not quote the Bible as authoritative, for they have no way of determining which books are inspired – unless, of course, they accept the teaching authority of the Catholic Church. In the end, it all comes down to the authority of the Church. Did Christ leave a Church with divine authority to govern or not? (Mt 16:13-20, 18:18, Lk 10:16) Yes. It only makes sense. The Bible also tells us that sacred tradition is to be followed alongside Sacred Scripture (2 Thess 2:15, 3:6), and that not everything Jesus said and did is recorded in Scripture (John 21:25) and that we must also hold fast to oral tradition, the preached word of God (1 Cor 11:2, 1 Pet 1:25). In 2 Pet 3:15-16, we are warned that Sacred Scripture can be very difficult to interpret, which strongly implies the need for an authoritative interpreter. Finally, 1 Tim 3:15 reassures us that the Church is “the pillar and foundation of truth.”