Answers by Bill Jackson, CHRISTIANS EVANGELIZING CATHOLICS, to NO "ASSUR- ANCE OF SALVATION" by Karl Keating, CATHOLIC ANSWERS, Box 17181, San Diego, CA 92117. Mr. Keating totally misunderstands the biblical basis for salvation. He says, They conclude that heaven is theirs in exchange for a remarkably simple act. Christ has unlocked the gates of Heaven. He did his part and now we have to cooperate by doing ours. The Bible teaches that God does give Heaven as a free gift (Rom 6:23), but that salvation was not procured by a re- markably simple act. That salvation was purchased by the shedding of the life blood of our Saviour upon the cross. If it is true that Christ merely unlocked the gates of Heaven, it would be necessary for us to do our part to get through those open gates. However, the Bible clearly teaches us that "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins that he might bring us to God." Jesus did unlock the gate of Heaven, but then He came back to where I was as a poor lost sinner and brought me through that open gate. If our co-operation is necessary, then our work must be added to Christ's work. If His work was infinite, we cannot add to it. If it was finite, then any number of finite values added together can never equal infinity. We have to be spiritually alive at the moment of bodily death. True, but the life God gives us is eternal life, a life that lasts forever. If it is eternal, it will last to the moment of our bodily death. You can be Mother Teresa, yet you will go to hell if you do not accept Christ in the fundamentalists' sense It is true that you can appear to be the greatest saint alive, whether Catholic, Protestant or Hindu, and yet if you have not trusted Christ in the Bible sense you are doomed for eternity. That is simply because Jesus Himself said, "I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by me." (John 14:6) The reason is that "accepting Jesus" has nothing to do with turning a spiritually dead soul into a soul alive with sanctifying grace. I John 5:12, "He that hath the Son hath life: and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." Karl begins one of his paragraphs with the bold heading, You Can't Lose Heaven The basis upon which that is true is that you did nothing to merit Heaven, therefore your entrance into Heaven is based upon a different foundation than your goodness. Since you didn't do anything to gain it, you cannot do anything to lose it. How can any fundamentalist know his salvation experience was real? I John 5:11, "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." Besides, there are verses that call the whole notion of assurance of salvation into question. "I buffet my body or I, who have preached to others, may myself be rejected as worthless"(I Cor 9:27). This follows the well-known verses that speak of running a race, and the race, of course, is the race of life, the finish line being entrance into heaven. (A fundamentalist author) says that Paul "did not want to lose the reward for service through failing to satisfy his Lord; he was not afraid of losing his salvation." While that interpre- tation seems to strain the passage a bit (read the whole of chapter 9 your- self), it is not entirely unreasonable. We challenge Karl to see what the Bible really says, and to look honestly at the context and other passages where Paul mentions the race. I Cor 9:27 says, "lest I myself should be a castaway". Then just using I Cor 9 it is very reasonable that the Christian is correct, and when we compare this with Paul's other writings, we see their conclusion is inescapable. Note Rom 9:16, So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. If the finish line is Heaven, then the Holy Spirit would have contradicted Himself in Romans 9 and I Cor 9. We know that in other places He has written of the necessity of wise Christian living in order to be God's best. Another passage that clearly shows this not to be gaining salvation is I Cor 3:15 where, after talking about the loss that may be suffered by unwise Christian living, even if a man's work is burned up, "he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." Karl would not have been a normal R.C. aplologist if he had not misquoted Php 2:12, "work for your own salvation." But Karl does admit other translations say "work out" but concludes that "fear and trembling" is not the language of self-confident assurance. The worst part of this exegesis is to assume that a Christian ought to desire "self-confident assurance." If my assurance of salvation were determined by my achieving I would have none. The fact that I must stand before my blessed Saviour one day and give an account of how I have lived my life for Him makes me realize that the Christian life is serious indeed. We are not participating in a three-legged race at a Sunday school picnic. We are living a real life with a real foe, and we should seriously consider the faithfulness of our walk with Him. Karl also misquoted John 3:5. He said it says, that a man must be reborn by water and the Holy Spirit. Notice what the Bible says. Verse 3: Except a man be born again; verse 5: except a man be born (not re-born) of water and the Holy Spirit; verse 7: ye must be born again. No where is water said to be necessary in the new birth. "Are you saved? asks the fundamentalist. "I am redeemed" answers the Catholic, "and like the Apostle Paul I am working out my salvation in fear and trembling, with hopeful confidence - but not with a false assurance - and I do all this as the Church has taught, unchanged, from the time time of Christ." The Christian answers with assurance, "Jesus loves me; this I know; for the Bible tells me so" and he is perfectly willing to entrust his future with the One Who loved him enough to suffer on Calvary that man might be redeemed. The Church might have arguments, but we say, "I need no other argument; I need no other plea; it is enough that Jesus died, and that He died for me." ../
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