Posts Tagged ‘Catholic’

Salvation in Roman Catholicism is not an instantaneous occurrence where God declares a person righteous — which is the biblically correct position.  Instead, the Roman Catholic Church teaches that salvation is a process where grace is infused into a believer at baptism and also through the sacraments. This infused grace allows the Catholic to perform good works and thereby demonstrate his or her worthiness of salvation.  Please consider the following quotes from the catechism of the Catholic Church which demonstrate a process of salvation as taught in Roman Catholicism.

• ". . Baptism is the first and chief sacrament of forgiveness of sins because it unites us with Christ, who died for our sins and rose for our justification, so that 'we too might walk in newness of life,'" (Catechism of the Catholic Church par. 977).
• "Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ. It is granted us through Baptism. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who justifies us. It has for its goal the glory of God and of Christ, and the gift of eternal life. It is the most excellent work of God's mercy," (CCC, par. 2020).
• "Sanctifying grace is the gratuitous gift of his life that God makes to us; it is infused by the Holy Spirit into the soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it," (CCC, par. 2023).
• "Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification," (CCC, par. 2010).
• "We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love him and do his will.  In every circumstance, each one of us should hope, with the grace of God, to persevere 'to the end' and to obtain the joy of heaven, as God's eternal reward for the good works accomplished with the grace of Christ," (CCC, par. 1821).
• "Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church: above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin, and have thus lost their baptismal grace and wounded ecclesial communion. It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification. The Fathers of the Church present this sacrament as 'the second plank (of salvation) after the shipwreck which is the loss of grace," (CCC, par. 1446).

1. Salvation in Roman Catholicism is not an instantaneous occurrence where God declares a person righteous by faith.  Instead, it is a process where grace is infused into a believer at baptism and also through the sacraments and by which he then does enough good to be saved.
2. In Roman Catholicism baptism is the first and chief sacrament of forgiveness of sins. (Catechism of the Catholic Church par. 977).
3. Roman Catholicism denies justification by faith alone.  "If any one saith, that man is truly absolved from his sins and justified, because he assuredly believed himself absolved and justified; or, that no one is truly justified but he who believes himself justified; and that, by this faith alone, absolution and justification are effected; let him be anathema." (Canon 14).

Because Catholicism teaches that salvation is a process, it thereby denies justification by faith alone.