hey goldy... just wanted you to know that I read it....the Roman Catholic apologist writes "Well, we’re good up until Question #4. The first thing I do whenever someone asks me this question is to immediately ask them: “Where is that question in the Bible?” Where does Jesus, or Paul, or Peter, or James, or anyone else ask someone, “If you died tonight do you know for sure that you would go to Heaven?” Ask them to give you book, chapter, and verse. They can’t do it, because that question is not in the Bible. In other words, these “Bible–only” Christians have made up some sort of salvation test that is nowhere found in the Bible…it is a man–made invention."The problem here is this, those who advocate sola scriptura do not teach "bible alone". The only persons who do this are uninformed, though I am sure well meaning fundamentalists who misunderstand what sola scriptura itself teaches. It is best to get a definition of sola scriptura from some of those who coined the term, here is the relevant area from the Westminster Confession of Faith; Of Scripture; VI. The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture..." In this specific case your RC apologist reveals a fundamental (pardon the pun) misunderstanding of sola scriptura, then asks a question/makes a statement based on that very misunderstanding, thus creating a straw man. Just because a certain question is not itself expressly asked in Scripture does not therefore make it unscriptural.As far as assurance of one's salvation is concerned, the Beloved Disciple said we can experience certitude in regard to our salvation: 1 John 3:19-22 (ESV) 19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him."and1 John 4:10-13 (ESV) 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this
we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit." Paul himself also said Romans 8:31-39 (ESV) 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.In Paul's admonition (to not think that you stand lest you fall) he is chiding the Corinthians for what their certainty in regard to their relationship with God
is based on, not that they have security per se. Paul is too clear elsewhere that believers are absolutely secure in their salvation. The Corinthians placed their hope.... not in Christ alone and His work on the Cross..... but rather in who they themselves were.... "So he who thinks he stands, let him be careful not to fall.Here is an aphorism that anyone can take to heart. Indeed, we frequently choose this Scripture passage to tell someone to avoid misplaced self-reliance and inordinate pride.With the word so Paul concludes his survey of Israel's history and applies its lessons to the Corinthians. He directs his application to all the readers but especially to those people who proudly think that they have the freedom in Christ to do anything or to go anywhere. He implicitly refers to the Corinthians who visit pagan temples (8:10). These so-called strong believers should take note of the history lessons from the Old Testament, for in these lessons God is addressing them. In effect, Paul is drawing the people of Israel and the Corinthian Christian together through these Old Testament lessons.The people of Israel took pride in their standing before God. They alone were God's people, and they thought that God would always be on their side. They felt spiritually secure because God had made a covenant with their father Abraham, a covenant he promised to keep for generations to come (Gen. 17:7). Yet the Scriptures relate that because of their disobedience to God and his Word, untold descendants of Abraham fell in the desert (see v. 5; Rom. 11:20). Says the writer of Hebrews, "See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness" (Heb. 3:12-13).The word fall points to a false security. When Paul uses this word, he refers to those Corinthians who place their trust in either church membership or baptism and communion but not in Jesus Christ. These Corinthians rely on their own insights and the "wisdom" derived from fellow men (3:18). With hearts that are not right with God, they are self-confident. Instead, Paul advises that they with childlike confidence are to trust in God from day to day. Their spiritual security should come from true faith that relies on God to fulfill his promises.—Baker New Testament Commentary"The Corinthians felt quite sure on this vital point and even prided themselves on what they deemed the fullest kind of evidence for their standing, namely their "knowledge" and their Christian "right." —Lenski New Testament CommentarySo it is totally true that God is our judge, and God the judge looks at all those clothed in the Son's righteousness as justified, and all those to whom God has judged and granted this justification, that is, all those to whom this righteousness is applied, are regenerated, saved by the grace and mercy of God. And God the judge is the very same as Jesus the judge, and we also know that since Jesus is God, that His will and the Father's never conflict with one another, and since they are in perfect harmony with one another, God the Father will always answer Jesus' prayers. Since Jesus asks the Father that all of His children would be saved, the Father will in fact grant this request: John 17:20-24 (ESV) 20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. also see
http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=1415
What I would say in response to the question: “Which sin of ours doesn’t Christ fully atone for,” is this: “The unrepented one.” Now, Christ did indeed atone for all of our sins, repented and unrepented; however, the atonement is not applied to the unrepented sins. So turn around and ask your questioner this: “Does Christ forgive YOUR unrepented sins?” Now this could present quite a problem to your questioner, because this person, based on the fact that they asked you this series of questions, undoubtedly believes not only in salvation by faith alone, but also in the dogma of once saved, always saved. In other words, they believe that once they’ve accepted Jesus, they are going to Heaven no matter what they do after that. So, because they believe in once saved, always saved, they have to believe that Christ forgives their sins whether they repent of them or not. Yet, if they answer your question with a, “Yes,” Christ does indeed forgive their unrepented sins, they are flying in the face of Scripture: 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” “If,” we confess our sins. If we repent. If we don’t, we are not forgiven. If we are not forgiven, we are not saved. This can also be very clearly seen in Jesus’ words to the seven churches in Rev 2 and 3.
To start with, there is a logical fallacy involved in his reasoning. The bible does say that if we repent or our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The fallacy occurs in assuming that the “if” is an absolute conditional, but its not. If the Scriptures said “if and only if you repent of your sins, God will forgive you” then yes, repentance would be a condition upon which forgiveness would be based. As it is, this is just a promise to us that if we do repent, God will forgive us. Its not a promise that if we DO NOT repent, He will not forgive us.Secondly on this point, no one… no one…. Is able to repent of every single sin they ever commit, because many of our sins are sins of the mind, fleeting thoughts that happen so quickly, and then disappear so quickly that we forget about them, and thus, we never ask forgiveness for them. If our salvation was based on our ability to perfectly recall and repent of all our sins, then 2 things entail: 1) no one would be saved, because no one can perfectly repent of all their sins and 2) salvation would be based on works, not grace and mercy.Nest he says
Now, as in any of these situations, they will have undoubtedly have a response…words will come out of their mouths. But, I can guarantee you that it is not a response that will make much scriptural sense. So, no matter what they say in response to your question, examine it very carefully because it will not be consistent either with Scripture, or with one of their earlier statements. There will be a disconnect…an inconsistency…in what they say, guaranteed. You just have to pay attention and just keep coming back to your question until they have given you a logically and scripturally–consistent answer.
Since no one is omniscient, there is no way he can guarantee that every single answer ever provided will not make any scriptural sense, or that a given answer will be inconsistent. It might be the case, but there is no way that he should be saying that he knows this for a fact ahead of time. Secondly, I do not see a disconnect in my answer at all. So his little journey into trying to see the future has already failed.
You can conclude by telling your questioner that you believe you were saved by God’s grace alone, but that now that you are saved, in order to run the race to the end, you need to cooperate with God’s grace in your l ife and produce good fruit, or you will be like the branches of the vine in John 15:1–6 that get cut off from the vine, thrown into the fire, and burned. And ask them if they believe they will remain a branch of the vine if they do not produce good fruit. See what they say…
1 Corinthians 3:13-15 (ESV) 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss,
though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”See that? Our sins will be burned up.... yet we ourselves will be saved....Yes we are sanctified by cooperating with God’s grace as one is then growing progressively more an more like Christ throughout their lives. However, no one lives this out perfectly. And if every time a person sins they lose their salvation, because they forget to repent of it for example, then manifestly no one will be saved, because no one possess the ability to perfectly repent of all their sins. What Rome does is to confuse sanctification with justification, and that is why they teach a false gospel. A persons sanctification has to do with their growing in holiness, not their salvation. I hope this helps….Blessings,ken