Question:
As a Catholic girl raised in a very Protestant area, I'm often asked why I'm not 'saved'. I never know how to approach this question because I thought 'saved' was acknowledging Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. I've done that.
What can I say to a Protestant to defend myself in this situation I'm often put in? How do Catholics get saved in a Catholic way?
Why are Protestants told we're not saved? Also, why is it that Catholics aren't considered Christians to some Protestants? I don't understand this and would like to defend myself and the Church when I can in a loving manner. Thank you for any help!
Regards, Brittany
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Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM+
Dear Brittany:
Anti-Catholics who think that Catholics are not saved are horse's patutes usually, or at best very ignorant.
Catholic teaching about salvation is what is written in the Bible. We are saved by grace through faith and not through the works of the law. That saving faith, however, must be lived out in works of love since, as St. James says, "faith without works is dead." Our justification comes from faith lived out in good works. This is what the Bible teaches and anyone who disagrees then disagrees with the Bible.
The Catholic Church, and ONLY the Catholic Church is "truly" a Biblical Church -- though actually the Bible is really a Church Bible since the Church confirmed and produced the Bible, not the other way around. Protestants, on the other hand, do not even come close to being a Biblical teaching. They are, rather, a hodgepodge of more than 30,000 sects each thinking the Holy Spirit speaks to them, yet contradicting each other.
Catholics are saved. We have been saved through Faith in baptism, we are being saved in our good works and through the Eucharist, and we will be saved in the judgment.
This does not mean once-saved-always-saved however. This man-made doctrine is utterly unbiblical. We can lose our salvation. We have free will and we can freely choose God and we can freely reject God later, and yet choose God once again. The story of the Prodigal Son is an example of this.
What may be helpful to you are the pamphlets on this subject located at: Catholic Answers
God Bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary
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