Dear John:

Well, it is not my job to convince you for two reasons.

1) a person will not be convinced of something unless they want to be convinced of it. All the argument, proofs, reason, or evidence in the world will not convince a person who does wish to convinced. Thus, as a matter of form in apologetics we need to understand that and not try to convince, but let the Holy Spirit do the convincing.

2) It is precisely the fact that we cannot convince anyone of anything that Jesus said in John 6:44  "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him..."

So, what are we to do in apologetics, in sharing our faith, and answering questions about the faith? We are express the faith as best as we know it in as persuasive and convincing way as we know how, but leave the actual convincing to the Holy Spirit.

Our job in apologetics is to be the messenger, not the one to convince.

Now with that lesson on apologetics, on to your actual question.

Since you seem to already be convinced that salvation is a gift from God attained through faith and not works of the law, and event that effects our "born again" nature is baptism (as Jesus said in John 3:5  "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" the question remaining is whether or not one can lose their salvation (as opposed to the "once saved, always saved" theology of Baptists).

We must look to the Book of St. James. Martin Luther wanted to rip out the Book of James from the Bible because he felt that it conflicted with his theology of sola fidei (salvation by faith alone).

In fact, the only place in the Bible where the term "faith alone" is found is in the Book of James (2:24) "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone." That was the RSV. The Douay Rheims renders this verse with perhaps a little more clarity: "Do you see that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only?"

So does this contradict St. Paul's teaching in Romans 3:28: "For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law."

It seems like a contradiction, but it not. Martin Luther thought it to be contradiction, however, which is why he wanted to rip out of the Bible the Book of James, and why he added the word "alone" in Romans 3:28 to his German translation. I am reminded by what Martin Luther did of the admonition of the Book of Revelation (Rev 22:18-19): "I warn every one who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if any one adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if any one takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book."

Martin Luther was confronted personally at the time as to why he was messing with the Bible. Here is his response (which illustrates the manifesto of Protestantism to one degree or another in spirit). Luther defended his novel addition to the Bible by bragging:

"You tell me what a great fuss the Papists are making because the word 'alone' is not in the text of Paul. If your Papist makes such an unnecessary row about the word 'alone,' say right out to him: 'Dr. Martin Luther will have it so,' and say: 'Papist and asses are one and the same thing.' I will have it so, and I order it to be so, and my will is reason enough. I know very well that the word 'alone' is not in the Latin or the Greek text, and it was not necessary for the Papists to teach me that. It is true those letters are not in it, which letters the jackasses look at, as a cow stares at a new gate...It shall remain in my New Testament, and if all the Popish donkeys were to get mad and beside themselves, they will not get it out."

Thus sayeth the "humble" Martin Luther.

Some 450 years later, in 1999 I think, after twenty years of discussions between the Catholic Church and the Lutherans, it was decided that there was no variance between Catholic and Lutherans. Rather we were both looking at the same thing from two difference angles.

Frankly, the Catholic Church was looking at the question from the correct angle -- straight on. The Lutherans were looking at the question from a true angle -- biased and skewed.

St. Paul was talking about the "works of the law", which is what he says directly in the Scripture. St. James was talking about the "works of love":

(James 2:17-18, 20-26)  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.

Do you want to be shown, you shallow man, 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. And in the same way was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.

To put it simply, St. Paul is correct in saying that salvation is by faith not the works of the law. No manner of following the rules (law) gains us heaven. St. James is also correct in that if we have faith we WILL express that faith in the "works of love" (good works). Without the expression of our faith in love our faith is dead, and if dead, then we have no faith, and therefore no salvation since faith is required to be saved (cf. Galatians 5:4-6; 1 Corinthians 13:2; Romans 2:2-8).

This is the way we lose our salvation -- by abandoning love, the expression of our faith. The abandonment of love brings us to mortal sin and mortal sin destroys the sanctifying grace within us and severs our friendship with God. Since God will not force us into His heaven, and will not intrude on our free will, we can freely choose to abandon God (who is love) at anytime now or in the future no matter how devout we have been in the past.

I was "saved" in 1970 and baptized in a Baptist Church. I lived for ten years as a devout and enthusiastic Christian. I was involved in evangelization and was even ordained as a Baptist preacher. Then in 1980 I abandoned it all. I came to believe God was nothing more than cosmic plasma. For five years I was apostate. If I died during those years I would have gone to hell.

In 1985 I became the prodigal son returning home after God gave me a vision of hell and the state of my own soul -- which was black and dead.

One morning I awoke and went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I looked in the mirror and was horrified at what I saw. I did not have any eyes in my eye-sockets. What I saw instead was two black holes. I say black but this was more than black, it was the darkness of the abyss. My soul was dead.

At that moment, I said to myself, "This must stop", that is my sojourn away from God must stop. From that moment on I was the prodigal return home to my heavenly Father.

God does not force us. He has given us free will to choose Him. Love must be chosen, it cannot be forced. But, with that ability comes the capacity to deny Him.  Even after a lifetime of devout Christian life we can still choose to deny Him someday. In fact, we deny Him each time we commit a mortal sin.

This is why there is no mention of "once saved, always saved" in the Bible (a completely man-made doctrine). The Bible, rather speaks of "perseverance" (Matthew 10:22; 24:13).

We need to finish the race, as St. Paul speaks of it, persevere in the faith until the end to be saved. Thus, we have three aspects of salvation:

1) Past Event (I have been saved): Ephesians 2:5-8; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5

2) Present Process (I am being saved): Philippians 2:12; 1 Peter 1:9

3) Future Event (I will be saved): Matthew 10:22; 24:13

Once-saved-always=saved actually gives us no assurance of salvation at all. When someone did what I did, live a good Christian life and then abandon it ten later, the only thing a Baptist can do to explain that is that I was never saved in the first place. How is that, I was baptized, I went to Church every Sunday, I witnessed to the Faith, I was ordained. I did everything that Christian is suppose to do and believe.

Such a response that I was never saved to begin with is a cowardly rationalization. Nevertheless, under this economy a Baptist can never know if he is saved because he cannot know what he will do in ten years. He can arrogantly proclaim that he will never deny the faith, but since only God can know the future, he cannot know what he will do in ten years.

St. Peter said that he would never abandon Jesus, yet just a few hours later he denied Jesus three times.

St. Paul warns us against the arrogance that we can never lose our salvation: (1 Cor 10:11-12): 

Now these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let any one who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

No, there is no assurance of salvation at all in the once-saved-always-saved economy.

So, how do we have assurance of Salvation?

We have assurance of salvation in Catholic theology because we believe that God is not a liar and that He keeps His promises. He promises that (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." But, we have to confess them. God will not force us to ask forgiveness of our sins. We have to offer ourselves to Him and He will take us under His wing.

God promises that (1 Cor 10:13)  "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."

God has given us everything we need to remain in His friendship and to make heaven. He gives us His Son, his Church and her Sacraments, the Saints as role-models, and the Holy Spirit.

In the Church we have the Sacraments of Eucharist, our spiritual food that nourishes our soul and spirit and gives us eternal life:

(John 6:53-57)  So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.  As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me.

God knows that we will sin mortally separating ourselves from Him and His Church, and thus disqualifying us to receive the Eucharist. So, in His mercy and love, God has given us the Sacrament of Penance to restore us to His friendship and reconcile us to His Church thereby allowing us to receive the Sacrament of Salvation -- the Eucharist.

What a great God we have. This is assurance indeed. God is not liar. He keeps His promises, but we must to our part to realize those promises in our lives -- we must remain in a state of grace and that is hard to do with all that God has given us to help us to remain in a state of grace.

There is patently no excuse for anyone to go to hell. God has shown us the road to heaven, given us all the supplies for the journey, and given us a way to get back on the road we lose our way. We only have to accept these great gifts, persevere in them, continue them until we die, then we are assured of heaven.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary