Dear Josephine:

Your friend has little understanding of the Bible. He is coming from a point-of-view of a variety of once-saved-always saved. This particular variety believes that all sin, including future sin is wiped clean without any action on the part of man. The Sacrament of Confession or even just saying, "forgive me Lord" is not needed because, they believe, that the sins are already removed by the Cross.

The only way this idea can be supported is to assert that mankind has no free will. This is the conclusion that John Calvin made. There are many denominations that believe in once-saved-always-saved but not in Calvin. This is intellectually dishonest because the idea of once-saved-always-saved is not a viable point-of-view without the philosophical and theological economy of Calvin.

Calvin believed that we are predestined in our eternal fate. In eternity past God, in essence, made two lists. One list contained the names of the people going to heaven, the other list contained the names going to hell. There can be no choice of man. If one is on the heaven list then he will go to heaven whether he likes it or not (Calvin called this "irresistible grace"). If one is on the hell list then he can to nothing to change it.

This idea is stupid on its face.

God made us in His image. Part of that image was the ability to choose. God gave us free will in order for us to choose to love Him and our neighbor. Love cannot be forced or determined, it must be chosen. If we have no free will, then we do not have love.

If we have free will to choose Him, then we also have the ability to choose to reject Him. Making a profession of faith and being baptized does not suspend our free will. Even after conversion and baptism we can at a later date choose to reject God and thus loose our salvation. Baptism does not turn us into animals that have no free will. God is not so cruel. He will not force anyone to do anything. He loves us so much that He gives us the choice, even the choice to reject Him.

St. Paul declares that "God wills all men to be saved" (1 Tim. 2: 4), but this is not at the expense of free will. Here are the words of several saints on the issue:

St. Jerome: [God] "wills to save all; but since no man is saved without his own will, He wills us to will what is good, that when we have willed, He may also will to fulfill His designs in us;" and in another place, "God therefore willed to save those who desire [to be saved]; and He invited them to salvation, that their will might have its reward; but they would not believe in Him."

St. Hilary: "God would that all men were saved, and not those alone who are to belong to the number of the elect, but all absolutely, so as to make no exception."

St. Paulinus: "Christ says to all, 'Come to Me,' etc.; for He, the Creator of all men, so far as He is concerned, wills every man to be saved."

St. Ambrose: "Even with respect to the wicked He had to manifest His will [to save them], and therefore He could not pass over His betrayer, that all might see that in the election even of the traitor He exhibits [His desire] of saving all . . . and, so far as God is concerned, He shows to all that He was willing to deliver all."

In the Commentaries of St. Ambrose  the writer asks the question: "But since God wills that all should be saved, as He is Almighty, why are there so many who are not saved?" The writer's answer: "He wills them to be saved, if they also are willing; for He who gave the law excluded no one from salvation . . . this medicine is of no use to the unwilling."

St. Chrysostom asks, "Why then are not all men saved, if God wills all to be saved?" and he answers, "Because every man's will does not coincide with His will, and He forces no man."

St. Augustine: "God wills all men to be saved, but not so as to destroy their free will."

We cannot have partial free will. A woman cannot be 99% pregnant. Either she is or she isn't. Same with free will. There is no occult magic that prevents us from choosing to reject God after we are baptized. God does not say, "Hey folks, you have the ability to choose until you are baptized. After baptism I will force you to remain in my friendship whether you like it or not." Love must be chosen each and every second of our lives.

Thus, because of free will we can choose to sin, before and after baptism. So what are the effects of this sin after baptism. Your friend seems to suggest that nothing happens, that our salvation is secure no matter what we do. This violates Biblical teaching, as well as the sense God gave a toadstool.

The Bible says that there are sins that are deadly (mortal). These deadly sins effect spiritual death. If we are spiritually dead then we have lost friendship with God that we attained at baptism.

1 John 5:16 states: "If any one sees his brother committing what is not a deadly sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not deadly. There is a sin which is deadly; I do not say that one is to pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is a sin but there is a sin which is not deadly."

This verse proves the Catholic teaching that there are venial sins (sin not deadly) and mortal sins (sins that are deadly).

When we have severed our relationship with God and entered spiritual death through our mortal sin, we must make a new act of contrition through the Church. It is through the Church we came into God's grace through baptism, and we must return to the Church to restore God's saving grace to us when we sin mortally. To accomplish this God have us the Sacrament of Confession. Jesus himself affirms this.

In John 20:22-23 Jesus ordained (breathed on the disciples for them to receive the Holy Spirit in Holy Orders) and said to them: "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

Here Jesus gave his priests the delegated power to forgive in the Sacrament of Confession.

Did Christ die for all? Yes. "And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised" (2 Corinthians 5:15).

The catechism states:

605 At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God’s love excludes no one: ‘So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.’  He affirms that he came ‘to give his life as a ransom for many’; this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands himself over to save us. (my emphasis) The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: ‘There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer.

1019 Jesus, the Son of God, freely suffered death for us in complete and free submission to the will of God, his Father. By his death he has conquered death, and so opened the possibility of salvation to all men (my emphasis).  

Is Christ the perfect sacrifice? Yes. Jesus had to be perfect in order to by the sacrificial lamb to pay the penalty for sin. His sacrifice for us is perfect and complete. By "his death he has conquered death, and so opened the possibility of salvation to all men." 

Does this mean that when we are baptized we are guaranteed heaven? No. The sacrifice of Christ good enough to take away our sins, but God is not going to force us to accept that grace. Such a guarantee, such a violent act to force us, would violate Free Will.  God does commit violence to the nature that He gave us as His image in order to force us to do His will. He wants us to love Him and love must be chosen each and every moment. This means that we can reject God after baptism, and indeed we do each and every time we commit a mortal sin (a deadly sin) that destroys the saving grace within us.

But, God does not abandon us to the whims of our will. He offers each of us the opportunity to restore friendship with Him in the Sacrament of Confession and gives us all the tools we need to remain in His friendship through His Church and in his Saints.

Your friend may never accept any of this, but you can pray for him that his eyes will be opened. In this task we may join St. Paul in his prayer, "...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you (him) a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts (his heart) enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you (him)..."

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

P.S. When Christ died on the Cross there were dead who were resurrected, but not all the dead. Matthew 27:52 says "many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised...they went into the holy city and appeared to many."

If the dead in Abraham's Bosom were all resurrected there would have been no need for Christ to descend into hell (Abraham's Bosom) to set the captives free and bring them into heaven.

Only Matthew records this event and we are not given any more information about it. Most likely this happened to authenticate that Christ was indeed God who is Lord over death. On the third day Christ not only proved he is the Lord over death, but that he conquered death by his own resurrection by his own power.