Does the Bible Teach Us to Be “Assured of Our Salvation” in the Way Many Christians Understand It Today?
There is hardly a more confusing subject, when some Evangelical churches and Catholics sit down to talk, than that of salvation. It goes beyond the basic question of the Fundamentalists: “Have you been saved?” (which also means, “Wouldn’t you like to feel already saved?”). Evangelicals and Fundamentalists assure us that they possess such absolute assurance. They harbor the absolute certainty that they will go to heaven immediately after death. They conclude from the Bible that Christ promised that heaven is theirs in exchange for a very simple act. All they must do is “accept Christ as their personal Savior,” and the matter is settled. They will probably then live exemplary lives, but living well is not crucial, as they see it: it definitely does not affect their salvation. No matter what happens afterward, no matter how sinfully they live the rest of their days: their salvation is assured. The Holy Spirit may chastise them in this life for their sins, but in no way can they forfeit their salvation, because it does not depend on the intrinsic worth of their souls or on the effects of the sins that are committed.
Kenneth E. Hagin, a famous Pentecostal televangelist of the “Word Faith” branch of Protestantism, tells us that the assurance of this salvation comes through being “born again”: “Unless you are born again, you shall not enter the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3). In his little book, The New Birth, Hagin tells us that “the new birth is a necessity for being saved. Through the new birth you enter into the correct relationship with God.”
According to Hagin, there are many things that this new birth is not. “The new birth is not: Confirmation, Church membership, the water of Baptism, the receiving of the Sacraments, the observing of religious obligations, an intellectual reception of Christianity, orthodoxy in the faith, going to church, saying prayers, reading the Bible, being good, being cultured or refined, doing good works, doing the best you can (the idea is to strive on one’s own), nor any of the many other things in which some men trust to save them.” Those who obtained the new birth “did what was necessary: they accepted Christ Jesus as their personal Savior by repenting and turning to God with all their heart like a child.” That single act of the will, he explains, is all they needed to do. But is this true? Does the Bible uphold this concept?
The Catholic Church teaches that final salvation depends on the state of the soul at the moment of death (cf. Matt. 25:31–46). He who dies in the state of friendship with God (the state of grace) will go to heaven. He who dies in a state of enmity and rebellion against God (the state of mortal sin, cf. John 5:16–17) will go to hell. Christ has already redeemed us; He opened for us the gates of heaven, as they originally were. Note that redemption is not the same as salvation, but it is a necessary prelude. He did His part, and, as a result of the graces He merited for us by His violent death on the Cross, He enables us to do our part (Phil. 1:6; 2:13; Heb. 13:20–21). To pass through those gates we must be spiritually alive —in the state of grace— at the moment of our bodily death. If a soul is in the state of mortal sin, without God’s gift of sanctifying grace —the grace that gives the soul supernatural life— then it is spiritually dead and therefore incapable of enjoying heaven.
Everyone Else: To Hell
For Fundamentalists and Evangelicals it really does not matter —where salvation is concerned— how you live or end your life. You may be Mother Teresa, but you will go to hell if you do not accept Christ (in the Fundamentalist sense of the phrase), and there have been some Fundamentalist and Evangelical writers who have stressed that Mother Teresa is condemned to hell. Neither her faith (false, to them), nor her loving acts of tenderness and charity done in the name of Christ, nor the excellent spiritual fruits she produced count for anything. On the other hand, you can get up on a Sunday morning, go to church, respond to the altar call, announce that you have accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, and, as long as you really believe it, there you are, you are assured. And many Protestants go on to say that from then on there is nothing you can do, no sin you can commit, that will affect your salvation. You cannot act against your salvation, even should you wish to.
Too good to be true? Look at what the Fundamentalists and Evangelicals say. Wilson Ewin, the author of a booklet called There Is Therefore Now No Condemnation, says that “the person who places his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His blood shed on Calvary is eternally secure. He can never lose his salvation. No violation of the laws of God or of men or of the commandments can annul this state.”
Ewin cites Hebrews 9:12, which says that Jesus “entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats … but His own blood, thereby securing an eternal redemption.” “To deny the assurance of salvation would be to deny the perfect redemption of Christ,” argues Ewin, and this is something he can say only because he confuses redemption and salvation. The truth is that in one sense we are all redeemed by the death of Christ on the Cross —Christians, Jews, Muslims, even the spiritists in the darkest forests (1 Tim. 2:6; 4:10; 1 John 2:2)— but we must affirm that our salvation is conditional.
You Cannot Lose Heaven
Ewin says that “no wrongful act or sinful work can ever affect the believer’s salvation. The sinner did nothing to merit God’s grace, so neither can he do anything to demerit that grace. It is true, sinful conduct always injures one’s relationship with Christ, limits one’s contribution to the work of God, and may result in serious disciplinary action on the part of the Holy Spirit.” (But how serious can this disciplinary action be, if the loss of heaven is not part of it?).
Later Ewin argues that “the absolute assurance of salvation given by righteousness can never be broken by sin. The reason is simple —this righteousness has nothing to do with keeping the commandments of God or the moral law. The Bible says, ‘But now without the law the justice of God is made manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the justice of God, by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe in him’ (Rom. 3:21–22). The Law of God, or commandments, were given to point out sins. The law shows how weak and lost the still-unregenerate man is before a holy God. Keeping them or breaking them does not enter into the believer’s possession —credited or given— of righteousness.” But this notion, which may be somehow comforting to some, is simply inconsistent with Scripture. “And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them who do such things, and dost the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and patience, and longsuffering? Knowest thou not that the benignity of God leadeth thee to penance? But according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest up to thyself wrath, against the day of wrath, and revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his works. To them indeed who, according to patience in good work, seek glory and honour and incorruption, eternal life; but to them that are contentious, and who obey not the truth, but give credit to iniquity, wrath and indignation” (Rom. 2:3–8; see also Matt. 19:16–21; 25:31–46).
With respect to whether Christians have an “absolute” assurance of salvation unrelated to their acts, consider three warnings that St. Paul gave: “Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:11–12). “But to me it is a very small thing to be judged by you, or by man’s day; but neither do I judge my own self. For I am not conscious to myself of any thing, yet am I not hereby justified; but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge not before the time; until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts” (1 Cor. 4:3–5); and, “See then the goodness and the severity of God: towards them indeed that are fallen, the severity; but towards thee, the goodness of God, if thou abide in goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” (Rom. 11:22; see also Heb. 10:26–29; 2 Pet. 2:20–21).
From the broadcast “Radio Bible Class” listeners can obtain a tract, Can Anyone Really Know for Sure? Its anonymous author says that “the Lord Jesus wanted His followers to be assured of their salvation so that they might rejoice more in the hope of heaven than in victories on earth. ‘These things I write to you, that you may know that you have eternal life, you who believe in the name of the Son of God’ (1 John 5:13).”
Like most of the biblical citations in this and other tracts, this verse may mean precisely what the author of the tract wants us to believe. He admits, however, that there is a false assurance: “The New Testament teaches us that a genuine assurance is possible and desirable, but it also warns us that we can be deceived by a false assurance. Jesus declared: ‘Not every one that saith to me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter into the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt. 7:21).” But one can find true assurance. “First, you must accept the work of Christ. Recognizing your sin (Rom. 3:23; 6:23) and your inability to save yourself (Eph. 2:8–9), place your hope in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior (Heb. 16:13). Having done this, your salvation is already real. This is true assurance!”
A Deceptive Assurance
How can a Fundamentalist know whether his experience of salvation was real —that is, whether it worked? Quite simply, he cannot. Living a good life after having been “born again” proves nothing, since one can sin gravely at a later moment. And living a bad life immediately after having been saved does not disprove it, since one’s sins are immaterial. In any case, the doctrine seems almost useless because, when one reflects seriously upon it, it seems to make impossible the very assurance it is supposed to give us.
On the other hand, there are many other verses that absolutely refute the notion of an infallible assurance: “But I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway,” says St. Paul (1 Cor. 9:27). This follows the verses where St. Paul exhorts his readers to run the Christian race (of Christ). He is referring to the race of life, the finish line being entrance into heaven.
To arrive at this, the author of the “Radio Bible Class” tract says that Paul “did not want to lose the reward of serving and pleasing his Lord through his weakness; he did not fear losing his salvation.” Such an interpretation strains the passage (read the whole of chapter 9 and you will see), and other passages contradict it. For example, Philippians 2:12 says: “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, as you have always obeyed, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, not only as in my presence, but much more now in my absence.” This is not an expression of total assurance. Our salvation is something that must still be worked at. St. Paul also tells us, “For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ (this includes Christians who will be saved and will go to heaven, cf. Matt. 25:31–45), that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10); “for he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption; but he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting. And in doing good, let us not fail; for in due time we shall reap, not failing” (Gal. 6:8–9).
These verses demonstrate that we will be judged by what we do —and not by a single act of accepting Jesus as our personal Savior. “Then,” we might ask, “is it enough to be ‘someone who does good’ in order to obtain salvation? By no means!” The Bible is quite clear in saying, so that none of us may boast, that we are not saved by our works, but by God’s gift of grace which we receive through faith (Eph. 2:8–9).
Protestants who cite Eph. 2:8–9 as a proof text are precisely repeating the constant teaching of the Catholic Church. They err when they think that we are saved by faith alone. (It was Martin Luther who, in a deliberately incorrect translation of Scripture, inserted the word “alone” in Romans 3:28 and Galatians 2:16, and removed the book of James from the New Testament because it (the book) says: “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? … Seest thou, that faith did co-operate with his works; and by works faith was made perfect?” (James 2:20 and 22).)
The teaching of the Bible is that our good works —as a result of our faith in Christ— are really and truly the work of God in us (“For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to his good will” Phil. 2:13). In other words, both our faith and our works are wrought in us not by our own righteousness apart from Christ, but are gifts of God’s grace in us. That is why we cannot boast, even if our works were our own acting alone.
Now then, if it is true that we are judged and rewarded according to our good works done by the grace of God in faith (cf. Rom. 2:6–7), then it cannot be said that faith alone, in the Protestant sense (i.e., a mere trusting in the promises of Christ), can be sufficient for salvation. If that were so, we should not have to concern ourselves with the role of works, which, as we have seen, the Bible insists we must attend to (cf. 1 John 3:21–24; 4:20–21; Apoc. 20:11–15).
The Role of Baptism in Salvation
Let us recall that Nicodemus was told by Christ that we must be reborn of water and the Holy Spirit (John 3:5). Catholics hold, following the Bible, that the entire phrase “water and the Holy Spirit” is a unity; it means baptism. But some Protestants think that only the second part of the phrase is operative. In the typical Evangelical scheme, the water accomplishes absolutely nothing. The Holy Spirit does His work, they say, convicting us of sin and showing us that we need to place our faith in Christ. But the necessity of the water of baptism is completely forgotten.
Although most Evangelicals and Protestants regard baptism as an important ordinance, at the same time they are persuaded that it is not necessary for salvation. It is a good thing to do, a way of showing the others in the congregation that you are now a Christian (and, of course, they all admit that Jesus commanded believers to be baptized —though merely as an outward sign), but they hold that there is no connection between baptism and salvation because baptism in itself accomplishes nothing in the soul. It is the sincere and intellectual acceptance of Christ that does everything —more or less so they think.
Unfortunately, this is not what the Bible teaches. St. Peter explains it in several ways: First, he says: “Do penance, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38), and also: “… when they waited for the patience of God in the days of Noe, when the ark was a building: wherein a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. Whereunto baptism being of the like form, now saveth you also: not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the examination of a good conscience towards God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ …” (1 Pet. 3:20–21). Peter is quite clear about it: “Baptism … now saveth you also.” This refers to the sacrament of the water of baptism, which Peter compares to how the family of Noah “were saved by water.” Although baptism does not wash away the physical stains of our bodies, it saves us by cleansing our souls through the grace of God. St. Paul repeats this when he tells Titus: “… not by the works of justice, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, by the laver of regeneration, and renovation of the Holy Ghost; whom he hath poured forth upon us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour: that, being justified by his grace, we may be heirs, according to hope of life everlasting” (Titus 3:5–7).
How Should We Respond?
“Are you saved?” asks the Fundamentalist. A Catholic would answer him: “As the Bible says, I have already been saved (Rom. 8:24; Eph. 2:5–8), but I am also being saved (1 Cor. 1:8; 2 Cor. 2:15; Phil. 2:12), and I have the hope that I shall be saved (Rom. 5:9–10; 1 Cor. 3:12–15).” “I am redeemed,” answers the Catholic, “and like the Apostle Paul, I am working out my salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), with hopeful faith in the promises of Christ (Rom. 5:2; 2 Tim. 2:11–13) —but not with a false and ‘absolute’ assurance about my capacity to persevere (2 Cor. 13:5). And I do all this as the Catholic Church has taught, unchanged, since the time of Christ.”
Translator: Fernando Machado, Monastery of the Incarnate Word, San Rafael, Argentina)
