Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Mon, 13 Apr 1992 06:01:00 EST
From:         Marty Helgesen <MNHCC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Catholics and Protestants

        The Nuzz,

        The Catholic Church does teach and is nourished by the Bible.
        The Church does not agree with all of your interpretations of the
        Bible, but that is a different matter.  There are errors in the
        Catholic Church today, as there were in Apostolic times and in
        every age in between.  And it didn't begin there.  God made a
        covenant with Abraham and his descendants.  The Jews were the
        people of God of the Old Testament.  However, when we read the
        Old Testament we see that from time to time large numbers of the
        Jewish people fell away from God into idolatry and other sins.
        Even David and Solomon, kings anointed by God, fell into sin or
        condoned idolatry.   These individuals who fell into sin were
        punished by God for their sins, and sometimes the Jewish people
        as a whole were chastised by foreign conquest, but the Jews
        remained the people of God.  In the same way the fact that some
        Catholics, including some Catholic leaders, fall into modernism
        or neo-paganism, does not mean the Catholic Church is not the
        Church of the New Testament.

        Your specific statements are unclear.  You say the Church teaches
        that one cannot know that one is saved.  The word "saved" has
        different meanings to Catholics and Protestants, but I know that
        I am saved.  If I were to die right now I would go to Heaven.  I
        probably would pass through Purgatory on the way to Heaven, but I
        would go to Heaven.  However, there is no guarantee that I will
        remain faithful to God.  If I turn away from Him by committing
        serious sin and die without repenting and obtaining His forgive-
        ness I will go to Hell.  Calvinist Protestants believe that once
        someone is "saved" he is guaranteed Heaven, no matter what he
        does afterwards.  Stephen Kingston has been advocating this
        position on the list recently.  However, Arminian Protestants
        recognize the possibility of a believer turning away from God and
        being lost.  It is my impression that Armininians are more numer-
        ous than Calvinists, although, of course, numbers do not deter-
        mine whether a doctrine is true or false.  Also, if I understand
        your phrase "made a decision for Christ" correctly your statement
        that the Catholic Church teaches "that one who has never made a
        decision for  Christ will just spend some time in a mythical
        place called purgatory" is completely wrong.  Someone who  has
        never made a decision for Christ will go to Hell as soon as he
        dies.  Someone who has made a decision for Christ but who needs
        final purification before entering Heaven will pass through
        Purgatory on the way to Heaven.  I will be away over the Easter
        weekend but I hope to have time to write my promised essay on
        Purgatory shortly after I get back.  Also, the question of infant
        baptism is not a Catholic/Protestant issue because many Protes-
        tants practice infant baptism, just as Catholics and Eastern
        Orthodox do.

        Marty Helgesen
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