Catholic Verses - 95 Bibles Passages That Confound Protestants?
OTHER BIBLICAL WRITERS ON APOSTASY
Page 83-85: Hebrews 3:12-14: "Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end." Hebrews 6:4-6: "For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have one been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt." 2 Peter 2:15: "Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray; they have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing." 2 Peter 2:20-22: "For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, 'The dog turns back to his own vomit, and the sow is washed only to wallow in the mire.'" John Calvin's treatment of Hebrews 6:4-6 in his Commentaries is a virtual case study of special pleading and drawing of arbitrary distinctions without a difference. His conclusions are not to be found in the biblical test at all, but he inserts his understanding into it, because his preconceived system requires him to do so. This is what is called eisegesis, or reading into the biblical text, rather than out of it (Protestants frequently accuse Catholics of this shortcoming.)
Note: False Christians in various churches have been enlightened with the true but have rejected it due to a sincere lack of faith in Jesus Christ.
Jude 1:3-4 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Note: Thus we contend with false condemned Christians who preach a works salvation and in so doing have denied our Lord Jesus Christ.
Page 85: In other words, there is no way we can determine (or even make an educated guess) by any outward sign whether a person is truly a follower of Jesus and in his good graces! This is a radical principle that readily leads (in sinful human beings) to spiritual arrogance and elitism, because the means to determine whether one is "saved" or "justified" or "of the elect" are internal and subjective and tainted by our own natural bias toward ourselves, rather than outward and objective in a way that others can judge.
Note: Pharisees were considered righteous by the people but were evil. God knows everyone's heart.
Matthew 9:4-7 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” And he arose and departed to his house.
Note: The author is denying that false Christians are in his Church.
Pages 85-86: The ostensible follower of Christ may fall away (even in Calvin's diluted sense) from the faith; in which case Calvin would simply proclaim that he never was a pre-ordained true believer to begin with. Therefore, it follows that no one can be assured of his salvation (contrary to Calvin's and Luther's assertions) at any time, since no one knows what will happen in the future to disqualify him from ever having been saved. This is a great weakness in Protestant soteriology, but to examine it fully is beyond our immediate purview.
Note: The author is ignorant of the practice of sin versus the sinful stumble.
Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Note: For example, Saint Peter denied Jesus Christ one night but didn't practice it.
Page 86: But there cannot be any such assurance in Calvin's system! This is an unbiblical "faith in faith" or "faith in one's own certainty and 'assurance'" rather than faith in Jesus and the corresponding Pauline vigilance to maintain one's salvation - always by God's grace but not without human cooperation. Even a pardoned murderer has to accept the pardon from the governor and walk out of the prison.
Note: There is full assurance when you focus on Jesus Christ in faith. Don't allow heretics to talk you into focusing on your works.
Hebrews 10:19-25 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Note: Good works will be a natural outpouring of our love for God and our confession of Jesus Christ.