Ask any Protestant "Are you Saved?" and he will say either yes
or no with an outside chance he would say "Yes but I am in a
backslided condition". Ask any Catholic if he is saved he
always says "I do not know."
To the Protestant, an answer of "I don't know" is absolute
proof that he is not saved.
Of all the very learned Catholic experts on justification and
the Catholic faith, they all seem to miss what "saved" means
to Protestants when they ask "Are you saved?"
I have been a "saved" Protestant since I asked Jesus to save
me when I was just a child of about five, some fifty plus
years ago. I may not have known any of the Catholic theology
of justification but I know what the question means, "Are you
saved?".
When I grew up, there was no classification as "Evangelical
Christians". Even though I first went to an Evangelical Free
Church, it was the name of the denomination coming from
Norway.
In fact the specific church was first called the Vroom Street
Norwegian Evangelical Free Church. "Vroom" was the name of the
street the church was on in Jersey City, NJ. The church
eventually dropped the word "Norwegian" from the name. The
word "free" had to do with not being a state church rather
than any theological meaning.
Back in 1957, I participated in the Billy Graham New York City
meeting where new converts came forward to get "saved".
I have recently started reading the Catholic Catechism and
have completed reading it through. I have also read a few
other Catholic books including Rome Sweet Home and Journeys
Home and some others.
I have difficulty understanding why Catholics cannot seem to
get the meaning of the Protestant's question of "Are you
saved?". It is quite clear that the Bible uses the word
"saved" to mean a number of different things depending on the
context. If you are sick and need to be healed, the phrase
"save the sick" clearly means to get healed of the sickness.
If your town is surrounded by enemy soldiers and friendly army
comes to "save you", that has nothing to do with the
Protestant question.
Salvation is like a train ride to heaven. The Catholic
doctrines hold that you are not saved until the train arrives
in heaven. The Protestants also agree that ultimate salvation
occurs when we arrive in heaven. Protestants hold that you
are saved when you first get on the train, at that point when
you first make your commitment.
Catholics do not use the word "saved" when you get on the
train because you can get off the train and never get to
heaven. The Protestants have three different concepts (held
by different groups) about getting off the train. The first
is that if you ever get off the train, that is evidence that
you were never on the train. That theory is called the
"perseverence of the saints". The second is that if you
"backslide", you still get to heaven but "by the skin of your
teeth" because they believe "once saved, always saved". The
third is that if you get off the train, you have to get back
on to either get saved again or restored to fellowship (again
different groups hold differently.)
In all cases, the Protestants hold that getting on the train
is a specific spiritual act which they call getting "saved".
The Protestant question of "Are you saved?" simply means "Did
you get on that train that will take you to heaven if you do
not get off it?".
The Catholic Catechism says that if you are not baptized, you
cannot pray the "Our Father" because God is not your father.
According to the Catholic Catechism, getting baptized is
becoming a child of God. That is being "born again". You are
born out of your mother's womb as your first birth and being
baptized is being spiritually born into God's family so you
can then call God your Father.
Protestants hold baptism to be an outward act that signifies
an inward experience. The Catholic doctrine does not separate
the outward act from the inward experience but combines them
using the term of "Sacrament" to indicate that the two
aspects, outward and inward, are both inseparable.
The Catholic Catechism states that the words said at baptism
must be "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost." When I was baptized, some forty
plus years ago, the words said were: "Upon your statement of
faith, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The statement of faith was an
informal personal testimony that was given be each candidate
for baptism as he entered the baptismal.
The Catholic Catechism states that the Apostle's Creed is the
baptismal creed that all adult candidates must both affirm and
honestly believe in order for their baptism to be valid in the
sight of God.
While the Protestants consider the moment you first believe as
the point of salvation, when anyone affirms the Apostle's
Creed and honestly believes it, he cannot help but be "saved"
according to the Protestant's definition of the term "saved".
Thus when a Catholic is asked by a Protestant, "Are you
saved?" the answer must be a resounding "yes, definitely" and
then further affirm that salvation be reciting the Apostle's
Creed and tell the Protestant that you firmly believe every
word and you are no question a child of God and that God is
truly your Father.
Then feel free to wonder whether that Protestant will "stay on
the train" and make it to heaven and be ultimately saved
himself. Wonder it to yourself but do not say it out loud.
Doug Johnson has been writing and online publishing Christian and Social Conservative articles since the 1990's on http://www.IndependentChristian.org/
Doug has been a Bible believing Evangelical Christian since childhood. He has been received into fellowship with the Evangelical Free Church, the Plymouth Brethern, the Assembly of God, the American Baptist, and the Southern Baptist.
In the early 2000's, he was received into full communion with the Catholic Church after careful study of the Catholic Catechism and the Bible. He believes Catholics and Bible believing Protestants should build on what they have in common rather than looking at what is different.
He is presently helping to establish the Independent Christian On-Line Academy at: http://www.ICOLA.us
Doug has an online retail wallpaper business at: http://www.TheWallpaperPirate.com/
Doug is available as a consultant and or speaker. To reach him, use the Contact Us page at any of the above websites.
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