And while all of those evils you mention are tragic that they occur, if God simply stopped them all from happening, he would be overriding our free will to choose to do them. And, as I already mentioned, taking away our free will negates the possibility for genuine love (which requires a totally free choice between two real ends – good and evil) and therefore negates our purpose and what we were made for (to love).

In short, in order for authentic love to be possible, at least the possibility of those evils you mention must exist. If the choice is only between Good and…Good, then there IS no choice and no merit in choosing “good.” There must be a choice between good and evil – which necessitates that evil must be a real possibility for us.

I’m not sure that you read the entire post either, actually. In any case, I don’t find much of what you say very “painful to hear”. I think you and I probably agree on much more than you think. And most of your premise is straight out of Catholic teaching. Your conclusions, however, do not logically follow from your premise. Particularly when you say “The reason you have no part in your salvation is because it is impossible.”

If we look at Christian tradition and the entirety of scripture – particularly the parts quoted in the post – it is quite clear that we play a part in our salvation. Not because we inherently need to or because Jesus is somehow insufficient by himself, but because that is precisely how God set it up. That’s what he asks of us. And, by His grace, we can do so. By his grace and infinite wisdom and design, it is surely not “impossible” – as you claim.

I think your misunderstanding may come from three main issues:

1) You equate “work” with “earning”. That is fallacious. The work we do – ANY work that we do – is only made possible by God’s grace. It is the way by which we accept the free gift. But we can do nothing good apart from God’s Grace.

2) You think that requiring “works” implies that Jesus’ work was not sufficient. This is, again, fallacious. Works are required because God requires them – quite clearly. And NOT because he “needs” them in themselves.

3) We have to also be clear with our words we use. Justification, Salvation and Sanctification are often misunderstood or used interchangeably to mean different things by people. A clear understanding of them will help clarify these points a lot.

Here are three other posts I’ve written that may help you understand my position a bit better:

- Over-simplifying Salvation

- Justification vs. Sanctification vs. Salvation

- Catholics on Faith and Works Clarified

Doesn’t it make you mad that Vinciente made comments about what you were saying without fully reading the information that you posted?

I sincerely believe that you are doing that very thing with the New Testament. You are making comments about pieces of text to explain soteriology without reading/understanding it in its entirety.

I am certainly not claiming that I understand it all either but I do understand Salvation.

First of all, the ground work must be laid, which is the truth of the “Old Testament.” God has chosen a special group of people, the Jews. He has also given them a special law that they are to follow. The only problem is that as hard as they try to keep the law they fail. Many times God is just by killing them because of their disobedience. But God is also merciful so he sends prophets to warn them, but yet the people still rebel, and are sent into exile. But God is also merciful and he brings His people back from exile.

Jesus enters 1st Century Judaism and keeps the whole law. Something that has never been done. A perfect man and God in the flesh. It is only by a perfect sacrifice that we can be made right. “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us. That we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Cor. 5:21

So that brings us up to speed. God will only accept perfection. If God will only accept perfection what about all those verses you quoted from Jesus about his challenge to men to do good things? This is where we see what lies behind the law. When we are confronted with the reality of the law we see very plainly that we cant keep it. “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” So what Paul says is that not only does doing good not Justify us before God, it just shows us how sinful we really are. Just like the Jews we can try and keep the law as a means to our salvation but we will just end up wandering.

Now what is funny is that I think in some weird way you agree with me up to this point. But here is where the truth of scripture may be painful to you:

There is truly nothing you can do to even receive,inherit..whatever word you would like to use, there is nothing you can do. I will try to explain this but only God can truly reveal this to you.

1. You are dead in sin. -Ephesians 2:1-And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,

Dead means dead. Lifeless, immovable, unable to make decisions, unable to do anything but be dead.

2. You are blind- 2 Cor. 4:3-4 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

This means you can’t see anything. Not the way, not the truth, and not the life. Or the “Light of Men”

3. You are lost- Luke 19:10-for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Lost means unable to find the way, no matter what great effort you may try and make on your own.

This should be clear? The reason you have no part in your salvation is because it is impossible. God is the sole author, creator, sustainer of your salvation.

What you may mean by all of this is- You know Christians by thier fruit. In other words I am not a christian because of my works, but my works are evidence that God has saved me of no work of my own.

Say aloud to God- I had nothing to do with you saving me. It is quite freeing!