I have read with some amusement a thread on RCC works and their relationship with grace. The truth is that the RCC teaches that a catholic doing the right "works" results in the dispensation of God's grace. Get baptized as an infant (or at any age) and receive some of God's grace. Partake of the other "sacraments" and receive some more grace. Do some charitable work and get a little more grace. Pray the rosary and you get more grace. And, the total objective is to hope that, when you die, you have accumulated enough of God's grace that you can get into heaven. If you haven't, then its purgatory time until a state of absolute purity is reached. Oh, and if you have committed any "mortal" sins along the way that are not "forgiven" by a priest (with appropriate penance, of course), all of that grace is wasted and lost - you go to hell. And, if you believe at any time that you are assurred of salvation, shame on you. That belief is a "mortal" sin (the sin of presumption), and you go to hell.
The RCC teaches that baptism by water leads directly to eternal salvation (it is the doorway to salvation), and that no person who has not been baptized with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, can find salvation.
Now, all of that is unscriptural tradition, but it gets worse. According to the RCC, all of God's grace flows through the RCC and is dispensed by the pope (hence you have to be a catholic to maybe find salvation). Vatican II started the term "separated brethren", but that is nothing more than lip service because you have to remember that all grace flows through only the RCC. No membership in the RCC, and you go to hell (because you do not have any grace, even though you may think you do).
Now for the truth. Believe it or not, God does not work that way. He is omnipotent, omniscienct God, and He does everything His all-Holy way, and no other. He has given us a few requirements in the only real source of His truth that we have. If we follow His directions, then we will find salvation. If we do not, then we go to hell.
What are those requirements? We must believe in our hearts that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And, we must want to follow Jesus and serve Him. We demonstrate our desire to serve Him by living a humble, penitent life. We try our best to avoid doing sinful things, and we also try to witness Christ whenever an opportunity presents itself.
Now, here is the real key. Once any person believes in his heart that Jesus is the Son of God, and therefore also God, and that person repents of sin, God then gives him a full measure of saving grace. This is done by an indwelling of the Holy Spirit within every single believer. Every true believer is "born again" spiritually in Christ. God tells us this is so. And this is Spirit baptism, the only "baptism" that counts, when the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts. This is why water baptism means nothing, and it certainly is not the "doorway" to anything pertaining to God.
What about sinning after we have received Christ as our Savior? Christians try not to sin, but they are still sinners, and they will still sin. However, and this is another important fact of God, when any person truly believes in Christ as their Savior, then God imputs His own righteousness to that person. What does that mean? It means that, when the person dies, and even though that person sinned after finding Christ, he is found blameless by God for all of his sins. All of his sins have been forgotten by God because he did what God wanted him to do.
Sacraments do not bring God's grace - that is a tradition of men and is not found in Scripture. Baptism and communion are the two ordinances given us by Jesus, but that is all they are, ordinances. While both of these ordinances are good in that God instructed us to partake of them (and we should partake of them), neither (water) baptism or Holy Communion are necessary for salvation. Only faith with repentance leads to salvation.
Now, here is the bottom line of all this discourse. Man can make up things, but God will not change. Forget all that nonsence about "binding and loosing" because it has been so misused by humans. The truth about it is that the apostles would receive guidance from the Holy Spirit whenever questions about Christianity arose (such as the first church souncil in Acts of the A[postles). But man will never be permitted to compromise God's holiness! And that is exactly what many of the traditions of the RCC attempt to do. You may believe that the use of idols is now permitted by God, but He tells us very clearly in Scripture that He hates all idols (ALL IDOLS, NO EXCEPTIONS), and He also tells us He NEVER CHANGES! NEVER! So you can believe what you want, but God will still not change.
There is so much more, but I have made my points. and I am sure there will be many Catholics who will add their disagreement to my post. But God's Truth does not change. That is why many might want to be Christians, but only a few (those who do it His way only) are actually chosen by Him.
You can believe it, or not. That is your choice to make.
Matthan
