To the OP,
We are commanded in Scripture to '
examine' ourselves to see if we are truly in the faith.
2 Corinthians 13:5 states, "5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you are disqualified." Only faith in Christ (
Romans 5:1), accepting Him as your Savior (
John 1:12;
2 Corinthians 5:21;
1 John 2:2),
repenting of your sins (
Acts 3:19;
2 Corinthians 7:10), and trusting in Him
alone for your salvation and for the forgiveness of your sins (
Acts 4:12) is how you can be saved from the
wrath of G-d that is to come upon all unforgiven sinners (
John 3:36;
Romans 1:18-23;
Romans 2:5-6;
Romans 5:8-10). Only Jesus Christ can save you from the wrath of G-d on Judgment Day. However, it's your choice to accept Him or not.
It's vital that you realize there aren't '
many paths' which will lead you to salvation and to Heaven. The Scriptures are very clear that there is
only one way and that is through Jesus Christ alone (
John 14:6;
Acts 4:12;
Philippians 2:5-11). Now the question is, are you a
genuine Christian? If what I wrote is what you believe, than according to the Scriptures, you are. If you are a genuine Christian, according to the Scriptures, than G-d has forgiven you and has granted you eternal life. He has forgiven your sins through His Son, Jesus Christ. You are indeed '
born again' (
John 1:12-13;
John 3:3). If what I wrote is not what you believe, than according to the Scriptures, you are not a genuine Christian. This is an issue you must seriously think about because where you will spend eternity depends upon it.
WELL SAID.....
You get to the very core of the issue:
Accountability.
IMO (as a new Lutheran), Luther can probably be faulted above all for one thing. As intelligent and learned as he was, he initially failed to acknowledge one critical thing: One who regard SELF as unaccountable/infallible CANNOT be reformed. Or even acknowledge the even theoretical possibility of such. He quickly learned his error, of course.
Luther's "sin" from the RC denomination's perspective was he embraced accountability. This could not be permitted. Before the days of the printing press, it would just burn the few copies of his writings and that would be it. Before the days of government having armies as powerful as the pope's, it would just burn Luther and that would be it. It could do neither.
A personal perspective...
In the words of that great Christian philosopher and theologian Mr. Miyagi in the orininal Karate Kid, "go find the balance." NEVER EASY!!!!!!!
On the one hand, Scripture (and wisdom) embraces accountability. God Himself counsels us - over and over and over again - to beware of false prophets, errant teachers, anti-Christs. We are told to "test" to see if they are of God. TRUTH MATTERS!!! This is a key teaching of Scripture. My own intense study of the early LDS and of some groups many call "cults" powerfully - very powerfully - taught me the importance of this wisdom and counsel. In fact, one that insists that all just be in quiet, docilic, SUBMISSION to self alone, one who insists that self has unmitigated, unaccountable POWER over others (even as the vicar or voice of God) is one to likely fear; it's a HUGE red flag.
On the other hand, Scripture also points to the need for authority. And I think it rejects individualism (either of person OR of denomination - including the RCC). I believe the church is US. I believe God gave the Bible to US. Accountability must not degrade into an answerless skepticism.
There is a
BALANCE here....
IN MY OPINION, the RCC and LDS and more than a few Protestants go too far on the Authority side to the exclusion of accountability. The ultimate extreme is reached when self (individual or denomination) is essentially equated with God (or Christ), the deification of self to make self unaccountable like God. But I also think that much of Protestantism have erred in the other direction, with no sense of authority. Catholics often look at Protestantism and see a choatic mess, lacking certainty. And sometimes they are right. The "first wave" Protestants (Lutherans, Anglicans and perhaps Calvinists) were ubersensitive to this balance and TRIED (and try) to be responsible. They acknowledged the authority of Scripture, of the Councils, of the church, but also embraced accountability (and thus constant need for Reformation). I think as Protestantism evolved into new forms, things headed for one of the extremes: none as radically as the RCC, however. By the way, this really is no different than all things in life, there is always this balance between accountability and authority - and often people loosing the balance and embracing one extreme or the other.
By the way, in college, as an elective, I took an upper division course in college (mainly cuz I needed 4 more upper division units and this class was convenient) called "Revolution." It was tuaght in the History Department, co-listed in Poli Sci. The Prof actually got his Ph.D. in that very subject. Most of his interest was in the French and American Revolutions, but we talked about MANY - the Russian, the Cuban, and even some very informal ones (we even discussed the call for "revolution" among youth in the 1960's). ONE of the things I took from that is that revolutions USUALLY are well grounded - and flow from an "establishment" that is unreformable, "dug in." AND they tend to overshoot their mark - not infrequently becoming the very thing they revolted against. I can see SOME of that applying here. We need to avoid two things: Being unreformable, shielding SELF from growth, change, examination, correction - and the ability to change; being rejecting of authority so that choas, lawlessness, anarchy results. Luther rejected the EXTREME of the RCC, but he also rejected the EXTREME of what he called "the enthusiests" Luther embraced accountability (INCLUDING of himself) and also embrace authority. Whether he did it PERFECTLY is a point I'd not try to defend, but it's why he was so hated and hunted: he sought a balance. The RCC had unmitigated, unaccountable POWER it needed to defend. The times simply meant it couldn't do it as effectively as it had before.
That's my perspective....
Pax
- Josiah
.