Are You Saved?

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 3, 21 January 1925, Page 45

Are You Saved?

(By Ambrose Boy, in the Catholic ■■Herald of India.)

“Are you saved?” I was asked the other day by an “Officer” of the Salvation Army. “What do you mean, Sir ?” I said. “Do you mean, Am I absolutely certain that' I shall be in Heaven one day? If this is what you mean by being; saved; I answer: No, ; 1 am. not saved; and (if yon won’t be angry at my saying it) I don’t believe that you are either. “Now, I am a Catholic, and therefore I have no private views of my own on religion. I believe what the Church .believes. Allow me to tell you what the Church teaches on this important subject. The Church teaches , that when we are baptised, we are put; into a state of salvation, or, in other words, we are started on the road to Heaven. If we continue in the same to our lives’ end, we shall be. saved and reach Heaven. 1 Whether we ido this dr not depends on ourselves. We | can ( get u the necessary help - from God by prayer, and the Sacraments. ■-- But 5 any one of us may fall from this state of salvation by mortal sin. If we have, wandered from the right path, we may be restored to it on our repentance. > We are never 'absolutely safe as long as we, are alive," This is Church Doctrine. Let us now see that it is' also 'Bible Truth. Ci ' . I fibril* ■ “The writers of the Epistles in the ; New Testament take for granted that the; Christians to whom they write are all ‘saved,’ and yet this Salvation is looked upon as conditional, not absolutely certain. In one sense all these Christians were saved. In, another sense they were "" being saved. In a third sense they had'yet to be saved on the Judgement Day. ;. . ~ / I ;I ' I ' , { - ; ■ .- / i, { /, ()!'•/! ) V .| “All Christians ha ve been saved, for Christ by His Death 1 and Resurrection has made it possible' for ' all ; mankind to be saved. In this sense He ‘is C the Saviour of all men)’ ' (I Tim. iv. 10.) Every man’s sins were atoned for by Christ,- and every man can, if he likes, be made a partaker of His Death and Life. ; So St. Paul says that God ‘ hath delivered us and called us by 1 His holy calling.’ (II Tim. i. 9.) It is also said that those who/are .baptized ;are, saved, because an Baptism , the {benefits.- of Christ’s Death fare made over to them.. So St. Paul says, ‘According to His mercy He saved us by- the [•layer of regeneration, and renovation of the ,Holy Ghost.’ ; (Tit. iii. 5.) , “But the Bible -also- speaks of Salvation c as a/ present thing, still j going • on. : i With fear > and trembling,’ says St. Paul, u .‘work, out your Salvation.’ ’-(Phil., ii. 12.) Working

out our Salvation is a 'matter which needs great efforts and wakefulness. Even a Saint like Paul said, ‘ I chastise my body and bring it into subjection : lest peril when I have preached to others, 1 myself should become -a castawayd r ' (1 Cor. ix, 27.) If it was possible for J St. Paul to fall away from • God, it must be' possible for- any of ns. “But, again, Salvation is spoken of in the Bible as a future blessing . which is to be - obtained, “' 1 Being " now *' justified 'by * His Blood/ says 'St. Paul; 1 shall iv he saved from wrath through Him:’ - (Rom. v. 9.) , Frequently in the New Testament the type of God’s dealings with the Israelites in their; journey from Egypt to, the' Promised Land is impressed upon ' the minds of Christians, The Israelites were saved when they crossed the Red Sea. They were in a state of Salvation or safety, in the wilderness, since they [ were daily being • miraculously protected, guided, and fed by God.' Yet they had to continue in this .state r in spite, of temptation, and most of them did not continue in it, but fell away and perished, and none were finally, saved' .until they , crossed the Jordan and took possession of their inheritance. St.- Jude applies ' this lesson to' Christians. He says, *I ' will .therefore admonish you, though ye once knew all things, that Jesus; having saved the people out the land of .Egypt,- did. after‘wards destroy them that believed not.’ (v. 5.) And yet these people whom he' thus warns are [addressedj by him ,in the beginning of the •Epistle as ‘ them , that , are beloved in God | the Father, and. preserved in Jesus Christ land called. ... j 1 “I think no one will deny that a larger ‘Proportion of the Christians in the Apostles’ j days than in the present day, were truly sincere. To be a Christian then cost a great deal more than it does now. Yet it was to j such persons : that St. Jude’s strong 'worl {of warning were [ said; " liFjfthey needed them, j how much more do we? Yet nowadays people are urged by preachers of the Salvation; Army Ito ‘ come and be saved -p that very ; moment. What are we to; say .about this? Why, that I this, ‘tradition of men,’ if .ever* a tradition ,I*J —, -I-.-, J.l, - -ml -I /» /N -4 i. " m ... 4 ■; um, maiwii tile, worn or Co-a or- no ettect. : ; To sum' up, N my answer to the question is * jl was saved by Christ’s Death into which T I have been baptised. I trust I am' being J saved from my sins day by day. 1 hope T shall he saved at the Great Day. But if I ? do ; not endure : to the end, if I leave off working out my own Salvation, : ,t' shall be a castaway.” .. . 1 ' ! - * - -- - ■- . . n ■ : ... - *