You have to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. An infant is incapable of doing that.
Posted on 06/03/2011 7:29:16 PM PDT by Winstons Julia
I was raised Lutheran and have attended many churches. I was born-again in 2005. I was shocked to have a Catholic tell me that *we* aren't saved by grace alone ... but that we need to recharge our salvation with works.
Now ... it's not that I'm not charitable and kind. We all know the studies about Christians and charitable giving.
But *I'M* NOT saved by Grace? Are you kidding?
interesting. My husbands cousin is a nun and she has never said that. She talks about Grace and Grace alone.
Actually, the Church does teach Sola Gratia. Without Grace, there is no salvation. We cannot be saved apart from Grace. So it is not incorrect to say that we are saved by Grace alone. There is nothing else that can save us.
The Church also teaches Sola Christo - we are saved by Christ alone. Without Jesus Christ, there is no saving Grace.
It is therefore possible for infants to be saved, even though they have neither Faith nor works.
Beyond the age of reason, we participate in the economy of salvation (which is really the economy of Grace), which includes both Faith and works, which is where the early protestants took a wrong turn. But neither faith nor works could save us without Grace, so they got that one right.
From http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=505494
the “church” has to have a reason for existing.
If your were Born Again last week your still Born Again this week and next week as well.
[2024]Sanctifying grace makes us "pleasing to God."
[2025]We can have merit in God's sight only because of God's free plan to associate man with the work of His grace. Merit is to be ascribed in the first place to the grace of God, and secondly to man's collaboration. Man's merit is due to God."
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
There is a difference, I believe, between Sola Gratia-Grace alone- and Non Gratia-without Grace. The problem is part Protestant (whence the various and sundry Solas) and part semantic (Sola doesn’t actually mean alone as commonly understood).
I run into theological maneuvering via semantics with the folks who tout “unconditional love”.
Tell your catholic friend to read the New Testament. And then also pick up a paperback copy of “Destined to Reign” by Joseph Prince. He puts all the “Grace + works” heresy in the round file where they belong; and he does it with the plain unvarnished Scriptures.
The person you spoke to is poorly instructed and needs to read the Bible and the catechism a little more attenetively before presuming to make such statements.
James 2:24
Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
The age of reason. God has given this assurance, as in David and his child.
You have to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. An infant is incapable of doing that.
I used to be a Catholic but decided I didn’t have the legal mind to navigate through all of their rules, regulations, traditions, encyclicals, etc. God never intended for salvation to be so difficult, and certainly not something that has to be “achieved”.
The wonder of redemption is that we have been reborn into the Family of God. When we were yet separated, our works were as nothing... just as I take no personal pride in the accomplishments of the neighbor kids. Now, God does delight in our works and the New Testament speaks in many places of God rewarding His children according to their deeds. In essence, Christ merited for man the ability to merit from God.
We are discussing grace, and not faith or works.
14 What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he has faith, but has not works? Shall faith be able to save him? 15 And if a brother or sister be naked and want daily food: 16 And one of you say to them: Go in peace, be warmed and filled; yet give them not those things that are necessary for the body, what shall it profit? 17 So faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself. 18 But some man will say: You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without works; and I will show you, by works, my faith. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well: the devils also believe and tremble. 20 But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
-James 2:14-20
You were never a Catholic.
We? Really? You flatter yourself.
It is therefore possible for infants to be saved, even though they have neither Faith nor works.
You have to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. An infant is incapable of doing that.-——————
But they are innocent until the age of accountability...
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