“John Salza is a great apologist. “
Not really. He is incapable of reading a short, simple paragraph without distorting it beyond recognition.
Here is what Paul wrote:
“5-8 After all, who is Paul? Who is Apollos? No more than servants through whom you came to believe as the Lord gave each man his opportunity. I may have done the planting and Apollos the watering, but it was God who made the seed grow! The planter and the waterer are nothing compared with him who gives life to the seed. Planter and waterer are alike insignificant, though each shall be rewarded according to his particular work.
9 In this work, we work with God, and that means that you are a field under God’s cultivation, or, if you like, a house being built to his plan.
10-15 I, like an architect who knows his job, by the grace God has given me, lay the foundation; someone else builds upon it. I only say this, let the builder be careful how he builds! The foundation is laid already, and no one can lay another, for it is Jesus Christ himself. But any man who builds on the foundation using as his material gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or stubble, must know that each man’s work will one day be shown for what it is. The day will show it plainly enough, for the day will arise in a blaze of fire, and that fire will prove the nature of each man’s work. If the work that the man has built upon the foundation will stand this test, he will be rewarded. But if a man’s work be destroyed under the test, he loses it all. He personally will be safe, though rather like a man rescued from a fire.”
It doesn’t take a great thinker to turn that into:
“This passage demonstrates several things. First, it demonstrates that our works serve as a basis for determining our salvation. This is contrary to the erroneous Protestant belief that, once we accept Jesus by faith alone, we are saved. Protestants have no good explanation for why Paul is teaching the Corinthians that our works bear upon our salvation.”
It takes a dishonest man to twist it like that.
If anyone wants to know the truth, let them read what Paul wrote. Not what John Salza wrote. Those with eyes to see, WILL see.
BTW, here is Tyndale’s translation of 1 Cor 3:
Ҧ And I could not speak unto you brethren as unto spiritual: but as unto carnal, even as it were unto babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink and not meat. For ye then were not strong, no neither yet are strong. For ye are yet carnal. As long verily as there is among you envying, strife and dissension: are ye not carnal, and walk after the manner of men? As long as one saith: I hold of Paul, and another, I am of Apollo, are ye not carnal? What is Paul? what thing is apollo? but ministers by whom ye believed even as the Lord gave every man grace. I have planted: Apollo watered: but god gave increase. So then, neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth: but god which gave the increase.
¶ He that planteth, and he that watereth, are neither better than the other. Every man yet shall receive his reward according to his labour. We are goddis laborers: ye are goddis husbandry, ye are goddis building. According to the grace of god given unto me, as a wise builder have I laid the foundation, another hath built theron: but let every man take heed how he buildeth upon. For other foundation can no man lay, than that which is laid, which is Iesus Christ. If any man build on this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, timber, hay, or stubble: every man’s work shall appear. For the day shall declare it, and it shall be shewed in fire, and the fire shall try every man’s work what it is. If any man’s work that he hath built upon, bide, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work burn, he shall suffer loss: but he shall be safe himself: nevertheless yet as it were thorow fire.
¶ Are ye not ware that ye are the temple of god, and how that the spirit of god dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of god, him shall god destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which temple are ye. Let no man deceive himself. If any man seem wise among you, let him be a fool in this world, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written: he compasseth the wise in their craftiness. And again, God knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they be vain. Therefore let no man rejoice in men. For all things are yours, whether it be Paul, other Apollo, either Cephas: whether it be the world, either life, either death, whether they be present things or things to come: all are yours, and ye are Christe’s, and Christ is goddis.”
http://www.faithofgod.net/WTNT/index.html#books
Hi, I’ll make it simple...
1 Cor 3:15
If any man’s work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
If you “shall be saved” sounds like you are going to Heaven
but there is no suffering in Heaven, no purification, no
need of it since nothing unholy enters Heaven.
There is another place, a place of purgation, Purgatory.
Another problem, some Christians do not see or understand
even though our sins are forgiven when we repent and confess
them, we still must make reparation for our actions...by
our loving acts, our prayers, our crosses here while on earth. If we don’t, you do it over the veil in Purgatory because God is perfectly loving and perfectly just.
Seeee....
blessings,