On Calvin and Other Schismatics

+JMJ

A dear friend of mine recently wrote an article about Calvinism. In her blog I found two points that I thought should be expounded on because in their simplicity they were found wanting. I want to publish my comment here, not with a negative intention towards her blog, but because this is an apologetics blog and there are many who really do need to hear this today. I shall take each point separately.

Comment 1 - "Some Catholics believe that the Blessed Mother never sinned …"

Personally, I know of no such Catholics. There may be, it’s possible, but not likely. We are living in an age when many doctrines of Catholicism are up for debate. This is especially true in the Official Doctrines of Mary. To say that the Blessed Mother never sinned would be an error and it isn’t the Official teaching of the Church at all. The doctrines of both the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption (Dormition) are doctrines of ancient existence in the Church, officially recognized in the past 2 centuries, however, neither one of these state that Mary never sinned. I am uncomfortable with this statement because it could appear that a “Sinless Mary” is part of the dogma of the Church, though some don’t believe it, when this is not the case at all. We both know Catholics don’t need anymore false accusations about their beliefs then what they already have. If I was a Protestant, I would see this comment and say, “See here is another false doctrine of the papist!” If anyone would say Mary never sinned, it would be a false opinion on behalf of the believer, and the Catholic Church would proclaim that as such.

Comment 2 - "To a Catholic, conversion is the first step on the path to salvation."

Conversion is not the same as being “saved”. For a faithful Catholic, conversion is an on-going process that lasts for a life time. One could have a serious moment of conversion like St. Paul on the road to Damascus, many people have this. This is still not the same as being saved though. My understanding of the Protestant being saved is a specific moment in time, when the person A- accepts he/she is a sinner B- believes on the Lord Jesus Christ C- confesses that Jesus is Lord before man. These are good points no doubt, but it is a false sense of security to say, “On such a day at such a time I got ‘saved’!” This insinuates that we are now in and have “arrived”. As long as we have breath we are on a faith journey. We are on the way of perfection that the saints speak of always. We are constantly striving for perfection, being revealed by God of our errors, and we amend our ways to become more like Him. This means a lifetime of many, many conversions.

Eternal Security simply means we are eternally secure that God will never turn His back on us, yet we can always turn our back on Him, we could fail on our way to perfection. Free will is always free. God won’t impose grace on us, he won’t impose mercy, His greatest attribute on us, nor will He impose salvation either. We are always free to choose. At the end of our lives we shall stand before God and He will judge our lives according to this way of perfection, according to both our faith and works (contrary to the false belief of many Protestants) and if found worthy He will say, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.” I suppose many he won’t say this to, and many Protestants could remark, but Lord I was saved on/at … and He will say, “Depart from me for I never knew you!” Woe is that person, and woe is the person that convinced that person of such an easy yet false sense of salvation. Truthfully, we have BEEN saved, we are BEING saved, and we will BE saved, through the mercy of God and according to our trust in Him.

Predestination and Election are true only in the sense that God, in His Divine Foreknowledge, HE has predestinated and elected that all mankind be saved. We have the free will to participate or not. Remember, hell was made for the fallen angels and the great adversary not us. God has never condemned one single person to eternal punishment and separation from Him, man has condemned his own self.

+ Mason