Paul's Passing Thoughts

This article reminded me of what both Protestantism and Catholicism boil down to: perpetual re-salvation through church authority. It’s not just the idea that professing Christians still sin, it is the idea shared by both that sin committed by professing Christians is the same sin they committed before they were professing Christians. That is, any sin is still condemning sin; anytime you sin, you are once again condemned to hell and must seek re-forgiveness and for all practical purposes re-salvation that can only be obtained through church sacraments whether Protestant or Catholic.

These two argue that the other’s gospel is false based on the sacraments, or “means of grace,” not the premise. With both, salvation is not a onetime finished work by God. Catholics, at least, are honest about it while Protestant scholars lie about it. This leads many Protestants to believe that their sin is different from condemning sin; their sin as Christians merely disrupts their “fellowship” with God that must be restored through repentance with or without church authority. But, that is not Protestant orthodoxy at all, and not the way Protestants function. However, I must say, since the Neo-Protestant movement (1970 – present), Protestantism is more open about it with slogans like, “We must preach the gospel to ourselves every day.”

Until recently, Protestants only functioned according to Catholic progressive salvation (progressive justification) while denying it intellectually. Now, they are more open about it because Protestants, of late, have a better understanding of their own gospel because of the Neo-Protestant movement, or if you will, the New Calvinism movement.

The basic problem with a salvation that is not a onetime finished work by God follows: you must do something, or not do something with intentionality to keep the process going. This makes living a new Christian life a fallacy; Christian living is really about keeping your salvation through the church. Hence, good works are all about promoting the means of salvation, not the natural result of being born anew from above.

This shouldn’t surprise us. Catholicism and Protestantism both came out of a church state and for the express purpose of a church state. An individual that is literally God’s offspring is a poor candidate for state submission. The true biblical gospel bolsters individualism, not collectivism.

So, how should we function as God’s literal offspring who are no longer under condemnation? Since we are members of God’s family, we simply function like a family. Find likeminded believers and fellowship together and function like a real family functions. It’s not that complicated.

paul