Original Sin
Protestant Christian Understanding: Jesus died and once you believe in Him, that is salvation. Protestants do not believe, and claim it is not biblical, Jesus died to wipe away Original Sin, which opened the gates of heaven to give us the opportunity to enter heaven. Protestants believe you are automatically saved as a believer, that Christ's crucifixion and death guarantees salvation as long as you believe it does.
Catholic Christian Understanding: This gets back to the idea of "Solo Fide" or justification by faith alone which is not taught by the Catholic Church, nor is it biblically accurate. Faith is a constant, ongoing journey and is not something that happens once and completed in one day after saying the "sinners prayer". Jesus talks about this in John 6, "He who comes to me will never be hungry. He who believes in me will never be thirsty." Now, this is where understanding language and the proper use of the language is once again VERY crucial. What is Jesus saying? In Greek, when the Greek language wants you to do something ONE time, it uses a different tense called the "aorist tense". When the action is supposed to be an ongoing habitual action, or a lifetime action, Greek language uses the "present tense", which is the tense Jesus uses in John 6.
Another great example of this was at the Sermon On The Mount when Jesus says, "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be open to you." Again, look at His words in Greek and the tense used, it is not the "aorist tense", but the "present tense" which calls for ongoing action. What Jesus is saying is ask, and keep on asking, that is, persistent prayer will get you an answer. 99% of the time in life, we don't pray one single prayer and everything we ask for is answered immediately. We have all experienced this in one way or another that ongoing prayer is necessary. Seek, and keep on seeking. Knock, and keep on knocking. etc ….. We are called to a LIFETIME of faith, not just a certain moment in time that guarantees our salvation forever.
Another example 1st John Chapter 1:5, "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all[a] sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us."
Again, the reader has to recognize and understand the actual language used. This verse is all in the present tense calling for never-ending action. "Walking" is in the present tense, "Cleansing" is in the present tense. And the Blood of Jesus is continually cleansing us from all sin. Then in verse 8 "if we confess our sins" again that is in the present tense which means it is an ongoing lifestyle of confessing our sins to God….. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." This clearly states it is an ongoing action as all of this is in the present tense and God is calling us to habitually do this throughout our life. According to this verse, and many others that address sin, on a technical basis the idea that we are saved by a one time action is completely non-biblical. We have to keep confessing our sins and God will keep cleansing our sins with the Blood of Christ, according to this passage in the bible.
Other passages that address this very point:
1st John 2:1, [1] My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just: [2] And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. [3] And by this we know that we have known him, if we keep his commandments. [4] He who saith that he knoweth him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. [5] But he that keepeth his word, in him in very deed the charity of God is perfected; and by this we know that we are in him.
Hebrews 7:25, 23] And the others indeed were made many priests, because by reason of death they were not suffered to continue: [24] But this, for that he continueth for ever, hath an everlasting priesthood, [25] Whereby he is able also to save for ever them that come to God by him; always living to make intercession for us.
Matthew 6 9:13, Sermon on the Mount when Jesus gives us the Lord's prayer. There are seven petitions in The Lord's prayer that God Himself gave that we know today as the "Our Father". There is ONLY ONE petition that God adds a footnote to in the prayer, to provide clarity and specificity, and that is the part where He said, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us." Jesus adds only one footnote, in verse 14, after the prayer is over ONLY on that petition saying, "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." …..
Jesus is talking to all Christians here. What He says makes it clear that when we pray this prayer, as an ongoing lifestyle habit throughout our life, we are asking God to habitually forgive us our sins. The sins we commit today and JESUS said in this passage if you don't ask for forgiveness every day, you will not be forgiven. So according to the bible, asking for forgiveness or becoming a believer one time in life as a child, and from that, being saved forever is completely not biblical, according to the passages mentioned above from the bible.
As a "born again" Christian, I have found this tenet of the Christianity I have been taught to be rather ambiguous. As you say, we are taught that when we pray the sinner's prayer with heartfelt sincerity and a repentant spirit (a genuine remorse for our sins), ALL of our sins are forgiven--in fact erased from God's "mind" as though His record of our sin is a blank slate. Yet, the Bible also clearly teaches that we will be rewarded in heaven based on the "fruits" of our life on Earth and other things such as not forgiving those who sin against us. So, God must then have a recollection of our sins--including those we have asked forgiveness for (or not??). I have asked past teachers and preachers why we have confession about once per month in most Bible churches if those sins have already been forgiven. I was told that it is to bring those ongoing sins that we commit to the forefront of our minds so that we can recognize our weaknesses and shore them up, so to speak, to make us less likely to give into future temptations. Yet, for me personally, I not only reflect on those sins, but I ask forgiveness because I acknowledge that we are all sinners and can only work at becoming more Christlike as we live out our lives. With all of this "once saved, always saved" teaching which is a topic of debate amongst the non-denominational churches I have attended over the years, shouldn't each believer play it safe with God and acknowledge and repent continuously? How can we possibly become more Christlike over the course of our lives if we do not? Our eternal "address" may depend upon it.
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