Did you know that in 2005, the pope (the leader of the so-called “catholic” church, the church of Rome) claimed that Eternal Salvation can be by those who lack Biblical faith? Quoting from Zenit:

“Whoever seeks peace and the good of the community with a pure
conscience, and keeps alive the desire for the transcendent, will
be saved even if he lacks biblical faith, says Benedict XVI.”

You can read the full article here:
“Pope Says Non-Believers Can Be Saved“

So, essentially, the pope (erroneously) tells his unfortunate followers that just being a “good person” will Save someone, even if they lack the Faith described in the Holy Scriptures. Anyone with even a small amount of Scriptural study knows that this position is patently false, and is another of the dangerous teachings of a man-made religion that keeps people AWAY from Christ rather than lead them to Him.

I will rely on the Holy Scripture for the definitive answer to this issue, and respectfully refer the pope to this:

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

- John 14:6

I think that’s about clear as it can get. So what do you think? Do you think that a pure conscience and a desire for peace and good things in the community are enough to Save someone for all eternity? If you do, perhaps you’re reading a different Bible than I am. Maybe the pope doesn’t believe that the Word of God is is the final say-so on matters such as these.

The catholic church says that that tradition is just as important as the Holy Scripture. In fact, you can confirm that for yourself in the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” from which I quote:

“As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.”

Further:

“Tradition is to be distinguished from the various theological, disciplinary, liturgical or devotional traditions, born in the local churches over time. These are the particular forms, adapted to different places and times, in which the great Tradition is expressed. In the light of Tradition, these traditions can be retained, modified or even abandoned under the guidance of the Church’s Magisterium.”

(Link: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p1s1c2a2.htm)

So the catholic church insists that tradition and Holy Scripture should be accepted as EQUAL when it comes to Spiritual Truth. It also says that the church can decide which traditions are worth keeping and which can be abandoned. The church of Rome gives itself much power here, to decide for millions of followers what they should believe, even if the tradition runs counter to the Holy Scripture. However…

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”

- 2 Timothy 3:16

There are many debates about the importance of tradition, and many verses of Scripture which can be cited both in favor of and against tradition. But despite all of the debate over whether or not tradition should be integral to Spiritual Truth, we can turn directly to the Words of Jesus Christ Himself to settle the issue about which is more important, Scripture or tradition:

“Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.”

- Matthew 15:1-6

The commandment of God was made “of none effect” by tradition. Very, very powerful words.

Regardless of whether you believe tradition is important in religion or not, no matter which side of the “tradition” debate you might be on, whatever you might say about this passage of Holy Scripture, at least one enduring truth must be observed: the traditions of the religious leaders were subject to the Word of God, not equal to it as the catholic church insists.

In a previous post I talked about the correct meaning behind the message James was sharing with the Saved regarding how to behave and to display their faith so that it is not separated and set apart. To read the entire post, visit “Faith without Works is Dead“.

Now how can we be SURE that James is NOT saying that works are required for Salvation? Very simply (and this is the beauty of Holy Scripture) we know, FOR SURE, that James is NOT saying that works are necessary for Salvation because he specifically references Abraham. And, since Scripture is always read in light of Scripture, we can easily see the reference that James is making…

Romans 4:
“WHAT shall we say then that Abraham hath found, who is our father according to the flesh. For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice. Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt. But to him that worketh not, yet believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reputed to justice, according to the purpose of the grace of God. As David also termeth the blessedness of a man, to whom God reputeth justice without works: Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord hath not imputed sin.”

Holy Scripture is not meant to be interpreted. That’s why all Bible translations are flawed (even the King James Version which is my preferred version) and why the Lord sends to us who are Saved the Holy Spirit to help us understand His Word. Since there are so many out there reading my site who need a more “plain English” version of Scripture to help them until they have received the Gift of Eternal Salvation, I’ll share the NIV version of Romans 4, which should make it VERY clear…

“Abraham Justified by Faith: What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’

‘Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.’”

Had James intended to say that works are required for Salvation, he would have never referenced Scripture which says exactly the opposite.

Isn’t Faith amazing?

Many people attempt to promote the notion that a person’s actions contribute to their Salvation. Those people are either simply misguided or intentionally misleading others. It is ONLY through Christ’s sacrifice that we are Saved. So what does James mean, then, when he says that “faith without works is dead”?

First, we’ve got to read the entire chapter before we can fully understand the meaning. If you like, you can read it here.

To begin with, we see that James starts by writing: “My brethren…” which means, we know, that this particular passage is addressed to those who are SAVED. Those who already have the Gift of Eternal Salvation. We know this because James refers to “brethren” and of course to be a Brother in Christ to James, one must be Saved. Therefore, the people to whom James is speaking here clearly DO have faith, since they have Eternal Life.

So now that we know that James is speaking to the Saved, let’s take a close look at what he’s saying.

Death in the Bible always is used to mean “separation”.  To that end, physical death is the separation of the spirit and soul from the body.  The “second death” is the separation of the spirit and soul from God, in hell forever (”And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” Revelation 20:14).  Now that we fully understand this definition of death, we can better examine the phrase “faith without works is dead” with fuller insight.

Since we now know that death speaks of separation and not of the end of existence, we see that illustrated definitively in James 2:26, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” Obviously James knew that the spirit lives on without the body — so he would not use this analogy to illustrate “death” in this context to mean that something doesn’t exist at all. He knew, as we know, that if anyone who has Eternal Salvation should physically die, then their body would cease to function but their spirit would go on to be with the Lord.  They would still be alive, of course, because they have Eternal Life. Eternal Life = being alive, forever. But their body would cease to function and would not display any signs of life, and thus this “death” is a separation — a setting aside — the action of this body being alone.

In the same way, James says, “faith without works is dead.” The meaning here is now quite easily understood: works are to faith what the body is to the spirit.  The body, through its functions of breathing and walking and moving, outwardly displays life. Works, as James clearly tells us here, are an outward display of faith. Note here that James never, ever says that faith without works does not exist. In fact, James is saying exactly the opposite. James clearly tells his brethren that someone who has faith (as do his brethren) should, through their actions, display their faith.

If a person has no works, does that mean that they have no faith? Or course not. Common sense tells us that. It would be like saying that if I die physically, I would no longer exist. We know that if we have Eternal Life, then once our body dies our spirit continues to live on. If a person has faith but no works, he simply is not actively demonstrating to others that he has faith.  It now becomes very clear that is the point James is making when he says:

“Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.”

A vine may become “dead” because it bears no fruit, but the vine continues to live because it grows and remains green and vital. It is “dead” because is does not show outward signs of its life by bearing fruit. So James tells the Saved that “faith without works is dead” not because their faith doesn’t exist (the fact that they’ve received the Gift of Eternal Salvation proves otherwise), but simply that their faith is “dead” (alone) because it is not on display, it is not being fruitful.

I hear from a lot of people, some who have received the Gift of Eternal Salvation and some who have not. Some who are a part of Christ’s Body and others who are stuck in the false church, the so-called “roman catholic church”. Those who have been Saved realize exactly how simple God’s plan for Salvation is. Those who are trapped, who have been misled, who have placed their trust in men and not Christ are usually very confused.

All I have to do is Trust in Christ Alone and I will have the Gift of Eternal Salvation? It can’t possibly be that simple.

And yet, it is. But as humans, we’ve been trained to believe that nothing can be gained without hard work. That we can receive no “reward” without putting in some sort of effort. We forget that Salvation is a GIFT and not a reward. A gift is something that we do NOT need to earn, rather it is freely given. And God gives us Eternal Life because He sent His Son to die for our sins, all of our sins, once and forever.

Here in my catholic Christian blog and Web site I relate my story and try to help those who are confused and misled. I try to explain that man-made churches like the church of rome can do nothing but twist and tarnish God’s Word. The Holy Scripture is pure, there is no explanation or interpretation needed. Instead of relying on man-made churches to tell you what the Holy Scripture means, set aside everything you’ve been taught by men and place all of your Trust in Christ Alone.

If you’ve read my story and my blog, you now know that I am a true Christian. I am, because I placed my Trust in Christ Alone. Because I did this, I know for absolutely certain that I have Everlasting Life. I formerly fancied myself a catholic christian because I was a part of the catholic church (the church of Rome) but now, thanks to the precious gift of Eternal Life, I now know that the church of Rome is a false church, it is not the One True Church, which is Christ’s Body.

Now, because I am a part of God’s salvation plan, I have received the counsel of the Holy Spirit to guide me. Once I was enlightened by Him, I came to know that the celebration of Christ’s birth on December 25th each year is nothing more than another man-made holiday that at best is completely misguided and at worst, intentionally designed to glorify a pagan holiday.

Isaac Newton argued that the date of “christmas” was chosen to correspond with the winter solstice. History tells us that in ancient times the winter solstice was marked on December 25. In 1743, Paul Ernst Jablonski stated that “christmas” was placed on December 25 to correspond with the Roman solar holiday Dies Natalis Solis Invicti and was therefore a “paganization” that was essentially an insult to the True Church.

We know that the “True Church” is not an organized religion here on Earth, but rather “The Body of Christ” Himself, and thus any of us who are True Christians are a part of that Body. We make up that True Church as we are a part of Him, and He is It.

It should be quite obvious to even a non-religious observer of the Scripture that December is not the actual month of Christ’s birth, since events in the Holy Scripture clearly indicate circumstances which would not make a winter birth feasible. The most obvious Scriptural reference is from the Gospel of Luke which tells us that shepherds were tending their sheep in the fields when He was born.

The rains stopped and temperatures first allowed shepherds to tend their sheep in the fields around April. By December, the sheep were no longer in the fields. But does it matter exactly which month it was? No, certainly not. What does matter, however, is that once again the false church, the church of Rome, has developed a man-made declaration and set it down as truth to their followers. A “truth” for them which history proves to be a falsehood.

If you celebrate this pagan holiday, take a closer look at it. Refuse to allow yourself to continue to be misled.

God’s salvation plan is a very simple one, yet many “organized religions” try to make it overly complicated. There may be a number of reasons for that, it could be ignorance, it could be tradition, it could be that some groups are actually trying to lead people away from Christ by muddling and confusing God’s message.

As a catholic who later learned that I was on the wrong path, following the wrong church, I first came to understand the salvation plan of my Heavenly Father and then, through that understanding, received the gift of Eternal Salvation.

It is as simple as simple can be. It isn’t complicated, His plan doesn’t have a lot of conditions imposed on it, His salvation plan is one that anyone can achieve through one simple and completely straightforward method:

Trust in Christ Alone.

It sounds much too simple, and in many cases that leads people to look for a more complicated means of achieving Eternal Life. God never intended for His Salvation to be something you had to EARN, but rather it is meant to be a GIFT that you may freely receive, simply by taking that one, simple step. God never, ever wanted you to have to do any works, to behave in any particular way, to have to labor in any fashion, or to make any special self-sacrifice to receive His salvation. That’s what He sent his Son here to do for us. That’s the whole reason that Christ died on the cross for us, for all of our sins: so that they would ALL be forgiven, once and forever.

So to receive God’s Gift of Eternal Salvation, to fulfill His Salvation Plan, there is nothing more for you to do than to Trust in Christ Alone. Trust that His sacrifice is the one and only sacrifice that can ever be made for our sins, that we cannot save ourselves, trust that it is only through His death on the cross that our sin debt was paid in full.

That means letting go of human teachings, letting go of organized religions and their man-made rules, it means letting go of traditions and interpretations of Holy Scripture and it means, once and for all, placing ALL of your Trust in Christ.

If you can do that, right now, then you can receive the Gift of Eternal Life.