A few days ago my brother, the former catholic who became a Christian and the man who led me to Christ, suffered a massive heart attack. He has been hospitalized in ICU ever since. The first few days of his battle were spent trying to overcome the terrible physical effects of this devastating and traumatic health catastrophe. Physically he is improving day by day and that is a very, very good thing. Neurologically, however, much improvement is necessary.

Despite being raised a catholic, my brother found the incredible courage necessary to put aside what he was taught his entire life and to cast away his trust in the man-made roman catholic church. He placed his full Trust in Christ Alone for his Eternal Life, and because of the Father’s promise and Christ’s sacrifice, he now belongs to Jesus. My brother, a catholic turned Christian, has helped many people with the Holy Scripture, and despite being currently confined to a hospital bed, he continues today to battle and fight to stay here with us.

Because my family and I know that he is Saved, because we know that he has Eternal Life, we take great comfort in the blessed assurance that no matter what happens to my brother’s life here on Earth he will live for all eternity in God’s Glory in Heaven. Life in this world is short, life eternal is everlasting.

The doctors tell me that my brother’s heart is several times larger than a normal heart. I know that it is even larger than they realize, in a spiritual sense, because he truly has the heart of a soldier: a soldier for God. Despite it taking years for me to come to Christ, he never gave up on me when I was on the wrong path, when I continued to be a practicing catholic. My brother helped me to finally understand the Truth in God’s Word. He showed me how the false church, the catholic church, the church of Rome, has manipulated the Word of God to support their own ends.

My brother helped to lead me out of the darkness into God’s wonderful Light.

I am forever grateful to my brother, a man whom I love so very much, for leading me to Christ and for helping me to find the fullness of the Gospel of our Father in Heaven.

I want my brother to live, to remain here with me, because together the two of us have much more to give in our service to our Lord. I know, however, that God has His own plan for him, and I pray that whatever lies ahead for my brother is according to God’s Will. I have complete Faith in my Father’s Will.

“And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up”.
- James 5:15

I ask all of you who Trust in Christ Alone, all of you true Christians who read this site, to please pray for my brother Chris in this his valiant struggle for life.

I love you, my brother.

I received this uplifting message from a former catholic woman who converted to Christianity. She discovered true faith and received the Gift of Eternal Life:

“Of course, I thought I was saved. I went to confession every week and hung out with the priests… I thought they had all the answers about what to do with my life. I lived with two extremist catholics and we prayed rosaries… and always talked about Mary. It dawned on me that no one ever talked about Jesus.

I see it [the catholic church] now as a cult somewhat. It takes time to unlearn that stuff. I appreciate your website and to let you know you aren’t alone… I see such hypocrisy and wonder how I fell for it. I understand how I did.”

Because it is only through Faith that we may taste the goodness of God’s Truth. Trust in Christ Alone, my friends. Reject all of what you have learned from men, and place your Trust in Christ Alone and you can have the Gift of Eternal Salvation!

As you probably know, I receive dozens and dozens of e-mails daily and I can’t necessarily respond to every one individually. I get many messages of thanks and good wishes, and sometimes I get e-mails from people who want to argue. I know that I have the Holy Spirit to guide me when it comes to Holy Scripture, so I do my best to guide those who are still lost and try to insist that my “interpretation” (I don’t interpret Scripture, it isn’t meant to be interpreted) is wrong — when I know, because I have The Comforter with me, that the message I get out of the Gospel is from the author Himself.

Today I received another joyful e-mail from someone who has visited my site:

It is not through my words, but through the power of the Holy Spirit that stories of repentance like these occur all the time. Through the Grace of God these people’s eyes are opened and when they Trust in Christ Alone they are able to escape the clutches of a false church and move from darkness into God’s wonderful Light. I am so very joyful that this man’s wife is now a part of Christ’s One True Church.

Indeed, I echo this e-mailer’s closing statement: all praise, honor, and glory to God.

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.

I get lots of beautiful e-mails from people who read my site and share my witness with others in need of help to find their way into God’s wonderful light. As you can imagine, I get a lot of e-mail from catholics, members of the church of Rome, who attempt to defend their organized religion despite the overwhelming amount of Holy Scripture which plainly shows that their church does not behave in the way Christ’s One True Church would behave. Those of us who have placed our Trust in Christ Alone for our Eternal Salvation read the Holy Scripture with the counsel of the Holy Spirit and so we are completely enlightened to the meaning of God’s Word.

Sometimes the meaning of His Word is harder to grasp for those, like practicing catholics, who are probably not Saved.

One of the e-mails I received from a catholic who professes to be a Christian made reference to the catholic practice of confession and communion, explaining that he knows he has received Salvation after receiving the communion wafer (a coin-shaped piece of unleavened bread, nothing more) on Sunday. Confession on Saturday, communion on Sunday, and he has his Salvation. Of course he also believes that if he should fall into sin on Monday his Salvation is then lost, he has fallen away, and he can then “repent” again and renew his salvation through another round of confession and communion.

Saved on Sunday, lost on Monday. Saved again on Sunday, lost again on Monday.

Is this the inevitable cycle that a so-called catholic Christian must endure under God’s Salvation plan? Obviously not. First, it doesn’t even make sense that God would give us a Gift only to take it away from us again, then give it back and take it away, over and over again. That action alone destroys the entire concept of the “Gift” of Eternal Salvation. A true Christian ignores the phony teachings of a false man-made church and understands that a free “gift” is something that is given without conditions — if you must “do” something to earn a gift or keep a gift, then it isn’t a “free gift” at all, is it?

Romans 5:16
And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.

God’s free Gift is Christ’s Sacrifice for our sins… ALL of our sins!

But here’s the part that catholics generally don’t like to hear when they talk about gaining and losing, gaining and losing, gaining and losing Salvation. To do so is impossible, and the Holy Scripture tells us that in complete clarity:

Hebrews 6:4
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

Even if you believe, as catholics usually do, that Salvation can be gained and then lost, Hebrews 6 should tell you in no uncertain terms that it is IMPOSSIBLE to renew yourself unto Salvation because you would be attempting to crucify the Son of God again, unto yourself, which — as the Holy Scripture states — means you would be trying to publicly disgrace Christ Himself.

Christians who have Trusted in Christ Alone for their Salvation and put aside the false teachings of man-made religions further understand the full meaning of Hebrews 6:4, which is that is that man cannot lose his Salvation because he could never, ever, crucify the Son of God again.

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.