What is real salvation?Who's right Protestants or Catholic/Orthodox?

Question

I am looking into different religions, specifically Christian faiths, and am very confused about the idea of salvation. The Protestants believe in faith alone(that is in the form of the sinner's prayer) and you can be saved just by saying one prayer. On the other the Catholics and Orthodox(the groups I feel more accustomed to) believe in the sacrements and living the Christian life of the Church. How did Protestants come to believe this? In Christian history I've found that even the early Christians had sacrements for salvation, so do Protestants even read their own Christian History? I don't know...Protestants confuse me. Enlighten me please.

Answer 1

Here is the joint declaration of justification by Catholics (1999), Lutherans (1999), and Methodists (2006):

By grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping us and calling us to good works.

In different wording, Catholics have an easy answer:
- Be baptized and spiritually born again
- Follow the teachings of Jesus Christ
- Do not commit mortal sin

And a more complicated answer:

We are already saved:
- “For in hope we were saved.” (Romans 8:24)
- “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:5-8)

We are being saved:
- “He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus.” (1 Corinthians 1:8)
- “For we are the aroma of Christ for God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” (2 Corinthians 2:15)
- “So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12)

We have the hope that we will be saved:
- “How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath. Indeed, if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:9-10)
- “If anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, the work of each will come to light, for the Day will disclose it. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire (itself) will test the quality of each one's work. If the work stands that someone built upon the foundation, that person will receive a wage. But if someone's work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire.” (1 Corinthians 3:12-15)

Like the Apostle Paul, we are working out our salvation in “fear and trembling,” (Philippians 2:12) and with hopeful confidence in the promises of Christ:
- “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access (by faith) to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:2)
- “This saying is trustworthy: If we have died with him we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him. But if we deny him he will deny us. If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. (2 Timothy 2:11–13)

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

You have not understood the protestants. It is grace alone through faith alone that Justifies a person and that is the work of Christ by His Spirit not a mere prayer. No man can know much less pray to God unless He is first born again. As to the sacraments and a life of obedience they are very important to the whole of salvation. This area is sanctification not justification. After a person is born again (justified) he is also sanctified by the Spirit of Christ. He is a new person with new desires. In fact although one is justified by faith alone, if a faith has no works at all it is a dead faith not a true faith. So one is justified completely by the work of Christ and then having been born again they now see and know the love of God and want to please Him. Yet sin remains but they struggle against it and are forgiven of them.

PS Forget any names of churches. The Bible teaches a sovereign free grace in Christ. We cannot save ourselves. All religion falls into 2 camps. Christ alone for salvation and we contribute nothing. It is all His work. He gets our punishment and we get His righteousness. Or we save ourselves by somehow doing something, some big or little work. Which sounds right to you and which will humble a man before God and cause a man to live a life of thankfulness?

Answer 3

Well the problem is youre using an obsolete term like "Protestant." Christians who are not Catholics have a WIDE variety of churches, beliefs, and do indeed engage in the sacraments but it takes a different theological meaning in most cases compared to Catholicism.

I am a member of Church of Christ and we do not preach "faith only" because that is not all there is to salvation. The Scriptures teach us we need to give our lives to Jesus through the following process...
1. Repent of sinful life
2. Confess Jesus as Lord
3. Baptized for forgiveness of sins
4. Living faithfully

Not all churches are teaching the truth or are very helpful but with prayer and knowing the Scriptures, together you and God can pick a good church for you to grow and serve him in.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -Ephesians 2:8

Answer 4

Protestants, Catholic, Orthodox, etc. are not different religions. They are all Christian. They are different denominations of Christianity.They all have the same faith.

The Bible is the mind of God. No human can completely understand the mind of God. Every person and every denomination understands some part of the Bible completely and totally gets some of it right. Every person and every denomination misunderstands some part of the Bible completely and totally gets some of it wrong.

It is my personal belief that each of us is called for something unique. We each only have to understand the part of God's word that leads us to that which we are called for. If you feel more comfortable with certain denominations, then perhaps their teachings will lead you to what God is calling you for. It doesn't mean that other denominations are wrong. It just means that their followers have other callings.

Too many Christians spend too much time arguing over piddly little differences while ignoring the huge similarities. Remember what Jesus said about picking a speck out of someone else's eye while having a plank in your own. Jesus was foretelling the denominational splits before they ever occurred.

The biggest problem with Christianity is the Christians attacking each other. Pray to God for His guidance and listen in your heart for the answer. Good luck.

Answer 5

Scottish Protestants are not heavy on the palaver you seem confused about these sideshows are showmen like procedures that add glitter to the show "sacraments for salvation" say 100 hail Marys and stand on your head for 20 Min's and no wanking for a week, our clergies can be male female married single, and don't believe they have a direct link to God so don't believe in giving out penance's to knotty worshipers, judgment time will come when you meet your maker.

Answer 6

Salvation is by Grace through faith. But Faith without works is Dead. James 2:14-17 check out web sites below designed to help you study.

Answer 7

The Catholic View of Atonement
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By Jim J. McCrea


The Catholic view of atonement differs from the Protestant view.

With the classical Protestant view, purgatory is considered
unnecessary, as well as any suffering on earth. "Jesus took all the
punishment for us" it is said. "He suffered so that we do not have
to."


That is not the Catholic view.

The Catholic view is that we must participate in the sufferings of
Christ to be saved. If we are to be glorified with Him, we must
carry His cross with Him. St. Louis de Montfort said, what kind of a
monster would it be if the head (of the mystical body) were lying on
a bed of thorns, while the members were lying on a bed of feathers.
As the head had suffered, now the members must suffer. For
Catholics, "carrying the cross" means to accept all the sufferings
that God sends in His providence. When Protestants interpret that,
they evade that meaning and hold it to be something different.


How do we explain that if Christ died for our sins, we must still be
punished for them?

That is explained by noting the classical Catholic distinction
between the *eternal* and the *temporal* punishment due to sin. In
the Catholic understanding, Christ paid the eternal penalty of sin,
but we must pay the temporal punishment - or a penalty in time, even
after our sins have been forgiven.

That seems only logical. God is both justice and mercy, and He must
exercise both towards us. In being relieved of the eternal
punishment, He exercises His mercy. In us having to pay a temporal
punishment, He exercises His justice. If we got off scot-free, there
would be no justice in that, for all crime demands punishment by the
very nature of justice. For God to be God, He has to exercise both
mercy and justice.


There is another point as well. Anything positive or negative that
we feel (as reward or punishment), is a profoundly intimate
communication to us about the nature of good and evil respectively.
Pain or pleasure in an intimate contact with evil or good
respectively. Now if Christ paid the whole penalty, and we got off
scot-free, we would have no proper appreciation of His atoning
sacrifice and the evil that He has freed us from. It would be
something entirely abstract to us. But by being given some share in
His punishment on the cross, we are given an intimate understanding
of what He did (by actually feeling some of it), and the evil of sin
that He freed us from (for suffering is simply the effects of sin
experienced in the feelings).










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Answer 8

Salvation is through Jesus... i don't know if all protestants believe in faith alone but catholics believe in faith+works...

Answer 9

For the REAL SCOOP on Salvation read
http://www.toughlove.faithweb.com/once_saved_always_saved_.htm

It is a question of Follow the Bible. = Faith in The God.
or
Follow the Vatican. = Faith in The revelations of the poops.

Answer 10

This is the Truth:
Adam messed up his Spirit and passed that messed up Spirit to Everybody Else.
That messed up Spirit cannot handle the Power of GODs Presence.
It has to be Recreated to Handle GODs Power. You won't be able to Stay in Heaven if you didn't get that Thing Recreated.
Religion cannot Recreate your Spirit.
Jesus can, HE Created you Perfect in the First Place. Adam Blew it for Everybody, Jesus Died on the Cross so that you could get back into Original Condition (Spirit Recreated).
Don't be too hard on Adam.