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On Sunday, I took my wife to the First Baptist Church here in my town to give her a feel for the Bible Belt. She is a cradle Catholic not realizing exactly what goes on in Baptist churches here in the South, and she was nothing short of amazed/dazed/nauseated. They should have a word for that feeling when you go into a church like that.

The sermon was titled "Pray for the USA" which was basically an endorsement of Mitt Romney's presidency as we were all urged to pray between now and election day. I'm all for praying for the country because the country needs it. But I don't think this country needs Mitt Romney. But I digress. . .

I like when Catholic commentator Michael Voris talks about the Catholic Church being the true church of Christ with 30,000 knock-offs. When he says that, I think of street vendors selling counterfeit Rolex watches. That is what Protestantism is. It is a copy and a knock off of the real thing. Like the cheap shoes in Walmart, they are better than nothing, but they aren't the real deal.

I grew up with a lot of anti-catholic bashing here in the Bible Belt. I was taught from an early age that the Catholics worshiped the pope, and they were all damned because they believed their good works would get them to Heaven. This particular church we attended sends missionaries to Ecuador. Now, Ecuador like the rest of Latin America is heavily Catholic. They believe in God more vigorously than most of the people here in the USA. But in Baptistworld, they are damned because they do not possess the real saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the gospel Billy Graham preached of "once saved, always saved" or OSAS.

OSAS is not in the Bible. There are many verses about God's promises and assurance of salvation, but there is no such thing as OSAS. St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:27, "I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified." This guy was as much a believer in Christ as anyone can be. He even wrote the bulk of the New Testament. Yet, he talks here of nothing less than losing his salvation. This is not OSAS.

King Saul lost his salvation as well as Judas Iscariot. King David was in peril of losing his salvation when he committed adultery and murder. This sort of thing is what Catholics call "mortal sin." If that frightens you, it should. There are a lot of people who believe OSAS who will be shocked to find that what they thought was true just ain't so. Jesus says in Matthew 7:23, "And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’" That verse comes from the New American Standard translation which I think gets it most correct. The Greek uses the term ἀνομίαν or "anomian" which means "without law." Other versions translate it as "iniquity," but that word doesn't capture the depth of the original Greek. OSAS is fundamentally "anomian."

The heresy OSAS embodies is called "antinomianism" which means "against the law." Basically, it teaches that Christians are exempt from the moral law. If good works cannot earn your salvation, it stands to reason that evil works cannot cost you your salvation. Protestant Christians will balk at this, but this is the essence of OSAS. The Catholic Encyclopedia has this to say:

For this reason it is not always an easy matter to determine with any degree of precision how far certain forms and offshoots of Calvinism, Socinianism, or even Lutheranism, may not be susceptible of Antinomian interpretations; while at the same time it must be remembered that many sects and individuals holding opinions dubiously, or even indubitably, of an Antinomian nature, would indignantly repudiate any direct charge of teaching that evil works and immoral actions are no sins in the case of justified Christians. The shades and gradations of heresy here merge insensibly the one into the other. To say that a man cannot sin because he is justified is very much the same thing as to state that no action. whether sinful in itself or not, can be imputed to the justified Christian as a sin. Nor is the doctrine that good works do not help in promoting the sanctification of an individual far removed from the teaching that evil deed do not interfere with it. There is a certain logical nexus between these three forms of the Protestant doctrine of justification that would seem, to have its natural outcome in the assertion of Antinomianism. The only doctrine that is conclusively and officially opposed to this heresy, as well as to those forms of the doctrine of justification by faith alone that are so closely connected with it both doctrinally and historically, is to be found in the Catholic dogma of Faith, Justification, and Sanctification.

I doubt that your typical Baptist would encourage people to go out and sin wildly. Yet, this is what Luther said to do when he told his followers to "sin boldly." This is not the Gospel that the Apostles preached in the first century. Luther claimed to oppose antinomianism, but it is hard to see how antinomianism is not the logical outcome of justification by faith alone. Luther would tell us of the importance of going on to do good works. Likewise, Catholic teaching does not say that our good works earn our salvation.

There is a lot of controversy over the doctrine of justification, but I think I can make it clearer for everyone as I am someone who has seen the issue from both sides. The problem with OSAS is the phrase "once saved."  The error is the belief that salvation happens once and remains effective forever. This is not what the Bible teaches. This is a later error.

Imagine the guy who walks forward to confess his sins at a Billy Graham crusade, says the sinner's prayer, and receives Christ as his Savior. This is a good thing. As my priest put it to me, this act is fundamentally the same as when a pentitent goes to confession in a Catholic Church. The difference though is that the evangelical will leave that Crusade thinking he never has to do that again. He is saved. Period. Then, he goes home, beats his kids, jerks off to some internet porn, slaps the piss out of his wife, and falls to sleep in a drunken stupor. Hey, this is OSAS.

You are not saved once. Salvation is a PROCESS. Even Luther and Calvin understood this and called it "sanctification." Evangelicals limit salvation to a single event while sanctification is a bonus which usually involves refraining from dancing, drinking, swearing, and watched R-rated movies. I wish it were so easy, but it isn't. Jesus is explicit and clear in John 3:36 when He says, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

Jesus expects us to bear fruit. John 15:4-5 says, "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." James 1:25 goes on to say, ". . .one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does."

OSAS is nothing more than a fruitless tree. This is why you get a certain sick feeling when you go into a Protestant church. Having grown up in it, I never knew any better in much the same way that people who live in a town with a paper mill don't notice the rotten egg smell that permeates the air. But Catholics get the whiff every time they visit, and it makes them want to puke. I feel it now as well.

Jesus is explicit with his imagery about being fruitful. He cursed a fruitless fig tree. He talks about seed that produces crops while other seed withers and dies. There is a definite demand that we abide in His grace and become like Him. The OSAS crowd merely says that this fruit is just responding to the Gospel with belief, but belief is just one fruit. James is explicit. We must be effectual doers.

Both Luther and Calvin would decry OSAS. Yet, it is their teaching that was the foundation of that doctrine. They baked the cake and were surprised that people took a bite from it. They should not have been surprised. Once salvation is confined to a one time event, it stops there. But that isn't salvation anymore than a life preserver tossed to a man drowning in icy water is rescue. It is the first step in a process, and if you don't complete that process, you will die. Jesus, Paul, James, and the Catholic Church all agree on this.

Imagine a guy that is out of shape. He is fat and flabby like yours truly. So, he decides to get in shape with physical exercise. He goes to the gym and signs up for a membership. Then, he leaves to never return again. Or he might go once in awhile like during New Year's resolution that lasts a week or two. Nothing changes in his life, but he does belong to a gym. Then, one day, the doctor tells him that he has diabetes, heart disease, and the rest. Our gym member replies, "But I belong to a gym!" That is when the doctor says, "Depart from me, you fat ass. I never saw you at the squat rack."

This analogy may seem a bit much, but it is precisely the one St. Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 9 that I referenced earlier. He uses athletic analogies about runners and boxers who train their bodies. The Church is the gym of your soul. It is the means of grace needed to not only save you from damnation but to also perfect you for everlasting life. This is why Christ gives us the Word and the Sacraments. Our souls become whole by His grace, and that grace comes to us through Mother Church.

The Catholic Church teaches that it is a mortal sin to miss Mass each week. This might seem like a trick to get your butt in the door, but it isn't. Trust me, Gold's Gym and Bally's love it when you don't show up to use their equipment. But they would ask that you to not wear their branded T-shirt with a beer gut sticking out from beneath it either. Mortal sins damage your soul, and the longer you continue in that state the more flabby you will get in the spiritual sense. Eventually, your salvation itself is forfeit.

Salvation is easy. Avail yourself of what the Church offers. This would be the sacraments and the Scriptures. Get baptized. Go to confession. Take the eucharist. Listen to the Word. These things work. They will change you. As Jesus put it in John 6:56, "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him." This is the Real Presence. God's grace will be in you, and it will bear fruit. It will work just as certainly as lifting heavy objects repeatedly will make those muscles bigger.

Protestant churches deny the Real Presence. I don't see this as an accident. In addition, they claim to be about Scripture, but it is barely read in the services of a typical Baptist church. When I sit in Mass, I hear a passage from the Old Testament, the Epistles, and the Gospels. I have to laugh when Baptists talk about "Bible preaching." I don't think it means what they think it means. I get Bible preaching every week from a guy who doesn't crack three worn out jokes to get a laugh from the congregation and takes a single verse and extrapolates that into a condemnation of South America, homosexuals, and the need for national repentance in order to keep our God given status as the country with 50% of the world's bathtubs. (Yes, that was the gist of the Sunday sermon. Plus, you need to vote for Mitt Romney because at least he ain't Muslim like Obama.)

Those Baptist churches and many like them are gyms more interested in getting people to sign up rather than work out. This is what OSAS is all about. Granted, you can get in shape in a crappy gym, and you can be flabby in a great gym. But you should want to be in the best gym possible. When it comes to the gym of the soul, the best one is the Catholic Church. And if you need to see results, look no further than the saints. Grace works.

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