Help! I’M a Catholic, “How do I get saved?” Dedicated to Barry and Carrie, from Ireland, whom I met in turkey, who asked this question. Keep on singing folks, and Barry burn that shirt, lol
Brendan Mc Crossan
Help! I’M a Catholic, “How do I get saved?”
Help! I’m a Catholic, “how do I get saved?” this was a question I was asked last night by a young Catholic man, who was told by a protestant “saved” Christian, that he can’t be saved because he is still a Catholic. And his catholic sins can’t be forgiven. I told him first of all, that the protestant brother was wrong and was caught up in his religious doctrine. He believed that Catholics can’t be saved simply because they are Catholics, and told my young Catholic friend this; unless he joined his church he could not be saved. This is totally wrong, you can’t be saved by belonging to a church, no church has the monopoly on salvation; it is not in belonging to a particular church that gets us saved it is simply by accepting Jesus into our hearts as lord and saviour that gets us saved.
Jesus never told anyone that they have to belong to a church in order to be saved, he told them they must belong to him personally. First of all for my Catholic readers; I am a Catholic and I am saved, at this moment in time I go to an apostolic church for over one year now, because they believe in signs and wonders, healing and deliverance, and sad to say in my Catholic church this has been thrown out as disbelief sets in more strongly.
What is “saved?” Saved means that you won’t go to hell for your many sins, through Jesus Christ you receive salvation, {which means you are saved from hell}. To give you an example of being saved as compared to the Catholic Church’s teaching on salvation, they believe that we are “being” saved, were not saved yet but were “being” saved. The example I wish to give is the example the lord gave me when I first questioned him about being saved.
He told me one night as I was driving to a prayer meeting, and as I stopped at a set of traffic lights God spoke to me and said, “If you fell into a river and were drowning, and someone jumped in and pulled you out, what would you tell people afterwards?” “That you almost drowned, or were saved.” You were drowning in a sea of sin and I jumped in and saved you from drowning in that sea of sin,” what should you tell people afterwards that I nearly drowned or that Jesus saved me, you would say I was drowning and Jesus jumped in and saved my life. Jesus jumped in and saved your life, he didn’t half save you, he fully saved you, you weren’t “being” saved, you were being saved as he pulled you to shore but once on dry land you were then saved, no longer being saved. There is a massive difference between being saved and saved. Saved means it has happened already, being saved means you’re still being dragged out of hell.
Jesus said to all who received me has been given the right to enter heaven freely because of what he done, for you, not because of what we done for our salvation. Look at these words of Jesus himself.
John -3-3- “with all the earnestness I possess I tell you this; unless you are born again, you can never get into the kingdom of God.”
Look atthesewordsoutofthevery mouth ofJesushimself, hesaid;“With alltheearnestness I possess. He could not have emphasised this any more than he did. He was telling people that
they needed to be born again. This is why Jesus came to earth from heaven, this was his purpose, to come and bring salvation to man, to make things easy, not difficult like it was in the Old Testament where you had to obey a set of rules and regulations before you could get into heaven, and no one could ever keep those rules and regulations so God decided to send Jesus to make it easier for us by taking the punishment for our sins on his body on Calvary and in dying for us, he then made it easy to get into heaven, and he said in the following scripture.
John -1-12-but to all who received him, he gave them the right to become children of God. All they needed to do was to trust him to save them. All those who believe this are reborn, not a physical rebirth, resulting from human passion or plan, but from the will of God.
This is salvation in a nutshell, to all who received him. {Did you note it said to “all” who received him, not if you belong to this church or that church,} but to “all” who received him. Protestant, catholic, Methodist, Muslim, Hindu, to all who received him, Jesus, he gave them the right to be saved. You may say but I pray to Jesus and God, I believe in Jesus; scripture says, “the demons in hell believe in Jesus even more than you,” but that does not grant them salvation.
James-4-10- are there still some of you who hold that “only believing” is enough? Believing in one God? Well remember that the demons believe this too, so strongly that they tremble in terror! Fool when will you ever learn that “believing,” is useless without doing what God wants you to? Faith that does not result in good deeds is not real faith.
You see from this scripture that the demons believe in Jesus just the same as you do and even stronger than you, they have seen him. You have to do something to get into heaven, which the demons can’t do and that is ask Jesus into your heart as your lord and saviour. Salvation for Catholics is easy, you know Jesus, you pray to Jesus, and you honour him but you have never been taught by the church to ask him into your heart as your lord and saviour, and this is what every person in the world needs to do. You just say to Jesus: “Jesus, come into my heart as my Lord and saviour.” Jesus then comes into your heart, and over a period of time he brings change as he dwells more and more in you, he helps you to pray, he helps you not to sin, he helps you to live as a Christian.
I could fill this book with scripture after scripture telling you about salvation, and how it is a gift from God not something that can be earned; you cannot do enough to get into heaven, because Jesus came and died to get you into heaven, freely, no price for you to pay, just accept the gift being offered.
If you accept Jesus into your heart as your lord and saviour, then you have to tell at least one other person, because scripture tells us we must witness to at least one other as part of the salvation deal. Tell your mother, father, brother or sister or partner, Jesus is your lord and saviour.
You are guaranteed getting into heaven because of this, and this scripture below gives this guarantee.
1 Corinthians-1-8 and he guarantees right up till the end that you will be counted free from all sin and guilt on that day when he returns. God will surely do this for you for he
always does what he says and he is the one who invited you into this wonderful friendship with his son Jesus Christ our lord.
There is your guarantee from God himself. If anyone asks are you saved tell them yes I am, and if they ask what church did you get saved in, tell them I got saved by Jesus not in a church as a church couldn’t save. Don’t let anyone tell you because you are a Catholic that you need to go to their church, that is religious rubbish, they are caught up in religion, not in a relationship with Jesus. Unless Jesus tells you to leave the church stay where you have been planted, it is not the church where you go to that counts but where you worship, and that could be sitting in your back yard, it’s not where we worship that counts but how we worship, is our worship spiritual, from our hearts, not the building or service we go to, worship is every moment of every day, not just on a Sunday. I go to an Apostolic church now because they believe in healing and signs and wonders, praise and worship, sad to say my Catholic church does not believe this.
You stay where God planted you, unless you desire to have more from God, then go to an Apostolic church or a church that is alive and excited by the signs and wonders of miracles and healing and deliverance, there you will find people of the same religion as yourself all praising God and witnessing healing happening. Don’t go to a church that does not have these things happening as they are no different than the one you’re in.
Help! I’M a Catholic, how do I get saved? You just did! Go and enjoy your new life in Christ Jesus. Amen