Tracts
Salvation & Grace
Grace, faith and works, Baptism and what it means to be saved. 14 tracts.
Assurance of Salvation?
Many Evangelicals believe that once a person accepts Christ, salvation is absolutely assured regardless of how he lives. Scripture teaches that final salvation depends on the soul's state at death and that grace can be lost. Catholics can have real confidence of salvation, but not infallible certitude.
Baptism: Immersion Only?
Catholics may baptize by immersion, pouring or sprinkling; Fundamentalists claim only immersion is valid because *baptizo* means "immerse." But *baptizo* also means washing and pouring, Christian baptism has a specialized meaning, immersion was often impractical, and the early Church baptized by pouring.
Grace: What It Is and What It Does
Sanctifying grace is supernatural life abiding in the soul, needed for heaven. Actual grace is a passing divine push that moves us to seek and keep sanctifying grace. Mortal sin destroys sanctifying grace, but responding to actual grace restores it. Justification really transforms the soul and is bound up with sanctification.
How to Become Catholic
One enters full communion through the sacraments of initiation: baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist. The unbaptized prepare as catechumens through OCIA and are usually received at the Easter Vigil. Those already validly baptized are received by a profession of faith, ordinarily at a Sunday Mass, after confession.
The Sinner's Prayer
The "sinner's prayer," popular among Evangelicals, expresses sorrow for sin and trust in Christ and is viewed as the moment of salvation. God hears every contrite prayer, and such a prayer can be a good beginning. But no single prayer guarantees salvation: it should lead to baptism and a lifelong sacramental life of conversion.
What the Early Church Believed: Baptismal Grace
The New Testament repeatedly teaches that in baptism God gives grace: we are saved, buried with Christ, incorporated into his body, washed, regenerated. Protestants generally treat baptism as an ordinance that only represents an effect, but they cannot find texts for this view, and the Fathers unanimously affirmed baptism as a means of grace.
What the Early Church Believed: Baptismal Regeneration
Some Protestants hold that baptism is only a sign that does nothing to the soul. This view, nearly five centuries old, is modern compared with the original tradition: the early Christians taught that baptism regenerates.
What the Early Church Believed: Born Again in Baptism
Jesus said no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5). Those who call baptism a mere symbol say the "water" is the preached word, but the early Christians uniformly understood this verse as water baptism, the way we are born again.
What the Early Church Believed: Faith and Works
Protestants claim we are justified by faith apart from works. The Church teaches our actions have a part in justification. The Fathers recognized the role of both faith and works in salvation.
What the Early Church Believed: Original Sin
We all sense our brokenness. Scripture traces it to the first sin: through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin (Romans 5:12). We are not personally guilty of Adam's sin, but we are born without sanctifying grace and with a nature inclined to sin. The Fathers recognized this doctrine.
What the Early Church Believed: Reward and Merit
God will repay each according to his works, giving eternal life to those who persevere in doing good (Romans 2:6-11). "Merit" and "reward" are two sides of one coin. Nothing before justification merits it; only Christ merits strictly; but under grace Christians do acts God has promised to reward. The Fathers taught reward and merit as gifts of grace.
What the Early Church Believed: Salvation Outside the Church
The Church is "the universal sacrament of salvation" (CCC 774-776). Being Catholic is normatively necessary for salvation, yet some not fully initiated can be saved. Those who knowingly and deliberately commit heresy or schism cannot be saved unless they repent. The Fathers held both truths.
What the Early Church Believed: The Necessity of Baptism
Christians have always taken literally that baptism now saves us (1 Peter 3:21). The Catechism teaches baptism is necessary for salvation for those who have heard the gospel and could ask for it (CCC 1257). The necessity is normative, not absolute: baptism of blood and baptism of desire can save.
What the Early Church Believed: Trinitarian Baptism
A valid baptism requires the right intention, water, and the form "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). Jehovah's Witnesses sometimes use no formula, and "Jesus Only" Pentecostals baptize "in the name of Jesus," so their baptisms are invalid. The Fathers consistently required the Trinitarian form.