Salvatore was a neighbor of mine who lived across the street from me. I never knew him all that well however, because like most Italian migrants, he and his wife were hard working people. They seemed to work long hours, including some weekends. There was also a hindrance in communication between us, with me not knowing how to speak the Italian language and he not being all that confident with the English language.
Another reason for not knowing Salvatore very well was that not only did he have a front entrance to his home, but also a back entrance. It was the back entrance he and his wife used the most, being able to drive in from the street which they were not able to do at the front. So the only communication between us was the odd wave of the hand and a “hello.” One day I saw him out the front of his home trimming a grapevine. He told me he had now retired from work and that he and his wife had recently come home from a holiday in Italy.
I was glad for this time to talk, endeavoring to build a relationship because in our former home, we had the pleasure of living beside an Italian family for ten years and they taught us such a lot through their culture. One day some months later, Salvatore told me that he had developed cancer of the stomach, but after a swift operation he was given the all-clear by his doctors. On other occasions when we met, he said his life and health were very good, expressing an air of optimism for his future.
The next time I saw Salvatore, all had dramatically changed. He had lost much weight. The cancer had come back. Both of us knew that this meant death for him, so I spoke to him about the realities and promises of Jesus Christ and the fact that He said there is no death (separation from Christ) for all who will entrust themselves to Him. Salvatore nodded. He was a Roman Catholic, so I knew that what I was saying was not foreign to his ears, but I was far from confident that the same was not foreign to his understanding.
In Christian denominationalism, everybody uses the same terminologies. Those terminologies are taken from the Bible. As a Bible-only follower of Christ, I had learned the dangers of accepting such terminologies at face value. As a result, I was/am never concerned with what one hears, but I’m deeply concerned to establish if one understands what one hears. Roman Catholics and Protestants are miles apart in their terminological understanding. Especially is this so when it comes to life after death.
Take the word ‘salvation’ for example. Both groups understand what the word means – “deliverance from the guilt and penalties of sin” – but the differences are many as to how one receives their salvation. Protestants who stand on the Bible alone, using it as their final authority; proclaim that salvation is a gift from God. Upon ‘repentance’ (turning away from sin or self-will, treating God as irrelevant for one’s life, and turning to God) the gift of salvation is immediately given when received by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ alone and His finished work upon the cross.
In other words, a biblical Protestant is assured of his or her gift of eternal life here and now in this world if they are trusting in Jesus Christ’s death as a once-and-for-all-time sacrifice for their sin. Roman Catholicism does not agree. She tells her people that they can have no such assurance of their salvation in this world. Roman Catholicism teaches that qualifying for heaven/eternal life, is a life-long process. A process that begins with the sacrament of baptism through which they become born again or justified and through which they first receive sanctifying grace.
Protestants understand the word ‘grace’ to mean “the unmerited or undeserved love of God to people, revealed in Christ.” Roman Catholicism, on the other hand, teaches that sanctifying grace is necessary in order to be eligible to earn salvation. They teach that receiving the sacraments of penance, holy communion and confirmation are crucial to staying and growing in this state of sanctifying grace. In addition, contributing to their salvation process are a host of extra-biblical teachings and practices.
Some of these teachings and practices include liturgies, indulgences, good works, sufferings, penances, rituals, prayers, mass, holy days of obligation – all of which are said to bolster one in grace in readiness for heaven. Roman Catholicism also teaches that if one dies without sanctifying grace, he or she is condemned to hell for eternity. For Roman Catholics who die in sanctifying grace, each one enters purgatory – a place or a condition of temporal punishment which purges them from venial (not very serious) sins, or who have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions.
Jesus has told us that if we know the truth, it will set us free (unrestrained, to go at pleasure, not a slave, exempt from obligation or liability to man’s religious rules). If Salvatore had any understanding of my sharing Christ’s realities and promises, I believed it to be according to his church’s teachings rather than biblical teaching. Without pulling down his beliefs or his church, I proceeded, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, to explain the biblical meaning of salvation, repentance and grace and how to receive them, just as I have explained it here in this post.
Salvatore saw the truth of the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, whereby He awakens our dormant spirit. (For further insight, see also my post: I was testing your faith, where I explain “born again” and the need for such). He nodded and said, “Spirit to spirit. The Holy Spirit awakens my spirit.” I affirmed the revelation he received, telling him, “The Holy Spirit showed you that, it was not me.” Again he nodded and it was a blessing for me to observe him thinking it through. When it was time to go I thanked Salvatore for his time and he thanked me for mine.
Salvatore died less than three weeks after that meeting. Countless times as a public minister, I was/am challenged by Roman Catholic practitioners, “Who do you think you are!?” What right have you to be attacking my faith!?” Most of them do not want a truthful response to such questions, but rather, they want to go on to label me as one who, “has no love” or “fundamentalist” or “bigoted” or “judgmental” or “intolerant.” The gospel of Jesus Christ has always been the enemy of religion and always will be. Why? Because truth exposes error and because truth is always liberating – no rules!
If that answer is untrue, then I would not have observed those among the fifteen to twenty of Salvatore’s family and friends sitting in his lounge room, crying and wailing, expressing a spirit of helplessness and hopelessness. But that’s exactly what I did observe. It was much more than grief, which is natural. What went on in that home was not natural if one claims to love and have total faith in Jesus Christ as living Lord and Savior – which most of those same people did claim.
I’m used to being labeled for my stand upon God’s written word and on the true Son of God revealed within. I do not bow to labels, I bow to the Trinity of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – once again as revealed from the Scriptures. The Bible is my final authority on any matter I’m called upon to address. I do not ask anybody else to take that stand or to believe what is written within it’s pages, but I am called by God to proclaim and share what is written within. Then it is up to both God and the hearer as to where it’s taken from there.
Salvatore believed that which God revealed to him. He received it deep in his heart by faith, not just in his head and not by striving to earn it through religious practice. The moment his soul left his body in death (separation) he awoke into the presence of Jesus Christ and today, he is more alive than he’s ever been. That is why the gospel is called the good news. “For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He (Christ) also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Hebrews 2:14-15.