I decided to take a bit of a break and think about what you are saying. Here is what I take from your posts about salvation:

You believe that salvation is through Faith and Works but you believe that the Works are, for lack of a better term, a byproduct of Faith. In other words, if someone does not have true faith, they will not perform good works whereas a person with true Faith will perform good Works automatically as a result of that Faith.

The Catholic Mass is known by a number of different names. It is called the Mass, the Bloodless Sacrifice and Breaking Bread among others.

I agree that the Apostolic Church did as Jesus instructed them to. Jesus, in giving thanks, offered the bread up to His Father thereby making it a sacrifice - a bloodless sacrifice. He also told them that the bread was His Body and the wine was His Blood. That is not Christ-dishonoring. It is honoring Him and the Sacrifice He made on Calvary. The Catholic Church is not suggesting in any way that His Sacrifice on Calvary is deficient we are just doing what He instructed us to do.

The Catholic Church teaches that salvation is by Faith and Works. She does not teach what the origin of those Works is. Can you agree that you need both Faith and Works in accordance with Sacred Scripture?

opened eyes,

Except for the negative remarks you made against the Catholic Church and the statement you made that all sacrifices are done away with, I agree with you. I honestly don't understand why you feel that this would be foreign to me. I agree completely with the paragraph starting with "Believers are referred to..." and I personally don't know a single Catholic who would find that foreign.

xenos wrote:
This is justification, sanctification and salvation by works, but, This is the exclusion of Christ and the Holy Spirit.

xenos wrote:
NB James states, "a body without a spirit is dead" as an analogy. But faith and works do not imply that the life of the faith is works, - but that true faith produces works acceptable to God, who provides faith in the first place.

xenos wrote:
Many try works and intellectual assent to the ideas of religious doctrines and dogmas, but this is what we find in the Laodicean church and Matt 7:21ff.

xenos wrote:
These are works empty of real faith. These are what we perceive in the acceptance of relics, icons and other man made rituals.
This is not what true faith teaches.

If I read the quote you gave of Matthew Henry correctly, he is basically saying that if you have faith then all of your works will be good and if you don't have faith, you can still do good works but they will be for naught. I agree with the second part of that but not the first. Again, I refer you to James 2:26, "For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.". Basically, James is saying that even if you have faith, you can refrain from doing good works. The two are at odds.

I side with James on this. Even if I have faith in God, I still have the free will to do as I please. I can do good or evil. No, I don't know *why* someone who has faith in God would do evil, but it is possible. Henry seems to be saying the opposite: if you have faith in God, it is not possible for you to do evil.

Hi Wayne,

Tradition and Sacred Scripture are both to be accepted and venerated as the quote says. HOWEVER, Sacred Scripture will ALWAYS trump Tradition. In other words, if a Tradition can be found that violates Sacred Scripture, Sacred Scripture will always win.

We seem to be splitting hairs here, John. The Catholic Church teaches that salvation is by Faith and Works. You just said that you are in accordance with James 2 because your renewed heart allows you to do good works. So, you have Faith and Works, right?

John UK wrote:
Thus, I do not work for my salvation. I simply do what is on my heart.

What about the sacrifices we are to make? Jesus was very specific in His instructions at the Last Supper.

I Have to question your interpretation of Jesus as the "table of showbread". Yes, Jesus is the Bread of Life, but He is not a table.

Opened Eyes wrote:
Bert
You are a clever man but not a Christian man-you know perfectly well what your church teaches in the Coucil of Trent, John Uk is damned just like every other Bible Beliver according to your church dogma
Check it out here but see what the Bible actually says.
[URL=http://www.carm.org/religious-movements/roman-catholicism/council-trent-canons-justification]]]Are we really damned?[/URL]
Where are you going with all your anti-christian unbiblical deceiving dogma?
[URL=http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=423081138262]]]Put away your...[/URL]

John UK wrote:
You can't see any difference?
I only mentioned the work of Jesus!

John UK wrote:
.... Delete a bunch of nonsense ....

When I say I am "believing in Christ for my salvation" I am saying that Jesus, as the Son of God, has lived FOR me (thus able to justify, declare me righteous, by his imputed righteousness), died FOR me (for my sins, bearing God's wrath against me), risen FOR me, thus conquering death on my behalf, ascended into heaven and is currently interceding FOR me, and is coming again FOR me, that I might be with him forever.
The faith which brought all this to me, was a gift from God, which he gives to all his elect.

I'm running out of ways to answer your questions, Wayne. I have corrected your claim that the Catholic Church holds Tradition, etc equal to Sacred Scripture many times yet you persist in your error. Pardon me for saying but I sometimes wonder if you are interested in the Truth. There is an old addage "My mind is made up. Don't confuse me with the facts.". I sincerely pray that you are not in that mindset, Wayne. Remember that when you open your mind, you may learn that some things are not they way you thought they were or want them to be. God *always* answers our prayers but not always in the way we want them answered.

I, like all Catholics, trust in Jesus for my salvation.

opened eyes,

pilgrimmum wrote:
Well the 'Harlot Daughters' are Christian Churches acknowledging the power and Authority of the Roman Church by following her change from Gods Sabbath day to the Popes Holy Day Sunday. Men keep this day(Sunday) holy by mens tradition and not by the Word of God. Does the pope have the right to change Gods Commandments or does the rest of the Protestant Church have a scriptural basis for keeping it? They, the Protestant Churches are inconsistent when it comes to this. It cannot be found in scripture and yet they continue to deceive themselves because they (pastors and members of churches)have to give up their coveted positions in the Churches and their Christian friends and do not want to die to self, take up their cross and follow Jesus out of the city walls to Calvary.