Are YOU Saved? Maybe Not...

 This title, "Are you saved?" is really a pretty big question. You hear it often, nowadays, particularly among Christians in the latter, "New Age" and fundamentalist sects of Protestantism.  There is an essential assumption here that most everyone will be saved, as long as they go to church, "study" a Bible, and wave their hands around, exclaiming their belief in Jesus. After that, it is thought to be smooth sailing.
Once Saved Always Saved, some will say.
But is that the case? Is that what we were taught by Christ and His apostles?
Is that what we should be thinking?
In this article, which I've included it in its entirety, I add my own comments and address that situation .... and in fact, we learn that it may not be as simple as all that.

Will all be saved?


Avery Cardinal Dulles

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

    Quite apart from what theologians teach, and have taught since the beginning, popular Christian devotion has become falsely sweet. This is due primarily to the fact that most modern Chrisitans have difficulty grasping the rationale for an eternal punishment (hell). Indeed, they seem to find it universally distasteful and tend to sidestep it.
    Many Christians take it almost for granted that everyone, or practically everyone, must be saved. "Jesus is love," they like to say, forgetting that justice was the other side of his preaching.
    Funeral services have turned into a tribute to the salvation of the deceased (and us), without any reference to sin, our choices, and punishment, aka, Justice.
    Flatly put, more education is needed to teach people that they ought to fear God's judgements, because, as Jesus taught, He can punish soul and body together in hell (cf. Matthew 10:28).

Likewise, the search for numbers in the demography of hell consumes us. We wonder who is there, who will be there, who is going, etc.
But that is futile, and God in His wisdom has seen fit not to disclose any statistics. 
    Paul, without denying the likelihood that some sinners will die without sufficient repentance, teaches that the grace of Christ is more powerful than sin: “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20).
    When we see passages such as these, we naturally jump to the hope - and the modernist idea - that very many, if not all, will be saved.
    However, several sayings of Jesus in the Gospels give the impression that the majority actually ARE lost.

It is probably good that God has left us without exact information, in fact.
    If we knew that the majority would be damned, we would be tempted to despair.
    If we knew that all, or nearly all, are saved, we might become presumptuous.
    If we knew that some fixed percentage, say 50%, would be saved, we would be caught in an unholy rivalry.
We would rejoice in signs that OTHERS were among the lost, since our own chances of election would thereby be increased. Such a competitive spirit would hardly be compatible with the gospel.

So.... whats the answer? Well, we are forbidden to seek our own salvation in a selfish and egotistical way. We are keepers of our brothers and sisters. The more we work for their salvation, the more of God’s favor we can expect for ourselves. 

Those of us who believe and make use of the means that God has provided for the forgiveness of sins and the reform of life have no reason to fear. We can be sure that Christ, who died on the Cross for us, will not fail to give us the grace we need.
    We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him above all things because he IS God, and not as part of some "salvation deal" with Him. And, if we persevere in that love, nothing whatever can separate us from Christ (cf. Romans 8:28-39).

    That really is all the assurance we can have, and it should be enough.
– adited from “The Population of Hell” (First Things, May 2003)

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2024/01/17/will-all-be-saved/

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