Atlanta, GA

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The following report comes to us from team leader Clarence in Atlanta, GA:

I met a young man named Ted and his friends at a local store and struck up a conversation. Ted is a Reformed Baptist. (Reformed means to follow John Calvin like Presbyterians.) He said he’s looked into other religions and generally knows about Catholics.

I said that I believe that he, as a Baptist, would be concerned only with initial salvation. Ted said, “sure.” I said, “so now I am going to talk about initial salvation.” A very polite young man, he said, “Yes, sir.” I said “so it is faith in Christ at Baptism, which is when initial regeneration occurs according to scripture and tradition. And, I can prove that to you. It is not ‘faith alone’, so it is faith in Christ at Baptism and not by works of the Mosaic law or any other law. So now you heard me say, as a Catholic, initial salvation is not by works at all. Now once we are born again having come into Christ, we now have to love God and our neighbor, as the Commandments require. This life in Christ means that we need to have good moral behavior expressed in good works.” Ted again said “yes, sir.” I said “so this is how it goes. When we are born again through faith in Christ at Baptism, God becomes our Father, we become His children and we are a family. We receive the Holy Spirit; we are born again, regenerated, and we come into a life in Christ.” That hopefully gave Ted and his friends something to think about.

Praised be Jesus Christ!