Over the past few weeks I have been discussing the Bible with my Protestant friend. He has come to the conclusion that Catholics need witnessed to. After reading his latest blogs I have determined that he has a faulty understanding of Catholic Theology. He seems to have a superficial view on Biblical terminology.
The biggest problem that my friend has is the Catholic doctrines on salvation. As I can only use the bible in the Challenge that he has made, I have decided to use my blog to post my thoughts using my full resources.
One thing that protestants have a hard time understanding is the language used by Catholics.
When the Bible speaks about salvation it speaks about four different types of Salvation. They are temporal, eternal, middle and general.
Temporal salvation would be when we are saved from wars, disease, famine and other physical suffering. This is salvation from things other than eternal damnation.
Eternal Salvation is the salvation that Jesus brought to mankind by his atonement however the temporal effects of sin are still present. Temporal salvation is not achieved yet as we still have wars, sickness, dying and the like.
Middle salvation comes from God using an agent to bring eternal salvation to someone else. Missionaries would be an example of this.
General Salvation would be when Salvation refers to more than one of three other types of salvation. When we unite our suffings to Christs is an example of General Salvation. As humans we only can participate in temporal and/or middle salvation, whereas Christ gives eternal salvation.
