When we read God's promise in 1 John 5:13, we understand that the Bible clearly says, ". . . that ye may KNOW you have eternal life."

When a Catholic apologist reads the same verse, to him it says, that ye MAY know you have eternal life. When you change the emphasis, it is implied that you may not know.

Whenever we run across a scripture that could be taken in different ways, we only have to look at the context. Notice how God starts in 1 John 5:11, This is the record. God is not saying this may be true. He is giving the record, and God's record is true. The Greek word means something that is given in evidence. While man's evidence may not be truthful, we know that God cannot lie. His record is true. That verse goes on to say that God hath given to us eternal life, and we have His assuring statement, This life is in His Son.

That places the emphasis again on Jesus Christ, and His death for us. It reminds me of Romans 6:23, which tells us that the wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life.

A wage is what you get in return for your work, but you do not have to pay for a gift, and God has given us an eternal life resident in the Person of His Son. The we are told that he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life.

The climax comes in verse 13, where John says he is writing to those who believe in the name of the Son of God. He is not writing to those who are working, he is not writing to those who partake of sacraments, nor to those who only agree in their heads about Christ - he is writing to those who believe in, who trust in Jesus Christ. He means if we trust in Christ, we may KNOW we have eternal life.

It will also be good for us to see what some of the theological thinkers of the Catholic Church have said about this. They are part of the living teaching authority of the Church, and we can find out a lot by just reading what they have said. That will give us a background as to why the average Catholic has no assurance, for they tend to believe the things their priests and leaders say.

In the Pamphlet, What Extreme Unction Does for the Sick by E.F. Miller, who is a Redemptorist priest, it says, "I am not so proud as to believe that the legs of my soul are stout enough merely through the training I have given them to carry me over the last peaks that stand between me and eternity. I may be scared out of my wits by the prospect of standing all alone (I'm sure there won't be anyone to lean upon or hide behind) before his royal majesty the King of Heaven. His eyes will search out every corner of my soul, looking for the cobwebs of sin that I may not have been sufficiently careful to pull down."

He is saying that to have assurance of salvation would be proud, and it would be - IF we were relying on our works or merits to get us into Heaven. But since we realize the impossibility of our earning Heaven, and put our full trust in Jesus Christ alone, it certainly is not pride in our ability.

The writer talks about the training he has given what he calls "the legs of his soul," which is certainly an indication that he believes that he has greatly contributed to the possibility of his salvation.

Then he says that he'll scared out of his wits by the prospect of standing all alone before God, because there won't be anyone to lean upon or hide behind.

That is sad. To think of a man who has given his life for what he thinks is God's religion and doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ. Augustus Toplady wrote a hymn about Christ as the Rock of Ages. He said of Christ, let me hide myself in Thee. Isn't it wonderful to know there will be someone there with us, who constantly pleads for us as our Advocate.

The only One Who could rightfully condemn us has become our defense lawyer, and we will stand before God clothed in His Righteousness. But this priest then goes on to speak of the cobwebs of sin that he may not have been sufficiently careful to pull down.

Again he is relying on that which he has done. I am glad that we are relying on what Jesus Christ has finished for us; the Bible says in Hebrews 1:3 that He has by Himself purged our sins. When Jesus Christ does the soul-cleaning, there are certainly no cobwebs that are still there.

Mr. Miller was just a priest. We have a quotations from someone higher up in the Catholic hierarchy. There was a very complimentary article in a major Philadelphia newspaper that gave a quotation from this eminent Polish Cardinal. They said, "He doesn't have to worry about food, clothing, or shelter." Then they asked the Cardinal, " What are your worries?" His reply, "My salvation, getting to Heaven'

Several years ago Dr. Opperman, a leader in the Christian and Missionary Alliance was given an unusual opportunity for a private audience with pope Paul VI. During the conversation, Dr. Opperman asked the pope if he died tonight, would he be sure of going to Heaven. The pope sidestepped the question, but just as the audience finished, Dr. Opperman said, "You don't have to answer this, but I would like to know - if you died tonight, would you be sure of going to Heaven?"

The pope's replied, "Dr. Opperman, if I died tonight, I would not be sure of going straight to Heaven - - but, I would be sure of having 500 million Catholics praying for me.

If that is the only hope the pope has, it is no wonder that our Catholic friends feel that they cannot be sure. If they wanted to be sure. They could get a prayer card issued by Mother of the Savior Seminary, Blackwood, NJ. It lists the things necessary for salvation:

1. Belief in God. 2. Hope in God, 3. Love God, 4. Being sorry for offending God 5. Adoring God, 6. Aspiring after God, 7. Thanking God, 8. Calling upon God, 9. Being led, restrained, comforted and defended by God; 10. Consecrating all thoughts, words, actions and sufferings to God.; 11. Referring all actions to God's Glory; 12. Suffering whatever God appoints; 13. Desiring God's will; 14. Having understanding enlightened, will inflamed, body purified and soul sanctified; 15. Expiating offenses, overcoming temptations, subduing passions, acquiring virtues; 16. Loving God's goodness, hating my faults, loving my neighbor, having contempt for the world.; 17. Being submissive to superiors, courteous to inferiors, faithful to friends and charitable to enemies; 18. Overcoming sensuality, avarice, anger and tepidity; 19. Being prudent, courageous, patient and humble 20. Being attentive at prayer; temperate at meals; diligent in employment; constant in resolutions; 21. Having a pure conscience, being modest, letting conversation be edifying and deportment regular; 22. Laboring to overcome nature, working with God's Grace, keeping His commandments and working out my salvation; 23. Seeing the nothingness of this world, the greatness of heaven, the shortness of time and the length of eternity; 24. Preparing for death, fearing God's judgments, thereby to escape hell and in the end obtain salvation.

It is a good thing the Apostle Paul did not read that prayer card. When the Philippian jailor asked him, "What must I do to be saved?" he said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."

Vatican II made many changes in the outward form of Catholicism. In The Handbook For Today's Catholic, written in 1978, it says, "Your Baptism binds you to God forever. The bond is unbreakable...You are marked as one of God's own...Confirmation is the sacrament by which those born anew in Baptism receive the seal of the Holy Spirit...As Saint Paul wrote to the Christians of Ephesus, `In him you also...were sealed with the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance...'

While that paragraph sounds good, let's go to the next paragraph where is says "When a person turns aside or away from, God's love, the harm is to the sinner. Venial sin strains one's relationship with God. Mortal Sin undoes the relationship.

That relationship that was guaranteed for eternity has now been ruptured. Is there any hope of continuing a work of redemption?

We read on page 36 of the same pamphlet, "As often as the Sacrifice of the Cross is celebrated on an altar, the work of our redemption is carried on." That is talking about the Mass.   But what determines if we will get to Heaven? Page 37 says, "If your basic love-choice at the moment of death was the absolute Good whom we call God, God remains your eternal possession. This eternal possession is called heaven. If your ultimate love-choice at the moment of death was anything less than God, you experience the radical emptiness of not possessing the absolute Good. This eternal loss is called hell. If you die in the love of God but possess any `stains of sin,' such stains are cleansed away in a purifying process called purgatory."

So all that talk about a guarantee was empty - it still depends on you.

it is no wonder many Catholics fear death. On his 80th birthday, the late Pope Paul VI said, "Death holds motives for apprehensive concern by reason of the imminent judgment of God."

And yet the Apostle Paul said, For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

A recent study by the Knights of Columbus has the following: "To the question, `Are you redeemed?' we may all answer `Yes.' To the question, `Are you saved?' there is no answer. Salvation in this sense means being assured of a place in Heaven. Man has always wanted to be sure of that; but neither faith, nor `conversion', nor anything in the ordinary course of events can give him that answer. Only after being judged by God will he know whether he has been found worthy of Heaven."

During a January 6, 1991 debate between Priest Mitchell Packwa and James White, when asked if a Roman Catholic could know positively that he was going to Heaven, Packwa's reply was "only if he had a direct divine revelation." James White held up his Bible and said, "We do have a direct divine revelation."

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