Karlo Broussard is a Catholic theologian. *Some* of their ideas are more Biblical than what’s mainstream among Protestants.

NOTE/DISCLAIMER: I am NOT promoting Catholicism by posting this. I strongly reject praying to Mary and people who may be in heaven who can’t hear us to know how to pray for us. Adoring Mary and praying repetitive prayers to her in the Rosary borders on blasphemy. Also, Mary was not born sinless, like Jesus. This one really bothers me: the Catholic church (CC) teaches that Christians should NOT be like the Bereans, who Paul considered “more noble” because they eagerly received what Paul said and studied the Bible daily to make sure what Paul told them was true. The CC teaches that they are the true church, and their leaders and tradition decides what is true and not true. They believe their tradition and what the Pope says can trump what the Bible says. I completely reject that, and that there even is a pope. And Peter was NOT the first pope. James was the leader in Jerusalem, and was an apostle, not a pope. The CC didn’t start until centuries later. Priests (mediators) and calling them “Father” is also not Biblical. In the new covenant, Jesus is our only Priest. They teach that purgatory is a fact that people can depend on, instead of making sure we’re right with God and people now so we’ll have clear consciences, “no condemnation” before God when we die; though, some Catholic teachers do emphasize being right with God and people now so we’ll have saving grace when we die, which I applaud! Another dangerous doctrine: like the Lutherans, they believe infant baptism saves them, instead of “believe and be baptized,” which infants cannot do, but Catholics believe they can forfeit their salvation, unlike Lutherans, who are taught that their infant baptism seals their salvation, which is responsible for sending billions to hell, as is the Protestant teaching of “once saved, always saved” because we said the born-again prayer. We must actually abide in Christ to be “in Christ.” I am encouraged in seeing more and more Catholics being closer to what the New Testament actually says about who goes to heaven, especially my friend, David Anders, who hosts a show on EWTN called “Called to Communion.” However, I’m deeply disheartened by serious false teaching still taught and practiced by the Catholic church.

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This is what I’ve often said regarding Paul’s “what can separate us” passage at the end of Romans 8:

The “who shall separate us” promise in Romans 8:35 and “no condemnation” statement in verse 1 only applies to those who actually are “in Christ” based upon what Paul says in three different ways in verses 1-17:

Verse 1b: “who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”

Verse 4b: “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

Verse 13: “For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

Verse 14: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.”

Verse 17b: “joint-heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.”

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I say salvation is guaranteed for those who have “no condemnation” because we actually abide in Christ, not walking to the flesh but according to the Spirit. As long as we stay in this condition, nothing can take our salvation away from us, Paul’s promise near the end of Romans 8.

Broussard’s emphasizes here is that Paul’s list of things that can’t take our salvation away in Romans 8:38-39 are all external. Our own willful and unrepentant sin is not in this list. We can forfeit our salvation if we don’t walk in Love.

Karlo Broussard:

…one of the passages from Saint Paul, that some Protestants appeal to, to justify the belief of eternal security, that once you’re saved, there’s nothing that we can do to lose that salvation, to lose being in that right relationship with God, is Romans chapter 8, verses 38 through 39. So Paul writes,

“For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So Norman Geisler, he argues this passage needs little comment, merely contemplation. It’s an essay he wrote for a book, Four Views on Eternal Security. And he thinks the fact that we should contemplate is there is literally nothing in all creation that can separate a believer from Christ, he says. So notice Paul’s listing all of these things, death, life, angels, principalities, and he says at the end, “nor anything else in all creation.” …

So everything on the list here are things that refer to things external to and beyond the control of the believer, right? Now, just a few verses earlier in verse 35, Paul gives a similar list of things external to and beyond the control of a believer. He writes, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” So everything in this category of things that cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, contain or involve things that are external to and beyond the control of the believer. Now, a believer’s sins do not belong within this category, because a believer’s sin is internal, not external, because it’s coming from the will of the individual. Nor is a believer’s sin beyond his control, because if it were beyond his control, it wouldn’t be voluntary, it wouldn’t be sin, right? …

So the category of things that cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus are things external to and beyond the control of the believer. Sin doesn’t fit in that category. So therefore, sin is not among these things that cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. To state it differently, to state it positively, sin, therefore, is a type of thing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. …

Paul is saying, listen, all these things can’t separate us from the love of God, but that doesn’t mean I can’t. All these things external to the believer can’t separate us from the love of God, but that doesn’t mean I can’t separate myself from the love of God. …

Or perhaps, maybe a more focused question would be, what does Paul say about sin elsewhere relative to this question of our salvation and whether or not we can lose it? [I thoroughly address this in Who-Goes-To-Heaven Scriptures — Narrow is the Way | Who are the Children of God? — “There is therefore now *no condemnation* to those who are IN CHRIST Jesus, who don’t WALK according to the flesh, but ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT”]

Well, there’s a teaching of Jesus that we find in John 15:9 through 10…. Well, here’s what he says, “As the father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father’s commandments and abide in his love.” So notice, Christ makes keeping his commandments a condition for abiding in his love. …

But we also have this connection between sin and the love of God in the writing of Saint John in his First Epistle, chapter 5 verse 16, he writes, “So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love. And he who abides in love, abides in God, and God abides in him.” All right? Now, just a few verses later in verses 20 through 21, John identifies at least one sin we can commit that would forfeit this abiding in God’s love, namely hatred of brother. So here’s what he writes, “If anyone says, ‘I love God’…” Remember, he’s just talking about abiding in God’s love. Now he’s going to say, “If anyone says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, he’s a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And this command that we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.”

So notice, in John’s mind, we need to abide in love, but one condition, at least one condition for abiding them in that love, is not hating our brother. To state it positively, a condition for abiding in that love is loving our brother. And so in John’s mind, he sees there is at least one sin that could forfeit this abiding in God’s love, namely the hatred of our fellow brothers. And this is a letter written to Christians who are already saved. Why would John be giving them this exhortation if he thought hatred of brother could not separate us from the love of God? …

So what we’re seeing is that Geisler’s interpretation of Romans 8:38 through 39 does not fit with the whole of the New Testament revelation concerning salvation, our salvation, and sin.

[WARNING] At 27:20, Broussard says we can’t have absolute assurance that we’re going to heaven, “unless God revealed it to me,” which I believe we have when we abide in Christ having “no condemnation,” because we walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” We have peace in our hearts when we’re in this condition; though, we can easily lose this peace and assurance if we refuse to walk according to the Spirit, and walk according to the flesh again, like a dog going back to his vomit, Peter says.

Here in the video is Broussard’s Catholic point of view, believing that we can’t know for sure, relying on purgatory if a person doesn’t know for sure, a very dangerous doctrine. He’s author of Purgatory Is For Real : Good News About the Afterlife for Those Who Aren’t Perfect Yet.

…we can have some assurance. It’s just not the type of assurance that folks like Norman Geisler and others think, an assurance that would involve an absolute certainty, an infallible assurance, like, “Without doubt of error, I know heaven is mine.” Whereas, the Catholic view is, no, we can have a moral certainty. Even St. Thomas Aquinas would say, “There’s certain signs that I am in grace.” Right? The fact that I am able to do a good is a reasonable sign that I am in grace. The fact that I can love God and participate in worship of God is a sign that I am in a state of grace, because God’s giving me those graces. But we can never have this absolute certainty that heaven is mine, because that would require access into the divine mind and the divine plan of who is numbered among the elect, who God has decreed to give the grace of final perseverance. Only God knows that.

Now, I could know if he revealed it to me, but without that sort of private revelation, we could never have that sort of absolute certainty….

Is Salvation Guaranteed? | Karlo Broussard | Catholic Answers Focus

Jun 2, 2021