You didn’t answer my question Bender:
What in ACIM gave you what was “missing” in your life that the Catholic Church didn’t provide? Quotes from it would be greatly appreciated.
That sounds like a co-out to not answer the question clearly. You’re using “perception” as an excuse to not see the false claims or to excuse them.
I’d trust The Catechism more than ACIM:
397 Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom,
disobeyed God’s command. This is what man’s first sin consisted of. All
subsequent sin would be
disobedience toward God and
lack of trust in his goodness.
398** In that sin man preferred himself to God** and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully “divinized” by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to “be like God”, but “without God, before God, and not in accordance with God”.
I’d urge you read the Catechism again.
God is also Justice, and He is fair, He indeed didn’t condemn man,** man condemned himself**. The fact that there was consequence for their action is just, unless you want to deny that actions have consequence.
I re-read Genesis and I don’t see how you conclude those things. Let’s take a look:
Gen 3:6-7 “
So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.”
They ate together, and both their eyes were opened at the same time.
“God didn’t notice their nakedness”? Hardly, the question is asked to have Adam implicitly confess his true reason for hiding (disobedience for eating the fruit).
Gen 3:10-11.
He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.”
Then he asked, "Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!"
God made matter, matter is GOOD. Jesus Himself had matter (He is fully man and fully divine) and did you forget that in His glorified body
He was still physical and
could eat? How about when He used mud to cure the blind man? All He needed was to say the word but deemed to use matter to make the healing take place. Even the Eucharist, the holiest thing on Earth is matter too, not some mere symbol or purely spiritual thing. Take and eat, right?
Oh and there’s that bit about Jesus rising to Heaven and the teaching that Mary was bodily assumed into Heaven (as well as the implication of others like Elysha).
We were NOT made pure spirit, we’re not angels and never will be. We are body AND soul, and while our current bodies will die, in the resurrection they will be glorified and will no longer know death. We’ll continue to be as God ORIGINALLY made us, body and soul.
You seem to imply that our true nature is spirit only. It’s true that the soul cannot be destroyed, but it can certainly suffer deeper than any cut can ever achieve.
I do grant that through God we can find peace but we can and WILL be hurt regardless. Even Jesus Himself suffered. Remember it’s when we join that suffering to His and give it all to Him that we can find our peace because He’s can bring great good from it. In sharing our suffering with Him, we show our love.
Remember His words:
Matthew 10:34
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.”
10:38
“
and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.”
Taking up our cross means enduring the hardships we face with faith in Him. Suffering is inevitable, but with Him we can persevere.
