Are we liking other religions too much?

[TrueLight]

Growing up in a conservative Protestant context, I was told “Satan mixes some truth with his lies to make them more believable.” I no longer believe that Satan has the power to do this.

Edwin

Why do you no longer believe this?

Most heresies are not wholly evil or wholly good. If that were the case, they would be easy to reject.

2 Corinthians 11:

12 And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. 13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

So if Satan masquerades as an angel of light, that would mean some of his attributes can appear to be good, if he chooses to masquerade that way. However, at some point there will be something inconsistent to those who are able to discern.

I believe Protestants are Christians, but Muslims are different. Muslims have a different religion. I don’t see any room for ecumenism except in the sense of the respect, we should have for all people.

But also, I believe if the Church does not see anything wrong with Protestantism itself, then there is no reason to evangelize.

It’s more like a “Do you and I’ll do me” situation.

 

[ProVobis]

But also, I believe if the Church does not see anything wrong with Protestantism itself, then there is no reason to evangelize.

I wouldn’t say the Church doesn’t see anything wrong with Protestantism (read, heresy and different interpretations of the Bible). They’re saying Protestants, whatever their reasons for being non-Catholic, are “brothers” to us.

 

[TrueLight]

I wouldn’t say the Church doesn’t see anything wrong with Protestantism (read, heresy and different interpretations of the Bible). They’re saying Protestants, whatever their reasons for being non-Catholic, are “brothers” to us.

Absolutely!

 

[t68ware]

Why is liking the point?

The point is truth.

We should recognize truth and reject error, wherever we find it.

The fundamental point at issue is whether you reject other religions (and other Christian churches) altogether because they contain some error.

Growing up in a conservative Protestant context, I was told “Satan mixes some truth with his lies to make them more believable.” I no longer believe that Satan has the power to do this.

Here’s the main reason you shouldn’t accept this point of view (rejecting “partial truth” as no better than error):

Do you think that the Protestantism in which you grew up was wholly evil? Do you think that the truth and goodness found there was just a Satanic deception?

If you don’t, then you are obliged by the Golden Rule to be similarly generous toward the truth and goodness which is apparently to be found in traditions to which you do not have the same personal attachment.

Edwin

Truth and error cannot exist together and still have it called Truth. Many world religions have some truth in them but they also have what we Christians would call lies, so while some truth may be in them, they are not the Truth, so Islam, for example, believes in the Virgin Birth, yet denies Christ as the Son of God. While they speak a truth about Mary, Islam is not True, so I am not obligated to honor a false religion. While I love all and wish to see all come to Christ, which is my obligation under Scripture, I do not have to honor or respect religions which Christianity deems false. Most Protestants are baptised in the name of the Triune God, so they are Christians, as taught by Pope himself, so using Protestants as an example is faulty.

 

[Contarini]

I agree with your original claim, “it is unsettling.”

The god of Islam is not the same God of the Catholic Church. That one is for sure.

%between%

Where do you find your opinion in Catholic Tradition? The idea that Muslims worship a different god seems mostly a modern Protestant idea, although some Byzantine Christians held this view for a while based on a mistranslation of the Qur’an. Catholics have never believed that people who don’t worship the Trinity thereby worship a different god. You have to throw out early Christian apologetics and the basic presuppositions of the great scholastics in order to hold such a view. Aquinas’s 5 ways make no sense whatever if you are right.

Edwin

 

[dharmasister]

I strictly believe that there is Hell and the Hell is populated with human beings, and among the damned ones there are Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews, Hindi, Buddhists, Taoist, Shintoist and Atheists and any kind of people.

I also believe that among the saved ones there are Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews, Hindi, Buddhists, Taoist, Shintoist and Atheists and any kind of people.

I do not believe that simply being Catholic is assurance for the salvation or e.g. being Muslim is assurance for the damnation. Catholics get more resource, they are subject to higher requirements also.

The judgement belongs to God, consequently we shall love Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews, Hindi, Buddhists, Taoist, Shintoist and Atheists alike. We shall condemn sinful acts not religions / beliefs into which people born.

Everything you said I personally feel is correct, especially the last paragraph and last line!!!

 

[Contarini]

Why do you no longer believe this?

Primarily, because it denies that all good comes from God. Satan may pervert good, but the good still comes from God and only the perversions from Satan.

Also, based on personal experience. For one thing, I know that much of what I was taught as a child was unorthodox, and yet I don’t reject my upbringing wholesale.

So if Satan masquerades as an angel of light, that would mean some of his attributes can appear to be good, if he chooses to masquerade that way.

We aren’t talking about what appears to be good, but what is good. Quite different.

I believe Protestants are Christians, but Muslims are different. Muslims have a different religion. I don’t see any room for ecumenism except in the sense of the respect, we should have for all people.

First of all, “ecumenism” most properly refers to relations among Christians. You are using the word in a confusing way.

In the second place, your sharp distinction between relations among Christians (i.e., ecumenism in the sense most theologians would use it) and interfaith relations makes sense in an evangelical Protestant context but not really in a Catholic one. As a Catholic,aren’t you bound to believe that anyone who does not have the Church for their mother cannot have God for their father? Aren’t you completely disregarding “extra ecclesiam nulla salus”? (Yes, I know that this is understood in a nuanced way by Catholics. That’s my point–attitudes to non-Christians are similarly nuanced.)

If an unorthodox version of Christianity can still have meaningful good in it, then surely so can a non-Christian religion. Indeed, by the OP’s logic (with which you seem to agree) Protestantism would be arguably worse than Islam, just as Islam would be worse than Buddhism. If Satan likes to create mixtures of truth with lies, and if such mixtures should be regarded as fundamentally evil and Satanic, then it would follow that Protestantism was (in the words if the 19th-century Oxford Movement convert F. W. Faber) “the devil’s masterpiece.”

Actually no–Eastern Orthodoxy would be the devil’s masterpiece. I hope you can see from this last example how blasphemous this entire way of thinking is.

Edwin

 

[TrueLight]

Originally Posted by laszlo View Post
I strictly believe that there is Hell and the Hell is populated with human beings, and among the damned ones there are Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews, Hindi, Buddhists, Taoist, Shintoist and Atheists and any kind of people.

I also believe that among the saved ones there are Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews, Hindi, Buddhists, Taoist, Shintoist and Atheists and any kind of people.

I do not believe that simply being Catholic is assurance for the salvation or e.g. being Muslim is assurance for the damnation. Catholics get more resource, they are subject to higher requirements also.

The judgement belongs to God, consequently we shall love Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews, Hindi, Buddhists, Taoist, Shintoist and Atheists alike. We shall condemn sinful acts not religions / beliefs into which people born.

This basically says to me that as long as you have a good heart, you will be in heaven.

This is basically what new-age religions believe.

Of course I don’t pretend to know who God is going to save or not save. But I should reasonably be assured that the majority of people in heaven will be Christians.

If not, then leave the Hindu alone, leave the Buddhist alone. Let’s stop supporting missionaries with our money. Catholic Answers should fire its apologists. It is not necessary.

We’re all cool.

In fact, if you become a Catholic, more will be required of you, so you are more likely to risk going to hell.

Everyone should stay in their new-agey, kumbaya church. You’re less likely to burn.