The true problem I have with Catholicism is Baptist and the Blood of Christ. I was brought up baptism. Of course, we believe that once you come to faith in Christ, his blood cleanses you. Know I know the RCC doesn’t teach faith alone; merely faith and works. They believe in baptism God cleanses you; WITHOUT JESUS’ BLOOD. So here is the question, when do Catholics believe you are cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Is it in the Eucharist? If so, why would you need to go to Confession before getting Jesus’ body and BLOOD. God bless.
Hail Mary, full of grace.
Maybe this will help to understand the Catholic teaching. We know of Apostle John in his first Epistle talks of our salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ.1 John 1:7-10 But if we walk in the light, as he also is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
We are saved when we are Baptized but may loose that salvation if we turn away from God later. That is why we have the sacrament of Penance. From the
Catechism of the Catholic Church:
981 After his Resurrection, Christ sent his apostles "so that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations."526 The apostles and their successors carry out this “ministry of reconciliation,” not only by announcing to men God’s forgiveness merited for us by Christ, and calling them to conversion and faith; but also by communicating to them the forgiveness of sins in Baptism, and reconciling them with God and with the Church through the power of the keys, received from Christ:527
[The Church] has received the keys of the Kingdom of heaven so that, in her, sins may be forgiven through Christ’s blood and the Holy Spirit’s action. In this Church, the soul dead through sin comes back to life in order to live with Christ, whose grace has saved us.528
** IN BRIEF **
984 The Creed links “the forgiveness of sins” with its profession of faith in the Holy Spirit, for the risen Christ entrusted to the apostles the power to forgive sins when he gave them the Holy Spirit.
985 Baptism is the first and chief sacrament of the forgiveness of sins: it unites us to Christ, who died and rose, and gives us the Holy Spirit.
986 By Christ’s will, the Church possesses the power to forgive the sins of the baptized and exercises it through bishops and priests normally in the sacrament of Penance.
987 “In the forgiveness of sins, both priests and sacraments are instruments which our Lord Jesus Christ, the only author and liberal giver of salvation, wills to use in order to efface our sins and give us the grace of justification” (Roman Catechism, I, 11, 6).
