Danger of All Faiths are the Same

[hlgomez]

I’ve been discussing with my Protestant friend about the Church. Althoug he is a protestant, he doen’t seem to hold the doctrine of Sola Scriptura. He seems to entertain that you can find God in different world religions. And the worst thing is, he doesn’t believe that there is one true, undefiled, perfect Church. His argument holds that that’s because we are all sinners.

Pio

 

[Exporter]

His reasoning is faulty. He says there can’t be one true church Because we are all sinners. Sure we are all sinners, not only the Bible but Catholic tradition says all of us humans are sinners. But 1st John 1:9 says all of us can be forgiven.

Pardon me but I think the fact that all are sinners has NOTHING to do with the One True Church. It was NOT us who started or maintained the Church. Jesus Christ started the Church and he said the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church.

Who will he believe, Jesus Christ or himself?

 

[buffalo]

Here is a simple question for him.

Ask him to name all the world religions and their founders. He will quickly find they are all men, except one.

 

[BulldogCath]

The dangers of Ecumenism and the “World Religious Council” a/k/a the “One World Religion” coming to a church near you. Something to think about the next time you see Cardinal Kasper

hlgomez:

I’ve been discussing with my Protestant friend about the Church. Althoug he is a protestant, he doen’t seem to hold the doctrine of Sola Scriptura. He seems to entertain that you can find God in different world religions. And the worst thing is, he doesn’t believe that there is one true, undefiled, perfect Church. His argument holds that that’s because we are all sinners.

Pio

 

[Tlaloc]

buffalo:

Here is a simple question for him.

Ask him to name all the world religions and their founders. He will quickly find they are all men, except one.

No he’ll find they all claim divine origin. Which one(s) you believe is up to you. You believe Christ was more than a man. Fine. A hindu believes Krishna was a God as well. And so on…

 

[Exporter]

Oh sure. “. A hindu believes Krishna was a God as well. And so on…”

So a hindu believes what he believes. That does not effect Truth. Some Africans believe in Voodoo, that has nothing to do with Christ. Don’t hindus believe in many Gods? If they do it does not change the truth of Christ.

 

[Ahimsa]

Exporter:

Oh sure. “. A hindu believes Krishna was a God as well. And so on…”

So a hindu believes what he believes. That does not effect Truth. Some Africans believe in Voodoo, that has nothing to do with Christ. Don’t hindus believe in many Gods? If they do it does not change the truth of Christ.

Actually, Hindus believe in one God (God as defined as the absolute existence/being/person). However, Hindus also believe that that God may manifest in different forms, ways, manners, names. This doesn’t mean that all “religions” are of God, but it does imply that God is not limited to one or another “religion”.

 

[pacersFan]

hlgomez:

I’ve been discussing with my Protestant friend about the Church. Althoug he is a protestant, he doen’t seem to hold the doctrine of Sola Scriptura. He seems to entertain that you can find God in different world religions. And the worst thing is, he doesn’t believe that there is one true, undefiled, perfect Church. His argument holds that that’s because we are all sinners.

Pio

How does he then reconcile the teaching of Christianity that says Christ is the only way to God with his viewpoint?

 

[buffalo]

Tlaloc:

No he’ll find they all claim divine origin. Which one(s) you believe is up to you. You believe Christ was more than a man. Fine. A hindu believes Krishna was a God as well. And so on…

But only one claiming to be God and the founder. This is a huge difference.

 

[Darrel]

hlgomez:

I’ve been discussing with my Protestant friend about the Church. Althoug he is a protestant, he doen’t seem to hold the doctrine of Sola Scriptura. He seems to entertain that you can find God in different world religions. And the worst thing is, he doesn’t believe that there is one true, undefiled, perfect Church. His argument holds that that’s because we are all sinners.

Pio

Your friend just believes out of convenience that all world religions are valid. The actions i.e. miracles and teachings of Christ stand alone in human history as unique. I don’t think Buda was out raising the dead and walking on water. The teachings of Christ are perfect everything else lacks clarity and foundation. Maybe your friend is upset about the idea that God would send so many people to hell.

His not believing in one true church is perfectly normal for a protestant. To a prot the Catholic Church is just one of many. When I was a protestant I viewed apostolic succession as a self glorifying pack of lies. When people would say hey the Catholic Church was first, I would say "so? Does that make them right?” I am quite grateful that God showed me truth about the CC in the midst of so much confusion in the world. Tell your friend to go to adoration and ask for the truth. If you can convince him of the idea that there is only one truth maybe he will seek it.

-D

 

[Zooey]

Can I say, speaking as a Protestant Christian, that this is not acceptable to take this man’s position? I feel like this: I may disagree with you Catholics on some things,I also disagree with some other Protestant churches, with Eastern Orthodx, but we are Christians.

A whole other ball of wax than believing that everybody in the world is OK spiritually. I mean, if he is rejecting Jesus, how does that make him Christian at all–othet than technically…(like what you might put in a survey…)??

 

[michaelp]

Zooey:

Can I say, speaking as a Protestant Christian, that this is not acceptable to take this man’s position? I feel like this: I may disagree with you Catholics on some things,I also disagree with some other Protestant churches, with Eastern Orthodx, but we are Christians.

A whole other ball of wax than believing that everybody in the world is OK spiritually. I mean, if he is rejecting Jesus, how does that make him Christian at all–othet than technically…(like what you might put in a survey…)??

Your right Zooey. We live in an age now where in issues of morals and metaphysics the law of non-contradiction does not apply, but in all other areas of the mundane it does. This has infiltrated the church. I hear Christians all the time saying Christ is MY way, but that does not necessarily mean that He is the only way. We have to ask the question, does being Christian mean that you must embrace the doctrine of the exclusivity of Christ as an essential doctrine for salvatoin (at least at some point). I believe that it does. Pluralism cannot include religious systems like Christianity which is by nature exclusive to those who trust in Christ alone. If they believe there are other god’s, then they can’t be trusting in Christ alone and don’t really believe or understand what He did. Therefore, they are by definition not believing Christianly.

This does not mean that a Christian cannot have bad doctrine in this area. I know alot of Christians who unwittingly hold to heretical views of the Trinity. They need correction and teaching. I think the same thing can be said for many who unwittingly hold to a false doctrine of exclusivity.

But I think we need to understand that their reasons for believing this are out of compassion for those who have never heard. Therefore, the pragmatic principle that they are following is good and kind. But the results are destructive and self-refuting.

Michael

 

[buffalo]

From Liberalism is a Sin

Protestantism naturally begets toleration of error. Rejecting the principle of authority in religion, it has neither criterion nor definition of faith. On the principle that every individual or sect may interpret the deposit of Revelation according to the dictates of private judgment, it gives birth to endless differences and contradictions. Impelled by the law of its own impotence, through lack of any decisive voice of authority in matters of faith, it is forced to recognize as valid and orthodox any belief that springs from the exercise of private judgment. Therefore does it finally arrive, by force of its own premises, at the conclusion that one creed is as good as another; it then seeks to shelter its inconsistency under the false plea of liberty of conscience. Belief is not imposed by a legitimately and divinely constituted authority, but springs directly and freely from the unrestricted exercise of the individual’s reason or caprice upon the subject matter of Revelation. The individual or sect interprets as it pleases—rejecting or accepting what it chooses. This is popularly called liberty of conscience. Accepting this principle, Infidelity, on the same plea, rejects all Revelation, and Protestantism, which handed over the premise, is powerless to protest against the conclusion; for it is clear that one who, under the plea of rational liberty, has the right to repudiate any part of Revelation that may displease him, cannot logically quarrel with one who, on the same ground, repudiates the whole. If one creed is as good as another, on the plea of rational liberty, on the same plea, no creed is as good as any. Taking the field with this fatal weapon of Rationalism, Infidelity has stormed and taken the very citadel of Protestantism, helpless against the foe of its own making.

 

[hlgomez]

How does he then reconcile the teaching of Christianity that says Christ is the only way to God with his viewpoint?

That’s what confuses me from his POV because I thought that he is a “Bible Alone” believer, knowing that he comes from a Baptist community. He is somehow influenced by the sayings and beliefs of other worldly religions since he is taking up religion classes. He also thinks that you can find “some truth” in them. I agreed BUT with the conviction that the fulness of the truth is NOT found in them. I let him borrowed the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and now he started reading it–saying that what is being taught there “makes sense” to him. I pray that the Holy Spirit will guide him into all truth.

I also started explaining to him about authority. That the only way we can be so sure that we are on the right tract as far as Christianity is concerned is submission to the authority–the Apostles and their LEGITIMATE successors–especially in defining faith and morals.

Help me pray for him, too.

Pio

 

[Zooey]

My guess is that he doesn’t accept the Bible.That is the logical conclusion from what he is telling you.

I also know people like this. They are spending their lives being “politically correct”.

I would be delighted if studying the Catechism could help him. He needs a *lot *of prayer!

 

[Nikazu]

Cool intellect must be answered in kind. Your friend says “all religions have some truth”. Well, fine, they probably do. To say that all religions are equally true is false, however. To think this is to think that all religions were made by man (and thus equally good), or that God is so impersonal that he doesn’t care about your beliefs. Now, if he is that much of a deist, there’s not much you can do for him but pray. God will show him his error in time. If your friend is not, then ask him what his conclusion means for the very foundation of right and wrong. If religions can say contradicting things about the nature of God (and reality) and all still be equally right, then can anything be right at all? Instead of his statement allowing toleration of all religion by imputing them all the same amount of truth, he instead creates intellectual deadlock, by draining the words ‘right’, ‘wrong’, ‘true’ and, ‘false’ of all their meaning. He has only frustrated the curious impulse in his own mind, rather than find any real spiritual and intellectual meat.

In Christianity, however, it is the other way around. God offers enlightenment, and Himself. He has created the religion. He has given the laws and given the holy Spirit to men to make an infallible church. We haven’t made the church, though we have adapted it to times and places. God has made it.