Does Catholicism have what I'm looking for or am I confused?

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Hi, I was wondering if some people could really clarify what Catholic beliefs are regarding certain topics.
Lately, I’ve been addicted to watching all things Catholic. I had a lot of misconceptions and it’s interesting to learn what Catholics REALLY believe. Like it’s taking hours of my life every day. I just can’t stop reading.
I am a Christian, didn’t grow up that way but I made the decision myself about 5 years ago.
So a few things that bother me about a lot of evangelical/protestant churches. Once saved always saved, divorce and remarriage, and too many denominations. Catholics do not believe osas at all, right? They do not permit remarriage after divorce, right? I mean it doesn’t SEEM like they approve of remarriage, but I’m aware people might take loopholes in annulment and stuff. There is probably some Protestant denominations that also don’t do remarriage but I don’t think they’re common or they don’t really take a firm stand on it. Maybe some conservative Mennonite and Amish churches (which I have been to a few times). To me personally, I feel it’s so clear in scripture and I don’t like going to churches that are loose on this.
They don’t think works save you but they also don’t think you can just believe and never actually live a life for Jesus and be saved. You’re still saved by faith alone but true faith works/has fruit? Or do they actually believe in a combination of works and faith for salvation? I’m not sure.
Oh yeah, the last thing is that having a universal church and not tons of denominations and splits is really really appealing and refreshing.

thank you ~
 
There’s a lot to cover there, and most of us, even the ones that are knowledgeable, wouldn’t know how to explain the faith. Catholicism certainly has what you’'re looking for, because it has the truth.
 
This book will give you the basics…


This one goes a lot deeper…


I really like this one for audio that you can listen to in an afternoon…


Here is a great website with some free audio that should help…

https://www.biblechristiansociety.com/

If you want me to tackle one particular question just ask, but to give an in-depth answer to all of those would take hours.

God Bless
 
Once saved always saved isn’t ‘exactly’ Biblical but its heavily debated as you’ve probably read.

It’s probably fairer to read it from the bible as ‘both’ being true.

I.e: Jesus said nobody can snatch you from God and in essence a ‘true’ believer never will stray from Christ and thus will never forfeit salvation. On the other hand it is made clear that doing what ever you like under the guise of claiming to be saved is utter nonsense. Satan probably thought he was pretty safe upstairs. Didn’t spare him being ejected at Mach 10 when he went against God did it.

Marriage if approved by Tribunal can be annulled and you are free to remarry. It would be ludicrous any other way - as there are plenty of legitimate circumstances where your spouse/partner may not be what they appear, even with your best intended scrutiny and care.

Sure you aren’t free to divorce on a whim. But a blanket ban of remarriage is practically nonsense.

James makes the point that faith without works is dead because, if you think about it literally, saying you are ‘saved’ and chucking in a baptism and a few church visits as a kid doesn’t make you ‘Christ like’. At best it makes you no different than the millions of other drones who tick Christian on a census day before heading to the nearest pub and disappearing under the table with their friends.

Works are a very literal display of your faith put into motion. You’ll find many say that you can’t ‘earn or deserve’ Gods favour/guarantee and to some extent this is true. It’s not a meritocracy without limits. At the same time the Bible is full or stories where God DEMANDS functional faith and attitude/work for qualification. You don’t cut the mustard you don’t get the acknowledgement.

I do try and remain respectful to all the denominations when I say this, but some arguments are semantic in nature and virtually ‘solutionless’ at times because of historical differences in interpreting text and in the OT case Hebrew as well.

My advice would be to not make any rash decisions and expand your knowledge. Move forward with what resonates with you and let your personal faith grow.

The church has a lot in its favour. But it’s also very modern, progressive looking and even quite liberal under Francis these days. Which I know has offended many traditionalists (you may be one of those).

So keep an open mind and keep asking the right questions. Plenty of time to decide.
 
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What you need to know is that The Catholic Church is the one that can trace back to Jesus and the Apostles. Therefore it holds the fullness of truth in its teaching. Protestant doctrines are innovations that can be traced back only as far as 500 years or so. Jesus did not come to the world so that Christianity would be in error for 1500 years. Does not make sense.
 
The Catecism of the Catholic Church is a book you can buy, and some Catholic churches have it at the back of the church for free. It has the moral teachings of the Church layed our on every topic. I would suggest buying a Catecism and checking out the sections you have questions on
 
kaitlyn76 said:
Catholics do not believe osas at all, right?
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Catholics do not believe OSAS.
They do not permit remarriage after divorce, right? I mean it doesn’t SEEM like they approve of remarriage, but I’m aware people might take loopholes in annulment and stuff.
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Catholics do not permit remarriage and divorce between married Christians. A Christian marriage can be annulled by the Church if it’s found (by the Church) that the conditions for a valid marriage never existed, such as one spouse conning the other prior to the marriage existing, or other impediments.
They don’t think works save you but they also don’t think you can just believe and never actually live a life for Jesus and be saved. You’re still saved by faith alone but true faith works/has fruit? Or do they actually believe in a combination of works and faith for salvation? I’m not sure.
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This is a more complicated subject. Suffice it to say that Catholics see the way a person responds to God’s graces differently than many protestants do. Catholics believe we cannot do any good works or live by the law without God. We do believe that, while God makes the first move in prompting us to do good works, he leaves the door open to us for our cooperation in doing good works, and that he asks that we work with him (not that he needs us or that we could do it on our own; he chooses to associate us with his works in this way). So we do bear responsibility for responding to God’s freely given grace, and we believe that God calls us to work with him, and that we can, at God’s discretion, earn merits by our response (but only because God creates such an opportunity, it’s not something we do on our own).
 
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Dear Katelyn, welcome!

I hope you find all the answers you are looking for. In our Catholic view, only God knows who is saved and who is not. No one is guaranteed a place in the Kingdom of Heaven and we work our whole lives to try to be worthy. We learn from saints who are examples of holy people that probably made it to heaven, but really only God knows for sure. We adore and worship God alone.

Marriage is one of the 7 Sacraments that are really cornerstones of our faith. We believe that marriage is for life.

There are some great online resources in addition to the books many here have suggested. The Busted Halo videos on Youtube are good beginning introductions as well as Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire Series.

https://bustedhalo.com/tag/sacraments-101-201


Formed.org

I will pray for you as you travel your faith journey! God bless!
 
Thank you everyone, I’m still reading a lot but I’m 90% sure I want to become Catholic at this point. I’m going to go to Mass for the first time soon. Wish me luck because I’ll be like a lost sheep… I barely knew what to do going to a Protestant church for the first time!!
 
Yes, I wish you luck and blessings! There will be an order of Mass either in the pew or the hymnal which can help you follow along. I pray that you have a beautiful experience.
 
ColorMomma said:
There will be an order of Mass either in the pew or the hymnal which can help you follow along.
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That could depend on the parish.

@kaitlyn76, if you don’t mind spending some money - and have a compatible device (and the Mass is in English) I would recommend getting the Universalis app. It has a Mass Today option that should be the full Mass that you can just follow. There will be some places with options, but it should be obvious where they are and I think it should be quicker to find the correct one than a missal. I’m also assuming that you don’t have a missal and they would be more expensive.
 
Maybe I don’t need to update this but I just went to mass and it was pretty nice. Really different and I was pretty confused and embarrassed lol but I guess I’ll get used to it (if the order is the same every time?). I’m excited to go again 😄
 
Rest assured–really, really–that no one is looking at you! Devout Catholics are focused on Jesus and any Catholics there who only come occasionally are the ones chewing gum and whose attention is elsewhere 🙂
 
kaitlyn76 said:
They don’t think works save you but they also don’t think you can just believe and never actually live a life for Jesus and be saved. You’re still saved by faith alone but true faith works/has fruit? Or do they actually believe in a combination of works and faith for salvation? I’m not sure.
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“Faith alone,” what the expression means to Catholics and Protestants, is a question that Jimmy Akin has answered very convincingly.

http://jimmyakin.com/library/justification-by-faith-alone
 
If you’re looking for Jesus, you’ll find Him most fully present in the Catholic Church, where he is physically present in the Eucharist at every Mass.

Not just spiritually present but physically present.

That’s the main reason “why we’re Catholic”.
 
And after Mass he is physically present in the tabernacle or in the monstrance on the altar.

This is the “extra” reason why I am Catholic. 😅
 
If you are able, you might want to preview a Mass on ewtn, or YouTube or something. How can I say this tactfully? Sometimes people’s first impressions at Mass aren’t that great. The parishioners are not probably going to welcome you like at a Protestant church. If you try to follow the parts of Mass in the book, it’s hard. There’s a lot of flipping around. There is a lot of music that is not provided for you, or if it’s in the book, you don’t know what page to get to. Just a gentle warning that it can be confusing… otherwise – I highly encourage you to go! I myself am a convert of ten years and am so thankful that I converted.
 
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