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rogue13
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And the answer is…?
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Classicist
Guest
John 17:20-22:
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the incarnate Wisdom & Logos of God: divine with the same divinity as His Father. You can be sure that God wants everyone to be Catholic.
He taught communal, fraternal love. He founded & built the Church on Peter, that it might come from one foundation. All must be gathered into His bosom.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the incarnate Wisdom & Logos of God: divine with the same divinity as His Father. You can be sure that God wants everyone to be Catholic.
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Theophorus
Guest
In a word yes.
What God wants is for all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (cf. 1Tim2:4) The most certain way of this occurring is within the bounds of the Church which Christ founded which subsists in the Catholic Church(cf. Mt 16:18&Lumen Gentium 8), which has been given the fullness of truth(cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church 819).
What God wants is for all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (cf. 1Tim2:4) The most certain way of this occurring is within the bounds of the Church which Christ founded which subsists in the Catholic Church(cf. Mt 16:18&Lumen Gentium 8), which has been given the fullness of truth(cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church 819).
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Dorothy
Guest
And, we who know the truth because God is so good to us, need to allow the Lord to sanctify us so that others can recognize the truth in us!
This is the year of faith! Let us go forth and love and teach whenever we have the opportunity.
And, don’t let it stop when the year of faith is over!
This is the year of faith! Let us go forth and love and teach whenever we have the opportunity.
And, don’t let it stop when the year of faith is over!
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Aaron_Creagh
Guest
God wants everyone to be born again.
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Spencerian
Guest
But God specifies, in word and deed, the specific acts one must do to accomplish this, starting with baptism. While the Catholic Church fulfills these tasks, it was not the Church, but Christ Himself, who defined the process. Simple declarations are not always enough in most instances (Matthew 7:21). We must act not only in word, but in action to illustrate and glorify God using the grace He gives us with such a declaration.
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pocohombre
Guest
Yes as in “Universal” Christian, the original meaning of “catholic”. Now if you mean Roman Catholic as some church signs post in my area,I will answer with an old song lyric,as my last post/thread talked about another song “Imagine"by Ono/Lennon. This lyric goes, “Don’t ask me what I think of you, I might not give you the answer that you want me to”. I will give an affirmative to 2 posts before me, God will’s that none should perish but that all have eternal life. Another post told the story of a “pilgrim” about to finish his sojourning and at a distance sees St.Peter at the Pearly Gates and shouts out, " Brother, do you see any Baptists up there?” St Peter says, “No”. Pilgrim aks again," Do you see any Anglicans up there"? St. Peter ,“No”. “Any Catholics?” “No”. “Any Orthodox?” “No, we don’t go by those names up here”. Pilgrim perplexed asks,“Well then who is up there?” St. Peter says, “Just those souls washed by the Blood of the Lamb”.
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R_C
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R_C
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Don’t. That’s just even more disqualifying than the usual “invisible church” protestant argument. While it is true that all baptized Christians are in some degree of communion with the Church, there is no doubt whatsoever from the standpoint of both reason and Scripture that the Church subsists in its fullness in the so-called “Roman Catholic” Church - not that she is the “only” Church or that Roman Catholics are the “only” Christians (that would be nonsense).
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Spencerian
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While I like a good song or anecdote, I don’t think that neither John Lennon or tales from non-Scriptural or Traditional sources answer the original post’s question.
As math principles show that “2+2” is 4, a similar level of precision can be asked of our religion and specifically, which faith tradition is true. They cannot be all correct.
That fullness of faith is found in the Catholic Church…even if one is not Catholic. There are plenty of ways that one may find themselves in the Right Place. All of them come through Christ, but the Catholic Church teaches the normative (or Scripturally and Traditionally qualified way) to a confident path. God reserves the right to bring people to him from outside the bounds of the Church in His own way.
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R_C
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That’s just a beginning, though, isn’t it? It doesn’t end there. A soul born again of water and spirit can die again in spirit, fall from grace. What then? Shall we re-baptize the soul? Nonsense, for that would be against the basic tenet of our faith: “we believe in one baptism”. Yet Scripture clearly teaches that there is a kind of sin that is mortal, that kills the soul. Truth is, God granted the apostles and their successors the power to remit sins in His name: “as the Father has sent me, so I send you”, He told the apostles. Ask yourself which is the only Church that throughout history has consistently kept this mandate to baptize and to remit sins. And if you do believe in the modern antiscriptural novelty of “faith alone”, ask yourself if Christ would contradict Himself by first teaching all to pray to God: “forgive us our sins” and then meeting separately with the apostles and giving them power to “remit sins” as well as (and more importantly) “retain sins” (“if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven”, He specifies).
Yes, God wants everyone to be “born again” in Christ Jesus through Baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But that is the beginning of a journey, the journey to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” (as Scripture teaches us), to “run as to win the race”, and to keep our bodies under subjection “'lest after preaching to others, we become outcast ourselves”. And the way we do this is by being united in one visible Church - a call of unity extended to all Christians and to all people - one flock with one shepherd.
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Brendan_64
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Define being ‘born again’ then?
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Lisa1967
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I think God wants everyone to be Christian and to accept His Son as Lord and Savior. Denominations shouldn’t matter.
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devoutchristian
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Well you’re wrong.
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Brendan_64
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Is that all he wants of us? Just that?
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R_C
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It’s true, they don’t matter. There is one Church.
But remember that Christ willed to found a visible Church. The unity of the visible Church has been injured. If you study very carefully and objectively the history of the Church, you will find the major injuries (the Great Schism between Western and Eastern Church, the “Reform” of Luther, the Anglican schism).
You will notice that throughout two millennia until today the majority of the Christian people have remained in the Catholic Church, in whom subsists the visible Church (about 1.2 billion Christians almost equally spread throughout the world, the majority in 67 countries) all the while some 200 million Christians belong to the Orthodox Church (which is almost in full communion with the Catholic Church and we keep working together on reunification), and some 800 million Christians belong to over 41 thousand “denominations” loosely termed “protestant” (though no two denominations share the same doctrine), thus making the average number of members per denomination about 20 thousand (a poor estimate, but still).
It is quite obvious that the protestant reform has led to nothing but division and scattering. It is also quite obvious that the Great Schism was caused by responsibility on both sides, which is why we are both working on reconciliation. But in general it can be shown through Scripture and through reason that Christ intended to found a visible Church, of which He is invisible head, with a visible head and a visible structure, and characterized by four marks: unity, holiness, universality, apostolicity. To this Church God calls everyone.
It so happens that the fullness of it can be found currently in the Catholic Church. But this does not mean that “God wants everyone to be Catholic” vs. Anglican Vs. Orthodox. That would be an erroneous approach to the issue.
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Dorothy
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No, that’s not all. We need to be detached from all that does not lead us to Him and His Will for us!Our Lord Jesus Christ wants us to be sanctified by way of prayer, the Sacraments, and obeying the legitimate authority of his voice, on faith and morals.
I cannot judge Christians of other denominations, I hope and pray that one day we will all be one in Jesus Christ our Lord.
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LegoGE1947
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No. There is more than that. We are to learn what it means to follow Christ and do our best to follow him, love him, and serve him.
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Brendan_64
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Darn, I knew there was a catch somewhere.
Our Lord Jesus Christ wants us to be sanctified by way of prayer, the Sacraments, and obeying the legitimate authority of his voice, on faith and morals.
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Dorothy
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