Every religion in the world is convinced they are right, what sets us apart?

[Lazerlike42]

kremisos:

It’s all about measure. Consider a car for a moment. You can abuse a car over and over again, and never know when this car will fail. Now when it does fail you, you buy another car of the same make, model and year. You abuse this car in the same way, but it fails you after a time period that is much longer than the first car. Your life is the same. You cannot know the extent of sin, regardless of what sins you’ve made will result in your death. That is between you and God. We are not all made the same, nor do we all have the same intent. Some people go on sinning thinking that if they reach a confessional booth or have the oppurtunity to confess their sins as they’re dying, that all of their sins will be forgiven. This is not true. We cannot know by what measure God judges us, but when we reach this full measure, we will die.

On the otherhand, Christ did say there were sins that were unforgivable. One of these was turning a child away from God. I’m sure this is probably written as well, but you might want to search the gospels for it to verify. At any rate, this is a sin that the Catholic Church itself has been guilty of for years, yet I have seen no efforts made to bring these children back in my experience. Perhaps this is because I come from a very large metropolitan area, where priests don’t really care about their parishes and who returns. Either way, I have never met a Catholic priest who has gone out of his way to make sure that his church developed a healthy spiritual relationship with God. Performing rituals, reciting passages, and giving your interpretation of them is not enough. In my experience, I’ve met more cold Catholic priests who believe they are the hand of God, and an authority on his Word, rather than a slave of God to live by the example of Christ and bind what is loosed here on earth.

You just can’t judge the religion based on the sins of individual people. As I said in another post, I could hang around you and see all sorts of sins of yours. This doesn’t mean your beliefs are wrong. Furthermore, you can’t judge the religion based on someone’s mistaken belief about it. You’re right, a lot of Catholics think they can go the whole week doing whatever they want and it doesn’t matter cuz they have that confessional. This isn’t the teaching of the Church. The Church would say that these people aren’t really forgiven because they are not repentant and intend to keep on sinning.

By the way, there is only one sin that is unforgiveable: blasphemy agaisnt the Holy Spirit. Nearly every Christian group that has every existed, including the Church, interprets this to mean continuing to reject the call of the Holy Spirit until the time of death. It does not, however, say that leading a child of God away or anything else is unforgiveable.

By the way, if you are referring to the sex abuse scandal, then you are again referring to individual sinners and not to the teachings of the Church itself. Also, note that the abuse rate is identical for Protestant clergy and very similar for Jewish and other religions’ clergy as it is for priests. In fact, you’re far more likely to be abused by a school teacher.

 

[Lazerlike42]

Regardless of all arguments posted here, I wanted to point something out. Our primary focus should not be to attend Church on Sundays and go on about our everday lives Monday through Saturday. Every minute of our life should be in reflection of God’s will for us.

We should be focusing on the New Covenant that was made to us, and developing a relationship with God through the Spirit that he gave us so that we might bind ourselves to the Body of Christ to be made whole, and work on binding other people as well.

You are 100% right in this point. This is what I do, and believe me, I know PLENTY of Catholics who do this too. I know plenty of Protestants who do. I also know a lot more of each who don’t.

The thing about Catholicism though that other religions don’t have is a actual approved and encouraged way to do this! Catholics can join religious orders and turn their lives COMPLETLY over to God. You don’t even need a job. In your daily life, Kremisos, I’m sure you either have to devote time to school or to a job. I know i do, and it puts a hamper on my time with God. It’s hard to deote yourself to God when you have to spend hours a day doing things that a lot of times are the farthest thing from Him. Of course you can serve Him in any job in some way, but believe me I think He wants a lot more of me than I can give working on a cash register. Religious orders don’t have this problem. It’s amazing. Catholicism truly gives people the ability to turn their lives totally over to God.

Similarly, Catholicism has Opus Dei, which is an organization of ordinary people who have made it their goal and purpose to live for God in every tiny thing they do in life, be it at work or at home or in whatever they do. It’s amazing how much these people give themselves to God. This too is Catholic.

You ever heard the expression that men lie the most but women tell the biggest lies? I look at it that way: non-Catholic groups have the most devoted people, but Catholicism has the people who are devoted the most. (I mean that in general. Obviously some evangelical, or you, or whomever that isn’t a Catholic, can be more devoted than a very devoted Catholic, but in general if you took the most devoted Catholics and the most devoted non-Catholics you’d find the Catholics were more devoted, largely because to Catholics the idea of devotion is very different from how others see devotion to God. Catholics view devotion similar to the way the folks did in Acts.)

 

[kremisos]

Lazerlike42:

By the way, there is only one sin that is unforgiveable: blasphemy agaisnt the Holy Spirit. Nearly every Christian group that has every existed, including the Church, interprets this to mean continuing to reject the call of the Holy Spirit until the time of death. It does not, however, say that leading a child of God away or anything else is unforgiveable.

---

MT 18:1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

MT 18:2 He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3 And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

MT 18:5 "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. 6 But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

MT 18:7 "Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! 8 If your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

MT 18:10 "See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.***

Yes to blaspheme against the Spirit is definitely unforgivable, however regarding my previous post, this is what I found in text. While this text is somewhat different than what I know by Spirit, the interpretation is similar. Turning a child away from God is punishable by the second death.

Lazerlike42:

1. The word pray simply means “ask.” For some reason when people hear the word pray they get the idea of worship. That’s not what it is. Any time a person prays to a saint, all they are doing is asking them to pray to God for them. One time, my friend said to me, “Shane, pray for my grandmother because she is in the hospital.” When we pray to a saint we are doing, and I don’t exaggerate one bit, EXACTLY, with NOT A SINGLE DIFFERENCE, the same thing. So that really shouldn’t bother you. We’re simply asking the saint to say a prayer for us 100% NO DIFFERENT EXACTLY the same way as you just said you’d pray for the other poster.

Consulting the dead is forbidden as well:

*** DT 18:9 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. 13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God.***

On the otherhand, I would not consider asking an angel to do something is wrong, however it is unnecessary. I have spoken with angels on several occassions for example, and while this wasn’t in prayer, I guess it would depend on the reverence shown to an angel. Angels however were never human, and therefore were never dead, so communication with them therefore would not be forbidden by any of the laws given to us.

I’m not suggesting that all Christian religions are wrong, however I am suggesting that placing one over another is. Wearing a Catholic nametag does not make anyone better or worse off. Regardless of your religious background however, the only true Church is still not a worldly institution, but rather the Body of Christ. Membership in this Church is not exclusive to the nametags in this world. This is a Church that is not divisible, because Christ himself is not divided. It’s members are those who choose to live by the Spirit.

 

[kremisos]

Where everyday life is concerned, everything should be done with thanksgiving. Work, meals, etc. You only live for one purpose, and this world only serves as a medium to understanding that all of it’s laws are subject to spiritual forces, and that which is physical is temporal and irrelevant to gaining faith. There is a physical reality, and a spiritual reality, and only one of them is telling the truth. Many things of the physical reality are meant to serve as a distortion to the truth. Many of our sciences as a result of our trust in the world defy our faith. While Satan did have his agenda in this, God allowed this for one reason. Had we put our faith and trust in God, in the Garden of Eden, the fall of man would not have occured. Our new Covenant however, offers us the same relationship we had with God in Eden, and it is only by faith that we can see past this physical reality to see the light and the Truth.

 

[kremisos]

3. Individual people sin. I don’t see the priests getting up and encouraging people to do this. Should the priests discourage it? Probably. But again, this is the fault of individuals, not the religion. Kremisos, I am sure that if I spent some time around you I’d see some consistent habit of yours that is bad. Does that mean that whatever beliefs you have are wrong? Of course not!

Yes, but bad habits are not necessarily sins. One man might eat meat, while another may not. Neither man is wrong, as long as neither man becomes a stumbling block for the other. Sin in itself is anything done outside of love and faith. If a man’s conscience tells him something is wrong, and he does it anyways, he has sinned. If the same man’s conscience tells him the same thing is right and he does it, he has not sinned. This pertains of course only to habit, and has nothing to do with the Law itself, however a man who lives by the Spirit is incapable of breaking the Law without blaspheming against the Spirit.

 

[Michael_Francis]

Due to a thorough and complete high-jacking this thread is now closed.
Warning sent.