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Deconi
Guest
Reason concludes that this cannot be correct! This is the whole point of WHY God had to come down here Himself! If your position was true, then there was no need to appear ‘Live and In Person’ since we already had the Commandments, and the prophets (like Mohammed and Joseph Smith) will explain the rest!I am not concerned with doctrine. I do have faith in God that God will sort it all out. I think all the little details of doctrine and religion are ultimately human creations and count for very little except to those in power or who are concerned with authority. If we are Christian, Muslim Jewish or whatever, if we follow the 2 great commandments as highlighted by Jesus we will be fine…
Reason also concludes ONLY one of your “Top 3” must be the correct one because they all say different things about God, albeit they share some common aspects of belief. The arguments within Christianity, Islam or Judaism about their own specific doctrines in detail is slightly different than what you are suggesting, but they all mean squat if your premise or faith is incorrect anyway!
The other alternative is that ALL of them are worthless, which is the natural extension of the slope you suggest, because we also share common aspects with almost all the other faith beliefs, including the ones who do not believe in God.
St Paul has obviously not convinced you. We HOPE for our salvation, but our belief and faith is not left to chance, but to absolute fact! That is what the epistles are continuously reinforcing! If The Christ did not rise from the dead, then our faith is worthless. It does not say, *if we do not believe that The Christ rose from the dead…etc. *Reason doesn’t allow us to conclude that IF there is a God, that God is necessarily benevolent (loving)!!! Reason can’t even get us that far in religious matters. Heck, drawing on experience, we are almost forced to conclude the opposite. My belief in a loving God is pure faith and pure hope!!!
Our faith is not based on hope that these things happened, but BECAUSE IT DID HAPPEN! Doubt, places these things in the hands of men, as it were, because the suggestion is 'what if they were lying or wrong? By extension, Did Jesus Christ even exist?
So we must reason it out with evidence and the overwhelming evidence is that Jesus Christ existed. (A different argument, granted) But, having found that He did, destroys Judaism! If He is God, this destroys Islam and all other pretenders to the title!
You are right that some aspects of our understanding of revelation requires a fair amount of faith. Our creeds teach us WHAT to believe from those who were either there or closest to the events. They tell us that He Is God!! Blasphemous if not true!
If you do not believe Jesus Christ Is God, then you cannot be Christian. Therein lies the ‘required faith element’ of our understanding.
But if you believe that He Is God, then you NEED to be Catholic, because that is The Church He Established. The evidence of that is not only clear in Scriptures, which He authenticated by quoting it, but through PHYSICAL EVIDENCE which traces all the way back to Him. The only Christian church that can do that is Catholicism.
Once you’ve settled that He is God, then the understanding that He cannot lie should take care of the rest; *"…and the gates of Hades shall not overcome it (My Church)" * meaning no human can lead it astray or cause it to fall.
We should not be seeking to ‘engender more respect for our position’ but to tell The Truth as revealed. Catholicism is not about us, but for all humanity! “We” did not start or own it. We do not ‘care’ about temporal gains, but for eternal salvationWhy not honestly state that you are informing them of where you BELIEVE the truth to lie since you can’t prove you are right? That would be more genuine and honest and might even engender more respect for you position and belief system!
God bless.
God is the Final Adjudicator of who is saved and who is not. But from all that we know of Him, it is obvious that He did not leave a lottery behind and make it a gamble to achieve salvation.
Please forgive the tone if it sounds like I am questioning your Christianity, Peregrino. I am not! I am simply trying to formulate a reply to the above with the limitations of words at my command. Sorry.