Going Directly to God - What does it mean ? Part I

[JohnR77]

** Going Directly to God -
What does it mean ?**

     **1.  Introduction :          The Issue

**Breaking Through a Closed Mind

     **When many Protestants are presented with Biblical arguments for praying to Mary or going to a Catholic Priest for confession they will often dismiss those arguments without consideration and reply, “I just go directly to God.”  Even some nominal Catholics  will reject sacramental confession because of this misperception.  Some Catholic apologists will attempt to explain secondary mediatorship and  how we pray for others while here on earth.  This sounds great to the Catholic who is looking to defend his position, but it does little to change the mind of the Protestant who isn’t looking to justify the Catholic position.**

On the contrary, the Protestant is still of the mindset:
**“Why should I even consider looking at and seriously considering the reasons for defending the Catholic position of praying to Mary, or going to confession to a Priest, etc.?
Why should I consider what is at best, second best, when I can go “Directly to God?” ****
**
**So, the problem is how does the Catholic apologist break through this closed minded response and clarify what it really means to “go directly to God”? **

     **A.  Definition :           What Does it Mean to Go Directly to God ?**

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     **Closed mindedness is one of the biggest obstacles preventing people from considering the claims for Marian devotion, Confession to a Priest, and the need for a hierarchical Catholic Church.  The claim that one can “go directly to God” is often used to justify why one does not need to even consider the reasons or defenses of Catholic teaching. There is the need to explicate that if a person desires a deeper relationship with Christ he needs to discover what is God’s desire and what is the path He has built upon which we are to travel to Him.**

     **In worldly experiences we often speak of “going directly to the source” and this usually means to eliminate any middle man.  And this is often helpful in both financial transactions as well as in enhancing communications (although not always.) However, worldly models that work in the natural realm do not always lend themselves to exact parallels that help us to understand the depths of the spiritual realm.

**

     **Many will often mistakenly think of “Going to God” according to the above natural or physical analogy.  They fail to see that it does not apply to the supernatural.  We cannot get into a car or a jet to go to God. Going directly to God is more of a spiritual journey than a physical one.  So, “Going to God” involves going to where He truly is, not just to where we imagine Him or want Him to be.  Cf. The failed attempts of Mohamed, Joseph Smith, Charles Taze Russell, to “go directly to God”  etc.  And it means going to God the way He wants us to go to Him, and not just assume that our own way is the most direct way.**

     **The break through question:**
     **What can we do with absolute perfection using only the power and grace that we already have of our own ?  ****

**
**Answer: Nothing. The more grace a person has the better he will be able to do that which he attempts. Therefore, the person who attains more grace will be able to go to God more directly than the one who ignores and rejects some of God’s grace (all other things being equal.)
**
Growing in the virtues of love and humility is essential when one wants to go to God.

So, when a Christian goes to Mary he is already three steps closer to Christ for the following reasons.

**1. Because he has moved his own heart in the direction of love **
**2. He has turned away from the sin of pride and toward the
virtue of humility by acknowledging that he needs the help that
God wants to give to him through others. **
3. He has opened himself up to receive the additional grace
that God wants to give to him through Mary and the other Saints,
the body of Christ by submitting to His Divine Will.

1 Corinthians 12:21
“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I do not need you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I do not need you.’”

Augustine once said that humility is the mother of all virtues. That’s true because all other virtues flow from a heart of humility.

**Some might retort that, “God does it all. We don’t have to do anything.” However, if that were so, then we would not even need to have faith. Nor would we need to repent or even to “Go to God.” Whereas in truth, it is God’s grace working within us that enables us to have true faith. And His grace enables us to repent, and it is His grace that enables us to go to Him. It is God’s grace working from beginning to end. We just have to accept, receive, and co-operate with that grace. So, the question remains as to how does God want to give us His grace and how are we to come to Him. **

**So, Going Directly to God must mean to go to Him the way he wants us to go to Him and not just assuming that it means to ignore everyone else.

**

 

[JohnR77]

Going Directly to God - What does it mean ? Part II ** Going Directly to God -
What does it mean ?

** B. The Problem – Why it is so devastating

Mary and the priest in the confessional, etc. are seen as diversions away from God. And even if they are not diversions why should the Protestant even consider focusing on doing something that is second best when one can, in their thinking, go to God the best way, the “direct way”?

**When a Protestant claims to be “going directly to God” he is making several assumptions. To make matters much worse, he does not realize that he is making any assumptions and he thinks he is stating a self evident fact. This has the disastrous effect of leaving him incapable of considering the validity of his assumptions since he does not even realize he is making one or more. His missteps in thinking have left him without an opportunity or motive reconsider what “going directly to God” really means. He becomes closed minded which is one of the most serious obstacles to spiritual growth and efforts to effectively evangelize them in this regard are usually for not until we clarify for them what “To Go Directly to God” really means. **

**Compounding this problem is the fact that many Catholic apologists will accept the Protestants’ definition that “To Go Directly to God” means to go on a solo journey. And so these Catholics thereby reinforce this false definition. And since devotion to Mary, the Priesthood, or the Church, is seen as diversion, that makes the Catholic position all the more scary to consider. And so, the closed-mindedness grows even deeper. **

**Many Catholic apologists will, mistakenly in my opinion, immediately give reasons for praying to the Saints before clarifying what “Going Directly to God” really means. For example, they will use the analogy that we increase our prayer chain here on earth by asking for relatives and friends to pray with us here on earth. And by analogy, we can also ask the Saints in heaven to pray with us. **

However, that approach fails to correct the primary problem of helping the Protestant to see that his understanding of “going directly to God” has many assumptions that prevent him from even giving serious consideration to the Catholic arguments.

C. The Solution
I think it is best to begin with a question.

The break through question:
**What can we do with absolute perfection using only the power and grace that we already have of our own ? **
Answer: Absolutely Nothing.

Help the Protestant or nominal Catholic, who ignores confession to a Priest, to see that he cannot just assume that his way is God’s way. We must search out to discover what God has revealed.

See More
defendingthebride.com/direct/def.html

**John
**

 

[Trebor135]

Thanks for sharing this article.

The last time I was talking to a Protestant about confession, I came to the same conclusion: we have to ask the question, “What if God wants us to do things like this?”, not, “Do we like the idea?”