How do I answer?

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My nephew, who is a very inteligent forty year old, has told me he does not attend church because he believes there are many ways to God, and religion is only one of them.
 
Without religion of some type, how does he even know there is a God? Where does his conception of God come from? (Just some things to start with). Once you know why he thinks there must be a God, then you can discuss it with him. Does he believe in scripture? Things like that. Good luck.

MBS1
 
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ruffwriter:
My nephew, who is a very inteligent forty year old, has told me he does not attend church because he believes there are many ways to God, and religion is only one of them.
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I would ask him where he got that knowledge. Unless he is claiming that God revealed this directly to him then he has no reason to believe that any more than he believes in Catholicism.
 
Martino hit it on the head - "I would ask him where he got that knowledge."

It’s too easy to decide what WE want and then apply it to God. Has God ever revealed to us (or your nephew) that the road is wide that leads to Him? Actually I think he did say something about a wide road but it wasn’t leading to Him. So the onus is on the nephew to show you.
 
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ruffwriter:
My nephew, who is a very inteligent forty year old, has told me he does not attend church because he believes there are many ways to God, and religion is only one of them.
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That’s a very lame excuse for not wanting to get up out of bed to go to mass. My son feeds me the same ‘stuff’ too. I don’t buy it and neither should you,

WC
 
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ruffwriter:
My nephew, who is a very inteligent forty year old, has told me he does not attend church because he believes there are many ways to God, and religion is only one of them.
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Hello ruffwriter,

God has specifically asked us to love Him through obedience to His commandments. I feel it is never too early to start teaching our young how to love God through obedience to His commandments. One of the commandments is to keep holy the Sabbath.

Please visit www.ILOVEYOUGOD.com

NAB DEU 11:1​


“Love the LORD, your God, therefore, and always heed his charge: his statutes, decrees and commandments.”
NIV 1JO 5:3
This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.NIV JOH 14:15

**“If you love me, you will obey what I command.” **

NAB DEU 5:6

‘I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me. You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them.** For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishments for their fathers’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation but bestowing mercy, down to the thousandth generation, on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.** 'You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain. For the LORD will not leave unpunished him who takes his name in vain. 'Take care to keep holy the sabbath day as the LORD, your God, commanded you. Six days you may labor and do all your work; but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD, your God. No work may be done then, whether by you, or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or *** or any of your beasts, or the alien who lives with you. Your male and female slave should rest as you do. For remember that you too were once slaves in Egypt, and the LORD, your God, brought you from there with his strong hand and outstretched arm. That is why the LORD, your God, has commanded you to observe the sabbath day. 'Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD, your God, has commanded you, that you may have a long life and prosperity in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you.

NAB DEU 6:1

"These then are the commandments, the statutes and decrees which the LORD, your God, has ordered that you be taught to observe in the land into which you are crossing for conquest, so that you and your son and your grandson may fear the LORD, your God, and keep, throughout the days of your lives, all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you, and thus have long life. Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe them, that you may grow and prosper the more in keeping with the promise of the LORD, the God of your fathers, to give you a land flowing with milk and honey." The great commandment. Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.

**NAB 2JO 1:5 **

But now, my Lady, I would make this request of you (not as if I were writing you some new commandment; rather, it is a commandment we have had from the start): let us love one another. This love involves our walking according to the commandments, and as you have heard from the beginning, the commandment is the way in which you should walk.

Peace in Christ,

Steven Merten
www.ILOVEYOUGOD.com
 
My nephew, who is a very inteligent forty year old, has told me he does not attend church because he believes there are many ways to God, and religion is only one of them.

Response:
Of course there are many ways to God. But what way does God want us to go to Him?

Of course, the answer is none other than encounter Him in Jesus Christ, and there is no better way, no fuller way to do that than in the Catholic Church.
 
Most of all, I think that you should not forget to pray for your nephew and ask the Lord Jesus to touch his heart and come into his life. In terms of what to say, just tell him you are worried about him and would like him to go to Church (mainly tell him the truth). Make sure that you are persistent and don’t give up:

Luke 18:1

Then he told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said,
2 “There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. 3 And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’ 4 For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, 5 2 because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.’” 6 The Lord said, "Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. 7 Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them?
 
i would recommend ‘mere christianity’, by cs lewis. lewis pretty much rules out the other ‘possibilities’.
 
At base the problem is that there is no way to God except He reach down and draw us across the Great Abyss that existed between God and man between Adam and Eve and Jesus’ death on the cross which established the only way. As recently as two years ago John Paull II reiterated that Salvation is only through Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church. One needs to read the document as well as the CCC to understand exactly what this means for the Salvation of those who are not Catholic. Jesus was not joking when he stated that the path to heaven went through a narrow gate.
 
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