sainted:
To those who are conversant with the trinity or the only one God belief as a prerequisite into gaining salvation … please answer my question.
If I agree on everything you hold as truth about God and his redemptive power for man irrespective of how that person sees God as, and I go about preaching that the catholic church is wrong about the trinity. I may also preach that the muslims are wrong about the only one God. Instead I preach based on my belief that there really are two God in one, namely God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.
Would I still be saved when I’m summoned before God and inspite of all the good works I’ve done in my life in preaching God to all people I was rebuked on one count. That is I didn’t acknowledge Jesus as divine and as God the Son.
It’s easy and wrong to say that you will or won’t be saved. That is the honest truth! To believe is a process. Some of us are born into a faith and casually believe until God allows us to realize that we aren’t satisfied with things. Personally I first felt a real call by God when I was 10 or so. My parents and people around didn’t really encourage…except for my grandmother. When I moved to another country at 12 things just progressed further and further away from God…but I didn’t feel different. Then at around 18-25 I went through a journey of faith and still am going through (I am 31) The apostles went through a journey with Jesus and didn’t really believe who He really was until the resurrection and ascension, but even then some doubted.
A true believer goes through a journey to honestly believe in full. If you stick with the Church that Jesus promised to be with 'til the end of times under the leadership of Cephas who alone was given the Keys you will hopefully continue to believe in full the deposit of the faith. It’s like the disciples who followed Jesus until He told them the truth that they need to eat His Flesh and drink His blood or else. Most of them left! They didn’t understand Who was speaking. One asked Him to show him the Father, Jesus was amazed that he didn’t recognize Him yet. During the arrest and crucifixion, almost all of them just deserted him and were hiding. What if they just stuck around with the truth of Jesus? What if they told themselves…hmm, I find some things hard or difficult to believe, but I will still hang around Jesus and I trust in Him, then one day, while remaining in the truth, he/she may truly believe.
Peter, even though he didn’t fully believe when Jesus was talking about His flesh and His Blood, being True food and True drink, just trusted Jesus and responds: where else can we go? You have the Words of eternal life!!!
So my suggestion to you is to preach what you truly know to be the honest truth in your HEART! Are you sure that Jesus is not part of the Godhead? Look deep in your heart, you don’t have to answer to me, answer to Him. Can you say, with no doubt whatsoever that Jesus is not part of the Godhead? If you are not sure, then don’t preach. I would suggest also that you might spend most of your time to study in prayer about this truth!!! I think it might be a priority for you, but it can’t be the only one…
You can come to this knowledge just with the Scriptures. You can come to this knowledge just with the Tradition of the Church (not tradition with a small “t” but with a big “T”, the deposit of the faith) aproach all your thoughts and studies in prayer, asking God to reinforce you with His Spirit, the Holy Spirit and to guide you to the Truth, so you can be SET FREE! If the whole of Scriptures is too much to handle then start with the Gospel of John, whose main point is to show the divinity of Jesus. But it is shown basically throughout the new testament.
Well, sorry for writing so long, I just got carried away. It’s weird but most of this time I felt like I was in a trance… :whacky:
May the peace of the Risen Christ be with you and your whole family.
Your brother,
Luigi