If you talk to a protestant to try out the Catholic church, what you say?

[AmbroseSJ]

For many Protestants, baptism is an outward sign of something that’s happening in a person. The baptism itself doesn’t save, rather it’s the faith of the person.

For Catholics (and some mainline Protestants) Sacraments are outward signs of an inward grace. IOW, it is God who works. Therefore it is Faith which precedes Baptism, enabling God to pour out His Grace. The outward sign, water, represents the inward work of GOD cleansing our soul and initiating our membership into His Body. So the Catholic view is GOD that works not us.

 

[Francis]

Church Fathers ,also comparing beliefs of Catholic and protestants,Scriptures obviously,with Catechism of the Catholic Church.

 

[Ernie07]

Hi Pathway,

May God bless you on your faith journey! On my journey I’ve come to realize the central message of the Christian faith is about love. Jesus loved us so much as to humble Himself to become man and to suffer greatly even unto death on a cross; only to rise again defeating death and sin and giving us all the hope of one day rejoicing and worshipping Him in heaven. I think all Christians believe this or some close variant.

Jesus’ love also included the building and protecting of His Church that would serve as a guiding light of truth. Jesus knew that we are a sinful people who would struggle knowing truth from error and who are arrogant enough to think that we can know the truth through our own interpretations. His Church would be protected from teaching error and would always be the beacon of hope and truth. That Church, His Church, is the Catholic Church.

And finally, Jesus loves us so much that He gave us the most personal means to encounter and have a relationship with Him and that is through the Eucharist where on a daily basis you may consume the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ. No one is worthy to receive Him in this way on our own, but Jesus makes us worthy by His Word. His mercy and forgiveness are what makes us worthy…nothing more and nothing less. It is both humbling and awe inspiring to be called to receive the Lord in this most personal of ways.

The above is why I’m Catholic and I hope your journey is as fruitful as mine has been and even more! God bless you this Christmas season!

-Ernie-

 

[PJM]

I am in my thinking phase, so before I explore what Eastern Orthodoxy is about ( I’ll get there sometime). I am convince that there is nothing different between protestant and Catholics in a way. I history of the pope and the engaging theology (when I first read it).

Friend your quandary is simple AND SIMPLY PROFOUND

The entire issue revolves around TRUTH:

1Tim.2 Verses 3 to 4:”This is good, and it is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

What is the Moral significance and demands of TRUTH?

Father John A. Hardon S.J., one of the 20th Centuries most esteemed Theologians, explains it clearly and precisely:

"Truth is [1] The condition of grace, [2] it is the source of grace [3] it is the channel of grace [4] it is the Divinely Ordained requirement of grace." End Quote

In other words; TRUTH cannot be comprehended or accepted without God’s Grace.

Ps.145: 17 to 18 “
[17] The LORD is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings. [18] The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth.

Dictionary Definition of “Truth”

1. The true or actual state of a matter:
   conformity with fact or reality; verity: the truth of a statement
2. a verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like mathematical truths.
3. the state or character of being true.
4. actuality or actual existence.
5. an obvious or accepted fact; truism; platitude.
6. honesty; integrity; truthfulness.

John 1 :17 “because while the law was given through Moses**, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”**

2 John 8-9 Anyone who is so “progressive” as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God; whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son

John 14: 16-17 And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.

John 14: “6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.”

John 17: 14-19 “I have given them thy word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth. 18 As thou didst send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.”

NO OTHER CHURCH OR FAITH CAN CLAIM TO HAVE JESUS AS THEIR PERSONAL WARRANTY OF TEACHING HIS TRUTHS; EXCEPT TODAYS RCC.

THE TRUTH IS THAT THE RCC IS THE ONE, THE ONLY TRUE CHURCH DESIRED, FOUNDED AND PROTECTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT & JESUS.

May God guide your path,
Patrick