Justification and Texas Christians

[Mike_Frazer]

First off, Thank You for putting this forum on-line and allowing the faithfull to ask questions.

I am what has been called a cradle Catholic and have never professed to be anything other that that. I am married for 18 years to a girl I met in Catholic High school. My formative years were pretty normal for a guy in the Catholic faith. I went Catholic School and probably did not pay near enough attention in class I guess I was pretty isolated or insulated from the ignorance and hatred that was out there for us.

We have three kids and they are always challenging me with questions about other faiths. I do what I can to distinguish the differences but I always try to re-focus them back to our faith. The other day my daughter asked me what Mormons believed. I knew they we offthe beaten path but had no idea how far from the one church they had become. What was worse was the web site I was looking at was from some fundamentalist seminary. Realizing this, I checked up on what they (the website) had to say about us (Catholics). To my horror, they had us under Cults and Non- Christian Sects. I was infuriated by the arrogance of these people and wanted to see how they could possible say that we (the first Christians) we not classified as such. It came down to salvation theology.

This school says that Catholics believe that Faith and Works is contrary to Biblical teachings. If you believe that anything other than the Faith in Christ can save you, you are not saved and thus not going to heaven. Basically, if you do not believe the Faith alone mentality you are not saved. Thus Catholics are not Christians. GRRRR

I see church after church spring up in our hometown in Texas. One splinter off another. I see my friends and co-workers leave one church for another for the pettiest of reasons. We are in the “Bible-Belt” here in Texas but it seems to me that there is no end to this Fundamentalist non-sense. They mock and deny the Catholic Church and its authority. That is how they are trained to believe here. The kids at school torment our children when they find out they are Catholic. Pray for us
I will continue to grow in my faith and I want nothing more than the protestants to return to the fullness of faith. It just seems impossible for us to do. I wish Jesus would come back for a quick refresher and get all the believers in line. I know he will someday.

Thanks for letting me rant

 

[passus]

Indeed there are a lot of lies out there swarming, many of them coming from and fomenting within anti-Catholic circles. Aside from basically bashing these people over the head with Catholic doctrine in an apologetic war–surely having no productive result because of the fact that many of the Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, and other anti-Catholic groups you encounter in such militant work have been brainwashed–we can pray earnestly for the conversion of their harts and the intercession of the Holy Spirit, that by His power these individuals will, somehow, repent to find themselves led into the fullness of Truth the Catholic Church holds at her core.

Keep up the good work!

 

[emarc]

hi mike - welcome, and feel free to rant. you’re on the right site. i learned many things about my Catholic faith from this site w/c i never knew before. its archives offer a wealth of info not only about our faith but also of others. it’s an A rate on apologetics.
God bless.

 

[Ruthie]

Nice rant!

This school says that Catholics believe that Faith and Works is contrary to Biblical teachings. If you believe that anything other than the Faith in Christ can save you, you are not saved and thus not going to heaven.

Well, they’re right - to a certain extent.

What some of them have a hard time grasping is that we Catholics do not believe that you can earn your way to Heaven by doing good works. We believe that doing good works is part of a living faith. Many of them believe this, too, when you get them to discuss it in depth.

The main problem is proof-texting. We Catholics believe that the Bible is a whole; that all of it is spiritual truth. If one part seems to say something contrary to another part, it needs to be integrated. Thus we can’t say that, because one verse says “believe and you will be saved,” and another says “Baptism … now saves you” that only one of the two is true.

(That’s part of why I came to Catholicism - I wanted to read the Bible in context, not as a few major verses and many minor, ignorable ones.)

Keep being a good example for your kids, and telling them the truth about our teachings.

God bless you,

Ruthie

 

[Mike_Frazer]

When I first posted this thread, I had only begun to search the body of this forum. I am still just scratching the surface. My post seems to be a theme that has been visited many times throughout this forum. I have already learned so much reading the posts and trying to internalize what everyone is saying. There are so many people here who seem to have such a better grasp on the faith than I do.

I fell away from the Church some years ago due to a lack of interest or need. Obviously it did not take me long to realize that my needs were too great to handle on my own. My post was a way of reaching out for inspiration for me to inspire my kids as well. I fear that I have not been a good example. I just want my kids to know how special the Church is. No matter how far I wondered away from the truth, I knew that it was there and I just had to face it and I was welcomed back. Protestants don’t seem to understand what a special relationship we have with God and his family.

We are a family. God the Father the Son, The Holy Spirit. All the Angels and Saints. Mary and all the friends and family that have passed on. I just want my kids to know that no matter what, they are always with friends and family.

Sorry, I tend to ramble