My faith is better than your faith

[po18guy]

We are NOT supposed to accept people who give up simply because they believe Catholic teachings are ‘too hard’.

Jesus gave His followers many ‘hard sayings’, and many walked away from Him (see John 6) because they didnt understand those sayings.

It was the ones who stayed with Him and took Him at His word, and who kept believing His every word and trying to understand even the hard teachings, who were in the right.

If your faith has none of these sorts of ‘hard sayings’ to struggle with it isn’t Christ’s truth.

Amen! Very well said.

 

[po18guy]

This may be true, but who says Catholicism necessarily has it right? Catholics have faith that it is, but so do Baptists, Methodists, etc. with their brand of worship. Nobody knows for sure. One just has to follow where they feel the Holy Spirit leading them. Many ex-Catholics have said they felt dead spiritually while a member of the CC, but found God in another… The same has been said in reverse by ex-Protestants who converted to the CC. Who is to say Christ doesn’t reach out to people in different ways?

I listen to 2,000 years of martyrs and Saints. Something that thousands have willingly shed their blood for cannot be casually dismissed. Look for the martyrs and Saints.

Christ’s peace.

 

[mikew262]

The Holy Spirit.

Good enough for me.

Good for you if that’s what you believe. However, a Baptist, an Anglican, etc. would answer the same way if the question was posed to them about their denomination.

Get the point I’m trying to make?

 

[LilyM]

This may be true, but who says Catholicism necessarily has it right? Catholics have faith that it is, but so do Baptists, Methodists, etc. with their brand of worship. Nobody knows for sure. One just has to follow where they feel the Holy Spirit leading them. Many ex-Catholics have said they felt dead spiritually while a member of the CC, but found God in another… The same has been said in reverse by ex-Protestants who converted to the CC. Who is to say Christ doesn’t reach out to people in different ways?

Christ Himself is to say - after all, He is THE way, not the ways, THE truth, not the truths, founder of ONE church upon the Rock of Peter, not many churches based on who-knows-who.

 

[mikew262]

I listen to 2,000 years of martyrs and Saints. Something that thousands have willingly shed their blood for cannot be casually dismissed. Look for the martyrs and Saints.

Christ’s peace.

Nobody is casually dismissing the sacrifice of people who have died for their faith. I’m sure all are realizing their just reward with God. However this really doesn’t address the issue.

 

[mikew262]

Christ Himself is to say - after all, He is THE way, not the ways, THE truth, not the truths, founder of ONE church upon the Rock of Peter, not many churches based on who-knows-who.

You are missing the point. All Christians believe this, however many do not necessarily believe the CC is the ONE Church. To many, the Church is simply the fellowship of all believers in Christ, not just Catholics.

 

[LilyM]

You are missing the point. All Christians believe this, however many do not necessarily believe the CC is the ONE Church. To many, the Church is simply the fellowship of all believers in Christ, not just Catholics.

Yeah, and that’s why Christ told the Apostles that those who rejected them rejected Him, and gave them the power to bind and loose heaven.

A faith not based on the Apostles (not Apostolic) is NOT Christ’s church, however much people may delude themselves otherwise. The Catholic and Orthodox churches are the only ones maintaining both Apostolic succession and Apostolic teachings as handed down from the earliest Christian disciples of theirs. That’s fact, not opinion.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

I find it strange, and sad, that a “Cradle Catholic” could doubt his faith so much (“Who says Catholicism necessarily has it right?”) and cherry pick his ‘teachings’ to make black = white ; oh, wait a minute. That would be too absolute. Let’s just say, cherry pick chapter, verse, ‘sayings attributed to Catholics/leaders’ etc. to argue a very anti-Catholic doctrine and yet claim it’s ‘real Catholic’ because it is so ‘tolerant’ and ‘ecumenical’, so warm-and-fuzzy that it could never OFFEND anybody because, quite frankly, this ‘fluffy Christianity’ says, in effect, "Everything is equal, do as you please, we are all part of the circle of life on the path and no one way is ‘better’.

That isn’t faith – it’s PABLUM. It’s utterly false; there is no such thing as ‘relative’ truth. There is no such thing as having two or more Churches teaching totally DIFFERENT articles of faith as true. . .If church A teaches X is true, and church B teaches X is false, well, X cannot be BOTH TRUE AND FALSE. Therefore, one church is RIGHT and the other WRONG. No matter how it might hurt somebody’s feelings to be ‘called wrong’-- it isn’t SINFUL to speak truth. These 'false ecumenism, many ways which are equally ‘right’ teaching is dangerous because instead of actually putting forth Christ’s teachings, it’s attempting to ‘break them down’ into one indifferent, relativistic, “What’s OK for you is fine even if it totally contradicts what’s OK for me, but who cares? There isn’t anything we can PROVE is ‘absolute’ Christian teaching! After all, no Church is fully CORRECT. . .so just do what you want.”

Well, I’m not one to cast my pearls, as the saying goes, when I have become fully and irrevocably aware that they WOULD be cast away for nought. I’ll be off so that the snipers can then ‘rejoice’ in THINKING they have driven away another of those ‘nasty unChristian bigots’ and pat themselves on the back for (in their tolerance, of course) finding fault, calling names, and making absolute judgments on MY position, etc.

May God enlighten you. You’ll be in my prayers. May you indeed find the one–the only–way.

 

[po18guy]

Good for you if that’s what you believe. However, a Baptist, an Anglican, etc. would answer the same way if the question was posed to them about their denomination.

Get the point I’m trying to make?

Yes. However, they can’t all be correct. Since the gates of hell will never prevail, the most ancient is, by pure reason, the most likely true. This is removing all other influences beside human reason.

Christ’s peace.

 

[po18guy]

Nobody is casually dismissing the sacrifice of people who have died for their faith. I’m sure all are realizing their just reward with God. However this really doesn’t address the issue.

It is perhaps the only thing that does directly address the issue. Their own blood for the faith. They could all have denied Christ, they could have begun their own “denominations”. They chose suffering and death. We talk the talk. They walked the walk.

Christ’s peace.

 

[SIA]

The Catholic and Orthodox churches are the only ones maintaining both Apostolic succession and Apostolic teachings as handed down from the earliest Christian disciples of theirs. That’s fact, not opinion.

Then you disagree with your own churches teachings.

 

[mikew262]

I find it strange, and sad, that a “Cradle Catholic” could doubt his faith so much (“Who says Catholicism necessarily has it right?”) and cherry pick his ‘teachings’ to make black = white ; oh, wait a minute. That would be too absolute. Let’s just say, cherry pick chapter, verse, ‘sayings attributed to Catholics/leaders’ etc. to argue a very anti-Catholic doctrine and yet claim it’s ‘real Catholic’ because it is so ‘tolerant’ and ‘ecumenical’, so warm-and-fuzzy that it could never OFFEND anybody because, quite frankly, this ‘fluffy Christianity’ says, in effect, "Everything is equal, do as you please, we are all part of the circle of life on the path and no one way is ‘better’.

That isn’t faith – it’s PABLUM. It’s utterly false; there is no such thing as ‘relative’ truth. There is no such thing as having two or more Churches teaching totally DIFFERENT articles of faith as true. . .If church A teaches X is true, and church B teaches X is false, well, X cannot be BOTH TRUE AND FALSE. Therefore, one church is RIGHT and the other WRONG. No matter how it might hurt somebody’s feelings to be ‘called wrong’-- it isn’t SINFUL to speak truth. These 'false ecumenism, many ways which are equally ‘right’ teaching is dangerous because instead of actually putting forth Christ’s teachings, it’s attempting to ‘break them down’ into one indifferent, relativistic, “What’s OK for you is fine even if it totally contradicts what’s OK for me, but who cares? There isn’t anything we can PROVE is ‘absolute’ Christian teaching! After all, no Church is fully CORRECT. . .so just do what you want.”

Well, I’m not one to cast my pearls, as the saying goes, when I have become fully and irrevocably aware that they WOULD be cast away for nought. I’ll be off so that the snipers can then ‘rejoice’ in THINKING they have driven away another of those ‘nasty unChristian bigots’ and pat themselves on the back for (in their tolerance, of course) finding fault, calling names, and making absolute judgments on MY position, etc.

May God enlighten you. You’ll be in my prayers. May you indeed find the one–the only–way.

I am a Christian and I practice my faith in the Catholic Church.

I find it hard to believe (no not really) the arrogance that some of my fellow Catholics have to actually believe the Catholic Church is the one best way to salvation and have almost no regard for the other Christian faiths (maybe overstating some, but you got my dandruff up). I believe my faith is very strong, in the Christian sense. Could it be stronger, sure it can and I try to work on that.

I am a Catholic Christian and that’s how I practice my faith, but I’m also not blind to the real possibility that the Catholic faith is not necessarily the only positive way to salvation and Christ.

May God enlighten you and the ones that think like you. All of you are in my prayers.

 

[mikew262]

It is perhaps the only thing that does directly address the issue. Their own blood for the faith. They could all have denied Christ, they could have begun their own “denominations”. They chose suffering and death. We talk the talk. They walked the walk.

Christ’s peace.

**News Flash: ** People in other denominations have not denied Christ, not by any stretch.

BTW, there have been Non-Catholic Christians who have died for their faith as well, some at the hand of Catholics, and boy if that doesn’t illustrate the original point of this thread, nothing does…

 

[SIA]

**News Flash: ** People in other denominations have not denied Christ, not by any stretch.

BTW, there have been Non-Catholic Christians who have died for their faith as well, some at the hand of Catholics, and boy if that doesn’t illustrate the original point of this thread, nothing does…

Amen to that.

 

[LilyM]

Then you disagree with your own churches teachings.

Do tell me which other churches the Catholic church has acknowledged as having Apostolic succession? Certainly not the Lutherans or Episcopalian/Anglicans.

 

[po18guy]

**News Flash: ** People in other denominations have not denied Christ, not by any stretch.

BTW, there have been Non-Catholic Christians who have died for their faith as well, some at the hand of Catholics, and boy if that doesn’t illustrate the original point of this thread, nothing does…

Well, stick with what you know and may the Holy Spirit truly guide you.

 

[SIA]

Do tell me which other churches the Catholic church has acknowledged as having Apostolic succession? Certainly not the Lutherans or Episcopalian/Anglicans.

I couldn’t care less what other churches the RCC acknowledges as having A.S. I am saying that the RCC only believes that only itself is the Church Christ established, not the Eastern Orthodox.

 

[Deconi]

I couldn’t care less what other churches the RCC acknowledges as having A.S. I am saying that the RCC only believes that only itself is the Church Christ established, not the Eastern Orthodox.

Slightly incorrect. EO are in schism. That is the official RC states! EO maintain A.S, together with us…

 

[LilyM]

I couldn’t care less what other churches the RCC acknowledges as having A.S. I am saying that the RCC only believes that only itself is the Church Christ established, not the Eastern Orthodox.

Of course you couldn’t care less - that’s because you DON’T have it and you know you don’t and you know that you have not a shred of legitimacy without it. Rather like Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe not caring that he hasn’t been legitimately elected and therefore has no legitimate authority in that country, instead being swept away by dangerous delusions of authenticity.

So of course you have to manufacture some plausible excuse for why you ignore Christ’s promise that the gates of Hell would never prevail against His CHURCH (not churches) - y’know, the ONE church founded upon His apostles, the one that’s been there since the beginning. You simply AREN’T that Church founded upon the Apostles, the one to which Christ promised all truth, neither are you proof against the gates of Hell.

Now back to the real point - YOU said I was going against CATHOLIC teaching in saying that only the Orthodox and Catholics have Apostlolic succesion. Since you’ve no proof to offer that the Church has said otherwise than I’ve indicated, I presume you’ll be offering an apology for lying about Catholic teaching?

 

[Deconi]

**News Flash: ** People in other denominations have not denied Christ, not by any stretch.

BTW, there have been Non-Catholic Christians who have died for their faith as well, some at the hand of Catholics, and boy if that doesn’t illustrate the original point of this thread, nothing does…

This is distortive.

Catholics kill Catholics and non-Catholics. Non-Catholics kill non-Catholics and Catholics. "Christians’ kill Christians and non-Christians!

The actions of members does not make it ‘sanctioned’ by the institution. Although every member feels the repercusions, it does not destroy the substance. A Policeman who rapes, does not make it every Policeman is a criminal and the institute of law enforcement invalid and in error!

The differences are obvious and glaring.