Doreen, I appreciate your question, I really do. I’m sure you experience God in your life as full as you can! But what if there is more? What if there are whole areas of the Faith that you have yet to explore? Mercygate has, as she always does, really put into words one of the most basic, most understandable, and most compassionate response to many of the questions here… But again, understanding what she says may not come from books or even scripture… it will come from experience. From embracing all parts of the Church that God gives us. And taking that step will be nothing short of a move of Faith.
Very few Catholics have been logically convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt about everything relating to RC. At some point there was a step of Faith. “God, if this is the direction you wish me to go… I will.” In the end, there is just Faith.
Faith that God has protected a Church from everything that man could do to it.
Faith that God is using men to disseminate his teachings the way He wishes it.
Faith that he has given authority to those men and that Church to help humans come to the fullness of his embrace.
And this explains a little bit of my apprehension with the Catholic thinking.
You are really saying you trust God to protect your church over others.
You are saying that you believe God entrusted His Word to only certain men, who then passed it on to other men.
And you believe that the church you speak of has not changed since the day He ascended into heaven.
But here’s the problem: If you look at early church history, you’ll see how the “Catholic” church has seriously changed. The apostles preached that we hold on to the truth and not add to it, but as early as A.D. 70, you will see that, over time, the papacy claimed more and more power for itself, the papal church introduced the following: baptismal regeneration, justification by works, celibacy, confessional rules, purgatory, transubstantiation, indulgences and penance (to name a few) during the dark ages –
there were serious problems in the church at this time, and pure Christianity was maintained by a few outside the papacy…since these new teachings were a doctrine organized by man…many of the sacraments are only as old as the “Dark Ages”…(A.D. 600-1500) some were not even heard of before that time.
And the church that Christ calls His own was the church of “pure Christianity”…not adding anything to the Sacrifice of Christ, but being “The Church of the First Born” (meaning…we must be “born into” this church by the transforming of our minds.)
The reformation DID challenge and change the church you claim to be infallible and unchanging. The Jesuit priesthood would attest to that, no?
In one text, I found that the actual “papal infallibility” wasn’t proclaimed until 1870!
I know there are Scriptures that say that there is One Church, One Faith, and I believe He will call all “believers” unto Himself…but when I study revelation and history, evidence suggests that many who put their hope in “THE Church” are going to be disappointed. But he whose hope is in the LORD will not be disappointed.
I don’t mean to stir up contention by all this. These are simply the things I see as real events in history that have yet to be adequately explained to me…that I might join you in believing in this idea that Catholicism is “the way”.
I believe that much of faith comes by a simple trust, as you say, Shiann, but I am not going to be led like a lamb to the slaughter. I want to understand EXACTLY who it is I am putting my faith in! (This is why my main source is Scripture…and I know you’ll say, well you can thank the Catholic church for that! But seriously, that is like saying it is all the WORD OF MAN and not God. And if you truly believe THAT…how can you trust a word of it?)
Thanks for your ear. (And I realize now that this should all go to a new thread.)
D.
Christ himself will draw you to his heart in his own good time and for your good and for his greater glory. We’ll walk with you but it is him alone whom you must follow.
