Qs about Church teaching re confession from non-Catholic

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UKFaithGirl said:
Catholicism still implies that what Jesus did for us on the cross for us was on its own not enough and inadequate. It also implies that anyone who tries to add their good works to what Jesus did does not understand what He did.
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Not at all…Rather your misinformed and incomplete understanding of Catholicism is where the implication comes from.

Don’t worry - we have seen many come here with the same and similar misconceptions. It takes quite a while to work through them…But we have some wonderful folks here to help. You are among some wonderful Christians friends here.👍

Peace
James
 
Yes - your conclusion is quite right. Works are necessary…Our Lord tells us so in the Scriptures.
As is the desire for confession.

Man, I wish I never existed. I would say I’d commit suicide if I knew I was saved, but I can’t do that in case I go to Hell. I will continue to live in constant torture and fear.

HEEEEELLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPP!!!
 
Love isn’t enough and I won’t do enough good deeds for the right reasons in my life and I might not desire to confess in time.

I wish I didn’t exist. Why did my parents have to have me?!

I wish I was saved if I committed suicide!
 
UKFaithGirl said:
Love isn’t enough
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Please - do not reject Love.
You speak of the need for faith - but read:
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
1 John 4:7-8
Mt 22:36-40
John 13:34-35.

Jesus dies on the cross - not for faith but for Love…
and I won’t do enough good deeds for the right reasons in my life
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Let God worry about whether it is enough. Just do your best.
and I might not desire to confess in time.
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You are already confessing…
I wish I didn’t exist. Why did my parents have to have me?!
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You are here because God loves you and wishes for you to grow to Love Him.
I wish I was saved if I committed suicide!
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And this is satan’s desire for you too. He wishes to drive you to despair…but he will lose he can be defeated…The Holy Spirit guided you here. Keep in touch with this group - and try to find someone you trust to talk with in person.

Peace
James
 
Let God worry about whether it is enough. Just do your best.
My best might not be enough. That’s the whole point!

You are already confessing…
I might not desire to do it when I need to before I die.

I will continue to merely exist and not want to exist.
 
UKFaithGirl said:
Let God worry about whether it is enough. Just do your best.
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Your best will be just fine…Just keep your eye on Him.
You are already confessing…
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I might not desire to do it when I need to before I die.
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I suspect that you are already confessing daily…So I really don’t think this is something you need to worry about.
I will continue to merely exist and not want to exist.
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Well - for now that might be the best you can do. Keep hope in Christ and pray. In two more days will be Easter - the greatest feast day on the calender. A day of renewal and Joy in Christ’s victory and of hope in our victory with Him.

Good night dear one…

Your friend in Christ

James
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JRKH said:
Your best will be just fine…Just keep your eye on Him.

I suspect that you are already confessing daily…So I really don’t think this is something you need to worry about.
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No, my best is not good enough. I might die before I have a chance to desire going to confession.

Yes, almost every minute sometimes, but my desire for confession in the future might not be done quick enough after the last confession, then I might die and go to Hell!
 
UKFaithGirl said:
Catholics say they believe without confession we will go to Purgatory or Hell.
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This not a true statement. Catholics do NOT believe that people who do not go to confession automatically go to hell. If that we true, then the Catholic Church would preach that all Protestants are going to hell. Irregardless of what you might have heard, this isn’t true. Myths about the Catholic Church come from the following places: (1) the Devil, he loves it when a Catholic leaves the Church. (2) from misinformed Protestants, who misunderstand Church teaching and/or history (3) from badly catechized Catholics, (4) from Cafeteria Catholics like Biden, Pelosi, etc who pick and choose what they want from the Church, (5) from ultra radical/extremists who say “Protestants are going to Hell” or that there is no Pope since the 1960s, (6) and finally from ex-Catholics who misunderstood a teaching(s) of the Church and then left without ever learning the truth.

I invite you to stick around here. Catholic.com is one of the most orthodox Catholic sites, dedicated to teaching the REAL teachings of the Church.

God Bless
 
phil19034 said:
This not a true statement. Catholics do NOT believe that people who do not go to confession automatically go to hell.
Ok. It’s if you don’t DESIRE to go to confession and if you don’t do enough good deedsm but you have faith in Jesus and what He did for us.

(5) from ultra radical/extremists
They could be right.

God Bless
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UKFaithGirl:
Ok. It’s if you don’t DESIRE to go to confession and if you don’t do enough good deedsm but you have faith in Jesus and what He did for us.
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I’m curious regarding where you have received your information about the Catholic Church’s beliefs?
  1. the Church does not have a way of knowing what souls are in Hell or know who’s going to hell.
  2. a person on their death bed with mortal sin could ask God for forgiveness and be saved
  3. going to purgatory is being saved. When we are in purgatory, we are cleansed of the negative affects sin had on our soul. We are forgiven by God, but we still need to be purified by the fire that The Bible speaks of.
  4. you are hooked on “good deeds.” It’s works, not deeds. What are works? Prayer for one. Acts of Contrition, giving adoration to God, going to Church, etc. Another great work is simply reading The Bible. Protestants do that all the time and actually preach the importance of that “work.”
  5. Christ saves us based on the purity of our hearts. If our hearts are pure, we may be saved by the Grace of God. Our actions as Human Begins are a reflection of our hearts. If we are cold hearted, our actions and works will be cold. If we have a loving heart, then our actions and works will be loving. If our hearts are harden, then our actions and works will be ridged and hard. The Pharisees had Faith, but their hearts were harden. Their actions and rejection of Christ reflected their harden hearts.
  6. finally, look at the rich man who believed in Christ, but would not let go of his riches. It’s very hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Even with Faith.
  7. finally, Christ died for our salvation, but we need to choose that salvation.
May almighty God Bless you, in The Name of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.
 
BTW - in case I wasn’t clear, when I said “(5) from ultra radical/extremists” I was referring to so called “ultra radical/extremist Catholics” who are in schism or near schism.
 
UKFaithGirl, keep in mind one thing that might help:

Yes, Christians are expected to do good works; we are part of the family and should be about the family business.

That does NOT mean, however (not even in Catholicism) that we must do “enough” good works, or the right kind, to be saved. Both Catholics and Protestants agree that we cannot earn salvation or Heaven in that way. Our salvation is a gift of God. It would be wrong of us to refuse to live a Christian life entirely (provided we live for a significant amount of time after becoming Christian, obviously), but God is never going to tell us that we didn’t do enough to earn it. Earning it is the complete opposite of how it works.

Likewise, Catholic beliefs like sacramental confession and the possibility of final purification in purgatory aren’t meant to replace or add to the value of the blood of Jesus. They are specific manifestations of the salvation that Jesus won for us. The ability to confess our sins and hear that we are forgiven is meant to be a gift, not an extra requirement to leave us in fear or worry. God is our loving Father, not a capricious trickster out to play “gotcha” games with our souls. He’s not looking for an excuse to damn you because you got killed at the wrong moment; He wants you with Him in Heaven and permits nothing except your own obstinate refusal to keep that from happening.

Usagi
 
UKFaithGirl said:
No, my best is not good enough.
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Dear one - I wish I had some “magic” word - phrase - or reference to share that would give you comfort. Thoughts swairl in my head of what I can share, but nothing very succinct comes to mind.
The thing that comes to me though is this analogy.
Consider the efforts of a very small child to draw a picture. They want to do something wonderful for their parent. They sit with their pencil and crayons and work and work. The outcome is often crude and distorted - and as you say above - “just not good enough” compared to what they would like to do. Yet - when they present this picture to their parent, the parent does not see the distorted figures or odd colors or crumpled paper…they see the effort that the child has put in. The parent sees this effort and THAT is good enough, because the parent loves the child and the child loves the parent.

We are all small children to God and God Loves us and appreciates our efforts…even when we think they are not good enough.
Remember that God has invited us to call Him Father. Should we be in terror of our Father? No - yet we can be in awe of Him, we can respect Him, we can even “fear” Him for how he might chastise us for our own good.
But in the end - our Father in Heaven is Pure Agape (Love) and wants only the best for us.
I am constantly surprised at how our Father takes my pitiful efforts and turns them into something good.
I might die before I have a chance to desire going to confession.
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Jesus has taught us not to worry about what we might do in the future. All we can do is to try our best in the present.
As you have pointed out we cannot have perfect knowledge of what we might think or do in the future. Nor can we change what we have thought or done in the past. We can only recognize our current situation, and make decision for the next instant and the foreseeable future.
We pray for the grace to resist temptation and if we fail - we quickly turn back to Him in repentance.
Yes, almost every minute sometimes, but my desire for confession in the future might not be done quick enough after the last confession, then I might die and go to Hell!
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God’s Love is steady - it is not fickle.
He is not waiting for us to make one misstep so that He can toss us into the fire.
That is the sort of image that satan WANTS us to have of God…but it simply is not true.
Satan wants us to view God as a great “Judge” full of cold and impersonal calculation. He wants us to view God as full of anger and wrath.
Yet look at the Gospels…Jesus - who is God incarnate - told us to Call God “Father”!!!
Jesus, who is God incarnate - taught compassion - mercy - healing - forbearance - All the things that stem from Love.
Jesus condensed ALL of the OT law and Prophets into two commandments - both of which are founded on Love (Mt 22:36-40).
Jesus died for us rather than to kill.
Jesus left us a single command - that we Love one another as He has loved us (John 13:34-35)

Does any of this sound like God that we should be terrified of - even if our efforts are pitifully small and imperfect??

Please take heart -

Today is Good Friday - the day that Christ suffered and died on the cross for us. This was an act of Love…
Embrace His Love for you and put aside your terror…

Your friend in Christ.

James
 
Usagi said:
UKFaithGirl, keep in mind one thing that might help:

Yes, Christians are expected to do good works; we are part of the family and should be about the family business.

That does NOT mean, however (not even in Catholicism) that we must do “enough” good works, or the right kind, to be saved. Both Catholics and Protestants agree that we cannot earn salvation or Heaven in that way. Our salvation is a gift of God. It would be wrong of us to refuse to live a Christian life entirely (provided we live for a significant amount of time after becoming Christian, obviously), but God is never going to tell us that we didn’t do enough to earn it. Earning it is the complete opposite of how it works.

Likewise, Catholic beliefs like sacramental confession and the possibility of final purification in purgatory aren’t meant to replace or add to the value of the blood of Jesus. They are specific manifestations of the salvation that Jesus won for us. The ability to confess our sins and hear that we are forgiven is meant to be a gift, not an extra requirement to leave us in fear or worry. God is our loving Father, not a capricious trickster out to play “gotcha” games with our souls. He’s not looking for an excuse to damn you because you got killed at the wrong moment; He wants you with Him in Heaven and permits nothing except your own obstinate refusal to keep that from happening.

Usagi
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A Beautiful post. 👍
 
So you are saying that if I don’t DESIRE to confess AND don’t DESIRE to take sacraments or get baptised, (e.g. on my way home from a confession or taking sacraments, but before I desire to do the next one, whether it be a few mins or a few days, etc), but I have faith in Jesus, that He died on the cross to pay the price for our sins and that He rose again, in order that we might spend eternity in Heaven with Him, then I can go to Heaven, not Purgatory or Hell?
 
UKFaithGirl said:
So you are saying that if I don’t DESIRE to confess AND don’t DESIRE to take sacraments or get baptised, (e.g. on my way home from a confession or taking sacraments, but before I desire to do the next one, whether it be a few mins or a few days, etc), but I have faith in Jesus, that He died on the cross to pay the price for our sins and that He rose again, in order that we might spend eternity in Heaven with Him, then I can go to Heaven, not Purgatory or Hell?
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Yes. God would rather die than spend eternity without you. He is not a nitpicking taskmaster judging your soul on a Sacrament checklist.

Also, you seem to think that the Sacraments are mutually exclusive from the sacrifice on the Cross. Quite the contrary! They would be meaningless rituals without the Cross. The sacraments are the outward signs of the reality of the cross.
 
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