Question from protestant

[SPH1]

Egg4christ:

I decided to look into the catholic faith. I used to be catholic, but we changed faiths. I’ve come to believe that catholics can experience God in the same way I do, that it is very possible catholics have a relationship with Jesus, and perhaps have found a different angle than i have, that maybe i have something to learn from you people.

IMO, Catholics don’t experience God in the same way you do. That’s because you lack the full experience of God in the Sacraments and the Holy Catholic Church.

 

[Lorarose]

If it does apply, then can the catholic church continue to claim no salvation oustide it’s walls?

The Church does not teach that protestants cannot be saved.​

God doesn’t bless lives that are far from his will. not like this at least. If i am running in the wrong direction, why does he keep giving me signals to keep running. Why are my missions trips filled with awesomeness? why does my pastor keep hitting me with the exact topic i need to hear, if my church is rooted in a split from the “true chuch”, that was against his will? It doesn’t make sense. You all sound like nice, logical people. But how can we both be right? I know i’ve expressed this before, but unfortunately, i can’t come up with a solid answer yet.

God has a unique plan for all of us and does not take us all down the same road.
No one here has claimed that God cannot give blessings or consolations to protestants.
It is true - like you said though - we cannot both be right.
And I have not seen you once address the issue of the teaching held by the early church which received doctrine from the Apostles.
Here is a good link to begin your investigation into the history of the Church.
Many folks get banned from protestant forums for attempting to discuss this history. What are they afraid of?

newadvent.org/fathers

 

[fellicia]

Hey Egg,

There is not much I can say here as there have been so many great points made. I think its great that you have found God and really do love him. I also think its great that you are really trying to learn about the other faiths concerning Christ…

If I where you I would start off with searching the history of Christianity at first ( Which will take you from the apostels to the catholic church etc) and work your way to present day. By doing this in order you may come to realise exactly why Catholics are Catholics.

God Bless

 

[buzzcut]

Egg4christ:

If i am running in the wrong direction, why does he keep giving me signals to keep running. Why are my missions trips filled with awesomeness? why does my pastor keep hitting me with the exact topic i need to hear, if my church is rooted in a split from the “true chuch”, that was against his will?

Egg, I am the opposite from you, started out non-Catholic and now a sort of Catholic-in-training. When I have a question I want to know the answer to, the first place I look is in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can buy yourself a copy in a regular bookstore, you don’t need to get it from a Catholic bookstore. I can’t always find what I’m looking for in it, so sometimes I ask here. And I’ve found the responses I get here to be very helpful. But your question is answered directly in CCC para 819. Talking about non-Catholics, it says:

Christ’s Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church. All these blessings come from Christ and lead to him, and are in themselves calls to "Catholic unity."

 

[mercygate]

Christ’s Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church. All these blessings come from Christ and lead to him, and are in themselves calls to “Catholic unity.”

Yo, Buzz! High five!

 

[Katholikos]

** Egg wrote**: i attended a promise keepers conference. Although pretty much universally christian, it leaned more towards protestant in presentation. We liked it, felt there were something lacking in our catholic church, and our family began a search for a new church. I believe God led us to our current church, The chapel

Truth has no relation to feelings.

If I established a restaurant where I provided the very best food in the world, would I tell anyone that the food was better down the street and that they ought to leave my restaurant and eat somewhere else?

The restaurant is a metaphor for the Catholic Church. Jesus founded only one Church. He endowed that Church with all the gifts that a human being could possibly need to get to heaven. The Apostles were its teachers. The seven Sacraments are God’s gifts – including the Food of Heaven, the Blessed Eucharist, the very substance of the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ Himself.

We not only “accept Christ as our personal Lord and Savior” every time we receive Holy Communion, we have life – Christ’s Own Divine Life – because we receive Him, physically, into our own bodies as Food. "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, you do not have life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him" John 6:53-56 RSV.

And you think there is better food down the street in another church founded in the 20th century by a mere man?

Jesus Christ is God. Is God going to lead you away from this Divine Source of Heavenly Food that He Himself founded for the salvation of your soul and into a church founded by another – a mere man – where you are fed doctrines that are based on that man’s own opinion? That’s what you are fed at The Calvary – opinion; some of the several thousand different, contrasting, conflicting, and competing opinions based on the same 66-book cut version of the incomplete Protestant Bible from among which you can choose “the one(s) you like” and about which you “feel good.” In the Catholic Church you are fed the Divine Life of God – in Word and in Sacrament.

And you “felt something was lacking.” Bull-oney.

JMJ Jay
Ex-Protestant, ex-agnostic, ex-atheist, ecstatic to be Catholic!

 

[_MM]

The whole issue here is the assumption of the RCC. If you study historty, then theology, then religion, one quickly gains understanding of how totally messed up this world is. As far as the religion of the RCC goes, I quote Romans out of the Message Bible, for its easeness and readibility.

Chap.2 Those people are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors. But God isn’t so easily diverted. He sees right through all such smoke screens and holds you to what you’ve done.
You didn’t think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he’s such a nice God, he’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he’s not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life change.
You’re not getting by with anything. Every refusal and avoidance of God adds fuel to the fire. The day is coming when it’s going to blaze hot and high, God’s fiery and righteous judgment. Make no mistake: In the end you get what’s coming to you-Real Life for those who work on God’s side, but to those who insist on getting their own way and take the path of least resistance, Fire!
If you go against the grain, you get splinters, regardless of which neighborhood you’re from, what your parents taught you, what schools you attended. But if you embrace the way God does things, there are wonderful payoffs, again without regard to where you are from or how you were brought up. Being a Jew won’t give you an automatic stamp of approval. God pays no attention to what others say (or what you think) about you. He makes up his own mind.
If you sin without knowing what you’re doing, God takes that into account. But if you sin knowing full well what you’re doing, that’s a different story entirely. Merely hearing God’s law is a waste of your time if you don’t do what he commands. Doing, not hearing, is what makes the difference with God.
When outsiders who have never heard of God’s law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience.

They show that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God’s yes and no, right and wrong. Their response to God’s yes and no will become public knowledge on the day God makes his final decision about every man and woman. The Message from God that I proclaim through Jesus Christ takes into account all these differences.

RELIGION CAN’T SAVE YOU
If you’re brought up Jewish, don’t assume that you can lean back in the arms of your religion and take it easy, feeling smug because you’re an insider to God’s revelation, a connoisseur of the best thin~ God, informed on the latest doctrines! I have a special word of caution for you who are sure that you have it all together yourselves and, because you know God’s revealed Word inside and out, feel qualified to guide others through their blind alleys and dark nights .and confused emotions to God. While you are guiding others, who is going to guide you? I’m quite serious. While preaching “Don’t you steal!" are you going to rob people blind? Who would suspect you? The same with adultery. The same with idolatry. You can get by with almost anything if you front it with eloquent talk about God. and his law. The line from Scripture, “It’s because of you Jews that the outsiders are down on God,” shows it’s an old problem that isn’t going to go away.
Circumcision, the surgical ritual that marks you as a Jew is great if you live in accord with God’s law. But if you don’t, it’s worse than not being circumcised. The reverse is also true: The uncumcised who keep God’s ways are as good as the circumcised - in fact, better. Better to keep God’s law uncircumcised than break it circumcised. Don’t you see: It’s not the cut of a knife that makes a Jew. You become a Jew by who you are. It’s the mark of God on your heart, not of a knife on your skin, that makes a Jew. And recognition comes from God, not legalistic critics.

CONT…

 

[_MM]

3 So what difference does it make who’s a Jew and who isn’t, who has been trained in God’s ways and who hasn’t? As it turns . it makes a lot of difference-but not the difference so many have assumed.

First, there’s the matter of being put in charge of writing down and caring for God’s revelation, these Holy Scriptures. So, what if, in the course of doing that, some of those Jews abandoned their post? God didn’t abandon them. Do you think their faithlessness cancels out his faithfulness? Not on your life! Depend on it: God keeps his word even when the whole world is lying through its teeth. Scripture says the same:

“Your words stand fast and true; Rejection doesn’t faze you.”

Being in Church X or Religion X will not save you nor determine your faith. So all claims made the RCC or ANY denom is the ONE & True is a lie. Only The Body of Christ is the ONE & TRUE!

 

[catsrus]

Being in Church X or Religion X will not save

True.

Edited by Moderator as a quote of a conduct rule 7 violation

I missed the corelation with your last sentence. How do you arrive here from there?

Only The Body of Christ is the ONE & TRUE!

That is true and only in the Holy Catholic Church will you find the actual Body of Christ.

 

[AquinasXVI]

Egg!

Let me say that I’m proud of you. You came out swingging in the other thread and everyone jumped on you. BUT you didn’t give up and started from scratch. Now with this thread it looks like you’re getting dialog.

You asked about the Holy Eucharist.

I can give you many stories and ideas but I think all of them won’t give the Body of Christ justice. It’s not an it, it’s a who. It is the Lord! So, if you can trust a mystery which Jesus himself demanded from the apostles (John6:46-68) to believe, you might get a glimpse of what drives this 2000 year old church. The Most Holy Eucharist is source and summit of the Christian life. It is a foretaste of heaven.

You also said that you are running and running with God and as Divine Providence would have it, you’ve landed on us. You have to admit there’s a sense of humor in it. Keep the sincerity of your search, God will reveal.

in XT.