Religion of Rules

[Pax]

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What about going to church on Sundays? Granted, going to church every week is a good idea, and I certainly try the best. But the Catholic church has made it a mortal sin to not go to church on sundays (at least, it used to be, I’m not sure if it still is). Again, christians go to church because they know they should go to church, not because they are told to go to church. I think that if the CC understood this fact, they wouldn’t have made it a mortal sin to skip church on Sundays.

These are just two examples of many of the arbitrary rules the CC has created. The simple fact of the matter is that christianity is not a religion of rules, christianity is about freedom. RCCism however is a religion of rules, and in making itself one it has removed itself from what Jesus intended for His Church. I think this is one of the biggest mistakes it has made.

Thank you for posting this. IMHO many anti-Catholic people share your view. The problem is that both of these paragraphs are unbiblical. Let me show what I mean by way of scripture.

Freedom as used in the NT does not mean what you have stated in your post. Paul makes it clear in his letters that the Old Law did not give power to live according to God’s will, and that the Jews failed to fulfill the Old Law because they did not pursue it by way of faith.[Rom 9:32] Likewise, Paul tells us that "we do not overthrow the law by this faith, but that we instead uphold the law.[Rom 3:31] What he is referring to is the moral portion of the law as opposed to the technical and ritual portions of the Levitical and Mosaic Laws.

When Jesus, Peter, Paul, and John talk about freedom they are refering to freedom from sinning. The following passages should be helpful in understanding this point:

John 8: 31-36
Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered him, "We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, “You will be made free’?” Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Rom 6: 6
We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.

Rom 6:14-16
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

1 Jn 3: 4-9
Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God.

Acts 13:39
by this Jesus everyone who believes is set free from all those sins from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

1 Peter 4:1-2
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same intention (for whoever has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin), so as to live for the rest of your earthly life no longer by human desires but by the will of God.

cont. on next post

 

[Pax]

cont. from prior post:

True freedom is by way of God’s saving grace. God’s grace is the great enabler that makes it possible for us to be free from commiting sin. Through Jesus we are no longer, as Paul puts it, “slaves to sin.” Freedom in the NT does not mean that we are free from rules. A great example of this is keeping Holy the Lord’s Day or as we put, “going to mass on Sunday.” Scripture is very helpful in this regard.

In the OT we have the command to keep Holy the Lord’s Day contained in the ten commandments. It no different in the NT. Before we go to the NT, however, we have one more OT prophecy to look at. In Malachi 1:11 it says:

“For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.” Please note that this is a future prophecy because at the time Malachi wrote this the Lord’s name was not great among all the nations. Moreover, there was no perfect sacrifice until the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Hebrews 9:14 says that Jesus offered himself **“without blemish to God.” ** The mass is a sacrifice. In the mass the “eternal” sacrifice of Jesus is re-presented. This perfect sacrifice is offered about 330,000 times per day world wide “from the rising until the setting of the sun.”

This ties into Hebrew 10 where we read that we have an altar. Melchizedek who offered bread and wine is also mentioned, and we are told that Jesus is our high priest in the order of Mechizedek. Furthermore, Hebrews 13:10 says that “we have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat.” We on the other hand have an altar and a sacrifice that is the body and blood of Jesus that we are allowed to partake of at mass. This is why participating at mass on Sunday is so important and crucial.

The Book of Hebrews makes clear in all of this that we must attend mass. The sacrifice of Jesus and its re-presentation are the source and summit of our salvation. Hebrews 2:3 says “how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” Even more specifically, Hebrews 10:24…27 says that we must “not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some…For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgement, and fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.” Please note the church didn’t make it a mortal sin to miss mass. Scripture which is the inspired word of God made it so.

Beyond this the book of Hebrews goes on to address other things that are commanded that include those on your punch list. Moreover, many other places in the NT do likewise. If I were to list the numerous scriptures that show the “rules” to which you object it would take more space than a single post would allow.

I hope this helps.

 

[Ani_Ibi]

Many of the folks I have met who claim that rules are unnecessary actually mean that they themselves will not content themselves to be ruled but are quite content to rule other folks. And there you have it. One more attempt to disguise elitism as ‘spirituality.’ Who knows? Maybe some folks are ‘special.’