Road to protestant heaven vs catholic

[augustine900]

I recently had a conversation with my local priest about this and I asked if catholic heaven is the same place for protestants. The priest said because catholicism has the sacraments it’s easier and quicker for catholics to get to heaven and protestantism has this rocky topsy turvey road to it in the afterlife.

I just wanted to get more information on this. Are people reserected into the new world after they die where during the cremation ceremony the person is already outside of the coffin living a secret life or does the soul come out of the body and caught by an alternate being as a carrier to heaven. If does the body come out of the coffin and be taken on into heaven or does the soul come out of the body and be caught.

Please forgive me, I have been reading some conspiracy stuff and that hasn’t helped but I am just wondering what the differences are to the path of heaven between the two faiths.

Kind Regards

 

[ltwin]

I recently had a conversation with my local priest about this and I asked if catholic heaven is the same place for protestants. The priest said because catholicism has the sacraments it’s easier and quicker for catholics to get to heaven and protestantism has this rocky topsy turvey road to it in the afterlife.

I just wanted to get more information on this. Are people reserected into the new world after they die where during the cremation ceremony the person is already outside of the coffin living a secret life or does the soul come out of the body and caught by an alternate being as a carrier to heaven. If does the body come out of the coffin and be taken on into heaven or does the soul come out of the body and be caught.

Please forgive me, I have been reading some conspiracy stuff and that hasn’t helped but I am just wondering what the differences are to the path of heaven between the two faiths.

Kind Regards

Man is a tripart being: body, soul (mind/emotions), and spirit (the real you). At death, the body decays but your spirit is immortal.

Evangelical Protestants believe that when someone dies who has been justified by faith, their spirit is immediately in the presence of Christ. Since no one who has died is on hand to inform us what that is like, we don’t really know what the experience is like.

The resurrection will not take place until the return of Christ. At that time, those who have died in Christ will receive glorified bodies (whether buried or cremated).

 

[GEddie]

The only difference between Catholic and Protestant afterlife is that Protestants get twice as much Purgatory to convince them it exists

ICXC NIKA.

 

[GEddie]

The original or “natural body” as such is not involved in Life Everlasting, but will convert to the Pneumatikon soma, or “spiritual body.”

ICXC NIKA.

 

[Faithdancer]

The only difference between Catholic and Protestant afterlife is that Protestants get twice as much Purgatory to convince them it exists

ICXC NIKA.

Oh no, say it ain’t so!

 

[St_Francis]

by definition, death is the separation of the soul from the body. The soul is eternal and will stay mostly the same after death. The soul goes immediately (afawk) to the particular judgement before Christ, and from there to Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory.

In Purgatory, the soul can be and is cleansed–that is the only change that can be made to the soul after death.

After the general judgemen, our souls will be reunited with our bodies, but our bodies will be different. This is the general ressurection.

All of this is the same for each and every human, no matter what religion or denomination.

 

[benjohnson]

The only difference between Catholic and Protestant afterlife is that Protestants get twice as much Purgatory to convince them it exists

 

[Randy_Carson]

Man is a tripart being: body, soul (mind/emotions), and spirit (the real you). At death, the body decays but your spirit is immortal.

Evangelical Protestants believe that when someone dies who has been justified by faith, their spirit is immediately in the presence of Christ. Since no one who has died is on hand to inform us what that is like, we don’t really know what the experience is like.

The resurrection will not take place until the return of Christ. At that time, those who have died in Christ will receive glorified bodies (whether buried or cremated).

Sounds like you’ve been studying Watchman Nee. I did, too.

The Catholic position is that man is bipartite: soul and body. Now, before you go quoting I Thess. 5:23 or Hebrews 4:12, I’d suggest you listen to how a former Assemblies of God pastor, Tim Staples, explains the Catholic view.

He knows the Word, knows your position and can explain it better than I can.

Enjoy!

Is Man Constituted by Two Parts or Three?
By Tim Staples
timstaples.com/?p=blog&id=378

 

[GEddie]

Thank you for the reference.

While I for one have never subscribed to the bulls-eye anthropology of spirit inside soul inside body, when I have time, I will listen to it.

ICXC NIKA

 

[adawgj]

I thought the say was once saved always saved?

 

[Gorgias]

I don’t think anyone can properly answer this question because…we are all alive!
No one alive can really know what happens–if anything–after death.
Many have guesses and thoughts and hopes and ideas and imaginings and beliefs on it.
But the only way to know for sure it…go ourselves.

That’s a common meme these days, but it betrays an error of logic (and of the faith of the Church). It says that those whose bodies have died are no longer ‘alive’. It also suggests that we believers have no way to know what happens after death – we do, though: Jesus has told us about it! There is a definite answer, and it’s untrue that no human knows: Jesus does!

Christians can “properly answer this question”, without “guesses, thoughts, hopes, ideas, and imaginings”. The correctness of the answer doesn’t even depend on “beliefs” – it exists, outside the question of whether anyone believes in it!

 

[Gorgias]

Man is a tripart being: body, soul (mind/emotions), and spirit (the real you).

Randy’s already commented on this, but I wanted to add one thought: even if you believe in humans being ‘body and soul’, rather than ‘body, spirit, and soul’, it’s not the case that our spirit (or our soul) is “the real me.” We are not souls trapped in bodies; we are a unity of body and soul. It’s not that my soul is ‘more’ me, or that my body is ‘less’ me. Both are equal in dignity. After all, my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit! (1 Cor 6:19)

 

[Gorgias]

I recently had a conversation with my local priest about this and I asked if catholic heaven is the same place for protestants. The priest said because catholicism has the sacraments it’s easier and quicker for catholics to get to heaven and protestantism has this rocky topsy turvey road to it in the afterlife.

It seems that, if you understood him correctly, your pastor answered a different question than the one you asked. There is no ‘Catholic heaven’ or ‘Protestant heaven.’ There is only one heaven.

If you understood him correctly, he was talking about how to attain to heaven. I don’t know that I’d call Catholicism a “quicker” way to heaven, or non-Catholic Christianity a “rocky” or “topsy-turvy” way, but maybe he was trying to tell you that the way Jesus gave us, to be assured of heaven, included faith in Him and keeping a life of grace that includes participation in sacramental grace.

I just wanted to get more information on this. Are people reserected into the new world after they die where during the cremation ceremony the person is already outside of the coffin living a secret life or does the soul come out of the body and caught by an alternate being as a carrier to heaven. If does the body come out of the coffin and be taken on into heaven or does the soul come out of the body and be caught.

The Church teaches that, when a human dies, his soul encounters Jesus, who tells him his eternal destiny in a ‘particular judgment’. If a person is damned, his soul experiences hell. If a person is heaven-bound, then he must be perfect before he can come into the presence of God, so (if necessary) he is perfected through the purgation of his imperfections (i.e., any unforgiven venial sin or any temporal punishment due to sin). What happens to his body is immaterial: burial, cremation, whatever – none of it matters to our eternal destiny (although it’s necessary to honor the bodies of the deceased, as they had been temples of the Holy Spirit!). At the end of time, everyone will receive their glorified bodies, in which they will spend eternity. It doesn’t matter what happened to our bodies here on earth (e.g., burial, cremation, etc); we will all have glorified bodies, and we will spend eternity either in hell or heaven.

We do not live a ‘secret life’ outside the coffin; our souls are not ‘caught’ by some being and escorted to heaven. Our souls are also not ‘trapped’ with our bodies in the grave; they are either with God or in hell, following our death.

I am just wondering what the differences are to the path of heaven between the two faiths.

There is only one path to heaven: Jesus. He is “the way, the truth, and the life.” No matter what our faith, if we attain to heaven, it’s because of Jesus, and His Church on earth.

 

[EIF5A]

The only difference between Catholic and Protestant afterlife is that Protestants get twice as much Purgatory to convince them it exists

ICXC NIKA.

I know the above was meant in jest, but I pondered something similar.

Maybe purgatory is like summer school. Didn’t quite flunk out of school, but more needs to be learned to progress to the next grade. Maybe there will be a sense of regret for not having recourse to Mary and the saints in prayer, or for not believing in the Marian dogmas as they are connected to Our Lord and the salvation of humanity, or out of ignorance, professing untrue things about the Mother of God.

 

[Adamski]

I recently had a conversation with my local priest about this and I asked if catholic heaven is the same place for protestants. The priest said because catholicism has the sacraments it’s easier and quicker for catholics to get to heaven and protestantism has this rocky topsy turvey road to it in the afterlife.

I just wanted to get more information on this. Are people reserected into the new world after they die where during the cremation ceremony the person is already outside of the coffin living a secret life or does the soul come out of the body and caught by an alternate being as a carrier to heaven. If does the body come out of the coffin and be taken on into heaven or does the soul come out of the body and be caught.

Please forgive me, I have been reading some conspiracy stuff and that hasn’t helped but I am just wondering what the differences are to the path of heaven between the two faiths.

Kind Regards

A couple of things I asked myself

1- if are are in unity in heaven then there is no arguing so proteatantism must be false
2-the sacraments have really made it much easier for me to live a holy life and walk closer to God

 

[rose_kelly]

I have always firmly believed that if you live a good life, you will be welcome into heaven whatever your faith- “do unto others as you would have them do to you”.

Read - The Sermon on the Mount- Mathew 5-7

 

[Gorgias]

Maybe purgatory is like summer school. Didn’t quite flunk out of school, but more needs to be learned to progress to the next grade. Maybe there will be a sense of regret for not having recourse to Mary and the saints in prayer

Purgatory isn’t about how much we’ve ‘learned’ or ‘failed to learn’; it isn’t about ‘regret’. It’s about being purged of the temporal punishment due to sin, and about unforgiven venial sin.

, or for not believing in the Marian dogmas as they are connected to Our Lord and the salvation of humanity, or out of ignorance, professing untrue things about the Mother of God.

It’s also not about ‘punishing’ people for beliefs of which they are infallibly ignorant and can’t be faulted for having not held.

 

[Gorgias]

I have always firmly believed that if you live a good life, you will be welcome into heaven whatever your faith- “do unto others as you would have them do to you”.

Read - The Sermon on the Mount- Mathew 5-7

Hmm… even for Catholics? No – “living a good life” isn’t the standard (inasmuch as you don’t really mean “living a life dedicated to Christ”… )

 

[ltwin]

Sounds like you’ve been studying Watchman Nee. I did, too.

I’ve never heard of him.

The Catholic position is that man is bipartite: soul and body. Now, before you go quoting I Thess. 5:23 or Hebrews 4:12, I’d suggest you listen to how a former Assemblies of God pastor, Tim Staples, explains the Catholic view.

He knows the Word, knows your position and can explain it better than I can.

Enjoy!

Is Man Constituted by Two Parts or Three?
By Tim Staples
timstaples.com/?p=blog&id=378

I really don’t have a position on either dichotomy or trichotomy. I’ve never given much thought to either, besides the fact that humans are more than a mass of flesh, bones, and nerves. We are spiritual beings.

I won’t argue that the trichotomist view is disputed. Most evangelical scholars hold to tthe dichotomist view today, while trichotomy is more of a popular belief. Still, the trichotomy scheme is my default answer, probably because its familiar from my childhood.

 

[ltwin]

Randy’s already commented on this, but I wanted to add one thought: even if you believe in humans being ‘body and soul’, rather than ‘body, spirit, and soul’, it’s not the case that our spirit (or our soul) is “the real me.” We are not souls trapped in bodies; we are a unity of body and soul. It’s not that my soul is ‘more’ me, or that my body is ‘less’ me. Both are equal in dignity. After all, my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit! (1 Cor 6:19)

True, but the body will pass away. Even now, from the moment of birth, death reigns in our mortal body. It gets sick and one day will get old and, ultimately, there will be bodily death. Your spirit/soul does not end. It is eternal. And for those who trust in Christ, death does not reign in us but life, even the very life of Christ. The body dies but the spirit lives on. In that sense, the spirit is the “real you.”

While we are waiting for the final resurrection, when those who are alive in Christ receive glorified bodies, I do not believe we will be 'half" of ourselves in Christ’s presence.