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aball1035
Guest
Do other religions worship the same god as Catholics? Is it yes or no, or more of a scale (more so or less so)
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workingman
Guest
This is a loaded question. It is a yes and a no. The ultimate question is do they worship the Triune God? They could believe and worship the Triune God but have heterodox teachings or they could not worship the Triune God and then the answer would be no and it would be a false religion. The last part may offend but it is IMO the truth, but I would rather help to win a soul than win a argument.
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StrawberryJam
Guest
That’s a good point from what information we have now to review and decide upon today.
The problem with this, is were people who strived to know God before knowing a Triune God following a false religion?
If there is only one God, then this poses so many problems for anyone who was born before this was revealed to them in any sort of way.
It seems that the triune God did not come about until many many humans lived and died, so what of them? I’ve seen what the catholic church says about these folks, and about babies born unbaptized and died or aborted in the womb.
I am not arguing against a triune God when I say this. I am just saying that it is easy to talk about one now. So many humans never knew about the ancient hebrews beliefs, or the chrisitian beliefs of God over time.
They should not be ignored. Many people have been scandalized by chrisitans in times before us, and on different levels even today still are for numerous reasons. Don’t get me started on them.
I am not sure why certian inhabited areas of the globe went for so long without this knowledge of this triune christian God for so long, and some even still today have no idea about Him.
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Blade_and_Blood
Guest
It really depends on the person who’s answering. 
Some say yes because they are aware of the diversity of this world and general similarities between religions. Others say no because they aren’t aware of how big this world is and perhaps can be a little close-minded towards religions they don’t know about and religions that they don’t want to know about.
Liberalism vs. Conservatism: That’s the bottom line.
As for me, religion is just an organized belief system to help its believers sleep at night. If there is a god, religion is irrevelent… and possibly, religion may be trying too hard to be that “perfect system” god always created or wanted. That’s just my personal two cents.
Ironically Yours, Blade and Blood
Some say yes because they are aware of the diversity of this world and general similarities between religions. Others say no because they aren’t aware of how big this world is and perhaps can be a little close-minded towards religions they don’t know about and religions that they don’t want to know about.Liberalism vs. Conservatism: That’s the bottom line.
As for me, religion is just an organized belief system to help its believers sleep at night. If there is a god, religion is irrevelent… and possibly, religion may be trying too hard to be that “perfect system” god always created or wanted. That’s just my personal two cents.
Ironically Yours, Blade and Blood
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workingman
Guest
StrawberryJam, God bless you and thank you for your post. You do raise a valid point. I guess all I can say to them is God will sort it out in the end. We can not possibly completely know his judgment. God was there from the beginning (key God not god). He created all things but that is another topic. Since you read the CC teaching on this we don’t need to go into it.That’s a good point from what information we have now to review and decide upon today.
The problem with this, is were people who strived to know God before knowing a Triune God following a false religion?
If there is only one God, then this poses so many problems for anyone who was born before this was revealed to them in any sort of way.
It seems that the triune God did not come about until many many humans lived and died, so what of them? I’ve seen what the catholic church says about these folks, and about babies born unbaptized and died or aborted in the womb.
I am not arguing against a triune God when I say this. I am just saying that it is easy to talk about one now. So many humans never knew about the ancient hebrews beliefs, or the chrisitian beliefs of God over time.
They should not be ignored. Many people have been scandalized by chrisitans in times before us, and on different levels even today still are for numerous reasons. Don’t get me started on them.
I am not sure why certian inhabited areas of the globe went for so long without this knowledge of this triune christian God for so long, and some even still today have no idea about Him.
Question who should not be ignored? Those who did not here the word? Those who have never truly ever in anyway heard the word of God He will judge accordingly to his graces. Christianity does have some boulders in its history, but that will not destroy or slow the Church that is promised in the NT. All will here the word eventualy. How God does this he will reveal in time.
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Robert_in_SD
Guest
Other religions (non-Christian) have a very different understanding of God, but that does not mean those religions who recognize one God are worshipping another God. Jews and Muslims worship the God of Abraham. They do not accept what Christ has revealed about that God (i.e. the Triune nature of God) but that does not mean the God they worship is a different God - just a God that is not as clearly seen.
As for pantheistic and/or polytheistic religions - perhaps they are springing from humanity’s natural inclination toward the One True God and are triggered by the evidence of God in nature. In that sense, I think that other religions are imperfect attempts to understand the same God that has revealed his nature in Christ.
Still other religions are simply made-up parodies of religion, like the flying spaghetti monster religion or some forms of Satanism (Anton LeVay’s for example).
Just my two cents.
Peace,
Robert
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SkinnyJay
Guest
This is the same argument I bring up with people preaching sola scriptura, What about the people before the Bible?That’s a good point from what information we have now to review and decide upon today.
The problem with this, is were people who strived to know God before knowing a Triune God following a false religion?
If there is only one God, then this poses so many problems for anyone who was born before this was revealed to them in any sort of way.
It seems that the triune God did not come about until many many humans lived and died, so what of them? I’ve seen what the catholic church says about these folks, and about babies born unbaptized and died or aborted in the womb.
I am not arguing against a triune God when I say this. I am just saying that it is easy to talk about one now. So many humans never knew about the ancient hebrews beliefs, or the chrisitian beliefs of God over time.
They should not be ignored. Many people have been scandalized by chrisitans in times before us, and on different levels even today still are for numerous reasons. Don’t get me started on them.
I am not sure why certian inhabited areas of the globe went for so long without this knowledge of this triune christian God for so long, and some even still today have no idea about Him.
The main aspect, in my mind, is would following a God that wasn’t the triune God warrant Hell. I would say it would depend on the intention and the knowledge of the individual. There is only one thing that prevents us from reaching Heaven, that is sin. Sin is the turning away from God and saying I don’t need you. The key clause here being the added I don’t need you. Sin is *willful *turning from God and knowing exactly what you are turning from.
I find it amusing how protestants point a finger at Catholicism and it’s blatant exclusivity
but fail to see the larger paradigm of if only following Christ saves you, 2/3 the worlds population have now been sentenced to hell.Once you have heard the Truth you are responsible for it; You are judged on what you know. How merciful would a so named God be otherwise?
To answer the OP, I would say yes. Excluding worshiping evil or the like, worship in something Good and Loving even something inanimate like the Sun, all point to the true God. For what is Good and Loving that isn’t God? And what wondrous created thing was created outside of Gods Creation?
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workingman
Guest
Robert, I don’t want to start a argument over this and derail this thread, but are you saying that religions that do not worship the Triune God aka Jews and Muslims worship the same God as Christianity? Yes they claim the same God as Abraham but it is not the Christian God that they worship. At the risk of sounding offensive if one does not worship the Triune God then would it not be a different god? IMO yes it would. It has nothing to do with clarity. One ether worships the Triune God or one does not. Now that does not mean there should not be dialog, but to say it is the same God is going to far IMO.
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cheese_sdc
Guest
Read the “Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions”. It will help and it is short!
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SpiritMeadow
Guest
I am always puzzled by this question. It raises the specter to me that there is something I must be missing. The answer seems self-evident.
Christianity claims there is but one God period. It matters not how that God is described, Triune is fine.
Judaism claims there is but one God
Islam claims there is but one God.
If as a Christian, I believe that there is indeed but one God, then by definition, anyone who prays to “God” prays to the only one there is. You may believe they pray imperfectly, or that their relgious teachings are incorrect, but by definition there is no one by the One God to worship, period. I don’t care if they are Hindu, or Shinto, or American Indian, they pray to THE GOD.
If you say they worship another God, because it is unlike yours in description, then you admit that there are more than one God. Simple logic to me.
I await being corrected.
Christianity claims there is but one God period. It matters not how that God is described, Triune is fine.
Judaism claims there is but one God
Islam claims there is but one God.
If as a Christian, I believe that there is indeed but one God, then by definition, anyone who prays to “God” prays to the only one there is. You may believe they pray imperfectly, or that their relgious teachings are incorrect, but by definition there is no one by the One God to worship, period. I don’t care if they are Hindu, or Shinto, or American Indian, they pray to THE GOD.
If you say they worship another God, because it is unlike yours in description, then you admit that there are more than one God. Simple logic to me.
I await being corrected.
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aball1035
Guest
I just had a thought that I think is pretty good. Free to be corrected.
The god in other religions isn’t the same god as Christians worship. The gods have different characteristics and are different in being. However, if an invincibly ignorant person of another religion tries to follow truth the best he can, then he will start following the real God even if he still worships the false one.
What do you think?
The god in other religions isn’t the same god as Christians worship. The gods have different characteristics and are different in being. However, if an invincibly ignorant person of another religion tries to follow truth the best he can, then he will start following the real God even if he still worships the false one.
What do you think?
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SpiritMeadow
Guest
So you are not a monotheist then. You do believe there are other gods. Is the Christian God then the head God, or are their all equals?
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aball1035
Guest
I guess what they call their ‘god’, while not adoring the one true god.
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OneTrueCathApos
Guest
And I pity your two cents for thinking this way. You are so far from the truth it isn’t funny.It really depends on the person who’s answering.
Liberalism vs. Conservatism: That’s the bottom line.
As for me, religion is just an organized belief system to help its believers sleep at night. If there is a god, religion is irrevelent… and possibly, religion may be trying too hard to be that “perfect system” god always created or wanted. That’s just my personal two cents.
Ironically Yours, Blade and Blood
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OneTrueCathApos
Guest
My God cannot be the same as the God of Islam. None of you here will ever convince me of this.
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aball1035
Guest
Could you state your opinion on why you believe this?
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OneTrueCathApos
Guest
Because my God the Father, with the Son, Jesus Christ, is a kind, loving, merciful, forgiving, patient, God. We as Catholics do not need to kill in Jesus’s name as the Muslims need to kill in the name of Allah. It cannot possibly be the same, as Islam is violence and Christ is love.
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JohnVIII
Guest
What the question comes down to is that if you believe different things about God do you then have a different God? I do not know the answer to this question. My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that you must hold close to an orthodox view of God to be worshiping the true one God.
Here’s a quote from an Oriental Orthodox saint who speaks of the “orbit of orthodoxy”.
from: geocities.com/derghazar/chalcedon.html
Patriarch St. Nersess the Gracefilled: “If one says ‘one nature’ in the sense of the indissoluble and indivisible union and not in the sense of confusion, and if one says ‘two natures’ as being without confusion, alteration or signifying division, then both positions are within the orbit of orthodoxy.”
Deciding which issues about the nature of God falls under the “orbit of orthodoxy” is a question that the orthodox will turn to the Church Fathers for an answer, the Roman Catholics will turn to the Pope for answer, and the Protestants will turn to the Bible for an answer. Most likely some doctrine concerning the Holy Trinity, some believe that Jesus is true God as well as true man, would be needed. A hard and fast view that you must believe exactly so-and-so is not reasonable. The so-called Athanasian Creed starts by saying “Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic Faith is this …”. And yet I personally find in the so-called Athanasian Creed two errors that are not orthodox, and I do not believe St. Athanasius himself could have believed these; and yet the so-called Athanasian creed is certainly close enough to be within the “orbit of orthodoxy”.
Here’s a quote from an Oriental Orthodox saint who speaks of the “orbit of orthodoxy”.
from: geocities.com/derghazar/chalcedon.html
Patriarch St. Nersess the Gracefilled: “If one says ‘one nature’ in the sense of the indissoluble and indivisible union and not in the sense of confusion, and if one says ‘two natures’ as being without confusion, alteration or signifying division, then both positions are within the orbit of orthodoxy.”
Deciding which issues about the nature of God falls under the “orbit of orthodoxy” is a question that the orthodox will turn to the Church Fathers for an answer, the Roman Catholics will turn to the Pope for answer, and the Protestants will turn to the Bible for an answer. Most likely some doctrine concerning the Holy Trinity, some believe that Jesus is true God as well as true man, would be needed. A hard and fast view that you must believe exactly so-and-so is not reasonable. The so-called Athanasian Creed starts by saying “Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic Faith is this …”. And yet I personally find in the so-called Athanasian Creed two errors that are not orthodox, and I do not believe St. Athanasius himself could have believed these; and yet the so-called Athanasian creed is certainly close enough to be within the “orbit of orthodoxy”.
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SpiritMeadow
Guest
Sorry, but I’m unclear what you mean.
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SpiritMeadow
Guest
Wow, I’d have never pegged you for believing there were multiple gods. And you capitalize Islam’s as well as yours. Amazing.
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