Should I return to the Catholic faith?

[Dorothy]

That perplexes me too (midwife proof of virgin birth).

We have Sacred Scripture and the God-given authority of the Church that our
Blessed Mother is a virgin before, during, and after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

[chuck001]

I grew up Catholic. But after some formal biblical studies, I got into liberal theology. I denied things such as the virgin birth, the trinity, the historicity of the Old Testament, possibly some miracles, etc. Though, I never denied the resurrection which kept me within Christianity. The resurrection is actually quite hard to refute. Even atheistic scholars of the scriptures acknowledge this. The empty tomb and the fact that the very earliest Christians believed in the risen Christ for some reason is historical fact among scholars and historians. Anyway, back onto topic, my other views lead me to leave Catholicism and simply become nondenominational. I went to a nondenominational church over the years. Though, I did attend a Baptist church for a while since it was the closest to my location at the time. I also attended a very liberal Episcopal church a few times for some of their theological views. Anyway, this holiday season I returned to some of my biblical studies. This has lead me to come to believe in the trinity again, as well as some kind of real presence in the Eucharist. Though, I do not believe Christ said he was God or saw himself as God, the very earliest Christians for some reason did see him as God. At this moment, I can’t say I believe everything the Catholic Church teaches. This mostly includes Marian dogmas, including the historicity of the virgin birth. It also includes the ministerial priesthood since I can’t really find evidence for Christian belief in this until a little later on. Though, I can say I believe in the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome since we can find much evidence for this in all kinds of early Christian writings. Should I return to the Catholic Church? Should I talk to a Priest first and get advice about this?

I fully admire your humility to seek out the truth. I could certainly learn a lot from you. I would like to say as a Catholic convert and RCIA student with full intention of becoming a confirmed Catholic, this is the best decision I have made in my life. Liberal theology is something to distract you from the truth. Many non-demoninational churches and/or protestant, pride themselves on the simplicity of “being saved” and think all you have to do is just recite a few words and you are good to go thus you can continue living in sin because Jesus has your back. The backdrop of this message is that sin feels good to the flesh, i.e. sex, lots of money, etc and the effort to overcome it is not comfortable. The “so-called simplicity” is accepting the unearned gift of God’s grace for the “simple” reason that He loves us in a manner we will never understand in this life. Forgive me if I am lashing out as this is not my intention and I can only speak from my experiences. With that said, IMHO, sola scriptura has a tendency reject the essence of free will, which is not what God willed for us. Otherwise, we would just be robots. If you pay close attention to a lot of evangelical pastors, sooner or later, they will say or communicate something that denounces the catholic faith.

 

[Abu]

thephilosopher6
Though, I do not believe Christ said he was God or saw himself as God, the very earliest Christians for some reason did see him as God

There is no valid reason to believe that Christ is not God:
In fact, following Mt 16:15, Peter affirms with great clarity – “Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.”

Then Jesus, the Christ, immediately founds His Church – the Catholic Church – on St Peter

Quadratus writes (circa 123 A.D.) that in his day there were still persons
around who had been cured or raised from the dead by Jesus – prime witnesses. [Eusebius, *Church History, 4.3, 1.2; See Free From All Error, Fr W. Most, p 12]

Who else, except the Christ, claimed to be God and proved it?
The reality is that:
Fact 1: There was a man called Jesus.
Fact 2: He claimed to be a messenger sent from God.
Fact 3: He did enough to prove that He was such a messenger.
Fact 4: Crowds followed Jesus and He had an inner circle to whom he spoke much more.
Fact 5: He commissioned His followers to continue His teaching and founded His Church.
Fact 6: Jesus affirmed that God would protect that teaching.

Obviously, the Resurrection of Jesus is the key, as the existence and faith of the Catholic communities is not self-explanatory, but dependent on the fact of the spectacular historical Jesus and the fact of His Resurrection.

**In forming His Church Jesus explicitly made four promises to Peter alone: **
“You are Peter and on this rock I will build My Church.” (Mt 16:18)
“The gates of hell will not prevail against it.”(Mt 16:18)
“I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven." ( Mt 16:19)
“Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.” (Mt 16:19) [Later to the Twelve, also].

Sole authority:
“Strengthen your brethren.” (Lk 22:32)
“Feed My sheep.”(Jn 21:17).

The first error is in disregarding the mandate of Jesus, the Son of God, in founding His Church and installing St Peter as His Supreme Vicar

The second error is in disregarding history.
Already, Peter had exercised his supreme authority in the upper room before Pentecost to have Judas’ place filled. At the first Apostolic Council of Jerusalem Peter settled the heated discussion over circumcising the gentiles and “the whole assembly fell silent” (Acts 15:7-12). Paul made sure that his ministry to the gentiles was recognised by, Peter (Gal 1:I8).

That is why the earliest Christians knew that the Christ is God.

The reality that Jesus is God and founded His Catholic Church upon St Peter and the Apostles is shown also by the facts of the miracle of the Sun at Fatima, the medically attested miracles that take place at Lourdes, and the Eucharistic miracles, for instance.

 

[fred_conty]

Originally Posted by thephilosopher6
Though, I do not believe Christ said he was God or saw himself as God, the very earliest Christians for some reason did see him as God.

In one of the 4 gospels, the Sanhedrin accused Jesus of making himself out to be God which was blasphemy and punishable by death. Jesus never denied that he was God and in fact affirmed it standing before them. And then they tore their garments in acknowledgement of his blasphemy against God. And it was because of this that Jesus was condemned, because Pilot could not find any wrong in him.

Why would a anyone die for a lie?

But in addition, he rose himself from death on Easter morn. No other man has ever brought themselves back from death whose death was verified, by a spear run thru his heart. There have been many charletins over the years but none whose death was that certain. Yet he was seen alive for 40 days by many people after he had risen after a spear was run thru his heart.

How could any man do this if he were only a man?