So how do you know that Catholicism is correct?

[mozart-250]

…an obvious question I’ve always wanted to ask.

I want to refrain from debating as much as possible in this thread as debating has left a sour taste in my head. I will ask stupid questions if you don’t mind.

Fire away.

 

[SacredHeartFan]

A man-instituted religion would have failed already. look at the pagan people. If you don’t believe in catholicism why are you on this website?

 

[oneGODoneCHURCH]

…an obvious question I’ve always wanted to ask.

I want to refrain from debating as much as possible in this thread as debating has left a sour taste in my head. I will ask stupid questions if you don’t mind.

Fire away.

I guess the main thing for me is that there is no other Christian church that can trace itself back to the apostles and Christ. All others may claim to practice as the early church did, but that is speculation. As we can find the founder of there denomination and they have all been in the last 1000 years if we go all the way back to the split of eastern and western church. All that to say that I do acknowledge that there have been leader within the Catholic church that should not have held there positions and things have been done by them that should not have happened. On the whole there is no other church that i can see holds the Keys to Chirst Church here on earth.

Peace in the Lord

Scott

 

[Harland]

A man-instituted religion would have failed already. look at the pagan people. If you don’t believe in catholicism why are you on this website?

Are you saying Islam is true? After all it has been around for 14 hundred years or so and what about Buddhism and Hinduism they have also been around for a few years.

 

[Harland]

If Catholicism isn’t correct then where do you find the truth? You have a few thousand churches to choose from. Which one claims to have Canonized scripture for us. Or did the bible just fall out of the sky?

You are an arm chair historian. Just check church history.
The Church can trace its roots directly to the Apostles. It was the Church that Canonized the bible not the bible canonizing he Church.

 

[bpbasilphx]

Mozart, I can turn the question around on you:

How do you know that conservative evangelicalism is correct?

Ultimately, on either side of the question faith (based on evidence considered trustable) will come in to determine the answer.

 

[Mannyfit75]

…an obvious question I’ve always wanted to ask.

I want to refrain from debating as much as possible in this thread as debating has left a sour taste in my head. I will ask stupid questions if you don’t mind.

Fire away.

I know that the Catholic Church is correct because Jesus Christ established one Church upon Simon Peter, and then the Apostle. When the Apostles died, their authority was handed down to the bishops of today. Jesus also promised that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

If the Catholic Church is not correct, then Jesus lied to us by allowing the Gates of hell prevail against it. It all roles down into one person, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is also the Way, the Truth, and the Life while the Church is the Pillar of Truth.

If the Church was indeed man-made and it was made up, I don’t want to be a part of it. I don’t only believe in Jesus Christ, but I believe everything he said and done from what we know from Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and Magisterium which has been given authority by Christ himself.

 

[bpbasilphx]

I guess the main thing for me is that there is no other Christian church that can trace itself back to the apostles and Christ.

Members of the Orthodox and Oriental churches will argue this point, and they have good evidence to support them.

 

[Rbt_Southwell]

I find it endlessly fascinating that homegrown (American, that is) soi-disant “Christian” sects always claim AUTHORITY through some perceived error in Catholic teaching and Tradition.

The errors mainly fall in these categories:

1. Errors of authority (where the Bible becomes the “how to book” even though it was assembled for liturgical purposes and to prevent heresies concerning what constitutes being a Christian: from Tradition, primarily) where the new sect claims authenticity THROUGH the Catholic Church
2. Errors of foundation (where sects and denominations break away from Rome due to nationalistic (state religions of northern european kingdoms and principalities, and. England of course!) or ethnic reasons [Mormonism (white), Islam (Semitic; non-Jewish or Christian] ) where the sect claims the Catholic Church went ‘south’ at some vague and unprovable time and thus the sect is here to set things right.
3. Errors of interpretation (where literalness and ‘cafeteria salvation history’ creates all types of goofy doctrines including: dietary laws for Christians; multiple gods; “eternal progression;” Second Coming cultists [Jim Jones, Russell, Koresh, et alii]; the five solas) where centuries of commentary and teaching by the Church are irrelevant to the personal interpretation and revelation (“burning in the bosom”) of infallible Bible wielders.

Rbt

 

[mozart-250]

Mozart, I can turn the question around on you:

How do you know that conservative evangelicalism is correct?

Ultimately, on either side of the question faith (based on evidence considered trustable) will come in to determine the answer.

Good question.

I don’t know that my particular denomination is 100% correct when rigorously analyzed against all of the other denominations out there. But then again my denomination does not insist that I believe it to be 100% true prior to conversion.

I did not come to where I am today because denominational correctness became a conviction of mine. It’s just that after my conversion I made a choice in churches based upon the church in my area that seemed to practice Christianity in a superior way. From that point on everything just sort of logically followed.

 

[mozart-250]

I guess the main thing for me is that there is no other Christian church that can trace itself back to the apostles and Christ. All others may claim to practice as the early church did, but that is speculation. As we can find the founder of there denomination and they have all been in the last 1000 years if we go all the way back to the split of eastern and western church. All that to say that I do acknowledge that there have been leader within the Catholic church that should not have held there positions and things have been done by them that should not have happened. On the whole there is no other church that i can see holds the Keys to Chirst Church here on earth.

Peace in the Lord

Scott

Observation: Don’t the Orthodox also claim lineage back to Christ?

Question: How do you know that just because your lineage goes back to Christ that Catholicism is correct, especially since a claim of lineage does not seem to be unique to Catholicism?

 

[mozart-250]

If Catholicism isn’t correct then where do you find the truth?

Just to follow up on this question. You seem to think that one denomination must be 100 percent accurate in what it teaches. How do you know that is the case?

 

[mozart-250]

I know that the Catholic Church is correct because Jesus Christ established one Church upon Simon Peter, and then the Apostle. When the Apostles died, their authority was handed down to the bishops of today. Jesus also promised that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

If the Catholic Church is not correct, then Jesus lied to us by allowing the Gates of hell prevail against it. It all roles down into one person, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is also the Way, the Truth, and the Life while the Church is the Pillar of Truth.

If the Church was indeed man-made and it was made up, I don’t want to be a part of it. I don’t only believe in Jesus Christ, but I believe everything he said and done from what we know from Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and Magisterium which has been given authority by Christ himself.

Hi Manny.

So you know that Catholicism is correct based on Matthew 16:13-20, correct?

How do you know that you are correctly interpreting this passage of Scripture?

 

[mozart-250]

I find it endlessly fascinating that homegrown (American, that is) soi-disant “Christian” sects always claim AUTHORITY through some perceived error in Catholic teaching and Tradition.

Hi Robert.

I realize that you believe that non-Catholic sects are erroneous.

How does it then follow that Catholicism is true?

 

[DixiesFinest]

Hi Robert.

I realize that you believe that non-Catholic sects are erroneous.

How does it then follow that Catholicism is true?

The Catholic Church is the only Church that can trace Her lineage and beliefs all the way back to Jesus Christ Himself.

 

[mozart-250]

The Catholic Church is the only Church that can trace Her lineage and beliefs all the way back to Jesus Christ Himself.

Are you sure of this?

Don’t the Orthodox claim their lineage go back to Jesus Christ also? I could start a thread here to make sure this is true?

As far as beliefs how do you know that all of the beliefs of the Catholic Church are traceable to Jesus Christ Himself? For example can you trace the assumption of Mary back to Jesus Chris Himself?

 

[Arnobius]

The Orthodox and Catholics have the same base, but separated in AD 1054. The main area of dispute (but not the only one) is the Primacy of the Pope.

It would be rather illogical to claim that one or the other had no claim to the early Church in the sense that Protestantism violently severed everything they disagreed with.

Catholics would argue that the Orthodox were the ones who broke away and Orthodox claim that it was the Catholics who did.

The history of both sides helped lead me to Rome as opposed to Constantinople as being the Church Christ founded.

 

[c659smith]

I know that Catholicism is the fullness of Jesus’s Church through Sacred Scripture,Sacred Traditions, and Sacred Teachings

I know the Apostles were in Class for 3 years with Jesus and in three years everything could not be put into print (Bible). Scripture

I do not beleive I am any more or less intelligent than the Apostles. If it took the Apostles 3 full years night and day of being taught by the ultimate Rabbi (meaning teacher) Jesus Christ. Then I need Sacred Teachings also.

Jesus followed the traditions of the faith to which he was born (Hebrew) and all the while creating traditions of the new covenant. Washing of the feet, the last supper, etc…

I know Catholicism is correct as I have a peace and contentment within me that I just cannot describe. T o know me before when I was a Cradle Catholic going through the motions and to know me now as a practicing Catholic you would see two different persons. Yes the Holy Spirit is within me esspecially at Church I know I am home. Instead of a one way conversation of me to Jesus now I shut up long enough to hear what the Lord is telling me.

 

[Holly3278]

Because history, Tradition, and Scripture prove that it is correct. That and I have faith that Catholicism is correct.

 

[Rbt_Southwell]

Hi Robert.

I realize that you believe that non-Catholic sects are erroneous.

If you believe that Jesus is the Messiah then your ‘assembly’ or ekklesia would be the Church which grew out of Judaism: the Catholic Church. If your rite or tradition was Eastern, then you would still be part of the Church (forget the stupid and silly Schism: the sacraments, saints, Traditions in teaching what Jesus taught the Disciples are all the same).

If you have difficulty understanding the development of the hierarchy, the beginning and rationales of the disciplines [unmarried clergy, for example] and other non-Traditional things (non-T being changeable and not a doctrinal/dogma matter) then you might become any of the many thousands of denominations and sects and individual churches which claim to be Christian.

Politely, the term is cafeteria-Christian. Taking something from the OT here and the NT there and weaving an ‘interpretation’ around it and opening for business.

That is sad and that is unfortunate.

If you do not believe Jesus to be the Messiah, then you can take any number of routes post-Jamnia into Judaism: reform, orthodox (and its variations), secular, kabbalist, et cetera. Or become moslem or mormon and claim everyone prior to your prophet and his book were really Ur-moslems or Ur-mormons and didn’t really know it.

To claim to believe the Gospel of Jesus entails believing what Christians have believed since His death and resurrection, and these things were and are taught through the Church.

The Bible is a liturgical book (the Mass and its traditions - going back to the early Christian centuries- used directly or through paraphrase sections of what became Scripture for Christians).

The Bible was NEVER meant to be interpreted as the How-To-Be-A-Christian Book for individual understanding. That is a modern (1500+) misconception. It’s like trying to run the American government with a copy of the US Constitution.

The irony is that non-Cs like to hit us Catholics over the head with the Bible as their end-all authority when they can never tell us where in that Bible does it state that it is the end-all authority (and what manuscript, pray tell?).

So that’s it: if you’re a Christian, then you should be a Catholic or Eastern one. All others are pale variations by way of nationalistic or personal preference.

Personal interpretations lead to personal biases and delusions. I prefer the proven and centuries old teachings handed down from the time of Jesus and His Disciples through the Catholic Church.

Robert