"True Church" versus "Roman Catholic Church"

[ALLFORHIM]

If so, then why did Jesus Himself command the Apostles to participate in rituals such as the Mass (see I Corinthians 11:23-26) and Baptism (see Matthew 28:16-20)?

Would you say that the Saints of the Old Testament such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc., did not have a personal relationship with God? And yet they faithfully participated in many Jewish rituals.

Jesus Himself also participated in many Jewish rituals, and even told the people that He was the “Lamb of God” that is, the lamb of the passover ritual, who must be physically consumed.

Doesn’t it strike you as at all odd that when Jesus established His “memorial meal” He commanded that bread and wine be used? If He was simply using these as metaphors, why would He go to the lengths of providing them with actual bread and wine? After all, He never came around with actual sheep, vineyards, or doors when using these in his parables - but He did come around with actual bread and wine, and held them up and said, “This is my body,” and “This is my blood.”

It is significant that (unlike at other times when people misunderstood His teachings) He never stopped to explain what it was that they had misunderstood. No - they had understood Him perfectly. That’s why they left.

Peter didn’t understand why Jesus wanted them to partake of His body and blood, but he understood that Jesus could not lie to him or make him do anything that is against God’s will.

This is the same attitude that we Catholics take when Jesus commands us through the Church to do various things. We believe because we know that Jesus cannot lie or make us to go against God’s will - not because we always understand everything.

This is why only believers are allowed to participate in Holy Communion. What it means is that only believers can participate in Holy Communion; it doesn’t mean that believing is the same thing as Holy Communion.

Hi,

I know this is difficult for you to get because you believe the CC way and that is fine. I understand the bible the way I do on this matter. We can argue till we die and what will the purpose be? Certainly not to glorify God. We just both want to be right and somehow prove the other one wrong(if we are being honest with ourselves):tsktsk: . I promised myself I would not go near certain topics anymore and this was one of them. So I apologize for entering the boxing ring. I will now leave and if you ever see me talk about this topic again, feel free to tell me to get out

Peace

AFH

 

[Rand_Al_Thor]

Pax vobiscum!

I wouldn’t bother trying to reason with Alfie over this stuff. On another site, I have tried, believe me, and all I got for my efforts were nasty PMs telling me to leave the site and that no one there likes me.

In Christ,
Rand

 

[jmcrae]

Hi,

I know this is difficult for you to get because you believe the CC way and that is fine.

I “get it” just fine.

In fact, once I understood that the Last Supper was actually the Institution of both the Eucharist and the priesthood (that’s a topic I haven’t seen yet, on this Board), I all of a sudden “got” almost the whole rest of the New Testament, including parts of the Book of Revelation that up to that time had made absolutely no sense to me, whatsoever. So, yeah - I think I’m good, here.

I promised myself I would not go near certain topics anymore and this was one of them. So I apologize for entering the boxing ring. I will now leave and if you ever see me talk about this topic again, feel free to tell me to get out

Iron sharpens iron.

Don’t worry about convincing other people. These debates help all of us to hone our thinking skills, and they help us to think out our own belief system, to test whether it stands to reason.

Ultimately, in the end, it’s all about Faith Seeking Understanding.