Well, my belief system goes with Scripture and what it teaches, so I guess it goes back more than yours. You follow Scripture and a whole bunch of other writings that contradict Scripture. I haven’t had one person here that is Catholic show me why your church is the true church? You believe that you can loose your salvation but the Apostle Paul teaches you can’t! Should I believe the catholic church or the Apostle Paul. I’m going with the Apostle Paul.
If the RC church started with the Apostles, why doesn’t it follow their teachings?
A Baptist friend of mine said something quite similar to me about scripture over the course of a religious discussion/argument. She said to the effect “Why do you turn to the Church or to websites and not Bible for answers. I don’t understand…” Our friendship was in a precarious state then, and in part due to the lack of charity we showed each other during the debate we had a falling out. Many other Protestants have said the same thing, that the Catholic faith is not compatible with scripture, to the point that I facile believed them.
To Catholics, the Church comes first. As children, we grow up running up and down the pews during Mass (I was a rambunctious child
). Our parents teach us subtly the many aspects of the Mass. I fell in love with the Our Father during the mass, especially since at the time the whole congregation joined hands during its recital. I could predict when the Mass would finally be over by counting the number of times we sang. The Priests absolves us of our sins, including the silly little things that guilted us as second graders preparing for first confession and first communion.
The Church to us is a living, breathing Body of Christ, that has always been part of our lives, always been part of our parents lives, always part of grandparents, all the way back in some cases to when our ancestral nations converted to Christ.
Its true that I always turned to the Church with questions, and to websites that were faithfully representing Church teaching. But during and after the falling out with my friend, I took up the task of turning to the scriptures, in light of my faith gathered from engaging with the Catholic Church. As a former lecture, and years of CCD and Mass attendance, where scriptures from the Old and New Testaments as well as the Gospels are read at nearly every Mass, I had knowledge of bits and pieces.
I started first with the Gospel of John, and now Acts of the Apostles. Both were and are powerful and moving. As a Catholic, living in the Body of Christ I know to be the Catholic Church, I know Christ, speaking about His being body being True Food, and His blood being True Drink in John refer to the Eucharist, because Apostle to Bishop, Bishop to Priest, Priest to Lay passed this truth down through the generations. It pains me to read that even in the presence of Christ, people couldn’t believe the Eucharistic truth. Its pains me that Christ my Lord was pained, lashing out at his friends the Apostles “Will you now reject me too?”
Reading Acts, I know Paul was an early bishop, Peter the first and Chief Bishop, because Grandparent to Parent, Parent to Child, Child to Grandchild, past this knowledge on since Peter and Paul converted the first cities, the first nations. It pains me now to see people today try to emulate the “Early Church” in form, but without the graces of the Sacraments that Peter and Paul, and all the Martyrs and Missionaries brought and planted in the early Christian communities.
The Gospel message I guess then is really about living in Christ as a community, a nation, a new Israel, complete with all the blessing and leadership provided by the bishops and priests and the sacraments initiated by Christ. We yearn for authentic relationship in Christ with our separated brothers, especially those suffering in Christ’s name such as the Chinese Protestants, so that they know they have the communion of Christ true Church, and the nourishment of Christ’s True Body and True Blood in the Eucharist to help them endure.
The Gospel message is about a relationship of love with God and one another, emulating the love the father showed the son in the Gospels, and the love the Son showed us, His people, by dying for our sins, and sending His Holy Spirit always to guide us through His Church, His Scripture, and His Sacraments.
I’ve heard Catholics say if I deny the Catholic church, the one started in Rome and all her laws and rules that go along with Scripture, I can not be saved. But you and others believe if I was baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I am saved? Which one is it?
If that’s the case you should not respond with anything other than quotes from the Catechism. Let’s all just crawl in a closet and hope the catholic church can save us! Please, if you can’t have an opinion on something, why are you here?
That is awesome news!!! When we are born again, we can never be apart from the love of God!!! Praise God!!!