Look, all I can tell you is that the Word of God has transformed my life to the point that when I look at my past it seems like a dream, a nightmare, …not even real, can’t believe I thought I was remotely a “good” person. But it is the power of God’s word to transform lives one person or heart at a time.
And I sincerely cry out in my heart, “Amen”, brother. With all sincerity. We would just want you to know that this transformation in your life is a quite common experience in faithful Christians everywhere who discover Christ (of course with different flavors for different people). It is a common experience of the joy of Christ in a person’s life…and devout Catholics everywhere want to make you see that, although you had this experience outside His Church, you didn’t have to. And we would also be so bold as to say…so much more of His fullness awaits you within The Church, if you would only tear down your barriers of misunderstanding and preconceived notions.
You will never find the truth on the Roman institution, but you will find it in the Bible.
As long as that’s all your mind will allow you to think of His Church (as a human institution concocted by man), then it will do no good for anyone to insist to you that it isn’t that at all. You see, there’s no reaching a person so coldly repulsed by the very name of His Church. Many of us pray for Christ to guide us in this outreach. We still try to make a defense of our faith when it is undermined or attacked…especially when the accusations are so blatantly false. We want you to see that Christ is the very core of our lives…everything about Him. The Church guides us toward the fullness of Him in everything we do. We respect others who are repulsed by Her…but can’t help ourselves but engage in dialogue and apologetics when the hatred is unfounded and based on lies.
Just ask yourself one question the next time you rattle off something against The Church…and that is this…
Where am I getting this information? Where precisely am I getting this information? Have I ever gone to my local Catholic parish, scheduled an hour with the priest, and asked him myself to clarify these things? Have I ever “really” spent time in the Catechism? Have I ever really read the early Church fathers?
Do I
really know
exactly what purgatory is? what Mary’s role is? what infallibility really means? And I mean REALLY know. Not just
think you know.
That’s all I ask you do.
I’ll tell you this as well…most people who call themselves Christians are not.
And I would agree. Devout Catholics will tell you many in our flock fit that bill to a tee…they don’t come close to living up to their commitments and response to God. This is not, however, due in the slightest to the teachings of The Church. Not in the slightest. This is due to the usual luke-warmness that plagues so many in this world. These are the ones who give all us devout Christians a bad name. They know NOT their faith. There are as many of these types in non-Catholic denoms, of course, but they come from everywhere, sure.
You can know with certainty and it is a gift from God; just like every aspect of salvation is.
Disagree with the “certainty” part…we can have a “reasonable assurance” and an abundant hope. Assurance only in the sense that we are successfully living in obedience and repentance. Completely agree with the “gift” part. All of it is an undeserved gift. All of it. Nothing we did earned it. Our days were numbered, except for the Grace of God through His Son. Sound familiar? You see, we believe all this…just as you do. We just hold fast to the true teaching that our gift must be willingly received (which is to say, we must participate and cooperate with that FREE GIFT throughout our lives)…this means obedience and repentance are a MUST. That’s why we never claim absolute certainty at ANY point in our lives. Never was designed that we would absolutely KNOW until the end. Scripture supports this so abundantly, it’s deafening.
My heart breaks over the lost no matter where they are; each one of us are made in God’s image and all of the saved were lost at some point.
Again, Amen.
And God Bless you.
p.s. please take some time on your own when you can and really contemplate on the issues I brought up regarding the problems with personal bible interpretation from the Holy Spirit, especially when the subject of interpretation is salvific doctrine (what is needed to be saved).