Why only Jesus?

[Parrot]

… And yet this historical non-entity, who is said to have been put to death under Roman law,very historically ‘put to death’ pagan Rome by way of the disciples,converting Rome to him.

I cannot dispute that.

– to love others,to save,to heal,to be merciful,to forgive,to speak truth to power, even unto death.Now if we can agree that there is no higher ideal,no greater truth than this kind of love,and if we can admit that it is beyond humans to be like this on their own authority or abilities,then it must be of divine origin.

I have to agree.

 

[anthony022071]

Glad to know I haven’t been racking my brains entirely in vain.

For many modern,educated,skeptical middle class people brought up in a secular society, talk of the Incarnation,Resurrection or anything
‘marvellous’ is an insult to the intelligence,or rather our intellectual pride.Likewise,talk of faith, hope,and especially love is embarrassing, because we prefer concrete facts,empirical evidence,and because we are mistrustful.We also don’t like the idea of a God who is watching us and who judges us.We prefer the variety,the plurality of religions and their ‘truths’.That way we can remain non-commital, to experiment,to search without really intending to find the truth in full.

Critical thinkers who are serious about the the pursuit of truth
need to reflect deeply on what the highest ideal,the highest good
man can aspire to. Is it knowledge? Reason? power? justice?freedom?
happiness? well-being for all? work and accomplishment?
Are any of these more meaningful,more necessary,than love?
Getting at the truth may require swallowing one’s intellectual pride
and taking on humility,but that’s how it’s done.
Once we come to the conclusion that love is the highest ideal,the greatest good,then everything else begins to fall into place and into perspective.It was Jesus Christ who exemplified in his words,works,life,and death this ideal. And he did this not on his own authority but on his Father’s. Without God’s intervention in
human history, it would not occur to any man (knowing what we know about human nature) to be the Jesus Christ as we know him from the Gospels. Once we realize this,and get over that intellectual hurdle God’s intervening,then many other of the ‘marvellous’ things in the Bible become quite believable

 

[CherryBomb]

Okay. Let’s use your references (you meaning plural of all who have written here). One person wrote…

“Your knowledge of Catholic teaching is incorrect here. From the Catechism:
846. …all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is His Body…”

It specifically states that **all **salvation comes via the “Church” - capitalized means the Catholic church does it not?

“Christ” means Jesus does it not?

Therefore only people who are saved by Jesus through the Catholic Church will be saved and the lack of being “saved” means they will burn in Hell. Someone said they could not determine where those souls would be, but the implication is for them to be in Hell I’d say.

This is why I said it “seems” the Catholic Church is all about Jesus and not about God, whom some call “Allah” and some call Buddha, for example. Even the Jewish faith holds the same high esteem for and uses the name “God” as you do, but sees Jesus as an important prophet and not a part of God.

It might seem like that if you stop reading right at that point, but if you continue reading onto 847 and 848, it’s pretty clear that’s not what’s meant

 

[Parrot]

It might seem like that if you stop reading right at that point, but if you continue reading onto 847 and 848, it’s pretty clear that’s not what’s meant

Hence the need to study the whole thing as was pointed out to me in the beginning of the thread. I see your point now.

You must, however, realize that it is a giant leap of faith to go from having misconceptions about what the Catholic faith and the Church teaches to **really **understanding the truth of it all. For one like myself, who was taught the negative views of the Catholic Church, it is difficult . The last thing one in doubt wants to hear is that they must begin by believing that everything the Church teaches is the real truth and the path to follow is to read all the documents. That is how I perceived it the beginning of this thread.

To me a good analogy goes something like this… Say a person from some culture does not really know what an airplane is (think something like the movie, “The Gods Must Be Angry.” Now you take such a person and try to convince him to take a ride in this machine that up to now, he has thought it just a giant bird that does not flap its wings. It would do no good to hand him a book on aeronautical engineering and tell him to read and come back if he had questions before the ride. You would never get him on the plane that way.

 

[ehscott]

Parrot, I know you want an answer to your series of questions here but a thread like this and the profound questions you have asked begs for a more detailed study on your part. I seriously and earnestly suggest that you take the time to read the references that others have provided as you will find the answers to your questions.

As a starting point though you have to believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. If you can accept that then all your questions are answered easily. If you can’t get yourself there then all the answers that others give you will be difficult to accept. You also have to understand and believe in the Triune nature of God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) in order to properly understand Christ’s role in your salvation. All this requires faith and reason and it sounds like you are on a sincere path that I think will lead you to the truth.

 

[ehscott]

But when did Jesus say he was God?

and actually the church DOES say non believers/ non followers will go to hell.

Jedda, are you Muslim? I ask because I did a series of talks attended by a Muslim and he asked this very question. When I provided multiple references in scripture where Christ acknowledged his divinity (the reason he was killed by the way) I got vague responses about incorrect translations (Aramaic to Greek to English), etc. It was very frustrating because if you can’t get beyond those very clear references there is no common ground on which to have a discussion.

As for the second quote, what the Church teaches is that all are saved through the Church. No one claims to know who is saved and isn’t, just that all who are saved are saved through the Catholic Church as promised by Christ. My view is that if I believe that is true, then I want to be in full communion with the Catholic Church because when it comes to my salvation I don’t want to take any chances. Others may be saved when not in full communion with the Church but why take the chance?

 

[ElizabethAnne]

Parrot,

I wanted to let you know that I will pray for you that God will bless you on your journey to understanding the teachings of the Catholic Church better.

It took me awhile to understand everything when I first started inquiring. For me at least, it was a process that was greatly rewarding! I came into the Catholic Church three years ago at Easter and am glad for the time of preparation I had before making that decision. I even spoke with several priests on a number of occassions before I was Catholic. They were extremely helpful and, God bless them, patient men!

May God bless you always,
ElizabethAnne