“Met any Albigensians lately?”
Posted on 01/08/2011 4:15:03 PM PST by Natural Law
What are we to make of the anti-Catholics?
What are we to make of the anti-Catholics? How can we explain the assault on the Church by those who profess in their words the same mission of the Church, the Salvation of mankind, but through their deeds deny it? Are the fabrications, falsehoods, and lies about the supporting beliefs of the Church, about the lives of its saints and clergy, about the verifiable facts of history justified because of doctrinal disagreements? Does any of this matter in the face of the greater assault on Christ and his flock? It defies rational thinking.
In the face of a Muslim onslaught that is bombing Christmas Masses, executing Christians for a nonexistent heresy and apostasy, and a jihad against Christians of all stripes on a massive scale we get shrill unwarranted criticism of how Catholics peaceably worship the One true God. Is smells and bells really a greater sin than sawing off heads in the name of the prophet?
In the face of a secular socialist assault that is killing babies at a pace that outpaces the crimes of Hitler, Stalin and Mao combined there are degrading insults and accusations over the difference between worship and veneration. Corrections and explanations are ignored and the apologists are pilloried. For what purpose?
In the face of the threat of Communist China that suppresses worship of all kinds and enforces forced abortions we get feeble ad naseum criticism of the Real Presence in spite of the acceptance by Catholics, both Eastern and Latin Rite, Lutherans, Anglicans, and Methodists. All the while the anti-Catholics continue the charade of Christian unity, minus those damned Catholics of course.
So in the face of the advance of worldwide evil some would have us believe that it is the Catholic Church should be destroyed when the destruction of the Church would serve to provide aid and comfort to that evil. Why? Qui Bono, for whom the benefit?
That the Church is and has always been a target of evil cannot be denied. Neither can it be denied that the Church has never been harmed or compromised by that evil. Satan can only work in this world through the actions of his willing accomplices. Those accomplices have long ago recognized that the greatest harm can be done from within the Church and history has produced numerous examples of sinners wearing the collars of priests. Regardless of the contentions of the anti-Catholics that does not negate the good that the Church has done not diminish the saints who have served God through her. Nor does it excuse those who blame one of the victims of the evil doers, the Church itself.
Perhaps those who irrationally assault the Church daily, those who spend inordinate hours researching the internet looking for dirt, those who accept any lie or indiscretion on nothing more than its bias against the Church are consciously or unconsciously in league with evil. Lex Parsimoniae, the principle which generally recommends accepting the answer that requires the fewest assumptions, when the potential answers are equal in all other respects. Is there a simpler answer?
Valid enough, RM. Since it is an ethno-religious group, it has different connotations.
Here’s the main point — Catholics believe Christ died knowing that his death wouldn’t “cover” all believers.
John 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. 38 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40"For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."
The scripture clearly states that ALL those drawn by the father will become believers and Christ will lose none.
Hence the verse about how many will say “Lord, Lord,” and be surprised when they’re denied heaven. Many believe that the cup Christ begged to be delivered from before his death was not the Crucifixion but the fact that not all sinners would be saved by his death. (That last part is not Catholic dogma, just something written by a Catholic)
Matt 7:21" Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' 23"And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'
Those rejected were NEVER known by Christ, were never real Christians. They were tares posing as believers, most likely self deluded into thinking rituals and forms of Godliness was a means to Heaven and did not have a saving Faith (trust in Christ's work and substitutionary atonement alone).
Acts 16:31 says, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved" Romans 10:9: "If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."The Church affirms the teaching of these texts. They are calling us to decisive trust in Christ. Trust in Christ is essential to salvation.
Trust in Christ is Essential? But not enough?
Trust in Christ is essential, yet scripture also tells us to repent and be saved, to hear the word of God and be saved, that love is also essential. We need all of these things — it is not “only”, yet remember, I repeat, without Christ’s sacrifice, the essential component, all of our hearing, repenting, love would be useless, worse than useless. Christ’s sacrifice is what saved us.
Try this, since what you say is clearly unsatisfactory (to me, anyway.)
Trust (faith) is dynamic in some respects. It doesn't just sit there on your chest like a competency badge: Marksmanship, First Aid, Faithfulness. If one is just sitting there vegging, faith is probably not what's going on.
We had a wonderful Epiphany (three kings day -- but that's not the half of it) sermon. The friar said that the faith of the wisemen caused them to travel after what was strange and foreign -- even unattainable. It was a star, for crying out loud!
And the star led them to a strange king and then to what has to be one of the world's strangest gatherings - the traditional (but see Isaiah 1:3a) ox and ass, some shepherds, a carpenter and his young wife, and a baby -- all in some kind of stable.
And then they have to go home by another way -- not even the pleasure of retracing one's steps and saying, "Oh, yes, I remember this."
Even we, who say such extravagant things about Mary, say she sought her Son anxiously.
So I would offer that, in and through 'trust in Christ,' we are called and enabled to journey, to move, to leave things behind, to go home another way, to travel light, and to follow strange things, things utterly outside our world yet revealed in it.
So in some sense the opposition between 'trust in Christ' and other stuff is as bogus as the opposition between opening one's mouth to receive food and swallowing that food. If we just ate a carrot seed, we'd starve. But when it grows, it's good food.
Just a thought.
I am unable to carry on with this folly. I wasn’t anti Catholic. I won’t be wasting any more time with you.
I do pity you however.
But are you now, or have you ever been UNCLE Catholic? Hah? Answer me that. Hah!
Let the record show that the witness is placing his face in his palm while shaking his head. Clearly he is overwhelmed with the incisive brilliance of this question.]
No further questions, your honor.
Damn, I’m good.
There are a few more such as the useful idiots of those who support the main harpies, but I think that you have more than adequately described the bulk of anti Catholics.
More single verses of the Gospel of Paul? Any teachings of Christ in your Christianity?
For obvious reasons. Still, this RF is moderated as well as I've seen before and better than most. I hear tell of a change of RMs. Could that be true?
I'd like to see the figures. Is this Rasmussen, Zogby, Gallup or Pew?
“Met any Albigensians lately?”
A tad punchy, though...
Are you offering?
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