I can say you have religious beliefs and have a right to them. I respect your right to them. But I also know what Christianity is. And before I'll call something Christian, it has to meet the biblical standard. Catholics are good people. And that pretty much goes without saying. I would never argue otherwise. On the otherhand, being good people with heartfelt philosophical beliefs doesn't make one a Christian. Believing in Creeds and councils and whatnot doesn't make one a Christian. Following masters in philosophy doesnt' make one a Christian. Quite the opposite.
Scripture sets down what a Christian is and how to tell the difference. You guys have your own set of standards and the two are oceans apart. Scripture gives us one system, you give us another. They are irreconcilable. So, say what you will, it isn't Christianity. Once upon a time it might have been; but, that time was long ago if it ever was at all.
Love ya as my neighbor; but, you can put a harley emblem on a Honda and it's still a honda. Funny thing is, if we were talking motorcycles, more people would be aware of the differences between a honda and a Harley than between Catholicism and Christianity or between Budhism and followers of Krishna. People are more aware of what they care to be aware of until they realize that there is a reason for concern. That's why I debate. There are a lot of cultists and philosophy wonks in the world that think they're Christians because somebody told them so. The followers of Jim Jones were really sure of themselves, right up to drinking the Koolaid. Had they bothered to study scripture instead of being told what it said, they might not have drank the koolaid. Then again, the Devil is pretty effective at using people to twist God's word and make it seem to say anything. Christ's response is mine, "it is written", not "it can be reasoned out".
Where could there be any better proof of this statement than in your posts?
I apologize in advance for a long post... but I want do deal with this subject in full. The background on Jesus is meant for ZC.
If you want to follow Christ, don't you think it would be a good thing to know who He is and why He came? Who He is is both simple and complex. Simply He is the Word made flesh, God dwelling among His people. He is the second person of the Holy Trinity. The complexity of His nature is beyond our understanding.
He isn't someone foreign to the Old Testament dreamed up to fulfill the Law and the prophets in the New Testament. His coming was foretold throughout the Old Testament--first in Genesis, actually, when God chastised the serpent. Jesus also spoke directly through the prophet Isaiah...
Isaiah 48:12
"Listen to Me, O Jacob, even Israel whom I called;
I am He, I am the first, I am also the last.
13 "Surely My hand founded the earth,
And My right hand spread out the heavens;
When I call to them, they stand together.
14 "Assemble, all of you, and listen!
Who among them has declared these things?
The LORD loves him;
he will carry out His good pleasure on Babylon,
And His arm will be against the Chaldeans.
15 "I, even I, have spoken; indeed I have called him,
I have brought him, and He will make his ways successful.
16 "Come near to Me, listen to this:
From the first I have not spoken in secret,
From the time it took place, I was there.
And now the Lord GOD has sent Me, and His Spirit."
Here in the Old Testament, you have God speaking in the first person. He makes it clear who is the speaker with the identifiers of creation and infinity (alpha and omega). He ends the discourse showing that although He is God Himself, God has sent Him and His Spirit. Jesus speaking first person in the Old Testament... Old Testament Trinity.
So Jesus is God. He is the God of the New and Old Testament--the One Who came to fulfill the Law and the prophets. The next question is WHY did he come? The simple answer is that He came to die for our sins. Have you ever looked deeply into what that statement means? It means He didn't come for the purpose of preaching and teaching. He came to die.
God sent His messengers throughout history to preach His Word. He didn't come Himself to repeat it. He repeated it and explained it to show His identity for the fullness of His sacrifice. The Greatest Commandment discourse makes this clear. Here, a rabbi comes to Jesus to trap Him with a question...
Matt 22:34 But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. 35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37 And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' 38 "This is the great and foremost commandment."
Was this new? Nope.
Deut 6:4 "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! 5 "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
So Jesus didn't come to teach. He came to die...
Isaiah 52:13
Behold, My servant will prosper,
He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.
14 Just as many were astonished at you, My people,
So His appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men.
15 Thus He will sprinkle many nations,
Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him;
For what had not been told them they will see,
And what they had not heard they will understand.
Isaiah 53:1
Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
3 He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
6 All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away;
And as for His generation, who considered
That He was cut off out of the land of the living
For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
9 His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
10 But the LORD was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
11 As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.
Havoc, you claim that Catholics live and believe outside of Biblical teachings. On the contrary, our Protestant friends have to discard and obscure what is plainly spoken to deny the truth. I'll show you that clearly in the eucharist...
You want to believe that Jesus was speaking metaphorically, not literally in the Eucharistic discourse of John 6. If He's speaking metaphorically, you want us to believe with you that Jesus intends that we digest His words and Himself as The Word made flesh. Your theology breaks down here. It breaks down because it doesn't recognize why Jesus came. He didn't come to teach us, He came to save us. He saved us through His sacrifice on the cross. His words and His life show His identity and the authenticity of His sacrifice. Here is what the Bible has to say about the Eucharist:
The Eucharistic Discourse:
John 6:48 "I am the bread of life. 49 "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 "This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 "I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh." 52 Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" 53 So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54 "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 "For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. 56 "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. 58 "This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever."
Words to the Disciples
59 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. 60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, "This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?" 61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, "Does this cause you to stumble? 62 "What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? 63 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 "But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. 65 And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father."
Peter's Confession of Faith
66 As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, "You do not want to go away also, do you?" 68 Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. 69 "We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God."
Later, Jesus institutes His sacrifice as rite...
Matt 26:26 While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." 27 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.
Finally, the Apostles understood and passed on what they had learned. The Apostle Paul makes it very clear in his letter to the Corinthians...
1 Cor 11:23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. 27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.
Can the institution of the Eucharist be any clearer? Oh, but the Eucharist is just from Catholic tradition and we only go by the written Word, not tradition...
1 Cor 11:2 Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.
2 Thessalonians 3:6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us.
The Word was passed by tradition before these writings were compiled. The Epistles were written to shore up the faith which had been already shared. They dealt with issues of faith, not the whole faith. What wasn't covered wasn't an issue.
History also speaks to the Eucharist in the early Church. Are you aware the early Christians were spoken of as "cannibals" by the Romans? They were called thus because they ate the Body and drank the Blood of their Lord.
My Protestant friends have to go to great lengths to ensure the Catholic Church doesn't seem right to them (even discounting history and books of the Bible--like the Book of James). Catholics, on the other hand, have a faith and tradition that includes the entirety of the Bible and the original Deposit of Faith from Jesus.
Catholics and Protestants are not enemies but one perspective is very clearly more greatly supported by Scripture.