Trust me when I say that there is nothing he says that ever demands a reply. If anything, you just respond with "yes, dear" and walk away.
True enough, Alex.
Isn’t an unwritten rule that if you talk about someone that you ping them?
Ladies and gentleman, I give you post #60, the most cowardly post of the week.
Roman Catholics (and those who refuse to use the Roman tag) have been taught all of their lives that the Church is responsible for their salvation. Mary mentioned their love for the Gospels and for Paul, yet they will not accept most of what Paul had to say. They use it only to reinforce their POV.
But God gives us the Holy Spirit as a teacher, if we ask. If we ask the RC priest, we will get a RC answer. It doesn't matter that the Bible forbids most of their liturgical display with smells and bells. It doesn't matter to them that they are bowing to statues, praying to dead people, and revering only some people as "saints".
Paul wrote to the Roman church. We have a copy of his letter to them. They felt bound to live by the law given to Moses. The Jewish influences were rejected by Paul, as he explains in that letter. The extraordinary detail he gave to the chains of the Law as opposed to living according to the grace God has granted to us.
It's much more comfortable to sit in a pew and stand or kneel according to rote, than to sit in a still place waiting to hear from God. It's easier to have a prescribed role rather than the flow described by Paul. We are not going to change some minds with debate on these threads. God does that. But, we can raise Him and let the Spirit do His job...
God's catholic church contains every soul claiming salvation from Jesus Christ. The Roman Catholic Church probably has some too...
Romans 4: 16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.
18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be." 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah's womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." 23 The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. ...