The verse you provided in no way supports your comment. You're talking about taking communion. The verse supports faith alone.
You bet, and older. Righteous Abel is a saint of the Catholic Church, for example.
So, where are the people living on the earth today who are over 2,000 years old?
Can this be verified?
Saying that they're alive in heaven is meaningless because all that's doing is taking one portion of the passage and interpreting it in a spiritual sense, and taking another portion and interpreting it in a literal, physical sense.
It's not stunning ignorance of Christianity, as you state; it's pointing out the hypocrisy and double standards of interpretation that the Catholic church uses in interpretation to justify their messed up doctrines.
It's totally duplicitous of the Catholic church to apply two different standards of interpretation to ONE passage of Scripture to interpret something to support their doctrine, especially when one of the interpretations contradicts the whole body of Scripture.
If the Catholic church is going to demand that the host becomes the literal, physical flesh and blood of Jesus and that we must eat it literally and physically, then to be consistent in their interpretation, they must also teach that by doing so, the person will never die on this planet, that he will physically live forever here in this physical, material universe.
If the church insists that the living forever is in the spiritual realm, then it must interpret the command to eat His flesh and drink His blood as a spiritual truth as well, which is consistent with the interpretation that communions is a symbolic representation of a spiritual truth. That interpretation is also consistent with the body of Scripture that prohibits the eating of blood, from beginning to end.
The only ignorance of Christianity on display in this thread is the continual insistence,in spite of the passages which forbid the eating of blood, that the cup becomes the blood and must be eaten.
As with chapters of material to prove otherwise, that works must be added to faith to earn salvation. There is NOTHING we can do to make ourselves worthy of salvation. We are totally incapable of it. If we were, then salvation would have come through works and Christ would not have needed to die.
You can't do anything to save yourself, or merit God's mercy. If you could, it wouldn't be mercy. Both mercy and grace are undeserved and unearned. They are completely the generous gift of the giver.
To reject that mercy and grace given freely as a gift by insisting on paying for it or earning it, is to spit in God's face and tell Him that what He's done is not good enough- that humans can add their puny little efforts to somehow satisfy God's justice.
It's too late. The only way to merit heaven on our own efforts is to be absolutely perfect our entire life. One sin is all it takes to condemn us. Even if you could live the rest of your life perfectly sinless from here on, it is already too late.
Can't be done.
AMEN.
WELL PUT.
THX THX.
Amen! Hallelujah and praise the Lord that he looked beyond our faults and saw our need!
MetMomThe verse you provided in no way supports your comment. You're talking about taking communion. The verse supports faith alone
John 3:15 does not teach faith alone. It teaches that one has to have faith. It does not in any way restrict that faith to being faith "alone". The reason I cited that is to explain to you that Christ promised everlasting life to some people. You had asked whether we believe that those taking the Holy Eucharist will have eternal life. I answered that yes, we do, just as you seem to believe in John 3:15. Or don't you?
Saying that [the saints are] alive in heaven is meaningless because all that's doing is taking one portion of the passage and interpreting it in a spiritual sense, and taking another portion and interpreting it in a literal, physical sense.
All passages about eternal life, in John 3, or John 6, or John 12:24-25 speak of tangible, real, literal life which is, just like our life, also spiritual. The difference is that it is not a life of the body just yet, but neither in John 6 Christ is promising the communicants life of the body. So this is how we believe all these verses, as promises of real tangible life in Heaven. For that reason, -- because the saints have real, tangible, eternal life now -- that we pray for their intercession.
If the Catholic church is going to demand that the host becomes the literal, physical flesh and blood of Jesus and that we must eat it literally and physically, then to be consistent in their interpretation, they must also teach that by doing so, the person will never die on this planet, that he will physically live forever here in this physical, material universe.
Why? Christ never insisted that eternal life is physical material life, quite the opposite (Luke 20:35-36); but he did insist that the Eucharistic species are His body and "food indeed" (John 6). We believe what Christ says. In stark contrast to the Protestant who believe their own theories.
the interpretation that communions is a symbolic representation of a spiritual truth
When the grain dies and wheat grows instead (John 12:25) it is not symbolic representation of a spiritual wheat but rather simply wheat. Read what is written, don't insert meanings you think should be there but aren't.
To reject that mercy and grace given freely as a gift by insisting on paying for it or earning it, is to spit in God's face
Indeed. Good thing we Catholics don't teach that. Grace is not of works, cannot be earned, and is given to all. It is a good idea to have a clue over what the Catholic Church teaches before opining about it. In fact, it is not a bad idea to read the Gospel every now and then before trying to figure out what eternal life means.