Beg to differ here.
You have to be baptized, have to take communion, have to go to confession, have to do penance, have to, have to, have to, and the best any Catholic I've ever met, including myself, can hope for is purgatory.
It's works based simply because of all the restrictions the church puts on one in order to receive *grace*. There's a lot thrown back on the person that they are responsible for when Jesus says just to believe.
So yeah, people have to do something. They have to believe to activate that salvation, but they don't have to do something to earn forgiveness for their sins. or make up for the past.
I"m done with keeping a laundry list of do's and don't's hoping against hope that I didn't miss anything.
The only image of God I left the RCC with was one of a harsh, condemning, judgmental, capricious, God who is ready to zap me for the slightest infraction, one who you have to access through Mary because she was the only one who had compassion on us and God couldn't deny her what she asked. All of which led me into fear and bondage instead of the freedom Jesus offers. I too used to hope that if I died, it would be right after confession or that I wouldn't sin before taking communion the next day, which would give me a few more hours and increase my chances of making it.
Jesus tells me and shows me I'm loved and accepted and still His, even when I do sin. He is the good shepherd.
When I stamp my feet and say *Do it myself!* and mess things up, God lets me. It's like a preacher I heard say, as a parent he would sometimes let his four year old *Do it himself*, thinking, well, it's not going to be pretty, but when you're done, I'll be here and pick you up and dust you off and get back on the right track.
But that father doesn't disown the child for petulance. The child wasn't written out of the will or disowned for the temper tantrum.
And isn't sent to hell for it as punishment.
And isn't sent to hell for it as punishment
Where does it say Catholics think they are?
You have to be baptized, have to take communion, have to go to confession, have to do penance, have to, have to, have to, and the best any Catholic I've ever met, including myself, can hope for is purgatory.
Where does it say that?
It’s a blessing and a grace that the Cathplic Church does not teach works based salvation.It appears that biggest negative reaction to Salvation by Grace alone, through Faith alone, in Christ alone is the charge of antinomianism, or that those who have faith can now do anything they want without loss of salvation!Beg to differ here.
You have to be baptized, have to take communion, have to go to confession, have to do penance, have to, have to, have to, and the best any Catholic I've ever met, including myself, can hope for is purgatory.
IMHO, if the Gospel you preach does not bring up this charge, please examine the "gospel" you preach for others also brought the SAME charge to Paul!
That SAME charge of antinomianism was made against Apostle Paul who replied with Romans chapt 6.
Rom 6;1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ..... 12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
15What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
Yes. You said that. Come to think of it, I said that.
Okay, YOUR catholic church teaches whatever you want it to teach and to have taught.
The Church I go to teaches no such thing, though a number of her members do.
Funniest thing: Protestants are all up in our grill for "vain repetition," and yet their attacks on us and the Church simply reek of repetition.
Before I came into full communion I prayed, read the Bible, read theologians, both Catholic and Protestant. I never had the last bit of trouble distinguishing the nobility of Roger Williams from the misdeeds of Baptists. There's a lot to like about Menno Sims, yet I cannot expunge from my mind the the image of a Mennonite inflicting a soul killing (if such were possible) guilt trip on her precious four year old girl, but I don't confuse the abuses of Mennonite clergy and laity with the teaching of their group.
When I want to understand a subject, I don't go to the unqualified. I look for the best sources i can find. If I want to understand Catholic teaching, I go to Augustine, Aquinas, Dante.
Since, for example, I REALLY doubt homeopathy, I don't go to some ditzy airhead for the theory and practice. And when I get a book by some hotshot homeopathist I don't cherry pick quotes to confirm the prejudices I bring to the inquiry.
Autre gens, autres moeurs, comme je dit toujours.
One needs to understand the way God made a covenant with Abraham to understand. Abraham was present, but was put into a deep sleep during the covenant process, allowing God to make the covenant himself and with no commitment on Abraham's part. Abraham can’t take credit for “accepting” the covenant any more then we can “take credit” for accepting salvation.
Are you saying that your rejection of Catholicism is based upon convenience and appeal?