MB: Here we have the ultimate buck passing. You are not responsible for your sins - Somebody else is.
Did I say that or are you misrepresenting what I said again?
Not only here, but in many of your posts.
MB: Therefore you get a free pass no matter what you do.
You mean like the mafia hitman who's a good, practicing Catholic and can just go to confession, which the priest is bound to keep silent about, and confess his sin and pay no legal or civil penalties, but takes a few trips about the rosary and voila' he's all free and clear.
You keep on saying that you were raised Catholic and then you spout antiCatholic nonsense like this. Is your memory faulty?
And in case that's not enough, he can stack up some good works feeding the poor and get that get out of purgatory free cards. Or maybe he can just buy some indulgences......Kind of pre-pay.
Something's gone askew down at the mill. Is this faulty memory or are you simply spewing antiCatholicisms in the hope of justifying leaving the Faith?
I'd hazard a guess that all the people in the Gospels who were told they were saved or healed by their faith did not understand fully the Incarnation, the deity of Christ.
Even his own disciples didn't get much. They certainly didn't understand that he was going to die for them.
God straightened out their theology AFTER they were saved and given the Holy Spirit. Matter of fact, the only way to have correct theology is through the enlightening of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you.
Yes, correcting my theology is God's department.
John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
Catholic converts to Protestantism start with bitterness.
Protestant converts to Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy start with a desire to know more and do it for intellectual reasons.
Most Catholics who convert to Protestantism only had a rudimentary superficial understanding of Catholicism.
Good works are worthless if they are done for selfish reasons. Any Catholic who just goes through the motions and doesn’t do them with a heart of Christian charity might as well have not performed them.
Good works merit grace as long as they were initiated by God’s grace. It’s a matter of cooperating with God as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1 3:9.
http://www.greek-dictionary.net/synergos
The Protestant God is a puppetmaster who views men and women as slaves and not as sons and daughters.
Mark, You’re married IIRC, unless I’m confusing you with Mad Dawg.
Tell me, when someone gets married do they not enter a covenant relationship with each other? Or is it a business contract, more like a bill of sale?
Is your wife your wife because she cooks and cleans and pays the bills, and does the chores, or is she your wife because you love her and married her? A housekeeper can do all the chores for crying out loud. Does that make her your wife?.
Does she, or would she, cease to be your wife because she burnt the dinner or neglected to mop the floor one day? Does a husband send his wife away with a bill of divorcement because she didn’t do enough good works to earn or maintain her position as his wife?
If she were to do something like lie to you about a purchase (for whatever reason) do you kick her out of the house and divorce her until she comes crawling back? If she asks your forgiveness for said offense, do you not grant it, condition free because she’s your wife and you love her? Or does she need to feel obligated to scrub the kitchen floor with a toothbrush to *prove* to you how sorry she is?
Would that really please you? Is that what you want from your wife?
What about children? Are they not born or adopted into your family? And when they disobey, as children will, do they cease to be your children? Does that sever the relationship and you kick them out of the house? Or does it only disrupt the lines of communication but they are still your beloved children whom you love but have seen do something that hurts them? Of course you want them in right relationship with you so they can reap the benefit of being your children, BUT they are still your children, disobedience or not. All their disobedience does is interfere with their ability to experience the fulness of a relationship with you. They don’t cease to be your children.
What kind of God do Catholics serve who wouldn’t even do for us what we, as humans beings, would do for each other?
He’s going to disown us because we slip and fall and disobey sometimes? He’s going to write us out of His will, so to speak, because we’re weak and fallible? Ooops you sinned and didn’t make it to confession before you died. Too bad for you. Go to hell.
You can keep that kind of God. The one portrayed in Scripture is a loving heavenly Father full of grace and mercy, ready and willing to forgive and understanding our weaknesses and NOT ready to throw us under the bus the minute we fail, even if we don’t necessarily get around to confessing each and every transgression before we die.
So those of us who name the name of Christ in faith and by faith are secure in our position before God and secure in His promises of forgiveness and eternal life.
Too bad if you don’t like it. It’s available for anyone for the asking. You can have it too. You just have to believe God that what He said is true. That’s what He wants is simply to be trusted, to be believed that He was telling us the truth.
That pleases Him more than abasing ourselves by scrubbing that kitchen floor with a toothbrush thinking that it pleases Him.
It’s about relationship, not religion and rules and regulations.