The point is that if one believes in fairy tales, other than the true scriptures that God wrote to us, the odds are very high that they will be believing the false Christ that is sent here first claiming to be Christ.
And the hard part is understanding that God is in control of that.
Each person decides for themselves whether they believe in fact or fiction. Don't make it sound like they don't have control over themselves in what to believe.
Hi Cephas,
you may not care what this Catholic thinks or what a Catholic Saint wrote about the very subject you brought up.
My wife and I try hard to be faithful Catholics and work hard at it and have a good understanding of the consequences.
We sometimes chuckle when we hear protestants and other Catholics complain about how tough their faith is when they have only one or two children (”be fruitful and multiply”) believe in a “prosperity theology” (”passing through the eye of a needle”) and on the Lord’s Day go somewhere “to fellowship” (don’t you love it when they make a verb out of a noun?)
Why have tried very hard for years and have grown much closer to the Lord and then we read this: “The Little Number of Those Who Are Saved” by St. Leonard of Port Maurice the full text is here: http://www.olrl.org/snt_docs/fewness.shtml
It was like having a bucket of ice water thrown in our faces. The following few quotes from the beginning of the sermon are just a warmup:
“Did all those who followed Christ follow Him even unto glory?....The point of this instruction is to decide whether the number of Christians who are saved is greater or less than the number of Christians who are damned; it will, I hope, produce in you a salutary fear of the judgments of God.”
“Brothers, because of the love I have for you, I wish I were able to reassure you with the prospect of eternal happiness by saying to each of you: You are certain to go to paradise; the greater number of Christians is saved, so you also will be saved. But how can I give you this sweet assurance if you revolt against God’s decrees as though you were your own worst enemies? I observe in God a sincere desire to save you, but I find in you a decided inclination to be damned. So what will I be doing today if I speak clearly? I will be displeasing to you. But if I do not speak, I will be displeasing to God.”
“....You will hear Saint Gregory saying clearly, “Many attain to faith, but few to the heavenly kingdom.” Saint Anselm declares, “There are few who are saved.” Saint Augustine states even more clearly, “Therefore, few are saved in comparison to those who are damned.” The most terrifying, however, is Saint Jerome. At the end of his life, in the presence of his disciples, he spoke these dreadful words: “Out of one hundred thousand people whose lives have always been bad, you will find barely one who is worthy of indulgence.”
“....Look in to the Old and New Testaments, and you will find a multitude of figures, symbols and words that clearly point out this truth: very few are saved. In the time of Noah, the entire human race was submerged by the Deluge, and only eight people were saved in the Ark. Saint Peter says, “This ark was the figure of the Church,” while Saint Augustine adds, “And these eight people who were saved signify that very few Christians are saved, because there are very few who sincerely renounce the world, and those who renounce it only in words do not belong to the mystery represented by that ark.” The Bible also tells us that only two Hebrews out of two million entered the Promised Land after going out of Egypt, and that only four escaped the fire of Sodom and the other burning cities that perished with it. All of this means that the number of the damned who will be cast into fire like straw is far greater than that of the saved, whom the heavenly Father will one day gather into His barns like precious wheat.”
I leave the rest to those interested, however a cautionary note, upon reading it you will have a very good idea where you will end up if you do not change RIGHT NOW.
So likely Peter maybe 1 in 100 will take your admonishment seriously - for just who does PeterPrinciple think he is?
Even better maybe a few more will be inspired to read St Leonard’s sermon - and then again maybe not. For what could any protestant learn from a some very old very dead saint?
Ad Majoram Dei Gloriam