ping
Power. The Roman church desired power and authority that belonged to God alone, so they stole it. They suppress the Truth of Scripture so their members won't know of Christ's Grace. As a former Catholic, I can tell you this is 100% the sad reality.
Why post lies about catholics. Catholics believe without works, faith is dead. But only through faith is salvation. With the amount of hatred from the radical muslims, why do you post such trash
"It is finished."
Has it ever occurred to you that Christ was speaking of the establishment of the New Covenant with these words? What was finished? History? Salvation? How can either of these be finished when the work of the Church was just beginning... to teach, preach, and baptize the world?
When we read these words, we are reading a translation. Another way to read the translation that might illuminate their meaning to you would be "It is consummated." When you see Christ on the Cross, you are looking at the Priest, Sacrifice, and Bridegroom in the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. This marriage is the knitting together of Heaven and Earth... our adoption into God's Family through participation with Christ's Bride, the Church. IT IS FINISHED. The transaction of the Covenant is completed and now all may approach the Throne of Grace and His Body, the Church, may carry on His work to call all people home to Heaven.
They would rather trust the Sacrifice of the Mass as a sin offering to God rather than trusting in the one-time, all-sufficient, sacrifice of Christ.
This is where you fail every time. You misrepresent Church teaching to condemn the Church. The Mass isn't a sin offering. It is the Todah, an offering of thanks to God for our salvation. In this offering, we offer the only acceptable sacrifice, participation in the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ. We aren't recrucifying Him. We are participating in the mystery of His sacrifice.
How can any church, which claims to follow Christ, withhold this truth from its people and create in its place doctrines that nullify the Savior's finished work?
The Church nullifies nothing. She explains and illuminates. Do you sin? Of course you do... everyone does. Do you then make atonement for sin and do penance? In every sin, there are two fractures... our relationship with God and our relationship with man. We receive the Grace of reconciliation in confessing our sins to God. There is still an atonement in this temporal world for the harm that has been caused. Matt 12:32 speaks of the forgiveness of sins in this life and the next. No one may enter Heaven stained. We trip, we fall, we stain ourselves. We also wash clean in the Grace of reconciliation and atonement. Some sins will be atoned in the life to come before our entrance to the banquet.
Being reconciled to God is difficult for Catholics to comprehend, for they have been taught the only way to made peace with God is through a life long journey of works--receiving the sacraments, going to Mass and doing penance.
This is a complete straw man argument against the Church. Our "peace" is made with God through Baptism into His Holy Family. The rest is our Family life in His Church on our journey home. We will make mistakes, we will fall down and we will rise in reconciliation. We will eat at His Table and continue the work of Christ in calling all people to Him as His Body, the Church.
The only response to the accomplishments of Christ that will reconcile anyone to God is repentance and faith.
Yes. However, we will all sin again. Repentance is an ongoing reception of God's Grace and we come to him in faith to be reconciled.
Satan Understands.
He invented the flawed extrapolation and is thrilled with the results:
No confession of sins,
No praying for the dead,
No motivation for good works,
No motivation for fasting, penance, or mortification.
If you believe that your obligations end with “I believe”, then you fail to recognize that “belief” means living that faith.
Let’s get real honest here: millions of “Protestants” don’t have a clue about the reality of “It is finished”. We are told to “make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires”. Yes, this can mean Lust, but also “the boastful pride of life”. Flesh loves the idea of EARNING. So easy to go down that road.
Lots of preaching is nothing more than FLESH trying to beat down and subdue other FLESH. It will not and can not ever work. Proof: the CONSTANT and never-ending whining from pulpits wondering what’s WRONG with Christians or why the Church is SO INEFFECTIVE, etc.
The solution—IT IS FINISHED—would put a lot of people out of a job!
Three words neo-pagan Protestants don’t understand.
“no second collection” ??
That's the religion most Europeans might have been practicing if there hadn't been a strong, centralized church holding the fort for Christianity.
Take away dat ole' debbil the Catholic "whore of babylon" Church and you have small groups of committed, "bible"-believing, on-fire-for-the-Lord congregations that generate hundreds or thousands of different "scriptures" and are snuffed out one-by-one by hoards of arians, monophysites, nestorians, pelagians, etc.
A careful analysis of Catholic Church documents includes specific references to the precise chapter and verse in scripture, but when quoting the Catholic Church merely cites "(Vatican Council II)" as the full footnote. That's like a Bible scolar comparing a phrase in Luke to a phrase in Leviticus, citing chapter and verse for one and for the other saying "(The Old Testament)".
Why am I pointing this out? The writer clearly has excellent knowledge of scripture (though compare Colossians 1:24 "I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.") but he set this up against one cherry picked phrase with no context and (wilful?) ignorance of the Catholic concepts of forgiveness, atonement, propitiation and expiation.
I am reasonably certain that if the author of this piece actually understood the context and meaning of the quote he cited he could construct a critique. But just pretending that Catholics don't understand the word expiation isn't that critique.
Surely there are more...
What is the exact citation for this "quotation," so I can read it in context? I tried Googling on several portions of it. EVERY SINGLE HIT came from an anti-Catholic Protestant website. Every one!! The language doesn't even read like Vatican II. What is the actual citation? "Vatican Council II" is not a citation.
Another “bash the Catholics” thread. It really deserves a barf alert.
It is indeed finished.
However, I think its a mistake to single out Rome. Many Christian churches have people working themselves silly trying to become what God has already made them to be.
Ephesians 2, which should be studied often, makes it perfectly clear - we WERE dead in sin, but NOW we are made alive IN CHRIST, and seated in Heavenly places. Not because of works, good or otherwise - man gets no glory. We are GOD’s workmanship, recreated in Christ Jesus. It is a gift! And what a gift it is.
The religious just need to get their “but” out of the way. They read God’s Word, His revelation for the Body of Christ given through Paul, and desire to add something else. Either Ephesians 2 (along with the rest of Paul’s revelation to The Church) is TRUTH, or its not.
Still praying for you.
Wisdom from the dimwits who gave us Jim and Tammy Baker, Jimmy Swaggart and snake handling. I don’t thin so.
Those in the Mormon religion try to earn their way into their afterlife too...
their god was just a man before he earned his godship and hey think they can too...
well the males anyway..the females are just going to be members of a harem and pregnant constantly forever to give birth to slaves to serve the god...
Luther's tradition isn't biblical.
Why do Protestants follow human tradition?
"If he will not listen to the church, treat him as a pagan or tax collector." --Jesus
Go ahead, rationalize this passage however you want. Luther said you can.