You wrote:
“Christianity is a relationship between man and God through His Son Jesus Christ.”
And it is more than that too. It is about doctrine and the Church.
“You don’t have to be a member of any church body to be a true believer.”
Christ thought differently. He established the Church and appointed her ministers. One of the reasons he died was to empower the Church with His grace. Nothing so important as to be based on Christ’s sacrifice can be so easily dismissed as you have done it.
“It is best to be, for sure, so that you can bless others and learn more about God, but if a person loves and trusts Jesus Christ as Saviour, that person will go to Heaven, just like any church goer who believes.”
No. He has hope of salvation, but only in pale reflection to what is offered through the Church by Christ Himself. Christ sent the Church. Christ did not send vague notions of trust or fantasies about lone ranger Christians making up Christianity as a consumer item as they go along.
Sorry, vlad, but one’s salvation has nothing to do with any church. It’s a personal decision between man and God. Your church has nothing to do with it. My husband prayed over a man in a coma in the hospital. He woke up, asked the Lord to come into his life, and went back into the coma. God had chosen him to be saved at that moment. He didn’t go to church but he went to heaven. Your church has indoctrinated all of you into believing, or so it seems, that you can’t go to heaven without being Catholic and going through all the rites of the church. It just ain’t so.
God established the Body of Christ, THE one true church.
Okay, I take great exception to that comment about “lone rangers making it up as they go”. What are you? A Pharisee? Why do pompous people like you, have to take something simple like salvation and complicate it? To make yourself feel important? God meant for the plan of salvation to be simple, so everyone can understand and accept the offer of eternal life. You are making it sound like one has to jump hurdles and shoot out of a cannon to share in God’s inheritance. SHAME ON YOU!!!!! You could be the reason someone might feel too intimidated to step forward and accept Christ as their Savior, and if that were the case, it would royally suck to be you when you stand before Almighty God, you would not get a chance to plead your case. Lighten up for pity sake. Would you please show me in the Bible where it says Jesus established the Catholic church and her ministers? What is Christ’s doctrine?