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To: Quix
IF y'all think that the Vatican's chronic and extreme overweening emphasis on PRIDE (directly and indirectly) is pleasing to God and going to facilitate being ushered into Heaven--I think millions will be shocked to discover otherwise.

Protestant millions, sure. We don't believe in the pride of the Reformation. We don't believe in the pride of self-declared salvation. We don't believe that Jesus the Christ - the Ultimate Judge - owes us anything.

We Catholics bow our heads (literally) and we plead for mercy from Him. We do not declare that we are the Church and we get to declare our own salvation. Now, that is pride. I'd like to see that when they offer that up to the King of Kings.

2,889 posted on 12/05/2011 7:49:54 PM PST by MarkBsnr (I would not believe in the Gospel, if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so.)
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To: MarkBsnr
We Catholics bow our heads (literally) and we plead for mercy from Him. We do not declare that we are the Church and we get to declare our own salvation. Now, that is pride. I'd like to see that when they offer that up to the King of Kings.

Bowing the head and/or the knees is NOT what God requires for salvation. It MUST be the emotional and intellectual equivalent of doing so that God wants and, only then, is the physical act accepted. By confessing with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believing in our hearts that God raised him from the dead is what God says saves us. One who has done so can be assured of eternal life and to continue to beg and plead for God's mercy to save us after he has already done so is demonstrating a lack of faith not a humble faith.

When you say "We do not declare that we are the Church", are you speaking as an individual or as a member of a Church that most certainly DOES declare that "we, and ONLY we, are the Church". What you label as "pride" only appears so to those who do not have confidence in the promises of God. In fact, I think it is MORE prideful to think I must still do more to earn my salvation. When we come to saving faith in Jesus Christ we leave ALL pride at the foot of the cross because we can do nothing of ourselves to merit the unspeakable gift of God's grace. God gives us the choice, believe and be saved or reject the gift and be damned. Those who do not believe are condemned already, Jesus said. Those who believe are NOT condemned, he also proclaimed.

2,918 posted on 12/05/2011 10:11:53 PM PST by boatbums ( Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. Titus 3:5)
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