Protestants? Legalistic? That accusation coming from a Catholic? Seriously? When was the last time you heard of a Protestant having to go to confession for forgiveness of sins? How many Protestants do you hear make the comment that they don’t know if they lived a pure enough life to enter heaven? When have you heard a Protestant paying or praying for friends in purgatory hoping beyond hope that somehow someone somewhere atones for the sins of those in purgatory? I don’t know what Protestants you’re referring to but they certainly aren’t the Protestants I know.
Romans 4:7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Ephesians 1:4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
Put that Catholic propaganda that wants to keep you in bondage in the garbage and start getting into scripture to find the true freedom Christ brings.
Hard to believe, isn't it? Staggering in it's irony.
Catholicism is the epitome of legalism.
Do this. Don't do that.
You have to be baptized to be saved, but that doesn't quite do it.
You also have to take communion to be saved, except that that isn't enough either.
You have to go to confession to be eligible to take communion.
In addition, to be eligible for communion, you also have to do the penance they require of you to show how sorry you are for your sins.
And then communion doesn't quite do it either. You have to do all kinds of charitable works and give money.
But wait a minute, even after jumping through all those hoops, you STILL DON'T KNOW whether you're going to make it or not. You won't find out until you get there and have your good works weighed against the bad and see which you have more of.
Catholicism gives the Pharisees a real run for their money in the legalism department.
Thank God that Christ has set us free from the bondage of the Law.
Isn't forgiveness grand?
If the method Protestants use Scripture to contrive accusations against Catholics is not legalistic, I don't know what is...as apparently you don't, given your list of Catholic practices.
We formally recognize the error of "scrupulosity." Do you?