Posted on 01/05/2015 3:27:43 AM PST by NYer
Freedom of speech is a great thing. Unfortunately, it comes at an unavoidable price: When citizens are free to say what they want, theyll sometimes use that freedom to say some pretty silly things. And thats the case with the 12 claims were about to cover.
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Some of them are made over and over, others are rare. Either way, while the proponents of these errors are free to promote them, we as Catholics have a duty to respond.
2. "Christianity is no better than any other faith. All religions lead to God."
If you haven't heard this one a dozen times, you don't get out much. Sadly enough, the person making this claim is often himself a Christian (at least, in name).
The problems with this view are pretty straightforward. Christianity makes a series of claims about God and man: That Jesus of Nazareth was God Himself, and that he died and was resurrected — all so that we might be free from our sins. Every other religion in the world denies each of these points. So, if Christianity is correct, then it speaks a vital truth to the world — a truth that all other religions reject.
This alone makes Christianity unique.
But it doesn't end there. Recall Jesus' statement in John's Gospel:
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me." In Christianity, we have God's full revelation to humanity. It's true that all religions contain some measure of truth — the amount varying with the religion. Nevertheless, if we earnestly want to follow and worship God, shouldn't we do it in the way He prescribed?
If Jesus is indeed God, then only Christianity contains the fullness of this truth.
Hahahahaaaaa!
Amen to that GPH but to be fair what other name was in #171?
Yes, as you say.
But uh...I *think* that person's prayer was about Jesus, and to Him.
Relax, please... It's all ok.
G2G does mean well afaikt. Cut 'em some slack maybe?
It was in reference to a couple of posts I had engaged him with, if you read the other posts between me and him, starting with his post about non-Christian Jews and Muslims believing in the same God.
He meant it in the "everybody, including non-believers, can be saved even if they never convert" sense, if you read his previous posts. It wasn't coming out of nowhere on my part.
Yes I read those other posts earlier.
Still,even after all he knew,Peter still managed to lop off an ear.
God bless GPH
8-)
Sure, Christians can lop off ears. We're not perfect. This doesn't mean an unbeliever can get to heaven.
Sort-of as we (Christians) were instructed to pray in Matthew 6, if others pray in that same spirit & way, then God can hear them from on High.
Similarly if any pray in His name that to me means more to be praying according to His will, in His name in that manner.
Which means to me that those who do not necessarily call Jesus by name, or even do not necessarily have theological opinion that He is the Messiah -- but yet -- can in effect act as if they do --- those persons God knows, perhaps even as His own.
Blessed are they who have not seen Him -- but yet believe? (putting righteousness to work -- even the Lord's own according to how He sees things).
He said -- if you love me you will keep my commandments.
Those that keep His commandments --- however they arrive at that place --- are still loving Him to some degree, if not at times -- perhaps perfectly.
I believe that is it in a nutshell sir. Now, how a person goes to one or the other, is another topic,
Peace be with you too.
Most of the few which I have seen.
Yet a month (or two?) ago, during daylight hours, right out in the front yard there was a small owl which stopped in a small tree, less than twenty feet from where I was sitting.
It stayed there for a little while, turning it's head this way and that before eventually winging off towards the East.
The sky was overcast...there had been some rain earlier.
\ From my past experience with owls, limited as that is -- I have seen them after they had been blown around and transported away from their usual haunts.
About this time of year, and particularly in the coming months near the Central Coast of California, the winds will often blow quite strongly offshore.
When the clouds would lower and there be wind also --- while commercial fish trawling offshore of the Big Sur Coast -- more than once I've ended up with an owl -- or a pair, sitting in the rigging, looking quite lost.
I think they'd get blown offshore, not be able to see land -- but saw the glow of our deck-lights. Not being able to land on the water very well, the boat would be like a lifeboat to them.
When skies cleared enough for them to see land, they would fly away.
There would be other "land" birds offshore occasionally. One kind -- I don't know the name of, but a very small round-looking kind of bird would fairly often fly into the cabin and hang out for a while.
Other mariners have reported the same thing.
One of these I watched fly away in the direction of passing ship. I don't know if the little thing would be able to catch it, but it may have looked more like "land" than the rock n' roll of a 75ft trawler, with a few guys on board that could make a little birdie nervous.
Yes, Mama. I am glad y'all are here :-)
Anyway, I was attending a Southern Baptist church in Fairfield, CA. I was raised as a Catholic, but when I was in the USAF, the Navigators got to me. They never tried yo tell me one church was better than any others, they just said, here is the Bible, find out for yourself. I certainly did do that. To make a long story short, I attended that church for maybe 15 years. The pastor retired and a new one came. He was a good guy, but I think he was out of his league, and after awhile, Icabod reared his ugly head, and being Southern Baptist, you should know exactly what that means. I started to feel uncomfortable to be there anymore, so I went to Calvary Chapel, also in Fairfield. What our Catholic friends don't understand, is that each SB church is independent of all other SB churches. They all sink or swim on their own, as individual churches, not as a group. Make sense?
Believing requires actually believing. There's no such thing as a person who doesn't know that he believes in Christ. The whole idea basically negates evangelism and contradicts the scriptures, such as, "how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?", and the vision Paul received to go preach to the men of Macedonia: "And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us" (Rom 10:14, Acts 16:9).
Which means to me that those who do not necessarily call Jesus by name, or even do not necessarily have theological opinion that He is the Messiah
This is in direct contradiction of the scripture:
Joh_3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Those that keep His commandments --- however they arrive at that place --- are still loving Him to some degree, if not at times -- perhaps perfectly.
Are you then saving that those who have never heard the Gospel, but are keeping the commandments, can be saved? But the scripture says that all are condemned because none keep the commandments:
"What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:" (Rom 3:9-10)
In Romans 1 and 2, Paul systematically showed the guilt of the Jews and the Gentiles who were ignorant of the law, though they had a "law placed into their hearts." This is what he "proves" and mentions here, and reaffirms that all are under sin and are wicked.
Thus salvation can only be of Grace. But if salvation is of Grace, then this means that God's omnipotence brings all His elect to faith and salvation in Christ without fail. No one who belongs to Christ can ever remain ignorant of Him. And if they did, then they are not of those whom Christ said belonged to Him.
Have you two met?
There was before He was born, in the flesh.
Some were able to pick up on the spirit of the Law.
Then others seemed to have had things prophetically opened to them in regards to the Messiah.
But the ones which I was in hope referring to, are like the non-religious, even moderately anti-"Religion" persons whom I have known that treated persons other than themselves well enough, genuinely enough to make positive difference for others, at times even loving the souls who were in some way rejected & unloved by many, doing these things out of the kindness and love for others and life itself, along with being decent & fair generally to those whom they interacted with, and in those ways keeping that second part of the greatest commandment.
Joh_3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
I was talking about believing in the essence of what He is -- what He stands for.
What of those who (at times, at least) instead of choosing to do evil to others, honestly enough turn away from doing so, even when it may cost them something, like good standing among their peers [whom can be at times hateful], or cost in missed financial profit or gain -- deciding to instead show mercy towards those who are in dire need of mercy, and some kindness too, beyond merely "mercy"? It can make all the difference in the lives of some---- and help stem the tide of evil itself.
Those are the conditions I was considering, and which may be along the lines of whatever RCC theologians had in mind also, when they ranked others in consideration towards possibility for salvation, according to their own (RCC) views.
I have two different people tell me that they had received in prayer, from God (they could be wrong) that;
Ive seen the name and comments.
But my reply here is as much for reason you highlighted a portion of what I said -- that I should have worded in different order.
First -- the high winds.
Then, the winds would shift, and the marine layer "clouds" and fog would set in.
Putting together the weather phenomena with the unusual but occasional visit from 'land' birds, that's how I reasoned the owls and occasional hawk or falcon would end up on the boat, for otherwise they didn't fly offshore to it on purpose. Or so I pieced things together, anyway...
But she did not say the Catholic Church has nothing to “back up” her beliefs, but said "y’all only think in catholic terms and can not post verses to back up your beliefs." When you open up oral tradition as a source then it is not about posting verses.
Of course Rome can claim all is supported even by Scripture, even if only implicitly, and nothing contradicts it, but which claim is essentially meaningless since she supremely is the autocratic judge of that and will protect herself.
Meanwhile the veracity of RC teaching does not rest upon the weight of Scriptural substantiation, but upon the premise of the assured infallibility of Rome.
"The mere fact that the Church teaches the doctrine of the Assumption as definitely true is a guarantee that it is true. ” — Karl Keating, Catholicism and Fundamentalism (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1988), p. 275.
It is even said that one cannot discover the contents of Scripture except thru assent to the infallble magisterium, which is certainly news to those who knew what writings were of God before here was an infallible magisterium.
..the believer cannot believe in the Bible nor find in it the object of his faith until he has previously made an act of faith in the intermediary authorities between the word of God and his reading. - Catholic Encyclopedia>Tradition and Living Magisterium; http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15006b.htm
RCs also compel Scripture to support inventions of Rome , which must often be exposed here.
Yes, and here's what the scripture says about the Gentiles in that period who were strangers to the God of Israel:
Eph_2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
But the ones which I was in hope referring to, are like the non-religious, even moderately anti-"Religion" persons whom I have known that treated persons other than themselves well enough, genuinely enough to make positive difference for others, at times even loving the souls who were in some way rejected & unloved by many,
My first thought is: You probably do not comprehend the deepness of your own sin, and so you do not know it in the entire vastness of humanity. What you offer here is salvation according to a man's merit-- but a man is damned when judged according to his native merits, since they fall short of God. Salvation is through faith only-- and that by grace.
I was talking about believing in the essence of what He is -- what He stands for.
Then you're even worse off than I thought! Christ calls for belief in the only begotten Son of God, in His death on the cross and in His resurrection:
Rom_10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
If you do not believe He is the only begotten Son of God, you are, by definition, damned. The scripture says nothing about having faith in "good works." It only says they are damned by their works because they always fall short.
eciding to instead show mercy towards those who are in dire need of mercy, and some kindness too, beyond merely "mercy"? It can make all the difference in the lives of some---- and help stem the tide of evil itself.
Stem the tide of evil? But man is evil in and of himself. There is no good in him, and anything that is good belongs only to God's grace, whether in the Christian to salvation and sanctification, or commonly to the world to keep them from devouring each other's bones.
Isa_64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
I have two different people tell me that they had received in prayer, from God (they could be wrong) that;
The scripture is our guide, not the fantasies of stupid people. As for the Papists, they are practically closeted Pelagians when they push this idea of salvation outside of Christ's body. What I speak, I speak with all the support of scripture and with the Church Fathers they claim to be the heirs of.
I can see why you would say that.
Yet what I was driving at was not "by works", but those works being led by even the spirit, and faith in "doing the right thing" (and that "thing" being right according to God's own view, not just man's) and people here and there yielding to that choosing the best way and the right way, sensing Him even if they were not thinking *Jesus* at the time.
MamaB..."my regular eye dr told me to wear an eye patch. A friend told me to do that plus wear a pirate’s hat."
BlueDragon..."When the clouds would lower and there be wind also....aaaarrrr!"
ok so I added the "aaaarrrr"....you get the picture
8-/
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