Posted on 09/29/2016 2:14:54 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
Wonderful!
Art doesn't save. Ritual doesn't save. Tradition doesn't save. Church attendance and sacraments don't save.
Only Christ saves and gives eternal life.
Yup.
And all that (Art...Ritual.... Tradition ... Church attendance and sacraments... Friends... Angels ... The physical Universe..... and a good deal more...) can help you come to Christ.
well, wonder why he didnt just join a ‘non denominational bible only, faith alone, church created by some mere man’over a thousand years after christ ascended back to heaven....instead of choosing the historic catholic church started in 33 AD.....hmmmm, what could be the reason????
sure Christ wouldnt let someone join the wrong faith...as he desires all to ‘be as one’.....
The Persians I have met have always been charming and intelligent people. Very urbane and curious about the broader world. Unfortunately, as our author notes, they were forced to leave Iran in order to allow those qualities to flourish.
Being based in London, he will be exposed to harsh criticism for his conversion by hardcore Shia and Sunni Muslims who are far more literal in their adherence to their prophet’s teachings. I’m sure he considered this very real, existential danger before writing his essay.
Let us pray it remains just criticism and nothing worse.
Unfortunately, in this case, we have no idea if this dear soul came to saving faith or just joined a church because he felt good.
“well, wonder why he didnt just join a non denominational bible only, faith alone, church created by some mere manover a thousand years after christ ascended back to heaven....instead of choosing the historic catholic church started in 33 AD.....hmmmm, what could be the reason????”
Friend, to correct the errors and logical and historical fallacies in your sentence would take this thread off-track. Good luck.
However I think you didn't give sufficient consideration to the part about:
"Somewhere along the way, I resolved to be honest with myself, if not others, about my need for Almighty God....The one thing that stayed with me from Benedict XVIs book was the Popes profound meditation on the idea that Almighty God had become man and entered our history which is to say, the central mystery of Christianity. Et incarnatus est.That the Person whom St Peter is denying isnt just his great friend and teacher, but the very God Himself, God from God, who has entered our fallen world. And whose greatest act is to endure humiliation, be spat upon, crucified and even denied by his friends...
"The beauty of the painting became, for me, a sign of the underlying truth. The story of the three denials, in other words, was no longer just a moving narrative, but part of an event upon which all of cosmic history pivots. More than that: an event and an idea that shook me to my core. ...
Life experience had led me to see the Christian idea of the Fall, and our Lords gift of radical repentance, as the most sensible solution to the brokenness all around me.
"I longed for worship that gave full expression to the mysteries of the Christian faith. The Cross had to be there, but also our Lords crucified body with the pierced side, and the bloodied hands, the scourged and welted back, and the thorns cutting into the forehead. The sacrifice had to be restaged, and His Mother had to be there, too, because she was our link to His divinity, to His becoming flesh. I longed for the Mass, in other words."
Who cares?
God cares.
do you have a source link?
Never mind
Friend, I did read it, yet we don’t know whether this led him to entrust himself to Christ alone for eternal life - or to simply join a church with meaningful art and ritual.
He never tells us.
For this reason I truly hope he has salvation, and with it eternal life.
Best
bkmk
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