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Catholics Don't Believe You Can Earn Your Way to Heaven
Tradition | 03-06-2022 | CharlesOconnell

Posted on 03/06/2022 11:16:06 AM PST by CharlesOConnell

A man commits a serious crime, then he gets released. He has "paid his debt to society". But wait a minute, he's only ready for the half-way house. He's unlikely to get a prestigious job in his new prison suit coat, or any job at all; he has civil impediments, he can't vote or hold certain offices. His crime was serious enough that he won't be presumed to have been completely rehabilitated until he performs a notable service to society, or at least spends many years on the straight and narrow, so that his crime can be truly overlooked or forgotten.

In Catholic faith, your "debt to society" is paid by Jesus Christ on Calvary. It's called "eternal punishment", without Christ it keeps you from going to heaven. Supposing that you do take advantage of His sacrifice, you're truly sorry, have a firm purpose of amendment, if you relapse, you go again for forgiveness (to the Sacrament of Confession).

But your sin leaves a strong trace at another layer of impurity called "temporal punishment due to sin", like the civil impediments facing the half-way house prisoner. Because "nothing impure can enter heaven", there is a place or a state, a condition of purification to render you fit for heaven after Christ has finally saved you from hell. The Catholic Church calls it purgatory.

(Where is it in the bible? Where is the word Trinity in the bible? Where does it say that you only need a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Many valid principles aren't stated explicitly in the bible, but it does say to "hold fast to the traditions you have learned, whether by word or by letter", because much of the Gospel wasn't written down, as Jesus only wrote in the sand, the majority of the Gospel was taught from word to ear to people who couldn't afford expensive books, the exceptions were what tended to get written down. But the implication that there is a purgatory, is contained in the bible--see the comments.)

The ex-con can receive a pardon or commutation of his probation from a Governor, if he performs some heroic deed, saving numerous lives, or, like Chuck Colson, performs a long-lasting, valuable community service helping numerous people who can't help themselves.

In the Catholic Church there are 2 ways for the residual, temporal effects due to sin to be expiated: suffering in this life, or after life, undergoing purifying suffering along with other people who will finally be saved, but have to suffer for long without the vision of God--that is what causes them their pain.

Their suffering isn't meritorious enough to grant their release, the saints in heaven and those on earth suffering and practicing virtue can pray for the suffering souls in purgatory. In no way is their release by slow transfer of suffering or practice of virtue, "buying heaven". It's a long, excruciating process.

How the misunderstanding arose that Catholics think they can buy their way into heaven, is involved with history more than 500 years old. For a millennium of Christendom between roughly 410 and 1410, there was a Medieval civilization with harmony between faith and government.

Many small farmers would cluster around the manor house of a military lord who would protect them, in exchange for a certain fixed obligation of labor and agricultural produce. In most cases, those "serfs" had much more leisure than factory workers of the industrial revolution; there were a large number of holy days without work, and except for planting and harvesting, there were long stretches of idle time.

Another large sector of the economy surrounded monasteries, where the monks developed most of the farming practices that stabilized the serfs and their manorial lords. The monks who worked those monastic lands were sworn to poverty, so that monasteries built up large accumulations of economic value over decades and centuries of labor.

At the beginning, when lands were being cleared and put into production there weren't prominent town fairs ruled by merchants and bankers. Money wasn't used for sustenance, not even much barter occurred, life was mostly agrarian.

Charity was woven into the economy of monasteries. It was estimated that you only need travel 12 miles in medieval England between monasteries, where you could get a meal and minimal lodging for free, based on need. And the charity was also spiritual, including the ancient Catholic principle of prayer for the dead, which is biblical. (See "prayer for the dead" in the original King James Bible in the comment.)

There were foundations and benefices for praying for the dead, that allowed a person of means to support monasteries' charitable works, and in proportional response the monks would pray for the souls of the donors.

It happened at the close of the middle ages, that militarily strong nobles cast their eyes on the labor value accumulated by the poverty-sworn monks of the monasteries, which those nobles perceived as monetary wealth, especially where gold and jewels had been donated by the devout to adorn churches.

(Protestant writer William Cobbett wrote in his 1824 "A History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland", an anecdote, that an incredibly valuable, hand illustrated bible was stripped of it's bejeweled, gold cover, the much more valuable hand-illumined manuscript, thrown in the mud and trampled by horses hooves by raiders suppressing the monasteries in Henry VIII's England.)

A new religion growing up around this seizure of monastic lands and valuables, that sought to discredit the Catholic Church, spread the black legend that the "sale of indulgences" was abusive. But this was very exceptional. Today the stipend of a Mass said for the dead is $10.


TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; Religion & Culture; Theology
KEYWORDS: catholic; catholicbashing; cult; dontbelieve; indulgences; praytomary
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To: RaceBannon
Who ya gonna believe??


this book?or THIS Book?

581 posted on 03/20/2022 4:10:49 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: imardmd1; Philsworld

If you die, extracting your sugary hand from the cookie jar of SIN, before you get a chance to ‘repent’ from it, you are TOAST!


582 posted on 03/20/2022 4:19:37 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

—> If you die, extracting your sugary hand from the cookie jar of SIN, before you get a chance to ‘repent’ from it, you are TOAST!

Humans have no idea the depth of sins omission in their lives.

Just take “loving the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul…”

Anyone who thinks they will hold on to their salvation by their own effort is a fool.

Christ died to save sinners.


583 posted on 03/20/2022 4:26:02 PM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion (Fraud vitiates everything.)
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To: MHGinTN

The great white Throne judgment is the Judgment of the saved, the lost, the great white Throne judgment is not a judgment seat for those who are entering heaven but those who are being condemned to hell


584 posted on 03/20/2022 5:23:28 PM PDT by RaceBannon (Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for )
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To: RaceBannon
the great white Throne judgment is not a judgment seat for those who are entering heaven but those who are being condemned to hell

Oh?

Then just WHO are the Great and the Small?


Exodus 32:32-33
 But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.”  But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.
 

Daniel 12:1
 “At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.
 
 
 
Philippians 4:3
 And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the book of life.
 

Revelation 3:5
He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
 

Revelation 13:8
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
 
 
 
Revelation 17:8
 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
 
 
 
Revelation 20:11-15
"Then I saw a great White Throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and THE BOOKS WERE OPENED. Another book was opened WHICH IS THE BOOK OF LIFE. The dead were judged according to their works as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to their works.  Then death and Hades were thrown into the Lake of Fire. The Lake of Fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written IN THE BOOK OF LIFE, he was thrown into the lake of fire."
 
 
Revelation 21:27
Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

585 posted on 03/20/2022 5:30:17 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: imardmd1
Here's some present and future sin for you, pal!

Hebrews 10:26For if we SIN WILFULLY AFTER THAT WE HAVE RECEIVED THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 28He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done DESPITE UNTO THE SPIRIT OF GRACE? 30For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. 31It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Let's repeat this a few more times so it can sink in...

DESPITE UNTO THE SPIRIT OF GRACE

DESPITE UNTO THE SPIRIT OF GRACE

DESPITE UNTO THE SPIRIT OF GRACE

DESPITE UNTO THE SPIRIT OF GRACE

Maybe a few more times will help?

DESPITE UNTO THE SPIRIT OF GRACE

DESPITE UNTO THE SPIRIT OF GRACE

DESPITE UNTO THE SPIRIT OF GRACE

DESPITE UNTO THE SPIRIT OF GRACE

Was that helpful for memory retention?

Once someone accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior, by faith, ALONE, they are then covered by Grace, AND THEIR PAST SINS ARE WIPED CLEAN. They are as innocent and pure as the freshly driven snow. They are blameless. They carry no sin. Then, they are expected to grow in Christ, and OBEY HIS COMMANDMENTS, ABIDING IN HIS LOVE. The Holy Spirit will help them GROW. If they sin, they need to ask forgiveness and REPENT.

Grace only covers past sin, pal. And people who think they can commit whatever form of lawlessness (against the law of God) they want, and still think they are covered, are sorely mistaken. They will have chosen POORLY. OSAS is STILL a lie.

Ravi sinned willfully. There is no denying that. Even his own church admits that, and are very forthcoming and upfront about it. If Ravi died in unrepentant sin (and I'm not saying he did), he's in big trouble with God, because OSAS doesn't cover present and future sin, as Hebrews 10 CLEARLY demonstrates.

And, it's precisely why God hated the doctrine of the Nicolatians...

The doctrine and works of the Nicolatians came forth from a wrong interpretation of the grace of God that was preached by the apostles. They misused the Grace of God and the liberty in Christ to fulfill their carnal (sexual) lusts and desires.

They believed and said that a person is saved by grace and therefore it doesn’t matter how you live. By faith in Jesus Christ, the spirit of a person is saved, but since you are bound by the flesh, in which evil is present, you will always remain a sinner and always keep on sinning. You serve God through your spirit, but you keep serving your flesh and it’s lusts and desires during your life on earth...SOUND FAMILIAR? (taken from some random internet site)

586 posted on 03/20/2022 5:37:52 PM PDT by Philsworld
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To: Elsie; MHGinTN; aMorePerfectUnion; metmom; RaceBannon
Even when I was a Catholic, I never read the catechism from cover to cover. I only read a few paragraphs here and there, to pass the test in religion class. I think most of the people in there, would rather be somewhere else. I could see the displeased looks on their faces. It seemed like most of the boys and girls, were more interested in flirting than anything else. Me? I just wanted to get out of school, so I could go play hockey. 😀🤗
I guess you could say I was poorly catechized, but that was my choice. 👍 I am rather glad about that now. 🙃
587 posted on 03/20/2022 6:00:01 PM PDT by Mark17 (I am a retired USAF air traffic controller. My son is a USAF pilot. Aviation runs in the family )
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To: aMorePerfectUnion
Anyone who thinks they will hold on to their salvation by their own effort is a fool.

👍

588 posted on 03/20/2022 6:10:33 PM PDT by Mark17 (I am a retired USAF air traffic controller. My son is a USAF pilot. Aviation runs in the family )
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To: Philsworld

It will surprise me if imardmd1 spends andy effort explaining Hebrews 10 to you since being a dead soul not a live spirit you will not comprehend the teaching. Its a sort of pearls before swine thang dontchaknow,.


589 posted on 03/20/2022 6:29:31 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensation perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: MHGinTN

MhG...

I concluded it isn’t worth the time invested to respond to every see and say scripture posting.

It takes a long time,
the person isn’t educable
nor open to truth,
whatever you say is ignored...

THEN a whole new batch of scriptures is posted that moves the goal post.

THEN it circles back to the same thing over and over...


590 posted on 03/20/2022 6:54:25 PM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion (Fraud vitiates everything.)
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To: Philsworld

Someone seems angry.

Maybe you’d get a better response if you didn’t come across as so incredibly insulting and arrogant, and especially if you didn’t just assume what any of us believe and attack us with your strawmen.

Well, you would have at least. For you, I fear it’s too late; you have a reputation.


591 posted on 03/20/2022 6:55:03 PM PDT by Luircin
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To: Luircin

no one’s angry, LOL.


592 posted on 03/20/2022 7:03:05 PM PDT by Philsworld
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To: Philsworld

Good for you, but it doesn’t change that you look like you’re rageposting.

If you want to be taken more seriously, you might want to adjust your behavior so as to NOT come off like that.


593 posted on 03/20/2022 7:07:08 PM PDT by Luircin
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To: Luircin; Elsie

I’m not as good at mixing in multi colors, borders, etc..., like Elsie. So, caps and red is basically it for me. Maybe you are reading more into it than there is?


594 posted on 03/20/2022 7:13:56 PM PDT by Philsworld
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To: aMorePerfectUnion
THEN it circles back to the same thing over and over...

I think it’s like casting pearls before swine. Some people are just not interested in the truth. Since I am not into pain (the fires of Hell) I chose the truth.
Do you suppose cultists get special training on circling back around like this? My guess would be, yes they do. 🤗

595 posted on 03/20/2022 8:23:24 PM PDT by Mark17 (Retired USAF air traffic controller. Father of a USAF pilot. USAF aviation runs in the family )
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To: metmom
And actually, they neither entered the cloud or the sea, but passed through the sea untouched and there’s no record of anyone but Moses, and perhaps Aaron entering the cloud. The people as a whole didn’t.

St. Paul says otherwise...
Why is your first notion to interpret scripture away from the actual meaning?
So you are calling St. Paul saying St. Paul got it wrong when he wrote of those "Baptized" in 1 cor:

and all were BAPTIZED into Moses in the cloud AND IN the sea...?

You have to have Faith to trust and believe in what St. Paul wrote in this epistle...
If he says "Baptized" he meant baptized. Its in the Greek. I wasn't there, neither were you. We have to take St. Paul at his inspired Words for it, don't we?

It can't be about what anyone decides what is going to be acceptable...
God creates and renews Life through Water AND Spirit throughout the Bible up to the Cross- where Water AND Christ's Blood, together,, are poured out onto Earth... its very clear.

BTW... What Bible translation do you quote from? I had asked yesterday and interested...
(I prefer the Douay... but use the RSVCE to help with the thee's and thou's)
596 posted on 03/20/2022 9:34:19 PM PDT by MurphsLaw (" I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”)
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To: MurphsLaw; metmom

Murphs, that’s another logical fallacy. Inspired does not always mean literal, and I would hope you know that.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/figure-of-speech-fallacy

If you’re going to argue that Paul meant literal baptism in the exact same sense as he means Christian baptism—or even specifically Roman Catholic baptism—you have to offer more than just “Well, he said baptism!”

On top of that, metmom already answered your question about Bible translations; you just didn’t like the answer. That’s not just bringing up the poisoning the well fallacy again, but it’s also a loaded question fallacy.

And again, I say this as someone who agrees somewhat more with you than I do with metmom on this topic.

What it *looks* like from this end is that you’re either embarrassed or angry and you’re trying to save face by attempting to throw her own words back at her.

If that’s not the case, I would suggest that you adjust your posting because it’s not going to convince anyone if it looks like you’re just posting emotionally.


597 posted on 03/20/2022 9:54:51 PM PDT by Luircin
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To: aMorePerfectUnion
I went to the greek.
There are 9,000 occurrences of kai (translated- "and" in the Bible). The usage of Kai suggests an intention of combining- joining 2 things together... in mathematics... X + X
Paul very easily could have left off the "and water" part to accomplish the "dry baptism" you mention. But he didn't. It can't be read into that way.

Now maybe St. Paul was influenced perhaps from the old Levitical water cleansing, up to the water baptisms of John in his day. Perhaps that is, where he made a mistake using "and water" in referencing the Dead Sea exodus.
But that can only be read into the epistle as a personal interpretation, and not of it.

He reminded them that their fathers in the faith, believers in Israel, were also all under the protective influence of God. The Corinthians knew these facts....

We would say God offers a little more than "protective influence" for us, No? The Corinthians in the Church Paul started were "Saved by Grace through Faith". Much better than just " protective".

Paul's theme here in this letter to the Corinthians is the same as when he will write to Romans "If God did not spare the natural branches... nor will he spare you."
He is warning them of Israel's faulty history and many who lost faith in God then did perish.
This has nothing to do with his Church goers eating in Pagan temples- but all sinfulness they were doing... for Paul seals his warning here with his purposed intent by saying:
"So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!"

Now here's the real problem with 1 Cor 10... Paul is writing to HIS church in Corinth
These are believers, Saved by the Cross, Having repented and Baptized... remember,saved believers he is warning there...

SO why is Paul Warning these believers, recalling to mind the woes of the unfaithful Israelites in the first place?
They believe, they have been saved- They CANNOT lose their Salvation - at all.

WHY is Paul warning them that they too can fall and die like the Israelites then?

Aren't the Corinthian believers Saved , with all assurance from falling? -
Once for ALL?

598 posted on 03/20/2022 10:38:26 PM PDT by MurphsLaw (" I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”)
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To: Philsworld
Philsworld, you simply are so naive that you cannot grasp how great that ignorance is. In this particular case you have populated your vignette with the characters so wrongly chosen that the scenario leaves the informed Bible student in laughing stitches so painful that it simply hurts beyond belief.

You need to think this over while I take the time to write t the answer that destroys our theory. Keep holding your breath,if you can. . . .

And you think that you're teaching me something. This is really hilarious!

599 posted on 03/21/2022 1:12:59 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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To: MurphsLaw

More importantly, did you mean to address this to me?


600 posted on 03/21/2022 4:15:33 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion (Fraud vitiates everything.)
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