“And if Catholics actually preached and taught what Peter did in the above verses, rather than salvation thru the very act of baptism rendering them good enough”
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So true. From an early age they are taught that the church saved them rather than the shed Blood at Calvary.
As well as being taught to place their faith in the roman catholic church rather than having to have their beliefs supported by Scripture.
True, though Rome teaches that her system of salvation is all of grace, For while is imagined to that the act itself of trinitarian "Baptism, the sacrament of [usually proxy, of souls who cannot and need not obey (Acts 2:38; 8:37,37] faith purifies, justifies, and sanctifies" (CCC 1227) and "conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy" (CCC 1992) so that, grace, "infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life," (CCC 1813 )
yet
"certain temporal consequences of sin remain in the baptized , such as suffering, illness, death, and such frailties inherent in life as weaknesses of character, and so on, as well as an inclination to sin that Tradition calls concupiscence..." (CCC 1264) And since "Every trace of attachment to evil must be eliminated, every imperfection of the soul corrected." Purification must be complete..." "This is exactly what takes place in Purgatory." (John Paul II, Audiences, 1999; http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/audiences/1999/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_04081999.html) Since one "cannot approach God till the purging fire shall have cleansed the stains with which his soul was infested." (Catholic Encyclopedia>Purgatory) For one "cannot approach God till the purging fire shall have cleansed the stains with which his soul was infested." (Catholic Encyclopedia>Purgatory) even "through fire and torments or "purifying" punishments. (Apostolic Constitution on Indulgences, Pope Paul VI) Which thus must presume that even the contrite criminal that was with Christ the day He died, had attained to this perfection, besides atoning during in this brief time for sins he may have committed after his baptism of desire.
It is quite the presumed insurance company.