What Do You Think?

Goodness Gracious it is good to be a Catholic!  Why?  Well, I am glad that you asked.  It is because I am Catholic I do not have to really think about the following stumpers. 

1. If Sola Scriptura is really true, please show me where it is taught in the Bible.  Search high and low, through the Old Testament, through the New Testament, and you will not find it mentioned.  So, Sola Scriptura is not scriptural. As a Catholic, we know that God's truth is found both in the Bible and in Sacred Tradition. I can depend as a Catholic, that my Church will not teach error. 

2. If the message of the Bible is so simple that anyone can read it and interpret the truth it contains on their own because the Holy Spirit will guide them, then why don't all of the Protestant denominations believe the same things?  As a Catholic, I can depend on my Church to tell me exactly what a particular passage means and how to incorporate it into my life.  The Church bases her teaching on Sacred Tradition of which the Bible is part of, plus all of the truths that have been passed down through the ages, especially from the Church Fathers who lived in the early centuries of the Church. 

3. Protestants of an earlier generation recognized abortion as the murder of innocent life.  Today, many of the denominations fight for the right for a mother to murder her unborn child.  This change in belief usually comes from a synod where the matter is voted upon and the side with fifty point one percent of the votes wins and thus truth is changed by a simple majority. How very democratic.  Catholics have not forgotten that the Kingdom of God is just that, a kingdom. We have no right to change the truths taught by Christ, as it is His Church and his Kingdom.  As a Catholic, I can depend on the fact that our doctrines have not changed, that they are the same things that we have believed from the beginning.  The Holy Spirit protects the Catholic Church and keeps its teachings pure. 

4.  I find the belief of "once saved, always saved" a curious belief at best when you extrapolate what that means as far as it can go. For example, let's say one day I decided to be saved. I have an evangelical friend who leads me through the "sinner's prayer" and I accept Jesus into my heart as personal Lord and Savior. He tells me that is all I need to do to secure a place in heaven, I am saved. He tells me that my place in eternity, real estate bought by the blood of Jesus on Calvary is mine forever.  My name has been inscribed in the Lamb's Book of Life, never to be effaced.    I smile and thank him.  I then ask him if I can continue to go to the Catholic Church?  He says, "Oh no, you have to quit the Catholic Church and go to my Church of What's Happening Now."  So, I tell him that actually being saved is not actually enough. I need to be saved AND I need to go to his church. I go one more step, I ask, "What if I rob a bank and kill the teller, will I still get into heaven even if I was not sorry for it and did not repent of it?"  He tells me that I have to repent, so now to get into heaven I have to; accept Jesus, Quit the Catholic Church and join a Protestant church, and finally, I have to repent. If I miss even one of these steps, I guess my name would be erased from the Lamb's Book of Life. It would seem that once saved always saved does not quite work out. This doctrine fails to take into account God's justice. Of course, once saved, always saved is put to rest by Jesus Himself. We can see how he views this teaching if we read this in the Bible in the tale of the sheep and the goats in Matthew Chapter 25.

I am not pointing these things out because I think that only Catholics go to heaven.  The people born into other denominations are NOT guilty of the sin of schism.  That sin was committed by the so-called reformers who broke the unity that Christ wanted for us as stated at the Last Supper.  The people born into other denominations are guiltless of the sin of separation. They are brothers and sisters in the Lord, they are just not in full communion with the Catholic Church, the church that Christ established on earth. Many of them love the Lord and follow His teachings in their everyday life.  God will not turn them away.  

The Mercy of God is for Everyone.  For me, I prefer to live the way of a Catholic.  As they say on EWTN, the Catholic Cable Channel,  Live Truth, Live Catholic!