At 06:39 AM 1/23/2007 -0300, Ricardo Aráoz wrote: ... >We Catholics have a great advantage in life. We can do whatever so long >as we go to church on sunday and confess. I think other Christians were >not granted the privilege ;c) ...
Ah. This might be where I'm having problems making myself clear. Being Catholic does not mean you are a Christian. Mormons claim to be Christians, Christian Scientists claim to be Christian, and Jehovah's Witnesses claim to be Christian. I don't believe those religions teach true Christianity. There may well be Christians that are members of these religions, but the religion itself does not accurately reflect Christian beliefs in my opinion. I've said it before: the one group of people that has done the most good in advancing the message of the Gospel is Catholics; the one group that has done the most damage to the message of the Gospel is the Catholics. I haven't studied the early history of the Catholic Church very closely, but somewhere along the line it morphed into pretty much what Jesus condemned. The 'legalistic' concepts of Catholicism are exactly what Jesus faced and rejected while he was on Earth (at that time it was the Jewish 'legalism' which he tore apart). You may have been joking, but from what I've seen a lot of Catholics believe exactly what you said: "I'll be OK as long as I get to Church Sunday and confess." Nothing could be further from the truth. Relying on "works", especially "tally" type things (I can make up for 2 bad things by doing 3 good ones), is not what Jesus taught. Yet this is what Catholicism still puts forth (from what I've seen - but it's interesting to note that some Catholic Churches I've attended in the US in the past few years seem to actually be getting back to God's Grace as the source of salvation). The whole "works" thing is where I think Catholicsm has done the most damage to Christianity. By focusing so much on deeds as the means to salvation, Catholicsm pretty much makes Christianity sound like just any other religion. E.g. do x, then y, then z, give money, yada yada, and your soul will go to heaven. But that's the fallacy of all non-Christian religions. Most of them make it seem that the person can control their own salvation. If they work hard enough, if they fast long enough, if they remember to bow down the right number of times, etc. But Christianity is first and foremost about how man is totally helpless to change his relation with God. It took an act of God to provide the way for man's salvation. To accept that is ultimately humbling which is why so many have a hard time with it. Mankind has this "pride" aspect where we think we know it all, or can know it all, and that we can take care of it ourselves. -Charlie _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
