Discussion: Is the Holy Roman Catholic Church the only true Christian church?

I think this is a very intresting point. I was a cradle Catholic, who fell away only to realize that what I turned from was truth. I don't pretend to know God's will. I never once said I thought, and the Church certainly doesnt teach that picking the wrong religion or being born into the wrong one equated to damnation. What I do know is there is an unbroken historically traceable line between my Church and Christ. That knowledge of historical fact strengthens my faith in what it teaches being true. I do not know that all the Church's doctrines and domas are true. I have faith that they are and history demonstrates that the earliest Christians did also. That is how I can dismiss the claims and interpretations of Biblical minimalists like JSRacing.

 

I was shopped around to a bunch of churches growing up, due to having parents of different faiths before participating in the Catholic RCIA at age 17 after feeling a pull from God.

I did not feel God's presence at the Mass. I did not understand the purpose of the sacraments that Catholics had to participate in. I did not understand why people would attend Mass, refuse to participate in worship, then leave directly after Communion. I did not understand why church was filled to overflowing two times a year and sparse every other Sunday.

After reading a book called "Classic Christianity" I understood that there was something missing in my life. I did not know God the way I should. God to me was someone I visited on Sunday in a building. Sure, Christ died for my sins two thousand years ago, but did that really mean much to me in my life? I was still confessing the same old sins. Nothing about my life had really changed since I became Catholic.

So I investigated the Protestant church history and the history of Catholicism. I investigated the Bible verses and the critical epistles which the modern fundamentalist churches use as guidelines.

My conclusion was this:

The RCC does not teach the central New Covenant doctrine:

Salvation is achieved through faith alone. Note that good works are a symptom of true faith, but good works in themselves do nothing apart from the blood of Christ.

http://www.carm.org/doctrine/justification_verses.htm

Also, Christ was crucified on the cross, one time, for all sin at all times. All men were reconciled to God by this sacrifice.

The sacrifice of the Mass is blasphemous and redundant; Christ does not need to be sacrificed again and again! His work was finished! What the Mass is saying is that Christ's work wasn't sufficient.

All men are born in Adam. That is, we inherit his spiritually dead nature. Although we are reconciled through the blood of Christ, we are still in need of life! This is where the Holy Spirit comes in. When we name the name of Christ, the Spirit comes to live inside of us. Believers walk after the spirit, not after the flesh. Thus when we sin, we are walking in the flesh rather than after our new nature.

Romans 8:10-17
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I feel and this is my opinion so please dont bite my head off. The only true man that can Find a true faith is one that has lost faith. When we are young we are told to kneel, we are told to pray, and we are told to be quite. But when we are young we are never really told WHY. And that is because our young minds can not grasp the reality of the events that lead to this, so instead we are told wonderful stories in bible school, or sunday school or whatever you grew up calling it.

But there comes a time in everymans life when he most chose to either leave the comfort and secruity of his faith and learn what the world has to offer, or stay confined, content, and happy in what he has always known.

The problem I have is how can one pass judgement on another religion when that person has never taken the chance to see the reasoning behind it.
This may not be the best wording but how can you beat your enemy if you do not know your enemy.

In this day and age we no longer require a church as a place a refuge, we are free to worship how and where we please.
I personally do not need to sit and a church and feel Gods love surround me I get that everyday when I walk outside. The world this beautiful place we live is our Church, this is the way, I feel God intended it to be. In all the teaching and written history, wiether they be true or not, Jeuses was always teaching and spreading Gods word in the hillsides or along the riverbank.

God i believe does not want us to MOURN our faith but to celebrite it, to stand up and shout from the hill tops that we believe. I have always felt bored and unimpressed when attending church, and it wasnt until I sat underneath the stars one night to read the Bible that I finally felt at peace and the comfort I had so long heard from others.


I may be alone in my views and this is fine I am at peace with the desicions I have made as for my soul. But I do feel we will all be finding out where we all stand very very soon.

It says in the Bible that as the end days draw near the Old men will dream and the young men will become prophets and see vision. I myself have seen things that are to really to be dreams and are of things that I could never possible imagine.

I believe that we will see the rapture of Gods church soon and eventhough I my beleifs I have done everything within my power to make myself ready for this event I have prayered that God will allow me to stay here so that I might do his work for him and bring more brothers and sisters to him before the kingdom of heaven reigns over all.

I dont know why I have told you all this and I am sure I'll get the flames from y'all but ever since I first posted in this thread something has been at the back of my heart telling me to post how and what I feel. I do not know what for but I am sure I will find out soon enough.

I purpose we start a new thread since there seems to be the intrest to talk about it. BUT not a thread to bash the religions of the world or the churches. BUT a thread were we each can freely post OUR own ideas and believes of our faith so that others can read and learn instead of just going through the world ignorant. Who knows there maybe someone on here that could possibly be looking for answers to a very tough time in their life and have no place to turn. As long as everyone is to be in agreeance to the the rules that no matter what someone post there is to be no BASHING, TELLING SOMEONE they are wrong or stupid to believe this way, OR trying to convience someone that your way is right.

Just a Thought.

 

thats the thing, you might dispute that "history" if you were not catholic.

i dont put tons of stock in history. especially ancient history. i think we have some general ideas of what happened, but we are also doing plenty of guessing and theorizing. one of my hobbies is folklore/urban legends, and i see plenty of reasons to think that that any recollection of any event by anyone should be considered flimsy evidence. i think that any history of anything is colored by the tellers of the history.

the fact is jsracing believes what he does because of his religion, and so do you.

exactly. and like everyone else, there was a time and an age when you were a bit of rebel and you strayed from the teaching of your family. but you came back and did what you were told, and justified to yourself with this history argument.

 

I have been saying this. And martin I would like to say this kind of commentarie is alot better then the usually big point hat and magic man talk. Where did you learn how to be tackful?

 

the grand wizard contacted me and cast a tactful spell on me.

other things:

1. i think the crushingly destructive bombs that lsubud is dropping on the former pope might be very true, but that doesnt matter to the media much, because such a massive % of the world will not only disagree with that info, they will be pissed the F off if it is reported. so media sort of quietly reports it and hope nobody gets mad at them.

2. it is curious that many of you claim to have really distanced yourselves from the indoctrination of your childhood to take an objective look at religion, but you always come back to christianity in one form or another. none of you ended up muslim. weird huh.

i dunno. that is a question i think i have no answer to, nor any way to answer. i know nothing about it. all i know is people say they know, and they all say different, and people will say anything. some people know they were abducted by aliens. i see people on tv that know that psychic medium john edward is talking to their dead grandpa. years ago people believed in poseidon and zeus. american indians believed in weird spirits and crap. everyone has some silly answer or other. even people i respect, who are intelligent, they think they know things that are wrong.

for instance, most people think the coriolis effect dictates how water spins down your bathtub drain. not true.

so to answer your question. i do not know.

 

Thank you for anwering my question in a non-smartass way. I can understand your opposition it's like me saying I know Jesus was/is the Messiah but a Jew knowing he wasn't. Or a Muslim knowing Allah is God and Muhammed is his prophet while I know Allah isn't God and Muhammed is not his prophet. The only way that I guess I can explain the way I believe is because of the numerous prophecies the Bible has predicted that have already occurred or are expected to occur during the last 7 years of the earth. No other religious book, that I know of, has had so many prophecies and predictions come true. I guess that is the way I justify my faith.

 

try not to give credit to someone for simply acting human.

 

http://www.tigerforums.com/showthread.php?t=26701&page=1&pp=40&highlight=westworld

 

lol yeah i knew when i typed that but i still don't buy it.