Catholics: How important is studying Church history to being a Christian?

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Phil 1:21

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There is, of course, a vast difference between the communion of saints and the communication to dead people.

Mark 12:27
He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.
 
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bbbbbbb

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Mark 12:27
He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.

Good, please tell me where I can directly talk, face to face, with any deceased saints? BTW, I do that regularly at church, except the saints there are not dead yet.
 
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Phil 1:21

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R you asking stupid questions for the sake of amusement?

No, I'm trying to figure out why someone who claims to be a Christian would start an argument over me claiming that, of the people you listed, only one is God. Unless you just want to argue for the sake of doing so, which was funny when Monty Python did it. Not so much otherwise.
 
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Good, please tell me where I can directly talk, face to face, with any deceased saints? BTW, I do that regularly at church, except the saints there are not dead yet.

According to that logic any attempt in communication with God is in vain too.

Have you seen God face to face?
 
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Is God dead? I specifically asked where I could converse with a deceased person. Or, are the saints demi-gods?

He died, but rose again.
About the saints, I don't believe their dead as in their souls cause that would make me a horrible heretic.

When God said he's a God of the living I'm believing in him.
 
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The statements the Pope makes should be in line with Catholic Doctrine

I'm asking you if you think some of his statements have been recently.

Did you agree with Pope Francis when he stated that Atheists can go to heaven if they "do good"?
_
Pope Francis: "We must meet one another doing good," the pope said. To those who say: " 'But I don't believe, Father, I am an atheist!' " the pope said, "But do good: We will meet one another there."

So, was the pope saying that people can go to heaven, even if they don't believe in God?
_

Such a statement is not a matter of opinion nor is it politically charged, rather what he said here involves a matter of the Faith in the most explicit sense. Do you believe Pope Francis was defending traditional Catholic doctrine with his statement that those who deny Jesus (atheists) can enter heaven?

If you're going to claim he's expressing an opinion, then I would argue that he has neglected his duty to defend doctrine by speaking lackadaisically, given what he said is an almost wholesale contradiction of the cornerstone of Christian soteriology, and speaking in such a manner poses a detriment to adherents of Catholicism worldwide who may not notice that he was merely presenting an opinion.
 
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Major1

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One charge made against it is that the saints in heaven cannot even hear our prayers, making it useless to ask for their intercession. However, this is not true. As Scripture indicates, those in heaven are aware of the prayers of those on earth. This can be seen, for example, in Revelation 5:8, where John depicts the saints in heaven offering our prayers to God under the form of "golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." But if the saints in heaven are offering our prayers to God, then they must be aware of our prayers. They are aware of our petitions and present them to God by interceding for us.

Some might try to argue that in this passage the prayers being offered were not addressed to the saints in heaven, but directly to God. Yet this argument would only strengthen the fact that those in heaven can hear our prayers, for then the saints would be aware of our prayers even when they are not directed to them!

In any event, it is clear from Revelation 5:8 that the saints in heaven do actively intercede for us. We are explicitly told by John that the incense they offer to God are the prayers of the saints. Prayers are not physical things and cannot be physically offered to God. Thus the saints in heaven are offering our prayers to God mentally. In other words, they are interceding.

Taken from;
Praying to the Saints | Catholic Answers

One of the great mistakes in understanding the Bible is the practice of making the Bible say what we want it to say.

YOU are insisting that Rev. 5:8 is saying our prayers are known by those in heaven. But is that what it says in Rev. 5:8? NO!

It says......."Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints."

Not ONE WORD is there about the people in heaven knowing our prayers.

What we have in this text is an explanation of what has happened to the millions upon millions of prayers over the last 2,000 years as the saints have cried out again and again, "Thy kingdom come . . . Thy kingdom come." Not one of these prayers, prayed in faith, has been ignored. Not one is lost or forgotten. Not one has been ineffectual or pointless. They have all been gathering on the altar before the throne of God.

Then Jesus Christ takes the book and it is actually the LAMB who has the vials full of prayers from the believers of all ages.

We are to rightly divide the Word of God !!!!
 
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Major1

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I don't know to whom you're talking, but I've not forwarded any recommendation of such.

Don't you believe in the communion of saints?

I do! The living believers in Christ.
 
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Major1

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So at the moment of our death our soul dies with our body is that what you believe?

Now is that what I said my dear friend. That is what you got from my post????

My dear fiend, I said I looked forward to communion with the saints who are alive.

Our souls DO NOT DIE!!!! We can not have communion with the dead spirits of believers because they are in heaven and we are on the earth.

All believers in the Lord Jesus Christ as SAINTS and when we have communion it is with those with which we partake.
 
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Now is that what I said my dear friend. That is what you got from my post????

My dear fiend, I said I looked forward to communion with the saints who are alive.

Our souls DO NOT DIE!!!! We can not have communion with the dead spirits of believers because they are in heaven and we are on the earth.

All believers in the Lord Jesus Christ as SAINTS and when we have communion it is with those with which we partake.

Our difference is that I believe that we're all alive at this very moment in Christ our Lord.
I also believe that as such we can communicate with each other through Christ the one mediator, the bridge between heaven and earth.

I also hold a different view on who're saints and who's not. All believers ain't saints, but that's a discussion for a different thread.
 
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bbbbbbb

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Our difference is that I believe that we're all alive at this very moment in Christ our Lord.
I also believe that as such we can communicate with each other through Christ the one mediator, the bridge between heaven and earth.

I also hold a different view on who're saints and who's not. All believers ain't saints, but that's a discussion for a different thread.

I always find it curious that, if one follows Catholic theology, the vast majority of saints lived and died in the first century. After that there were just a handful for each century. Either God's definition changed after the New Testament was written or people were not good enough after that time.
 
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I always find it curious that, if one follows Catholic theology, the vast majority of saints lived and died in the first century. After that there were just a handful for each century. Either God's definition changed after the New Testament was written or people were not good enough after that time.

Declared saints are just that, declared. There are lots of lots of saints that isn't canonized you know.
The canonized ones are just those whom the the church knows are in heaven and in a position where they can pray for us.

You knew this right?
 
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Major1

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Our difference is that I believe that we're all alive at this very moment in Christ our Lord.
I also believe that as such we can communicate with each other through Christ the one mediator, the bridge between heaven and earth.

I also hold a different view on who're saints and who's not. All believers ain't saints, but that's a discussion for a different thread.

Romans 1:7...........
"To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ."

1Corth. 1:2............
"Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their's and our's".

2 Corth. 1:1........
"Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia:

Ephesians 1:1............
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:

Now, do you believe that Paul was writing to DEAD people?
 
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bbbbbbb

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Declared saints are just that, declared. There are lots of lots of saints that isn't canonized you know.
The canonized ones are just those whom the the church knows are in heaven and in a position where they can pray for us.

You knew this right?

Yes, of course. What has puzzled me for some time is the stinginess of the Pope. If he holds the key to the Treasury of Merits of the Saints, which includes the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, and if these merits are effective in freeing souls from Purgatory, why is it that the Pope doesn't avail the infinite merits of Jesus Christ to free all Catholic souls from Purgatory?
 
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HighCherub

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Church history is a mess of theological blights and crimson politics.

Even the Reformation didn't go without fanatics and violence, why should anyone even begin to suggest the Catholic Church is some innocent child in the midst of history?
 
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Erose

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I'm asking you if you think some of his statements have been recently.

Did you agree with Pope Francis when he stated that Atheists can go to heaven if they "do good"?
_
Pope Francis: "We must meet one another doing good," the pope said. To those who say: " 'But I don't believe, Father, I am an atheist!' " the pope said, "But do good: We will meet one another there."

So, was the pope saying that people can go to heaven, even if they don't believe in God?
_

Such a statement is not a matter of opinion nor is it politically charged, rather what he said here involves a matter of the Faith in the most explicit sense. Do you believe Pope Francis was defending traditional Catholic doctrine with his statement that those who deny Jesus (atheists) can enter heaven?

If you're going to claim he's expressing an opinion, then I would argue that he has neglected his duty to defend doctrine by speaking lackadaisically, given what he said is an almost wholesale contradiction of the cornerstone of Christian soteriology, and speaking in such a manner poses a detriment to adherents of Catholicism worldwide who may not notice that he was merely presenting an opinion.
The problem that Pope Francis has at times is that he assumes too much from his audience. And this has been a gripe of many Catholics concerning him, because he will say something, and not clarify what he meant. I think he is trying to force people to think a little on their own, but he just doesn't realize that most people don't take the time to get past the words.

For example for the statement above the question to ask is: What does it mean to do good? You have to look at what or should I say Who good is. All goodness leads to God, because God is the author of all that is good; for God is Good. So if we start living a life seeking to do good and to be good, somewhere along the line you will end up in God's grace. See the point of what he is truly saying here?

Francis is a Jesuit, and Jesuits are thinkers and teachers, and the problem that Francis has is that he forgets who he is teaching to at times.
 
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