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Catholic Faith
- Thread starter Blazen
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LongingForLight
Well-Known Member
Blazen said:
Turning to the Catechism for this one . . .
1250
Born with a fallen nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of the new birth in Baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into the realm of the freedom of the children of God, to which all men are called. The sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant Baptism. The church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth.
Also, part of the Catholic baptism ritual is where the priest asks the parents, "What do you ask of God for this child?" (My wording may not be the official wording - sorry). The parents respond, "Faith". In baptism, we are asking God to grant the gift of faith.
Also from the Catechism:
1231 (last half)
. . . By its very nature infant Baptism requires a post-baptisimal catechumenate. Not only is there a need for instruction after Baptism, but also for the necessarry flowering of baptisimal grace in personal growth. The catechism has its proper place here.
Finally, when the infant grows up, he or she will receive a chance to acknowledge its faith and confirm his or her status as a Catholic in the Sacrament of Confirmation. Baptism is only the first step to joining the Catholic Church.
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But I though each person is their own and must find faith in Christ on their own.
Acts 8:36-38 Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.
Acts 8:36-38 Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.
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Blazen,
May I ask why you are desiring to return to the Church? What is it that you feel is calling you back?
May I ask why you are desiring to return to the Church? What is it that you feel is calling you back?
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I do not "desire" to return to the Catholic Church. I do not know which route to follow. But since my path had began towards the Catholic faith, I decided to look for answers through it first in hope of being closer and content with God.
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geocajun
Priest of the holy smackrament
Can I recommend a book for you?Blazen said:
What Catholics Really Believe-Setting the Record Straight: 52 Answers to Common Misconceptions About the Catholic Faith
I am recommneding this book because it seems fitting for the Question and Answer style approach your taking here to learn about the Catholic Church.
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geocajun
Priest of the holy smackrament
sure, stick around and keep asking questions, but I highly recommend you also do some research on your own, such as visiting www.catholic.com/library.asp and reading the tracts there.Blazen said:
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LongingForLight
Well-Known Member
Blazen said:
Yay! That's a good start. After all, if Catholicism is the truth (and I believe it is
), then it should be able to stand up to any amount of open, honest scrutiny. I'm a big fan of asking questions - I ended up here when I decided to renew my faith by finding answers to the questions that were stumbling blocks for me. Someone here posted on a topic I was interested in, and Google turned up these chat boards.
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LongingForLight
Well-Known Member
geocajun said:
Good advice. Do be careful in your research, though. There are a lot of radical opinions out there. If you run across something weird on the 'Net, you can always come back here and share it for clarification. I found a lot of weird stuff before I ended up here.
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Blazen said:
Okay, I understand!! May I also recommend finding a Catholic Church and just going in once a week for an hour and just sit and pray in front of Jesus truly present in the Eucharist. Jesus is there Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity- and if you go seeking answers and go open to whatever path God has in mind for you I know He wil speak to your heart and tell you where He wants you! If you really truly want to know what He wants- it must begin with prayer. But keep asking questions as well! Many people on this board are herebecause they started having their objections to the Catholic Faith answered and it all began to jive- so to speak. Many blessings to you!
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Indeed they do! But look at the Bible for a second: Mark 9:19-24 and Matt. 9 we see instances where the faith of the parents brings healing to the children!!!Blazen said:
Infants are baptized because baptism is the new circumsion (cf. Col. 2:11-12). In Acts we see whole households baptized (this would include children). Peter even said in Acts 2:39, "For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to him."
Historically we know that baptism was done since the beginning of the church by the records of the Church Fathers.
http://www.catholic.com/library/Infant_Baptism.asp
http://www.catholic.com/library/Early_Teachings_of_Infant_Baptism.asp
It is the parents' responsibility to raise a child in the faith. That's the same in OT and NT. That is why a parent brings the child into the Church through Baptism. Otherwise, may I ask, does it say in the Bible that your child must wait until a certain age to be baptised? It does not!
The verses that state, "Believe and be baptized" are for adult converts... of course they have to do this. Just as they would have if they were gentiles converting to the Jewish faith they'd need to be circumsized once they converted. But if they had kids, the kids would be circumsized as infants.
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Always remember: he Bible only exists, thanks to the Catholic Church who preserved her, through whom the Holy Spirit has always worked, and will continue to work until Christ comes again in glory.Blazen said:
Basically, Protestant theologies are all based on personal interpretations on the Bible, which the Catholic Church produced. As Vincent of Lerins stated: Here, perhaps, someone may ask: If the canon of the scriptures be perfect and in itself more than suffices for everything, why is it necessary that the authority of ecclesiastical interpretation be joined to it? Because, quite plainly, sacred Scripture, by reason of its own depth, is not accepted by everyone as having one and the same meaning. . . . Thus, because of so many distortions of such various errors, it is highly necessary that the line of prophetic and apostolic interpretation be directed in accord with the norm of the ecclesiastical and Catholic meaning (The Notebooks [A.D. 434]).
Realize that none of the original texts of the OT and NT exist. Luckily, the Jews would carefully preserve the texts of the OT, but even between various copies, variances occurred. In the first two centuries when the NT was being copied, writing materials were reeds or quills, and sheets of papyrus, which were cut into strips and dried, then laid down vertically (side by side) with a horizontal layer placed on the top and the whole arrangement was gummed together and then sand-papered (actually, oyster shells). The sheets were about 10x5, glued together into strips which could be rolled up. Sadly, these sheets did not last very well.
In AD 300, these sheets were put into a book form, that is, simply laid together with a cover to protect them. But these early collections seldom or never contained the whole Bible, since the canon of Scripture for the NT was still being determined. About this time also, the copies were made onto parchment rather than papyrus. (It wouldnt be until about 800 that a real type of paper could be imported from Asia.)
Fewer than 20 papyrus rolls, and 4,000 parchment and paper copies made before the days of printing press, containing parts of the NT still exist. Nearly half of these were lectionaries used for liturgical purposes. All of these have many copyist and editorial mistakes. However, scholars say that only one-tenth of one percent of writing errors (either through copying, or from dictation/stenography) would make any change in the meaning.
The scarcity and incompleteness of manuscripts and stenographic transpositions, made it very hard to look up anything in the Bible. Until the 13th Century, the Bible was not even divided into chapters. The archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, did that for the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible. The division of the Scriptures into verses did not take place until after the invention of printing, and this was first attempted in the 16th century by the Domincan Order.
All copyists and the people who paid them were members of the Catholic Church. All the Popes and early scholarly authorities of the magisterium who determined what books were to be allowed into the Bible were members of the Catholic Church.
Given the fact that EXCLUSIVELY the Catholic Church compiled, copied, protected, distributed, canonized the contents of the Bible we have today, then we can be sure that the Catholic Church would neither do nor teach anything contrary to them, for it would have been easier for the Church simply to have altered the books of the New Testament to suit her own evil, corrupt agenda. But you accept the Bible as the Word of God. Thus, wherever you differ from the Catholic Church, perhaps you will have to admit you really have no certainty that you are understanding and interpreting the Scriptures correctly. If your interpretations do not reflect those of the men who compiled, preserved, and canonized the Bible, I am willing to bet that it is not those Catholic Christians who were misguided, but you who are.
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Okay I'm back. So back to the whole baptizm thing. You must be baptized to be saved, correct? I was baptized so am I saved? Where does it say clearly that you must be baptized to be saved in the scriptures? When read throught the scriptures I clearly thought that salvation was through accepting Jesus Christ, through faith not sacrements or anything like that.
Romans 10:9 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Please help me see this more clearly, thanks.
Romans 10:9 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Please help me see this more clearly, thanks.
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Blazen said:
Ok, Blazen. Jesus told us to Baptise. Obedience to Him is priority #1. Of course, if one who does not believe is baptised, it doesn't "take". Salvation does begin when one believes and when one accepts Jesus as Lord and continues through obedience in all things.
Salvation is a gift from God (Grace) just as Faith is. The most important thing on our side of the ledger is Obedience. "If you love me, keep my commandments."
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