Erose
Newbie
The question is then what is required, and since there are at least some who are in heaven, that does imply that there are at least some that have done what was required. The thing is assurances. You need to be assured that which you are following, knows the Way..
You see, there are so many problems with your proposition that "To be a believer would that not require to do that which one is suppose to believe", is not only unbiblical but fundamentally flawed...
i) If you are REQUIRED to do what you're supposed to do, then how much of those things are you REQUIRED to do to be qualified? All of them, most of them, a lot of them or what? The fact is that nobody does everything they are supposed to do. I'll go even further and say that in all likelihood everyone believes some facet of false doctrine.
. There aren’t many who are under that false idea, believe me. You are right there is a lot of Catholics that don’t know what the Church teaches, nor do they care. We call these cafeteria Catholics. But this lukewarmness is not exclusive to Catholicism.ii) Catholics often live in the false idea that they are united in their doctrine and the rest are so divided, it demonstrates they are wrong. The fact is that I meet Catholics everyday all over the place, and most of them don't actually believe in many things the Catholic Church teaches. Take transubstantiation for example. 73% of USA Catholics don't believe it! This is a fundamental dogma of the Catholic Church, and nearly three times as many don't believe it as those who do. So much for a single united doctrine!
That being said it isn’t hard to find what the Church teaches exactly about whatever subject. A Catholic is not dependent upon the hope that the pastor knows what he is talking about, they can go and find out for themselves. You don’t have that. You are dependent upon your pastor and maybe Sunday school teacher to find out what your church teaches.
. Actually it hasn’t, nor has it ever changed its position on the understanding of Scripture. What the Fathers teach in the 4th and 5th centuries is what is taught in the 12th and 13th centuries and what is taught in the 20th and 21st century. I get you get that impression, but the only people claiming this is those who don’t know what they are talking about, ie the Jack Chick type of anti-Catholic apologists.iii) You assume that i) the Catholic Church has never changed it's understanding of scripture... and it has ii) errors don't exist to contend else infer that they were started through relativism. In the main they weren't! Errors exist in all churches including the Catholic Church (if ever the Catholic Church changed any belief or teaching then this becomes self evident. Thus even if those churches were started on the basis of doctrine differences it rarely, if ever, had anything to do with relativism. In the main, however, most denominations were started by God calling a man (or men) to stand up for Him, doing great works and his followers later establishing a new denomination.
. Actually this really isn’t true. There has been great respect shown to those that deserve it, even with those who we disagree with. C.S. Lewis is practically a saint among orthodox Catholics. Rev. Graham is another one. But that being said, it isn’t our position to acknowledge your saints. That is your responsibility. But the position of the Church is that she acknowledges that there are those outside the Catholic Church that God uses for His will be done. It’s also the reason why the Catholic Church does not rebaptized anyone entering the Church that has already been validly baptized.One of the biggest problems in such discussions with Catholics is their denial else refusal to consider men God used greatly to further His kingdom, His word, His salvation outside of Catholicism. People like Wesley, Spurgeon, Wigglesworth, Finney, Whitfield, Roberts and countless others lived amazing lives, brought glory to God, performed miracles and brought hundreds and thousands to the knowledge of Jesus. Were they sent by God but told to ignore His (Catholic) church? Were they sent by God and they disobeyed God by ignoring His (Catholic) church?
So it seems that you have some presuppositions that aren’t quite correct.
Anyway, this is not something we are suppose to be doing here, as the Denomination specific subforums are protected areas.
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