In The Beginning...

[Asavedo]

What is the Catholic teaching on why God even made man? What was our "purpose", if you will, before sin ever entered into the world? Why were we put here? What would we have done all day had sin not entered into the world through Adam? Please, if you can, I'd love the scripture referrences to your replies too. Thanx for any and all thoughts ahead of time...

 

[ps139]

Why did God make man? Good question my friend!!!
Here is the Catholic teaching, this is from the Catechism:

God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.

 

[Asavedo]

Why did God make man? Good question my friend!!!
Here is the Catholic teaching, this is from the Catechism:

God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.

Is there any place to find the particular scriptures/references used to come to this conclusion? The reason I ask this is because... well, I've seen this one (the Catholic catechism) and it lacks support (verses, etc...) and I've looked at Westminster, and though it uses verses, slim to none of them have anything to do with the answer stated. That being so, I wanted to know "why" people claim these basic truthes. Just because that's the way it is? Where did God say that this is our purpose? BTW, thanx for the reply and I hope to hear more from you and all others here.

 

[ps139]

The Catechism is chock-full of Scripture references, but I think this statement is an exception. Its more like the combination of what Scripture and Tradition collectively say about this topic. A guess a footnote could be the whole Bible!

 

[raptor13]

The Catechism is chock-full of Scripture references, but I think this statement is an exception. Its more like the combination of what Scripture and Tradition collectively say about this topic. A guess a footnote could be the whole Bible!

Yea ps139 is right. i doubt you will find a single verse in the bible that will definitely give you what you are looking for. It is more like a theme that is interwoven throughout the WHOLE bible, throughout all of salvation history.

 

[Aaron-Aggie]

That statement is from the prolouge and is not footnoted.

Here is a section that is footnoted

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

Use your browser's BACK button to return to the main Catechism page.

PART 1, SECTION 1 1, CHAPTER 2 2, ARTICLE 1, SUBSECTION 1



I. GOD REVEALS HIS "PLAN OF LOVING GOODNESS"

51 "It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself and to make known the mystery of his will. His will was that men should have access to the Father, through Christ, the Word made flesh, in the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine nature." 2


52 God, who "dwells in unapproachable light", wants to communicate his own divine life to the men he freely created, in order to adopt them as his sons in his only-begotten Son. 3 By revealing himself God wishes to make them capable of responding to him, and of knowing him and of loving him far beyond their own natural capacity.

53 The divine plan of Revelation is realized simultaneously "by deeds and words which are intrinsically bound up with each other" 4 and shed light on each another. It involves a specific divine pedagogy: God communicates himself to man gradually. He prepares him to welcome by stages the supernatural Revelation that is to culminate in the person and mission of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ.

St. Irenaeus of Lyons repeatedly speaks of this divine pedagogy using the image of God and man becoming accustomed to one another: The Word of God dwelt in man and became the Son of man in order to accustom man to perceive God and to accustom God to dwell in man, according to the Father's pleasure. 5​