Will Catholics be saved?

Priests who molest boys (or girls for that matter) I would not consider religious either, as the Catholic faith does not support molestation. Even though the current structure may make it easier for this type of behavior, it certainly is not part of the Catholic religion to molest children.

I was raised Catholic, I know.

confused
I was born and raised as a catholic and now that I've reached my 20's I hear different things about catholics, christians, and all other religions. I am now confused and scared that being a catholic is wrong. What is so wrong about being a catholic? Aren't we christians as well? Someone please reply and help me get out of this confusion.

What's wrong with being a jew? Forgive me, I don't know anything about it. Can you educate me? Thanks...

Shay - don't worry about it. However, for something this important, don't take my word for it either. Check it out for yourself.

The New Testements used by Catholics and Protestants are identical (there are probably 6 or 7 different Catholic tranlations widely available, and 20 Protestant translations available. The differences are in "thees" and "thous" or the more modern verbage. Not a hill of beans worth of difference if you ask me.). The Catholic Old Testament has a few more books than the Protestant Old Testament. I've read these books, and once again, I do not believe they add any new doctrine or teaching. But I urge you to read them for yourself and decide for yourself.

In the late Middle Ages the Catholic Church proved the addage about power corrupting, and absolute power corrupting absolutely. There were unforgivable official excesses then, hence The Reformation. Luther and the other early Protestants also had doctrinal differences with the Catholic Church, many that still exist today. Some people consider these to be important, others do not.

Before I ramble on, please understand there is not uniformity in belief across all Protestant denominations. There are (what I consider to be) minor disagreements between them. Many Protestants believe that ONLY the Bible can be used as the basis for faith. Many Catholics (and some Protestants) believe that in addition to the Bible (which is always primary) there are also the contributions of past Christians (Saints Augustine or Aquinas, for example), but that none of their teachings may contradict the Bible. Are these differences worth getting worked up about? Not for me.

Another big difference is that the Catholic Church has a rigid hierarchy (Priests-Bishops-Cardinals-Pope) whereas the Protestants do not.

There are two criticisms of the Catholic Church you commonly hear. The first is about sexual abuse by Priests. This is morally repugnant. However, it is not official policy. It is sick deviant behavior by a few. However, I am disappointed that the Church hierarchy hasn't stomped on this at the very first signs. The second criticism is that Catholics pray to the Saints and to Mary. Not true. In many Protestant denominations as well as in the Catholic Church there is a doctrine known as The Communion of Saints. This means that all believers, both dead and alive, are all linked together in The Body of Christ. And just as it would not be unusual if I asked you to pray for me if I was having a problem, Catholics can ask dead believers to pray for them. Catholics do not pray to Mary. Catholics ask Mary (or any other dead believer) to pray for us.

I hope this helps. Once again I urge you to check into what I have said for yourself.

thanks Jim!
I want to Thank You Jim for taking time to knock some sense into me. I usually get discouraged when I hear people talking and frowning upon the Catholic faith. Once again, I was so confused and scared that my faith in the catholic church and it's teachings were wrong. I sometimes imagine when it comes time to enter the gates of heaven and then he says; " sorry child, you chose the wrong religion!" I just want to know the right way "if any" to follow. I mean, Does anybody even know who's religion is right or wrong anyway? Well, Thanks so much Jim for your insights on my question. Take care

Shay - good question about how to know which religion is true, and which are false (you'll find many friends here on A2K who believe that all religions are false. Myself, I just cannot believe this all happened by accident).

God gave us brains for a reason. He doesn't want us to be puppets or mindless robots. In the OT book of Sirach (one of those books in the Catholic Bible, but not in the Protestant) it says (by memory only) "When God created man, He made him with a free will. If you choose, you can keep the Commandments. It is loyalty to do His will. Before man are set water and fire, the blessing and the curse. Stretch forth your hand to the one you choose".

I believe we are expected to choose for ourselves what we believe. It's always made me sad when I hear people say "I'm a Republican (or Democrat, or Christian, or Hindu, or..... ) because my family have always been". People should examine the facts and decide things for themselves. I believe the Bible supports this position (Acts 17:11) "Now the Bereans were of noble character, for they received the Gospel with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true". (I have a pocket NT offshore, but not a complete Bible).

I'd offer two suggestions to begin to examine if the Christian Faith might be true. Critically read the Bible. It was written over thousands of years by dozens of different people. Are there any contradictions? Are there any fullfilled prophecies? Could such a book have been produced by people perpetuating a fraud?

The other suggestion is the nature of Christianity when compared against other religions. Every other religion in history is fundamentally the same. There are rules that must be followed, and if you follow the rules well enough you will earn your way into heaven. By your own efforts you will make yourself acceptable to our god/gods. (of course, all of the different other religions have different sets of rules, but they're still rules).

Christianity is different. In fact, so different that I don't think it is anything that any human mind could have come up with. Christianity says that man is sinful, and can do nothing on his own to earn salvation. Instead, God entered his own creation in the form of a man and paid the penalty for our sins. And if you believe and accept this, you will be given salvation as a free gift. (this is the ages old contraversy between "salavation through works" or "salvation through grace")

Where you spend eternity is (to my thinking) the most important issue a person has in this life. For something so important, please don't believe a single thing I say. Check it out for yourself.

Heres the deal...

I'm a very strong Christian (non-denominational). Many people (within and outside of the church) misunderstand what it is all about. Christianity is not a culture. It is not a lifestyle and it is hardly a religion (although we wont get into that today). Christianity is a relationship between a person, and his (or her) creator. If you were to read the Bible cover to cover, any version, you would see that the cheif end of man is to glorify God. As long as you are doing that in some way shape or form then you are doing the right thing. Its not about how many commandments you break how many times, or how hard you pray for forgiveness.

I bring your attention to the most well known verse, John 3:16 "God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, and whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." Basically, all you have to do to go to heaven is believe in, and accept Jesus as the son of God, who died so your sins could be forgiven.

Remember, most of the stuff in the catholic church is tradition. In the first couple hundred years, the christian community met secretly in houses. No incence, no alters, no sound systems, no giant christmas shows, and communtiy bake sales. (many of which my church does) It never says in any bible that you have to say 300 hail-mary's to be forgiven for such-n-such. But i dont see how it could be too bad. The bible doesn't even specify how to baptize people. Why, you ask? BECAUSE IT DOESNT MATTER. Baptism is an outward sign of an inward decision. It doesnt matter if there isnt any water at all. it's just symbolic, like everything in a church (the building).

Basically if you believe in the central doctrine (see above), then you are saved according to the bible. Caltholics have this in their theology so in essence, yes they are going to heaven. But like i said, just because you say that you are catholic, or christian doesnt save you. You personally need to make a conscious decision to believe and follow God.

Note: Most of the books in the catholic bible, from which much tradition is derived are mostly repeats of the same message elsewhere, or are historical accounts of events and such.

Thanks for your time.

morphenine -- that is one dangerous attitude that you have. You are saying that, as long as you glorify God, "it's not about how many commandments you break how many times"??? That attitude justifies all the worst excesses that the Church has been guilty of historically -- the Crusades, the Inquisition, the persecution of dissident "heretics" etc. etc. You are, in effect, saying that it's perfectly all right to commit, murder, rape, incest, armed robbery, whatever -- as long as you praise God. That is an insidious and deranged belief.

I would argue the exact reverse. As long as you live an ethical life, it matters not one whit what you believe or preach. It is the act of behaving like a Christian that makes you a Christian, not mouthing quotations from the New Testament.

Jim, are you suggesting that there are no contradictions in the NT?

The Book of James can be interpreted to back "salvation through works" in addition through grace. I've heard some dandy arguments over this.

IMHO the important thing is to take the scriptures in context. Any good wordsmith can stretch a single verse into a pretzel.

In response to you Merry...

Events such as the Crusades, the inquisition etc. do not bring glory to God. Murder, rape, incest, armed robbery, whatever are not OK and none of them glorfy God in any way. My point was that the purpose of your existence is to glorify God and you should do that in everything you do. Absolutely follow the Commandments, but if you make a mistake, you can be forgiven.

Say you are a child. If you love your parents, then you dont want to do anything to hurt them. You follow their rules because: a) you know there are consequences; and b) you love your parents and you wish to respect them and their decisions. Such is the relationship between you and God. If you love him, you dont want to do anything that might sadden him. If you do make a mistake, you repent (apologize) and you are forgiven (read Luke 17:3). Simple as that. It doesnt justify any of the wrongdoings in the past, present or future.

As a follower of Christ, a Christian, you are called to lead a life like him.
This is not to say that you need to start your own minstry, give everything away etc. What you bring up is an age old debate between "saved by works" or "saved by grace." However, the bible is very clear on two things.

1)All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). You have been saved by grace; and that salvation is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works (Eph. 2:8-9).

and
2) No man gets to the father but through Jesus . (John 14:6) And he leaves instructions on this throughout the bible which i breifly touched on in my last post.


I do not know you or your beliefs, but I assure you, as a student of the bible for many years, that this is 100% wrong.

What is boils down to is this... If you simply accept Jesus as your savior, then you are saved. This should cause you to WANT to live a good life. But by leading a good life alone,(and the bible is VERY VERY clear on this) you will surely not see the glory of heaven.
I would be happy to elaborate or answer any other questions you have.

But please dont take my word for it...check it out.