OK firstly I just have to say I totally agree with MFB (that rimed) well of course I do! And that I'm not mad! just opinionated you might say.
I think if you don't believe in the Bible it will be very sad for you. because not believing is lacking faith which is a virtue and without virtue there is no way of getting to heaven. Sad but true. and God gave us the church to show us how to get to Heaven and how to be virtuous. and He did after all say to St. Peter (Simon at the time)
"That thou art Peter and upon this rock I shall build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven." Matt. 16, 18-19
And the Pope who is you might say the "leader" of the Catholic faith and is the Vicar of Christ and The Successor of St. Peter clearly as Jesus Christ Himself just said that he would say what is right and wrong and would never be able to teach an infallible. and of course St. Peter would one day die so he needed someone to follow after him and teach and protect the church from heresies thus we have the Pope who can never teach us any thing wrong or untrue. Even if he were a terrible man (and I am
NOT saying he is!!!!!) he could never teach anything that is wrong or infallible. So I have to say that I feel pretty safe listening to him!
And as for the bible and Jesus being real! well how do you explain the prophecies? do you think the Evangelists and Disciples just made up Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, David and all the other people from the first testament? No way!!!! they have been around for thousands of years in the Jewish Religion and so have their prophecies! and how can you possibly explain how Christ fulfilled all of the prophecies about the Messiah and still say he never existed? and most of the Evangelists and Disciples did meet Christ or people who have met Him like St. Luke one of the Evangelists (the Saints who wrote Gospels) met with and talked to Our Lady (Mary) who is the mother of Christ. And then theres St. John (yup! another Evangelist!) who was at the Crucifixion! But still they were inspired by God and if one believes in God you should know he can do ANYTHING! so why not inspire men to write The Book which contains the Word of His Son? And if they were inspired by God to write it to me thats as good as God writing it because they didn't just wake up that morning and say "hey I'm gonna write a bunch of stories and say there true! just for the heck of it!" no, they were told
BY God what to say. so really it was composed and authored
BY God, but, the mere words and letters were written by men.
I agree with Kora and MFB about about the whole same God thing. Some may just imagine Him differently then others they can still believe in the same God.
I also want to say that God needs no one He is the Alpha and Omega He created every thing and every one even the devil himself! (even if Lucifer was an angel when God created him) so He needs no one.
It is true that God is all forgiving and merciful but He is also wise and just! so for example do you think it would be just if God just let Satan back into Heaven and returned him to his former beauty? No!!!! Why? Because Satan knew what he was doing and gravity of it. God made him His highest angel and he was beautiful and very intelligent, but he was also proud and pride is the root of all sin so he wanted to be better then God so since God is just He sent Satan to hell and with him he took a lot of God's angels hence we have hell, Satan and the devils, who are the ones who make every thing bad happen. Letting them back would be in no way just now would it? So even though God is all forgiving and merciful, but how can you forgive some one who is unrepentant?
Thats where pride comes in some are to proud and don't want to be forgiven! They don't want to live their lives according to God's will! No! their to great for that! they want to live their lives the way they want to. which is never right! If Jesus had not lived life doing God's will (even if He is God, He is still man. wholly man and wholly God) He wouldn't have died for us! now wouldn't that have been terrible! and since He is our example of how to live our lives I think its safe to say that we too should live doing God's will no matter what. Even if it means death. Now some people might say "Why in the world would God want something so horrible as death to happen to us?!" But if you really think about it Jesus died for us! why is it so unjust for us to die for Him in return? I think it would be of the highest honor to be a martyr! Can you think of a way more pleasing to God for us to die? And I will take this moment to say that all your sufferings all the pains even if there emotional should be offered up! or else if you go through the pain grumbling and cursing especially God! there just useless normal old every day earthly sufferings. But if you offer it up and happily it will be most pleasing to God and will make up for some of your sins ( not condemning there! its just a fact of life every one sins!)
And I want to say the Catholic church
NEVER says that a person a different religion will never under any circumstances ever make it to heaven. Its only harder not because their NOT Catholic. But because they don't have the sacraments given to us such as penance or more commonly known as confession. see in confession we confess our sins to the priest and since God works trough the priest He is able to forgive us our sins! right there and then and give the person a penance to do which is usually some prayers (although once one priest told me to give my mom some flowers as my penance!
) so its not impossible and the church has never said it is, for some one of a different religion to get to heaven. and now I must say if you don't have faith and are proud and un charitable there is no way of getting to heaven!
Well I would have to say they arn't living the Christian life! there is a difference between living you life as a Christian and simply saying your "Christian" No good Christian would think their better than every one else! their just full of vain glory and pride and lacking in humility! and judgment day will be a very sad one for them! A good thing to do would be to say a prayer for them and hope they realize how prideful they are so they can repent! but first you don't want to falsely accuse them! I mean if some one is out there saying "Oh those Christians! they act like their so good but are always talking bad about so and so!
I would never talk bad about any one!" well whats wrong with this picture? first off it kind of seems like that one person is condemning and talking bad about the Christians! kind of a contradiction and oxy moron, don't ya think? and the supposed "bad" Christian what were their reasons for shunning the people? for example:
There's this girl I was kinda of getting to know and well we started to argue and a few words were said on her said and to my shame of few on my part too and I know its a sin to get angry and be uncharitable, but at the time I was so caught up in the moment that I said a few things shouldn't have. So how did I deal with it? Well first off I went to confession second I just ignored her or what could be interpreted as "shunning" her because I knew being around her made me sin! so why by around some one who makes you sin? do you think it makes God happy? NO! sin never makes God happy! I didn't talk bad about her but I never talked to her (in fear that it would make me sin even if only in my mind) so it seemed like I was shunning her right? well In a way I was but at the same time it was to save me from committing a sin. so I just prayed that God would give me the grace to be nicer to her and to not think uncharitable thoughts. OK on to a new topic
Nope I think all you have to do is pray God will give you the graces you will need to do what His will for you is and show that you want to and are ready to live your life for Him and Him alone!And do His will!
I agree!
I just have to say that doesn't make you Catholic! to be truly Catholic is to vow to always believe what the Church tells you and to live what it teaches after all Jesus Himself said it will never teach an error so since Jesus is God and I believe what God says I also believe what the Church says. And any "Catholic" who does not is, what Kyle and I like to call, a "Catholic but" whats a "Catholic but"? well some one who says "I'm a Catholic, but I use birth control" or "I'm a Catholic, But I don't go to Mass on Sundays" I think every one gets what I mean.
Sorry not MFB but I'm MFB's sister! ;D Well what the Catholic Church believes (I don't know to much about other religions) is that when one dies they either go to Heaven, purgatory,or...alas hell and so all those souls even the ober pious ones! had to wait for Christ to come and open the gates of heaven. And they waited in purgatory and even souls today go to purgatory if they didn't do their penance on earth they do it in purgatory! And number and graveness of their sins determines the length of their wait. But there is some thing we can do for those in purgatory that they sadly cannot for themselves. that is pray. pray for them that their purgatory time be shortened and awesome prayer that is said to release 1,000 souls for purgatory each time it is said is this
"Eternal Father, I offer thee the most precious blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family
-Amen"
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And the best part is that when you pray those Souls when the get to Heaven they pray for you to make it there too! Its one of favorite things to pray for and helps so much!
Wepic! And heck yes! and if you want to know (really not trying to act all knowing! sorry if I'm getting annoying!) it was in the town of Jerusalem on a hill called Golgotha. and some people say its where Adam was buried. and I believe it means place of the skull? not sure though! And I also want to say that any one who insults priest is sadly misguided how insult some one who
GIVES THEIR LIFE UP TO SERVE GOD? them and them alone are given the honor of touching with their hands Jesus I think that deserves a little respect to say the least! Well I'm really tired till next time!