If you want to help other Catholics see the light, then I would suggest finding a good apologetics website that focuses on reaching Catholics. I used to know one, but recently, the guy went off the reservation. Apologetics index might help point you in the right direction. Also, cult apologetics sites too could turn up resources helpful in reaching others. Here is a link to get you started. It’s the main resource page on Catholicism.
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/c16.html
This link to the home page:
]]>Hi 126cardnal,
The crux of the matter is did Jesus save you Catholics because you believed He paid for your sins on the cross and rose from the dead, or will you maybe someday be saved if you obey the dogma of the Roman church and live a decent life? On the one hand you believed and were saved and have the Holy Spirit as evidence, but on the other hand you are none of His, all you have is religion.
As for your family, being Catholic saves no one. Keeping tradition also saves no one. You must believe in the Savior that God sent. The Christ recorded in scripture that the prophets and apostles wrote about, not the Catholic counterfeit Jesus that adds man-made doctrine and your own compliance to it for salvation.
]]>it could also be because of lack of knowledge or like u said cuz we are foolish. im a catholic but do i really know what im saying right now? my whole family are roman catholics but we all believe in the salvation from jesus and that he died on the cross for us. So does it even matter if im a catholic or a christian? i’m obviously learning from you don and trying to make sense of all this but my family is not buying it they keep saying we are catholics. i dont think religion is a big deal if you believe that jesus is our god and our hope for eternal life.
]]>Hi Dave,
If Catholics actually believed what you mention, it would because they are not saved. I give Catholics the benefit of the doubt because not all Catholics believe that salvation comes through keeping the dogma of the Roman Church. They certainly are not a large number.
A prime example is Martin Luther. He was a Catholic. Was he saved before he left the Roman church or did he get saved after he left? He actually got saved when he believed the gospel of salvation. He did not get that from Rome he got it from the Bible. Anyone can hear and believe.
So why do believers stay in the Catholic Church? Maybe for the same reason that Protestant believers send their kids to public schools. They are deceived, brainwashed and foolish.
]]>I really need some help with this. One side of my family (wife’s side) is staunchly Roman Catholic. Many are old, and have been in the Catholic Church their entire lives. It’s literally who they are. It is part of their identity. I don’t understand how a Roman Catholic can be saved, when the Church teaches praying to saints and Mary, and have large statues (to me, idols) in their Churches. How can these people be saved when the believe in Jesus AND that you need all the other stuff too? How can they be saved when their Church teaches (and they believe) that communion is literally Jesus blood and body? How can they stay in a Church that homosexuality and pedophilia is not only epidemic, but endemic? How are they saved when they believe as their church teaches that they must work for their place in heaven? How can they be saved when they thought that my wife was going to hell because she left Catholicism? And especially when she married me (a Christian who was never Catholic)? If some are saved, does that mean I can be a Catholic and be saved too? And we all know the theological issues with Catholicism like forbidding priests to marry etc.
I struggle with this. Some are very old and not too far from death. Do I need to reach them, or are they as you say here, saved? Do I reach out the the younger ones and tell them?
Many have turned from Catholicism (my wife among them) and are indeed saved. Did they not need to?
All we do, at this point is HOPE that you can be saved and still believe all the Catholic Church teaches, and is. And I think that my wife knows that if she could be saved and be a Catholic, she’s still be one. Again, these are honest questions that I and my wife struggle with.