As a Catholic I get frustrated with other Christians who try to convince me that the Bible - as opposed to Sacrements, prayer and helping others - is the only right way to know God and be a good Christian. The Sacrements and many things Catholics do today are much older than when sacred writings were put together in an official list at the Council of Nicea.
The printing press wasn't invented until the sixteenth century. With it being so impractical for everyone before the printing press to have their own Bible, it seems like the Catholic ways of Sacrements, prayer, and helping others would have been the only way for people to know God. Did God intend everyone before the invention of the printing press to be damned?
2006-09-19T21:48:56Z
Catholics don't believe that praying to Mary will earn you salvation. Our views on Mary and all the saints are like how many people consider their family. We all like to have pictures of our family, partiuclarly ones that have passed. Sometime people give gifts or build/make things with their passed relative's name on it. Many Christians ask their family members or friends to pray for them. As a Catholic we view saints as real people who existed and consider them just as we consider our friends and family. We have pictures of them, we put their names on things, and we ask them to pray for us. This is a lot different than worshiping them. Do you worship the people you ask to pray for you?
Ellen J2006-09-19T22:00:42Z
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The entire New Testament was written in the 100 years after Christ died. In other words, it predates any organized church. The Council of Nicea was held to decide which letters and Gospels were to be included in the official canon. Remember, though, that they had been written by Paul and the Disciples while actual witnesses of Jesus' works, death, and resurrection were still alive. There is nothing wrong with the sacraments. Christ, himself, wanted his followers to have a baptism and to observe communion. However, think about it, how would we know that Christ wanted these things if we didn't read them in the Bible? When you read the Bible you read the actual words of Jesus himself. Not words filtered through a church, or a Pope, or a priest, or a minister, but Jesus' own words! Why would you want to get all your information second hand? You honor the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit when you read about them directly, in the book that they had written especially so people like you and me could know him personally.
I haven't seen what you mention on here. The Bible is the history of the early church. It tells us about baptism and communion (sacraments). It isn't a matter of knowing God just by the written word. Early Christians were to spread the word, just as the apostles did by their travel.
That is why we are told the following: MT 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Btw - while your loyalty to your religion is very commendable, most Christian churches that believe in the creeds and the Trinity have sacraments...They weren't invented by Catholics.
What makes you think the sacraments is the right way, I am not sure if there is a right way, just believe and pray, as I believe bibles is just a tool to guide, so is sacrament, closeness to GOD is from within, not from any bible or sacrament, and no offence to Catholics or any religion or church, I am a Christian but do not use the different methods of worship to try and find the correct way. GOD BLESS, and will forgive your sins if you believe.
You have to know to whom it is you are praying. And you learn about who Jesus is through the Bible. If you don't have the book, you can learn about him through others telling you what he said--so long as they know exactly what he said and they are retelling it accurately.
Helping others does not bring you into a personal relationship with the Lord. It may be a result of the relationship, but it is not a way to it. The sacraments, too, are irrelevant unless the people giving and receiving the sacraments know who Christ is.
The important thing is knowing Christ. One cannot know him unless they know him. How is one to learn of him if one doesn't read the record of who he was, what he said, and what he did?