Catechism of Catholicism...?

"Does the Church truly deny that the sacrifice of Christ is NOT sufficient to cleanse us of our sins? "

No. The Church teaches that the sacrifice of Christ is more than enough to cleanse us of our sins in that we can be completely forgiven and cleansed of sin, and all of the eternal punishment remitted, and any temporal punishments remitted.

"This is what it says in paragraph 1030 of the 1997 Catholic Catechism."

No. In the CCC, in 1030 it says, "All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. "

This does not say that Christ's sacrifice was not enough. Christ's sacrifice is enough. But enough for what? It is enough to give us the grace to become holy, not just in a declarative sense, but in an actual sense.

Are you perfect? Do you still sin? Most Christians realize that after they became a Christian they still sin and need to be holier. So, the problem is not Christ, but it is us. God can forgive us but we still have a tendency to sin, to be selfish, and to not love others. It is a process to die to ourselves and to live for Christ for most of us. That is a life long journey.

Holiness is something to strive for. This process is often called Sanctification.

"Strive for peace with everyone, and for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord."

(Heb 12:14)

Purgatory or also called 'The Final Purification' is that final purification before entering into the presence of God. It completes a process of purification that we have been undergoing our whole lives.

"for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges."

(Heb 12:6)

Discipline is not a lack of forgiveness. We are forgiven because of God's mercy through the blood of Christ. Discipline is to correct us and its for our own good.

"They disciplined us for a short time as seemed right to them, but he [God] does so for our benefit, in order that we may share his holiness." (Heb 12:10)

God disciplines us for our own good even after forgiving us.

"Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." Nathan answered David: "The LORD on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die. But since you have utterly spurned the LORD by this deed, the child born to you must surely die." (2 Sam 12:13-14)

When we encounter God we become aware of our sinfulness and desire to be purified.

"Then I said, "Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it.

"See," he said, "now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.""

(Isa 6:5-7)

No one can enter heaven unless they have no sin.

"but nothing unclean will enter it, nor any (one) who does abominable things or tells lies. Only those will enter whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life." (Rev 21:27)

Purgatory is the final purification for those who are saved but not yet perfected.

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It is God's will that we should be holy. Christ's sacrifice is enough to merit the grace for our salvation. In Christ we are declared righteous but God also makes what he declares come to pass. When God said 'let there be light' then there was light. God's Word makes what it declares come to pass. When he says to you or me, you are righteous, he makes that come to pass, not just in a declarative sense, like in a court room, but in an actual sense. He changes us to be more and more like Christ.

"All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit."

(2 Cor 3:18)

It seems to me that you want to focus only on the declarative and past sense of righteousness and ignore the actual sense and the ongoing sense of being changed to become more righteous. Salvation is a past, present and future event.

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"With the eucharist, Christ is sacrificed over and over again. He died "once for all."

No. Christ is not re-sacrificed. Rather, the once and for all sacrifice is re - presented. Catholics do not believe they are sacrificing Christ again.

"I believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible. "

Okay, then how do you translate John 6:53?

You know, I could go into a further explanation, but you have already decided what you want to believe and who is right - i.e. your own interpretation over that of near 2,000 years of study and understanding guided by the Holy Spirit. You may have been born and raised Catholic, but this just goes to show how terribly pitiful your faith formation was, to write such utter LIES about what the Church proclaims, to hack off anything that conflicts with the conclusions you've developed like some rotted limb so you can feel at ease with yourself. So what am I to do? Sit here and tell you what that passage means while so many others will come along and tell just how right you are and how evil, wrong, blasphemous, foul, and disgusting the Church is and her beliefs? Enjoy your new church where what you want to see is what you get.

So, now I'll sit back and watch the disapproving thumbs come to knock me into oblivion.

Does the Church truly deny that the sacrifice of Christ is NOT sufficient to cleanse us of our sins:

You could have been reading a lot of this anti catholic rhetorics. Our salvation is not provided by one verse alone in the scriptures.

Consider this: 1 Cor 3:15 If the work stands that someone built upon the foundation, that person will receive a wage.

15 But if someones work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire.

The wisdom of St Paul is clear, that as we are humans subject to frailties, we cannot see God face to face, unless we are cleansed by 1 Cor 3:15 verse.

"It is finished" from Jesus, means that He has fully redeemed our sins as required by His Father. However, we guys are good on repeat sinning. So as not to lost totally Jesus' redemption, 1 Cor 3:15 verse will apply and come into play. So, I agree with a qualified Once Save always saved with the working of 1 Cor 3:15 as God's reaching out of his grace of mercy and unending love even in our state of cleansing in purgatory; thus finally we end up in Heaven. As long as we do not commit a mortal. So the love of God reaches out as we purify ourselves with our minor sins.

The theology of heaven, purgatory and hell is a massive subject. It cannot be dealt with by a couple of verse. Read your Catholicism in its entirety. Pax

This is about Purgatory.

If there is anything else I can do to help just let me know.

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For Christ also suffered 5 for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God. Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the spirit.

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In it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison, 6

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who had once been disobedient while God patiently waited in the days of Noah during the building of the ark, in which a few persons, eight in all, were saved through water.

I'm not sure I follow. Catechism 1030 says that we believers are purified after death.

«because they were not included in the first councils of our faith»

They're in the oldest Complete Christian bibles. The Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus.

By rejecting purgatory and the Catholic Church makes YOU a heretic.

I do believe that you have a misunderstanding of purgatory.

http://www.davidmacd.com/catholic/purgatory.htm

Hello, I am a Protestant struggling with the beliefs of the Catholic church because in spite of deciding over and over not to convert, I am constantly drawn to the Catholic faith. But....I love what my bible study teacher reminds us of. Faith is simple. Belief in Christ as Savior is simple. He did not desire to have His church complicated with more rules than the IRS. We are to accept Him as Savior, be baptized (immersed in water) in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, confess our sins, and from there on continue on a quest to have a closer walk with Him. We are to endeavor to be more like Him everyday.

I have asked questions from Catholics here in a spirit of love and respect while sorting out what God wants me to do. What is your primary purpose in your questioning them?

Nope, it doesn't say that. It says all who die in the friendship of Christ, but imperfectly purified, after death will undergo purification.

This can only happen because of the death of Christ. Without his death and resurrection, no one would be pure enough to enter heaven.

The Bible says nothing unclean can enter heaven. Our sins make us unclean. It is only because of our acceptance of Christ's sacrifice that we can ever see heaven. Purgatory does not mean Christ's sacrifice wasn't sufficient, it means it is

<<I do not read the apocryphal books and because they were not included in the first councils of our faith, I will not use them for my doctrine of beliefs.>>

Really? Then you don't know your history. The "apocryphal books" were in the Septuagint, the Greek version fo the Hebrew Scriptures. This version is the one used by Christ and the Apostles.

Canon 10: “Sacred Scripture teaches that Christ became the High Priest and Apostle of our confession. For He offered Himself as an odour of sweetness for us to God the Father. Therefore, if anyone says that it was not the Word of God, when He was made flesh and man like us men, but another besides Him, especially a (mere) man born of a woman, who became our High Priest and Apostle, or who says that He offered an oblation for Himself and not for us only (for He who was sinless needed no oblation): let him be anathema.”

Canon 11: “If anyone does not acknowledge that the flesh of the Lord is life-giving, and belonging to the very Word of God the Father, etcetra: let him be anathema.”

Canon 12. “If anyone does not confess that the Word of God suffered in the flesh, was crucified in the flesh, and tasted death in the flesh, and that He became the first-begotten of the dead according as He is life, and the Life-giver as God: let him be anathema.”

The doctrine that Christ, by His passion and death, satisfied for our sins and merited for us grace and glory was taught by the Council of Trent; but, in order to express this truth more emphatically, as it were, and more solemnly, the following canon was prepared by the Fathers in the Vatican Council: “If anyone does not confess that the very Word of God, by suffering and dying for our sins in the flesh He assumed, could have made satisfaction or that He truly and properly did make satisfaction, and that He merited for us grace and glory: let him be anathema.”

You seem to lack true Knowledge about Catholicism and the Bible http://www.scribd.com/doc/51179988/The-Catholic-Co... (you are calling the DeuteroCanonical books Apocryphal) why do you follow the Jewish Cannon of Javneh? http://www.scribd.com/doc/51196461/council-of-Javn...

I have heard of the Newer Catechism being corrupted and thus you need to look towards the Older Documents, such as: http://www.scribd.com/doc/51195285/Catechism-of-Pe...

The Catechism of Pope Saint Pius X (1910): http://www.traditio.com/tradlib/catpiusx.htm

The Catechism from the Decree of the Council of Trent for Parish Priests, Issued by Order of St. Pius V, Supreme Pontiff (1566): http://www.traditio.com/tradlib/cattrent.htm

Douay Catechism of 1649: http://traditionalcatholic.net/Tradition/Informati...

1033 We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: "He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."612 Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren.613 To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell."

O, and Jesus' sacrifice is not enough (SARCASM)

I have a personal relationship with Jesus, it is perfectly completed with the Eucharist. If you did not have a personal relationship you simply weren't Catholic.

You must have hade the worst Catechist ever, there are few more ignorant statements to make than the Mass resacrifices Jesus.

That Catechism also talks about lying. Is that another section that is problematic?