Posted on 06/21/2006 8:03:30 AM PDT by Between the Lines
I stopped here:
"Russell and other fretters aren't impressed by fads like the sudden popularity of the girl's name Naveah (heaven spelled backward) or polls that show most Americans believe in some sort of heaven."
Heaven spelled backwards is Nevaeh; not Naveah.
That is a misrepresentation of Catholic doctrine and of the Second Vatican Council's teaching. It's probably a misrepresentation of Dulles as well.
The Church teaches that God alone grants salvation and He grants it to whomever it pleases Him to grant it to. The Church reaffirmed in the document Dominus Iesus the Scriptural essential that Jesus alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Lots of folks are going to be in for the shock of their lives (deaths), including this author...
The Church has infallibly defined doctrine on salvation and that ain't it. This is:
"There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved." (Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, 1215.)
"We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff." (Pope Boniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctam, 1302.)
"The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church." (Pope Eugene IV, the Bull Cantate Domino, 1441.)
Interestingly enough both spellings are used and for the exact same reason, backward spelling of Heaven. My guess is there is a lot of people who can't spell backwards.
B - A - C - K - W - A - R - D - S
You are correct in one sense, but I think you're wrong in another.
Salvation is only through the Catholic Church, however, you are discounting the power of God to provide the dying soul with enough enlightenment at the moment of death to choose or reject the Church. It's not defined, but certainly a theological possibility, since it does not nullify the words of Pope Boniface that salvation comes through the Catholic Church.
St. Dismas seems to be a type of this grace offered at time of death...
What are your thoughts?
Since they are beliefs....How does it matter what someone's conception of it is?
Isn't a humans' moral sense and the supernatural, including heaven and hell, equally arrogant and unprovable....as these are relative to a person's belief.
What ever happened to good old biblical truths....
John 14:6 I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the father but by me.
Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved
I'd say it's pretty simple and easy to understand that. Notice there were no references to the Pope or to people who just really love God. I don't know about you but I'll stick with the Bible, thank you very much.
If anyone needs a date for the apostacy of the Roman Church I think 1302 AD would be a good place to start.
Subject to the Roman Pontiff? Not bloody likely.We have no king but Christ!
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12 KJV)
--Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, No. 16 Vatican Council II November 21, 1964
I am not saying he is right or wrong and I have heard Catholics argue it both ways. Personally, I think this is an argument best left to be hammered out among the Catholics.
I think every last one of us will be extremely surprised by a lot of things, not least of which will be who made it ("Say, didn't I see you with shaved head selling books at the airport?" "Yeah, I came across this Gideon's New Testament someone left laying around about a week before the truck hit me.").
For folks teetering on the edge of accepting the call to God, DON'T FALL FOR THIS LIE...It will send you straight to Hell...
Find a local Bible believing church...Skip the fancy, ornate church buildings and people wearing robes...The Bible warns against these things...
Jesus said "Come onto ME, and I will give you rest"...Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, the life...No man can come unto the Father (God) but by ME"...
Call on Jesus...He will save you, without a church...But find a small local church anyway...
I'm not Catholic, but, no it won't. Catholics who believe in Jesus are saved. But you're partly right. The minefield of rules and regulations will just make it seem like you're in Hell. :-)
If one believes that conservatism is not so good and liberalism is not so bad, then he is less likely to be politically motivated. If someone believes in a lesser Heaven and a lesser hell, he will be less likely to pursue either.
How does that matter if they are just beliefs? We don't really know what will happen after we die. I don't believe that people act according to their belief in the afterlife, otherwise, how could someone that actually believes in heaven and hell, ever commit a crime...I think they would do it anyway.
I'm sure there are many saved Christians that attend Catholic churches...Why they would stay there is a mystery to me, tho...
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