cantankerous5

well, that is what you have been taught. There is a lot of malicious stuff directed @ the Catholic Church by not only Protestants but the liberal media. I am more/less used to it. But I know more about Catholicism than you do because I have been Catholic virtually all my life. There was that time when I wasn't going to any church.. that was when i was a lot younger, but even then i never stopped considering myself Catholic, never disliked the Cahtolic Church or anything like that. Today, i dislike what is truly dislike-able about the CC: bad "catholics" Yes, i can be a bad one too, but not egregiously bad.. There is nothing wrong with the actual teachings of the Church. And no Catholic in his or her right mind ever said that MARY saves anyone. Praying to someone is no different than merely talking to someone. Are you idolizing when you talk to your biolgical mother? I am not idolizing when i talk to Mary and sometimes I do because she is Jesus's mother and our mother also (Jesus gave Mary to the Apostle John when Jesus was dying on the cross, John representing all of us..) more progress would b e made if people would attack the REAL problems (in the Catholic Church) ... but I realize not all have studied the Cathlic religion as I have.. hence all the bizarre ideas people have about it

well, that may look like a dumb question on the face of it but it really is not I trusted Jesus years ago when I was first born again. But as the years went slipping by, I went far from him, not even realizing, on a conscious level, that that was exactly what i was doing. I lived in a very liberal city and I had never been taught well, concerning Christian beliefs/practices. I was raised Catholic and was taught that you don't fornicate or have an abortion but other than that, i was not taught much of anything. We went to Mass every Sunday and then the rest of the week we just did.. basically what everyone else in the world seemed to be doing: going to school, to work, etc.. "everyone doing what is right in his own eyes" those were the good old days.. LOL (long story there..) so anyway, i still believed in and loved Jesus but my life did not show it and as the years went by, that became more and more true and i fell into some seroius sins and my life went off the rails. Then I did something most here probably would never do.. I prayed the rosary. even I have no idea why I did that. It was there and i picked it up and began to pray the rosary prayers, something i had never planned on doing.. It was God who had me do that, i don't care what any of you guys say because my life did a big 180. now, true, some things in my life went in a way i did not want.. which reminds me of Jesus telling Peter that one day he would not be able to go where he wants.. etc.. (signifying the way St Peter would die) but anyway, my whole life changed and I was back with Jesus.. which.. I know those words don't tell you much.. which is why I started this thread.. Trusting Jesus means different things to different people. What it should mean to all is.. following him wherever he may lead.. following truth is following Jesus.. but truth can be a little scary, if it is not truth we are familiar with. I say this because Jesus leads us in very peculiar ways...

you don't have a clue what I "trust in" whether self or Jesus or whomever. I sincerely doubt I am going to Hell because I love Jesus AND obey Him (and Jesus said Only those who obey his commandments love him) but does that mean that I know without any doubt whatsoever that I will end up in Heaven? Well, again, I doubt I will end up in Hell. I am 99.9% sure I will not, but as a matter of absolute logic, no one knows 100%. You cannot tell me you know exactly where you will go when you die.. wouldn't believe you if you did (which i guess you did. I don't believe you) and there is such a thing a s Purgatory. I do not believe in Purgatory, I KNOW it exists. We are in a state of purgation right now, we Christians. To follow Jesus means being purged of our inclination to.. do things incompatible with Jesus and his holiness. So purgation begins on this earth and if life gets interrupted, and we cannot become sufficiently purged to enter Heaven (where "no unclean thing will enter") we will be allowed to continue that purgation. Only Christians go to purgatory, by the way, another misunderstanding those outside the RCC have about Catholicism. Only those who accept Jesus and adhere to his ways go to Purgatory, but hardly anyone who dies is ready to enter straight into Heaven, where no unclean thing enters.. a lot of people die trying to forgive Aunt Margaret for that remark made 20 yrs ago and what have you.. they try to forgive but aren't there yet, ergo the need for further purgation. It is Jesus who does the purging, whether in this life or the next

the devil appears as an angel of light. We can't trust .. well, hardly anyone can be trusted, any humans

how do you know they were not saved? that does not sound good at all...

not one clue...

I cannot answer this because I am not terrified no idea why you say such things. If you refer to me saying it is "scary" that canonized saints say most don't make it to Heaven.. I meant that it is scary to others, not me (although if you never question yourself and your eternal destination.. you may be in the sin of presumption. None of us knows where we are going after death. We can tell ourselves we are the best Christian in the world all we want.. Only God knows)

i think we should always talk to someone who appears to want to listen and e ngage in conversation, whether gay or otherwise. We cannot blame young people in particular for thinking they are "gay".. old people seems like a different story.. the saying "There's no fool like an old fool" comes to mind.. I feel sorry for young people who think they are gay just because.. maybe the neighbor declared himself as such or whatever.. When I was young, I was very messed up, even went through a stage where I thoght I might be gay because didn't like the opposite sex (hurt a lot). Jesus brought me out of all my deception and Jesus is the only one who can do that for others.. but how will they know Jesus if we Christians dont share him..

ok, so I am a spiritual moron, i reckon

what was the main beef?

it needs to be explaind what "has it covered" means

sometimes I feel all i really have is my personal experiences, what i have learned from being on this earth and what I have learned is that very, very few people actually stay close to Jesus. Yes, it is true our security is Jesus. But what does that mean when one goes to practice it? It means different things to different people. But as Jesus said, only few make it. Canonized saints say hardly any adult (believers included) makes it. That is scary and i am not saying that every utterance of a canonized saint has to be believed. The Catholic Church teaches that is not so. Yet, they lived their lives entirely for Jesus so they are more believable than not

i understood all except this

I'm sorry but I am struggling to make sense of what you said. If you are always saved once you are saved but .. I mean, that means you can sin all you want.. or may as well mean that in any case

I frankly do not understand Christians who believe that they are saved regardless of what horrible sin they may commit after "accepting Christ" Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery: Go and sin no more He did not say "Go and sin no more.. unless you have accepted me as your savior, in which case: Never mind giving up sin" then there is James 2:12 that says "Faith without works is dead" so if you think you can live in a worldly way just because you were born again, say, 20 years ago and you will still get to Heaven.. not so. If you party all your life after accepting Christ, thinking you will be "saved" anyway, you totally fool yourself and also, you will not even WANT Heaven. You will get used to all that partying and worldliness.. You will go to Hell simply because you have gotten used to the world, the flesh and the devil, if nothing else. You will naturally abhor all things Jesus.. all things Heaven-like. You will not belong in Heaven, where as the Book of Revelation says "no unclean thing will enter" (Revelation 21?) you cannot serve God and mammon, as our Lord said. And there are a few other things I could mention but will leave it at that for now