Not all Catholics believe that only they are saved (although they have softened that a little) but it is an official doctrine. Most hold Mary (Miriam) in reverence and pray to her and other saints. But we all have things we have to explain. The Protestants do not pray to people, but their religions were started 1450 years after Christ (most even centuries later)….by men…by men. The names of men are associated with many Protestants denominations. Men that started religions…started denominations with newly translated Bibles….translated by men 1400 years after the fact…who were alien to the culture….alien to the time period, and at best learning the biblical languages.
The truth is Protestant fundamentalism saves, and that is what is important. But it is not because of the men that started the religions or their Bibles. When the Holy Bible was printed in the 1500’s the Protestants took it and read it. What they read and what they believed could save them….the scriptures can lead to that if the spirit is willing. But disagreements arose. So with Bibles in hand they began to start their own denominations. Most of the divisions and splintering has been historically documented, so there are explanations as to why they split up. But the Protestants were not the first to cause divisions.
The scriptures can lead to salvation, no matter who reads them. From the early years of Christianity (100 ad) even before the scriptures were available to read by individuals, they heard the word of God and could be saved. Hearing was important because most of them could not read. Today, individually, we know far more than what they did. They were like children that heard what they heard and believed. Except, if they believed differently, their first thought was not to start a new religion. The reason for this solidarity, they only had so many details…once the details came to the surface … disagreements began. <I have the right scripture! No! No! I have the right scripture! I have ten scriptures that prove I am right! And I have ten scriptures that really prove I am right!> So arguing over the scriptures is nothing new. Today there are so many denominations, and like back then there are free-lance Christians…. non-denominationals number in the millions.
But these denominations are not alien to each other….they believe Yeshua is the Son of God...the savior…most are baptized…most go through communion…so most go along with the processes of salvation. Arguments over the elements and processes of Salvation, and the authority of the Church have been in play from the very beginning. Back in that day, there were some that had favorite Apostles and some had issue with Paul’s claim to being an Apostle. Today we recognize the authority of all the Apostles in the Bible. But still some have favorites.
As far as salvation, it is probably good advice to do what the scriptures tell you to do. As far as morality? The Bible and every denomination teaches morality, but Christ knew we would mess that up too, so He told us two rules, that were the guiding spirit of all morality, love God and love each other…do all things in love, the details will work themselves out.
Most people are not students of history, and many will look back with a critical eye….just like people in the future will look back at us with criticism. Some of the history of the Catholic Church is ugly…atrocities. That happens, the German people and Japanese people as well as socialist and communist states have to live with a history of blood on their hands and millions murdered. The history of the world is full of this. We would like to think that God’s word would instill a wisdom far above society but as can be seen, we are slow learners. The civil rights movement and the woman suffrage movement are proof that there are things that we are slow to learn. Nearly a disgrace that society has to teach us.
When Protestants look back at the history of the Catholics and other religions that existed after the first century, all they see is bad. They do not understand the things the Catholics believed and the sacraments that developed. They do not know of the thousands of interactions that God had with all the people during those centuries. The divine visitations and the messages given and the relationships made. It is not just the Church it is the people that lived and worshipped through the centuries. The beliefs and rituals of the Catholic Church are largely based on these interactions. Did they error in some of these? You can be sure of it. But their intent was to show reverence to the Trinity, to organize the Church, and to keep it whole.
The Protestants are not going to understand all that, they may believe in angelic messages or tongues today, but disbelieve anything occurred between 100ad and 1500ad. So they are not going to understand where the Catholics are now, because so much of the history of God is missing from their religion. With their rejection of Catholic history, they also reject Christian history and God’s involvement in those time periods. In effect they dismiss God. They have the Bible, but that only tells 50 years of the story. Christianity did not stop after the close of the Bible. God did not take a 1450 year hiatus…millions saved and thousands of interactions documented. The Trinity was not gagged by the turn of the first century or the close of the Bible. The Trinity continued to speak to people in different ways, not always repeating what was said before, but new information and instructions that the Apostles were not ready for, as Christ told them. So God continued His fellowship with his children. He did not sit back and wait for the Protestants to find the Bible, to set things straight. Nor is the Trinity ignorant of the passage of time and our ability to understand.
The printing of the Protestant Bible…what did it do for them? In God’s infinite wisdom, in His words were and are salvation…but as far as the details, the Protestants were never to agree. The Catholic Church has stood the test of time. As the oldest Christian Church on earth, they have fought to keep the faith to one Church, while the Protestants fractured it into tens of thousands of denominations and the fracturing continues….
Now, who is right and who is wrong? No matter how much of God is in a religion, it also has the heart of Man. The leaven in the dough. Yes we are like leaven, we have a corrupting affect but what would the Church be without people. The Catholic Church has been guilty of the worst of atrocities, corruption, and lust for power. But the fracturing of the Church could be called an attack on Christ’s Church. What is worse? While we were sinners God loved us and loves us now and that is a good thing, because we have surely made a mess of things.
As I see it we are all in the same boat. If there is a perfect denomination, how would you ever know? Sure, someone is going to claim they know THE TRUTH! And another Christian down the street is going to say the same thing. But isn’t that what started us down the wrong path to begin with? Where is the wisdom? The tenants of Christianity are the only wisdoms. Faith, love, forgiveness, and grace is what God is waiting for, to see if we get it. If you cannot love your fellow Christians, what have you learnt from the Bible? What you think you know, is a grain of sand, but how you apply that, is the kingdom of God. Your beliefs can be seriously flawed, but if you apply faith, love, forgiveness, and grace, you will not be far off.
I fellowship with several denominations and I expect them to be good, but not perfect. I respect their beliefs and stand with them and sing praises to God. As we can see from the many beliefs, the details are debatable. A discussion among friends, it should be. You can know the scriptures backwards and forwards, study it at the language level, know the history, culture, and time period, but that still produces more questions. The details are endless but Christian salvation is simple, and if you do not get hung up on the details the application of Christianity is simple….do all things in love and Christ will be right beside you.
