Are there going to be Catholic people that will enter into the kingdom of God?

If they believe that the church can arrange a way for this to happen after a person is deceased then scripturally this is probably going to be a larger problem.

Yep. I’ve seen this question answered by Catholics, who usually say “go to confession or Mass.” When they are told that the person doesn’t have time to go to confession or Mass, they usually shrug and basically say that the person is without hope.

Fish, oysters, scallops, crab are meat.
They are not fruit, grain, or vegetable.

Accepting Jesus Christ as their lord and savior.

Can you expound on this a little bit @CDW4ME?

Not really following where your trying to go with it.

Thanks.

You made your bed, etc. No matter what you do it will be a problem if both of you take your faith seriously. A compromise doesn't always work. Sometimes it becomes a wedge instead.

Jesus said, "Why do you call Me Lord and then don't do the things I say?"

This is also especially true by adding to the Scriptures doctrine that is false and has no place of righteousness according to them.

This thread has gone from suck to blow.

Some say they do not eat meat on a given day of the week; yet they eat fish, scallops, crab.
That is eating meat.
Attached File

Are you a Jew?

It is a bad analogy I will have to agree.

Through the ages some denominations have grown out of necessity and Divine guidance. But anything man made will eventually become corrupt and most churches have come under judgement for the last 100+ years.

Followers and Seekers of Jesus Christ and those who want to be in the presence of our Lord should not get caught up in Football team antics. Recognize that your team name will eventually become corrupted and deceitful or at least try to stunt your growth as a Christian / Follower of Jesus Christ.

Whatever Christian Church brought you to starting learning about the Lord, hopefully saved and Born again by the Blood of Christ probably won't be the church you stay at or shouldn't remain as a believer because you will outgrow that church in a very short time depending on what the Lord has planned for you.  

I think the Catholics did a good job building the inroads around the four corners of the world which would allow the Protestants / Lutherans to bring the necessary approach to aid towards the individual choosing redemption. I think the Baptists are necessary for standing firm that the Bible is infallible and they are truly the keepers of the pages of the New Testament.

The Head of the household should grab his wife and children's hands and be encouraging them, pleading with them, leading them and dragging them to the foot of the Cross seeking salvation.

OP a man and a woman should be equally yoked before marriage. The fact that your family is willing to get up and go to worship is a great start. Also spend sometime outside of the team buildings with just the family, your Bibles with Jesus at the center and build that church up first. The Spirit will lead you to where you should be going and it won't have a team name.

Christianity is having a personal relationship with God, having faith in the gospel, and accepting God's grace.

Religions are man made.  Lighting candles, sprinkling babies and saying prayers to mother Marry might make you feel better, but it doesn't make you a Christian.  And priests have no authority to forgive you of your sins.

Find a Church that preaches what's in the Bible.  Nothing more, nothing less.

The whole "shake the etch a sketch and it never happened" aspect of Catholicism always struck me as odd, at least the apparent ease of execution, but the caveat is that it means nothing unless you have true repentance in your heart, which a priest can't know.  The priest is just the conduit, the forgiveness is between you and God, which isn't really any different than any other sect of Christianity.

All religions simply satisfy a psychological need of healthy humans.  In that regard the idea of repentance for imperfection, contrition and redemption are really important.  How each specific religion handles these things isn't really all that important.  

Anybody who is a Christian has Christ working in him or her, and if you learn to depend on Jesus' work within, ready to work through you as you choose to do things, He will work alongside you and make your efforts meaningful and valuable both in God's sight and ultimately people's. That is the great secret that Paul learned.

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness...Ray Stedman

It could work but will be very difficult. Catholics and Protestant Christians have very different views. Birth control being one of the biggest. It’s best if you were both on the same page to avoid conflict.

The prayers to Mary (and Saints) always made sense to me.  If I wanted someone to put in a good word for me with the CEO, I'd invite a VP to golf first.

The vocal Protestants I've known over the years seem to think they've got a fiber optic line to the big guy.  Catholics tend to use cups on a string and hope for the best, with a degree of humility.

No, this is not a good idea.  Instead, alternate the church you attend, but go together.

There is One God and One mediator between God and man, The Man , Christ Jesus

Amen

While your statement can be argued, what can not be argued is that the Catholic church has allowed and promoted so many fundamental changes since the time of Christ, it is not the same Church.

Any Church following the teachings of the New Testament would be a true Church.  Sadly, that can not be said about the Catholic Church, and it has been that way for hundreds of years.

While those attending a Catholic Church may be Christians, the Church has left the teachings of Scripture.

The quoran is a book but not THE BOOK.

Somewhat to OP's dilemma and somewhat to the general religion piece: anyone who declares their FAITH as FACT should be looked at with a hefty amount of skepticism.

We humans are by definition fallible creatures, and all of our religious traditions have all been passed down to us through human hands and should be considered potentially corrupted by those human hands. Each of us chooses what to believe and what we place our FAITH in, but that does not make it FACT. Some don't consider that to be enough, but I would say that shows weakness in their FAITH, not support for it as a FACT.

With that said, as with any major organization, follow the money and follow the power structure to see where the true motivations of many in that organization lie. In any church, you will see all of the shortcomings of man: pride, greed, lust, envy, wrath   That is human nature, not the divine, or at least not as presented to us by most religious organizations.

Not to say that organized religion is bad, that is a relationship for each of us to sort out, but to ignore the human influence in each of them and to argue the divine nature of a man-made institution is just naive.

My wife was raised catholic. Her dad was a deacon but after his divorce could not be a priest so he jumped ship to the episcopal church and became a priest there. I was raised lutheran by traditional southern baptist parents who left that denomination.

My wife and I are not regular churchgoers but when we do, we swap it up. I go to mass with her and the next time she goes to a lutheran church with me. Seems to work for us.  We dont have kids.

Have her attend catholic church with you. Explain your side. Discuss the finer points of the differences between the denominations and what they believe. See if you can come to an understanding on a philosophical basis and select an appropriate church based on that.

This isn't really a place where a compromise like taking turns or each of you goes to your respective church is particularly appropriate. It is best to go to church as a family and stick to the same one. Maybe finding a denomination somewhere between would be more appropriate.

The tongues stuff would be too far for me personally. I tend to have an issue with hardline young earth creationism and old testament literalism for that matter.

I am only going to pick on number 4 here.

You are making a rather open interpretation with this. It doesn't say anything about long. It says vain repetition. The chapter deals quite extensively with not making a spectacle of your worship. It then goes on to offer a long prayer to repeat...


6 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;

18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Are you thoroughly confused, maybe even a little hopeless yet OP? Like a brother told me in my own thread, and it took me awhile to learn. These threads are a circus and the circus is in town.

We do have a direct line to the big guy.  Jesus invites us to pray directly to the Father.

I think enough of us have hit on solid advice that can be seen through the chaff.

Explore your own beliefs and lead.

Thanks for the responses guys. To answer the question of how this ended up happening or why we got married with differing beliefs. The truth is that at the time we got married, I was not very religious at all. I hadn't been to any church in many years and my faith was very weak. I was borderline atheist/agnostic.  So I just went along with whatever church she wanted to because it didn't matter at all to me and I was only going to make her happy. But as time has went on, my faith and belief in God has gotten stronger. Which I guess is a good thing I got from going to her church. But then I was like man, I kind of miss the Catholic Church. I like church again, but I just don't like the way the message is delivered in her Apostolic church. It's too loud, over the top, and not the kind of church experience I like. I prefer a calmer and more peaceful worship style as I said in the op.

Might try and split the difference ?
Try out a CC Church Finder

My church has Saturday and Sunday services. Lots of double dippers going to two churches.

key would be your consistency. Good chances she's built up years of relationships at her church as is hesitant to walk away because you attended a Catholic church one weekend. Show her that you're committed by looking for opertunity to attend your church where/ when you can.

Might be as simple as rotation every other weekend.

Okie Dokie. 4 pages and it's all so clear now.

Honestly, it all boils down to the Eucharist. You either believe it is the central point of Christian worship, or you don't. You don't seem to.

Except none of that is true and I don't believe that Catholics told you this.  Theologically, the sacraments help in salvation but one can achieve salvation without them.

Good post.

You really need to study the Bible if you think that is true. If they all followed the same Bible, there would be no denominations.
A warning sign if they don’t teach the Bible verse by verse, or they ramble for 30 minutes.
2 Peter 1
King James Version
2 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

Hey OP, if all these churches are just believing the bible and following Jesus, why do think there are so many denominations out there? Just curious, about how you view this? Maybe they're all wrong like Joseph Smith said, then he created his own religion. LOL. Seriously though, how do you see it?

I met a 14 year old yesterday with 100 surgeries under his belt.  You're wasting bandwidth.

I'm not suggesting folks don't have the ability to pray directly to the top, that's above my pay grade.  I'm more concerned about the mockery (which I had never encountered prior to moving south) of praying to Mary and the saints.  Again, it's a matter of humility.  Born agains tend to think they have the big guy on speed dial.  I don't see a reason to talk to the manager when the receptionist has the answer.  Pretty sure the boss is handling the big picture items of the day.

Who does?

The irony of this is he seems to be alluding to the whole "repent and accept Christ as your Savior" or some version of the "Sinner's prayer" angle so popular in certain circles.

And what is Catholic Last Rites (which consists of, yes, Confession and Eucharist) but repentance and accepting Christ?

But the Church offers this because it sees as entrusted with preserving the Sacraments, as they are the means by which the Church can facilitate grace.

The difference is whether one trusts in the grace accompanied by the practices established by the Church, or asserts one's own "I got this" theology.

The latter smacks, to me, as wholly unbiblical and rooted in the hubris of original sin (or whatever one opts to calls it) - that man alone can and should be able to decide right from wrong.

For the Church to suggest salvation is guaranteed without exercising those sacramental vehicles it has been entrusted with to ensure said grace, would be for the Church to reject its very mission. No Church nor man "guarantees" salvation, we can only continue to do as instructed, and as has been done for millennia, out of faith.

There are just some absolutely comical twists and corruptions of basic Christian theology that have manifested within Protestantism over the years, much of it a result of outright ignorant semantic games that can be readily played against Churches who are literally older than all modern language or just a creative interpretations of history in order to advance a narrative. But this one? Repent and accept Christ? Yeah, that's like... always been there. The actual apostolic Churches have just more established processes to make sure it's done the best possible way.

It's interesting though. I am exploring my own faith currently.

I was raised catholic but sort of became the prodigal sheep after about 5th grade or probably more accurately never really believed. It took a long journey through what some may even consider heathen beliefs to have the "universe" lead me back to God.

A little while back we did a craft show at a lutheran church and that sort of rekindled my desire to take part in some formal practice. Reading a little bit about Lutheranism, the concept appealed to me in some ways. I always found it odd to focus so highly on Mary and a lot of the appearance of Catholicism seemed to be making a spectacle of worship...

I ended up going to weekday catholic masses and praying the rosary because there simply were convenient times for me to go and not have to disclose or share my interest with anyone outside of the church.

At some point I also went to a lutheran mass and while what I had read about it lead me to believe it would be less ostentatious. I came away from the experience with the totally opposite impression. Now this could of course come down to the specific congregation and or my upbringing the Catholic church just felt more humble and correct.

In reality the basic structures of the masses were similar enough that it barely warranted an argument.

I liked that the lutheran church distributed the blood of Christ for communion, far more people welcomed and spoke with me, and the prayers used the exact wording I remember from my youth. I was not a fan of comfy theatre seating, video screen for readings hymns etc, the service took entirely too long of a detour to focus on the song "People get ready" and it's message and importance to the civil rights movement. Granted it was black history month but the one black person in the seats slept through that part grand piano, focus on a peanut butter drive including a military helmut for the pastor to be the peanut butter general...

Meanwhile the catholic church has a priest of Kenyan origin who hasn't spoken a word on race (this isn't really that important but sort of helps paint the picture).

Anyway one felt right and I was just sort of lead to and the other did not.

I hope that was a particularly long winded useless anecdote which does nothing but further confuse you and lead you and your wife to explore and discuss your faith.

http://www.miracolieucaristici.org/

John 14:6

Hooray a link to an unsecure site with 0 context

You mean the Bible that the Catholic Church compiled?

Look up what infallibility means.  Just because he says something, which he often does, unless he says, "This is the way that it is gonna be from now on...:

The “processes” you mention are nothing more than the RCC’s thinly-veiled attempt to add required works to one’s salvation when the Bible clearly teaches otherwise. What does it say about salvation? Jesus said “believe in the gospel and repent.” Mark 1:15. Paul repeatedly says that we are not saved by works, but by grace through faith, and he specifically railed against the Judaizers who attempted to add works to the requirements of being saved. E.g., Ephesians 2:8-9. Nowhere does it say that works are required to receive salvation through grace (because, as Paul recognized in Romans 11:6, if salvation was by works, it would no longer be grace).

The RCC can couch the Sacraments in terms of receiving “grace” for each Sacrament a person participates in, but it’s just another way of adding works to the requirement for salvation. The problem is that the RCC seems to conflate the concepts of justification and sanctification by requiring works (in the form of Sacraments) to be justified when the Bible clearly teaches that we are justified by faith, not works. In this way, the Church interposes itself and its ordinances between man and God, when the Bible teaches that there is only one mediator between them: Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 2:5.

I don't understand why OP does not think he is Christian when he claims to belong to the universal church?

What a thread.  Just to simplify things for the OP.  You and your wife are both wrong.

The correct term is Torah Observant Christians, it seemed to work well for the 12 disciples! Okay maybe 11.

https://isr-messianic.org/publications/the-scriptures.html

you’re welcome

It's not just about....believing....if that's what you think as a Christian

"I am of the belief that as long as you love and believe in Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter what the denomination is."

That is not the Catholic position.