venn
July 8, 2009 10:14 AMCatholic versus Christian, it's like wondering apple versus fruit. Perhaps the more accurate debate storming in my head is Protestant versus Catholic.
What's the main difference? I think the key component of difference can be encapsulated into Martin Luther's sola fide. By faith alone.
As humans we continue to hope to believe that we can somehow work our ways into heaven. We want to take control of our future and feel that security in making our own path with our own two hands. Where is the room for humility? Where is the room for God's grace--there is none. If I could treat somebody nice but hate him in my heart, is that my ticket to heaven?
If I can act like a good person and fool people around me, am I arrogant enough to think that that will fool God as well? Acts and sanctification should be a result of the acceptance of grace and the a change from within. Emulating the symptoms of receiving the grace of God is only a facade and a mirage. What's the difference then, between Christianity and Judaism? Christianity and Islam? What role does Jesus have? What is the point of a saint?
Are we not idolizing humans? We should be glorifying God as the saints themselves would have wished.
What's the point of Jesus, if he can't save you? If he's not the one case that shows sin holds no power compared to God and there is hope yet for the despairing, what does he do?
Here is where I'm wondering what I'm trying to say. I had such a clear picture of both, juxtaposed, but now it seems to be lost in a blur. What makes this debate funky is that we are both Christians here. We follow what we believe Christ set as our path and we try to bring honor to his name. Taking a step back, God loves us all anyway. Hating one another and thinking "you're not worshiping correctly" is not what God wants either of us to do. Yet we're all guilty of this--why? Because of our own insecurity of how we worship. Sometimes, the best way to validate yourself is by proving someone else wrong. But proving somebody else wrong isn't the way we've been taught. Faith is. Back to sola fide.
So what is there to say? I'm completely biased in this debate! Not only am I a Protestant, I've been judged by Catholics, which have led to this line of thinking. The membership has always gotten to me. I agree to the utmost that baptism is an incredibly powerful rite and I'm a Baptist myself, but how can you separate and exclude people for that reason? You get 500 people and let them have communion. I wasn't baptized yet, what made me any less Christian? You develop that insecure and left-out feeling to take a baptism just so you can say you're "official."
I got baptized because I love my God, my pastor, and my church. I got baptized because Jesus Christ's example makes it powerful.
What is this reason for holding anger? It's just people doing human things. We set ourselves apart, we hold pride, we exclude. It happens--I do it too. Why then, do I continue to hold these thoughts even through my hypocrisy? When will I be able to accept a higher level of grace and love others who would close the door to me regardless of whose name it is I come in?
There are a lot of rituals I do, sometimes without whole heart. It's not something I'm proud of, but I'd rather stay in the habit of praying before meals, doing QT, and praying before I sleep because the alternative doesn't even allow me to hold the figment that I'm a Christian. You do the things, at least you can console yourself and say "hey, I did it."
It's a shame though, because acts alone do nothing.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
That's Ephesians 2: 8-9! That's in the Bible! Will saying Hail Mary's really save your life? What about knowing what Jesus Christ did and being a good person? What about serving the kingdom of God? What can we rely on if not the Bible? Just trust the priests that interpret it for us? Maybe it'd be best if they did it in Latin still, that was a good idea right? Let's exclude people, because Jesus accepted everybody.
Proselytizing. I love my God, and my God loves me. When my heart is overwhelmed by his love and I cannot contain it--I can't help but share. Share what God has done for me, share what I want people to enjoy with me. Grace. Why can't we enjoy grace? Why can't we enjoy what God has done. He's given us his one and only son, that whoever believes in his power and his actions will not perish but enjoy everlasting life. A life with God.
There must be so much more than this. So much more than saying words and meaningless actions. Times change, people change, but God will stay the same. He will always love, and He will always want to see us love one another. Therefore I take the Great Commission to heart:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Matthew 28: 19-20. My anger betrays my hurt. My words are only result of the injustice done to me. Love one another, love yourself. Let God be the judge of His kingdom--I only hope to live in it.