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Saturday, August 16, 2008

Jesus with accessories

If you are trusting in Jesus and _______ (fill in the blank - church, mass, rituals, sacraments, good works, etc.) then you are NOT saved. Jesus paid it ALL. Put all of your trust in Him and in Him alone, and He will direct your paths.

Sometimes the things that girl writes are so silly I wonder if they are even worth responding to at all. As Kelly has pointed out several times, Candy tends to mix and match in her theology what saves a person or not. You have to believe, but then you have to believe the way Candy believes, or your toast. But one thing is pretty clear, Candy believes that if you are Catholic - you pretty much are going to fry.

So I thought I'd take these one by one from the Catholic perspective.

Jesus and the Church. Catholics believe Jesus founded the Church. He founded it because he knew as human beings without structure and without earthly authorities we tend to wander around and flounder (witness the thousands of denominations on the Protestant branch of the Christian tree to see what I mean). Catholics don't obey and trust the church for the church's sake! We follow the teachings of the church because they were given to the church by Jesus himself. We follow the church because that's what Jesus wanted us to do.

Jesus and Mass - a complete, full, spiritual, Traditional, scriptural, physical, historical way of worshiping God. Every part of the mass has deep roots in the scriptures and in Christian history. Candy doesn't accept this because she doesn't know any better.

Jesus and rituals - Jesus as a good Jew followed the religious rituals of the time. As a matter of fact, most rituals have many of the components that Candy told us were important for worship last week!!

Jesus and sacraments - As Catholics we believe that Jesus instituted all 7 sacraments as a means of sharing God's grace.

Jesus and good works - like feeding the hungry? Clothing the naked? etc? All commandments of Jesus Christ himself, who even said that there would be goat and sheep separating time for the folks that didn't believe Him on this one!

So as per usual Candy's theology is a mess, and her presentation is even worse.



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5 comments:

Sal said...

Nice one, Elena.

"Jesus told us to" is the all-purpose simplest answer to all the examples you listed.

Jesus
|
The Church
|
all that Catholic stuff

It all points back to Him.

just evelyn said...

Dear Elena,

Thank you for the useful post. However, I just wanted to point out that your frustration comes through loud and clear, and sounds ad hominem, especially your last sentence. I totally agree with you, but outside readers might assume that there is more than just point-by-point refutation going on, and that it crosses the line and gets personal.

Elena LaVictoire said...

You know, sometimes it feels personal. She has pretty much been assaulting the church a couple of times a week for the last month.

I don't think I'm out of line venting a bit of frustration with that. I also don't think putting her theology and presentation skills on the firing line as they relate to her Catholic attacks are off limits either.

Tracy said...

I agree with Elena.. it does feel personal.. Has Elena or Kelly or anyone else here who is Catholic ever said Candy is going to hell for her beliefs? NEVER.. but Candy has said it about Catholics many, many times before.. to me.. that is personal.. just my feeling though.

Sal said...

In other comments, I said that her Fantasy History of the Bible was illogical and self-contradictory, but I don't think that was ad hominem.
Criticizing Candy's work is not criticizing her personally.

otoh, I think she perceives frustration on our part as a victory on her part, so it might be better to not give her the incentive.