As a former believer I realise that it’s extremely difficult (perhaps impossible in some cases) for a dedicated believer to view this kind of topic with objectivity, but then this post will wait until that person reaches a point where the veneer of blind faith finally cracks and questions start to flow.

To which macros are you referring?

Also, those macros are made of win

However, I suppose I should thank you for sharing that thoughtful, purely copy-and-pasted monologue. I had hoped the first response to this post would be by someone who had done more than simply scan for bits that didn’t tally with their dogma and then attempt to “set the record straight” by uploading their previously prepared “Internet refutation file,” but I’m often told I expect too much sometimes.

Surely you must realise that using the Bible as a proof of itself is logical lunacy, as is using any Pope’s “clarifications”, or do you simply not understand objectivity or the rational rules of argument? What you have done is no different to me writing a document declaring myself the returned Christ and, when you naturally challenge me (Ye of little faith!), for me to simply refer to the document as proof of my claim. The fact that I wrote the document recently and by contrast many people wrote the books of the Bible over a great expanse of time and that it’s believed my millions or billions doesn’t make it any more real. It’s a common mistake to think that “X million people can’t be wrong!” is a valid argument. It’s called the Argumentum ad Populum, and is the same trick used by late night infomercials, spammers and religious proselytisers worldwide. More typically referred to in advertising as testimonials, “I tried Acme’s Wedding Tackle Enlargement Cream and it worked for me!”

If you care to defend that position, consider for a moment the people of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and paganism. And please… don’t respond with Biblical, Papal or dogmatic refutations on why Christianity is right and “those other heathen” are wrong. You’ll be painting yourself into a corner.

With all due respect, that’s not true at all. This is:

In the meantime, I offer the following brief (thus probably inadequate in many ways) explanation of Roman Catholicism:

God is love. Love is making a gift of yourself to another. Love is self-giving. The opposite of love is selfishness. Authentic love always exhibits 4 basic qualities; it is always free, total, faithful, and fruitful. Otherwise, is has been corrupted by selfishness, which makes one want to possess something/someone for one’s own pleasure.

God exists in a communion formed by self-giving love: the Trinity.

The Father begets the Son by loving him; the Son is begotten by the Father, letting himself be loved and receiving from him the capacity to love; the Holy Spirit is love given in total gratuitousness by the Father, received with full gratitude by the Son, and returned by him to the Father. – Pope John Paul II 7/29/98

God is not a solitude, but a family. — Pope John Paul II

Authentic love is always open to new life (i.e., fruitful).
God created man out of love.
God created man in his image and likeness.
God created man to share his divine life.
God’s hope (expectation?) was that man would live a life of perfect self-giving love in imitation of his creator.
Man would procreate, building a large family of God on earth, obedient and faithful in love to him and to each other.
True love gives total freedom to the other.
Man was completely free to choose to respond to God’s love and God’s plan by giving of himself to God in return.
Giving of himself to God would involve man’s obedience and faithfulness to God.

Man was disobedient and unfaithful to God (Adam & Eve…) (selfish).
God immediately promised a plan of salvation for man.

God begins to form a people [family/tribe/nation/kingdom] that will freely return his love and live in imitation of their creator.
God continued to reach out to his expanding family.
He sent a law for them to follow (Moses. 10 Commandments, etc.).
He sent prophets to them as his messengers.

But God’s people continually fell into a cycle of
Unfaithfulness / Tragedy / Repentance / Forgiveness / Faithfulness / Pride (forgetting God) / Unfaithfulness…
His people repeatedly fail to keep the law and be faithful to him (i.e., failed to love him in response to his love for them).

In the fullness of time, God sent his Son, Jesus, out of his love and his desire to see his people restored.

Jesus was perfectly faithful, obedient, humble, self-giving in love.
Jesus does what Israel (God’s chosen people) failed to do: he freely did only God’s will, which was primarily to proclaim the truth about the kingdom of God (and witness to it via signs and wonders – miracles, exorcisms, etc).

Jesus endured all the pain and suffering that came upon him because of his perfect faithfulness to the Father……to the point of death.
(His proclamation of the truth caused him to be hated by the religious authorities of his time. The more he proclaimed the truth and worked miracles (i.e., did God’s will, his mission in life), the more they hated him, until finally their selfishness caused them to kill him)
The only way that Jesus could have avoided being put to death would have been by selfishly being unfaithful to the will of his Father.
But Jesus freely chose death rather than unfaithfulness to God.

This is why his sacrifice is accepted by God in atonement for our sins: because, in his human nature, Jesus remained totally faithful to God.

By his sacrifice, Jesus cleared away the impediments to Divine Mercy for all of us.
Jesus won for us the grace which is necessary for us to be faithful to God.
We must come to God through Jesus – he wasn’t sent by the Father for nothing!!
We need the grace that Jesus won for us; we cannot be faithful by our own efforts.
Jesus rises from the dead to prove that life is eternal.

Together, the Father & Son send the Holy Spirit
Who brings God’s grace
And is God’s life in us

The Spirit is also the love and the personal gift which contains every created gift: life, grace and glory. The mystery of this communion shines forth in the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, enlivened by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit himself makes us “one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28) and thus integrates us within the same unity which binds the Son to the Father. We are left in wonder at this intense and intimate communion between God and us! – Pope John Paul II 7/29/98

Remember, God wants to form a people that will freely return his love and live in imitation of their creator. (vs establishing a written law to be followed)

Jesus came to restore the formation of this people, not just to write a book [the bible].

Church = family of God
A family of God’s creatures
A family with this common trait: acceptance of Jesus as their Savior
A family adopted by the Father

A family of people who will now use the grace that God now offers us through Jesus (sacraments, liturgy, etc.)

To enable us to be faithful

To freely choose to put him and others first

Despite any pain and suffering we must endure

Just like Jesus did!!