Message from @Deleted User
Discord ID: 413953070888779796
That's what builds Jesus' church. People sharing, studying, and growing in their faith about Jesus. That's the church that Jesus established on this earth. That's the goal Jesus had is saying "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, whatever you bind on earth...etc (vs 19). Heaven is closed to sinful people - it's locked. The only key that opens the doors of heaven to people is the beautiful message that our sin (the thing that has closed heaven) has been removed. Jesus carried our sins to the cross, received the punishment we deserved for them, and rose again to prove his and our innocence. Everytime we share that "good news" message with someone and they believe it, their sin is gone and heaven swings open for one more person.
There's so much more to be said here about those keys, but I'm out of time. I think the only other verse the Catholic church uses is John 21 where Jesus asks Peter to feed his sheep. Again, nothing about setting Peter up as the Pope or the head of the church, but simply restoring Peter after he had denied even knowing Jesus three times.
--- Pastor from a WELS Lutheran church
This entire wall of text falls apart under the slightest scrutiny
The original spoken language of Matthew 16:13 was Aramaic, not Greek. There was no masculine or feminine, just *Kepha.*
And in the Greek translation, *Petros* and *Petra* had the same meaning. They just used *Petros* for Peter's name because *Petra* was the common word at the time but would have been improper for Peter's name.
Luther was wise in his observation of the error and corruption of the church, but his following actions would fracture it causing what we have to day, a broken liturgical mess that won't be cleaned up without a massive catastrophe or miracle.
So what is the Catholic teaching regarding salvation? How are people saved in Catholicism?
Through the grace of, and subsequent faith in God. As well as repentance for any truly mortal sin.
If you don't go to the Catholic church or confess to a priest, can you still be saved, according to Catholicism?
Yes faith is what saves you
The concept is that dying in a state or mortal sin puts you in jeopardy but I dont think the church says for certain what happens
The biggest problem I find that many outside of the Catholic church have/had (including myself) aside from modern corruptions, is simply the fact that it seems too rigorous.
Now as it pertains tot he history of the church,
it has fought long and hard to reduce rigor,
but it does not go by faith alone.
For many centuries it had to safeguard doctrine from all sorts of heresies.
Of course it's not only faith
But if you lead a good life and have faith you will be saved
Even if you're not in church
Many would-be popes attempted rigorousness only as a means of gate keeping because they did not win the papacy.
According to Wels Lutheran salvation is a gift from God freely given and if we have faith and accept the gift it is ours. Doing good works is our thanks for the gift of salvation, but works won't save us, according to the Lutheran doctrine.
Correct, but again, *not works, nor faith, alone*
the keyword being alone,
it takes both.
And in order to be a decent Christian, you must do both.
As I was about to say, it is a rather large criticism of the church that it does too many earthly works and not enough spiritual, or that it lacks personal connection with God.
A personal connection is entirely up to the person worshipping.
The church is there to act as an authority,
a governing body.
It is no fault of theirs if a man turns away from God, if a man does not pursue him.
It is their duty to bring them to God, but what might they do if they're simply rebuffed?
The majority of rigor, and legalism as well as long held tradition within the church, is to prevent such a thing from happening.
The ceremonies, the sacraments, the traditions,
they must be actively pursued in order to help cultivate not only the idea, but in this earthly prison of ours, *a visage* of Christ.
Protestantism seems nice, it seems good, and to a large degree it is within the traditions of northern Europeans, as well as Americans to partake in it. However we have seen the subsequent death of our own spirituality,
and protestants themselves have fallen to chaos,
and they have become mild.
There was a poem written by a man where Christ comes back, and is in a Victorian era city,
and he was so overcome with woe at the lack of spirituality,
that he longed to die and suffer again.
I think we're there today.