RE: Ask a Traditional Catholic
June 28, 2015 at 11:34 am
(This post was last modified: June 28, 2015 at 11:36 am by Randy Carson.)
(June 28, 2015 at 11:13 am)Mr.wizard Wrote:(June 28, 2015 at 9:59 am)PiousPaladin Wrote: Christianity has only grown in numbers since its founding, God also promised that the Gates of Hell would not prevail over his Church. The word of God is not to be doubted and his promise is true.
I am not a Catholic because it feels good. God calls us to be loyal not happy. Obedience to his will will lead to eternal salvation and joy in his presence, but in this life such base concerns as pleasure are irrelevant.
What if submitting to gods will didn't lead to eternal salvation? Your saying you submit to his will because your going to get a favorable reward in the end, that really is the same as saying your catholic because it makes you feel good. Lets face it if gods message was "do what I say, because being commanded by me is its on reward." the catholic faith would not have that many followers, they are offering eternal life, which makes people feel good. Also why do we need salvation? What are we being saved from? Oh ya, its god offering us salvation from his own wrath, how loving he is indeed.
We are Catholic because we believe that God exists and that Jesus is His son. We believe that Jesus promised to build a church and that the Catholic Church is that church.
We are not necessarily Catholic because it makes us feel good - though it does because it does feel good to be doing what God expects of us.
But why is that a problem? Don't all humans have similar feelings?
We help little old ladies across the street because it makes us feel good.
We donate kidneys because it makes us feel good.
We fight and die for our countries because it makes us feel good.
No one likes suffering...whether it is giving up a seat on a bus to a pregnant woman or being beheaded by ISIS because of our faith in Jesus.
Doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do does make us feel good. That just means we're human.
Christians aren't any different from anyone else in that regard, are they?