Hi Chris,
Bob gave a very good answer.
You said:
I, as a Catholic, find the Protestant view on the Roman Road to salvation is hard to argue.
- How as a Catholic can we say it is wrong?
It seems so simple that anyone can do it and it gives the Christian seeker all the more reason to be inclined to take this road.
I'm a little confused by your first statement.
- If you are a Catholic, why would you go to a Protestant web site for a Catholic answer?
The web site links in the original e-mail you sent to us go to CARM, which is an openly Protestant web site. They tell their visitors what we believe as Catholics but they are not Catholic.
- Does that seem fair and just?
When we answer a question about the Catholic faith that delves into another faith, we have to share to the best of our ability what we know about other faiths but there is never any malice in any of our replies. Anything we said about someone elses faith is based on undisputable faith facts that congregation adheres to. We only say what we have to in order to provide a Catholic answer to the question asked.
While I appreciate your desire to reach out to other non-Catholics, and share with them the full Gospel found in the Catholic Church, when a group starts speaking for beliefs they do not adhere to, they can mistakenly misrepresent what those other faiths believe.
I would stick with the Catechism and reading postings in our knowledge base by searching on key words. Though the Church, Herself, is the foundational source of all truth, you can still share the Biblical support for many Catholic teachings from my Scripture Passages page:
https://www.AskACatholic.com/ScripturePassages
Now let me address your question.
In their simplicity, there is an implied rejection of teachings Jesus wants them to believe. It is their slimmed down version of salvation which is totally Biblical-based and as you know from our previous conversations, we didn't even have a Bible until 382 A.D. at the Council of Rome. For this reason, if they base their private theology on Sola Scriptura, they will never be able to explain how those from 33 A.D. to 382 A.D. were saved after Jesus' glorious Ascension — they had no Bible.
- Have you shared with your Protestant friends who the Early Church Fathers are?
- Do you know who the Early Church Fathers are?
Because I know a little bit about you from the questions you have asked, I would encourage you to study the faith more before getting into debates with Protestants.
Send your Protestant friends to our site. We love dialoguing with sincere Christians. Encourage them to read Karl Keating's book: Catholicism and Fundamentalism.
Don't waste your time with insincere Protestants.
They can AskACatholic or search for answers in our database.
Both of you can learn about the Early Church Fathers from my other web site:
On the issue of salvation, our differences can be explained in that we use two different questions for the basis of our salvation theology.
The Protestant asked:
- What must I do to be saved?
The Catholic asked:
Happy Easter,
Mike
|