Have You Accepted The Lord As Your Own Personal Lord And Savior?

[Templari]

I just thought of this talking to a friend.

Something i realized along time ago is that there is a difference between the way protestants and Catholics present their faiths. It is sort of along of the whole faith vs. works issue. Protestants would start with the "you need to love Jesus that is it. But when you truly love him then you will do..... "

When Catholics skip the first part, protestants assume that we mean it is not neccessary. They say we believe works get us to heaven. My take on this is that as Catholics we take the first step for granted, i say, "why not" if you go to church, i would say it is safe to assume that you love God. Why repeat that?

Discuss:
For the most part it seems right now we are sitting in the middle

Ideally as Catholics should we go to the more protestant method of 1) love God 2) do good things(which might prove more beneficial to evangelizing...)
or should we take up our neclected old ways of actually teaching what we ought to do once we love God(which from my understanding is somewhat what was done by most of the old fashioned missionaries to great effect)?

[LouisvilleFan]

I'm not sure that there is much difference between the two. For one, the "works" that trip up Protestants are the sacraments. It's difficult for them to see how a Christian should be required to attend Mass every Sunday, go to Confession, and "do" all this stuff. It feels like working for your salvation. The funny thing is, looking back now as a Catholic, it feels like I did more "work" as a Protestant trying to earn my salvation because nothing was sacramental. See, whether as a Protestant or a Catholic, one is expected to do something. Baptist pastors challenge their church communities to read the Bible daily, be accountable to one another, live a holy life, etc. Catholics should do these things too, but ultimately they are works done in response to faith.

However, through sacraments, we bring the same faith that one brings to any of the other good things, but it is God who does all the work. All we really have to do is show up.

At any rate, the Catholic Church doesn't discourage the act of receiving Christ into your heart as your Lord and Savior. That really isn't much different from receiving spiritual Communion or making the Act of Contrition after Confession. There's nothing wrong with emphasizing the need to love God. Maybe many Catholics didn't do enough of that in the past... I've only been Catholic for a year, so I'm the last person to make a call on that.

But I do agree with your feeling that the Catholic Church seems to take faith for granted. When I was first reading the Catechism, it troubled me that most things seemed more focused on the actions one does rather than the faith and heart they bring to it. Of course, I eventually learned that the sacraments aren't effective unless one has faith, a contrite heart, and all that good stuff that Protestants emphasize much more.

So for what it's worth, those are my thoughts on it.