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| Q: | I see in the paper sometimes of Protestants and Catholics in places like Ireland killing each other. I am Roman Catholic and my best friend was WELS Lutheran, and we would get into the most brutal arguments trying to convert one another until we both realised that it was hurting our friendship and so we decided to stop speaking of religion at all. But as a Catholic I always had questions for him, but since we were young he couldn't [answer them]. One of our biggest arguments was about forgiveness/repentence. As you probobly know, Catholics have a sacrament where we confess our sins to God through a priest. As it says in the Bible the priest has the power to then forgive the sins or retain them. Protestants have no such thing, and you believe that after baptism you are forgiven just like that, there is no actual repentence required. In a previous question I asked about sin, the person who answered said this and I quote "Unless contrition and repentance follow, every sin leads to eternal condemnation." But Protestants don't have the contrition or repentence that follows sin, for you, after baptism you are automatically forgiven. Correct me if I am wrong. On another note, Catholics believe in purgatory, where every SAVED person goes to be purified of their sins. Protestants believe that you are sent straight to heaven if you are saved, even though you still have your sins under your belt. But how could you be anywhere near the true presence of God with the sin still on your soul? One more thing, when I hear a Catholic preacher he speaks about his own faith. But Protestant preachers speak more about the Catholic church and how wrong it is than their own church. I have been to Protestant services and there was something missing from what I was used to at a Catholic mass. I realised that it was the Eucharist. Yes you have the eucharist but you believe that it is [not] only the body and blood of Jesus. We believe that every crumb of the bread and every drop of the wine is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ. | ||||||||
| A: | Thank you for asking your questions. Your questions indicate that you are laboring under misunderstandings and misinformation about that we really believe and teach, so we are glad you asked the questions. In response, then, to your three questions: Do Protestants and Lutherans teach about "contrition and repentance" and its necessity? Yes, we do. In Baptism the Holy Spirit gives this as he gives saving faith, and for all believers the Holy Spirit maintains the gift of true contrition and repentance as he maintains saving faith through law and gospel in God's Word. In short, it is a characteristic of any Christian's lifestyle, continuously. But this blessed reality is not to be confused with the man-made "sacrament of penance" that the Roman Catholic Church has historically developed and devised. There are similarities, but also great differences. We reject the sacrament of penance as a sacrament and the spiritual tyranny that often accompanies it. How do we enter the presence of God (heaven) "with sin still on the soul" because we do not believe or teach in an intermediate condition and place like purgatory? We do so because the atoning work of Jesus is viewed by us to be complete or perfect and we are fully pardoned in God's eyes despite our continuing sinfulness this side of glory. In short, the truth of Psalm 103:12 is to us a reality now and in the hour of our death--not only after time spent in an imagined purgatory. Do our preachers normally spend time first pointing out the errors of the Roman Catholic church and then turn their attention to what we believe and teach? No, that is a highly unusual and often inappropriate kind of emphasis. I invite you to attend some of our worship services to learn this truth from experience. Are there differences between the Eucharist in the Roman Catholic and the Lutheran Church? Yes, but the reality of the real presence of Christ's body and blood is not one of them. We do differ in the matter of "how" Christ is present. Roman Catholicism teaches the concept of "transubstantiation" and says the bread and wine are essentially changed into body and blood so that the bread and wine no longer exist. We believe the real presence is not fully explainable but that the Bible says the true body and blood of Christ AND the bread and wine all remain and are received orally by the communicant. The greatest difference has to do with the so-called "sacrifice of the Mass" as taught by Roman Catholicism, a "daily unbloody sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead." We reject that whole idea as a man-made dogma that fails to appreciate Christ's once-and-for-all sacrifice of himself on Good Friday and which fails to clarify the fullness and freeness of God's forgiveness of all sins unconditionally. | ||||||||
This is recent question #37 of 50
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