Ask me anything: Roman Catholic Edition

Luke6_37 wrote: Pax Vobiscum! I post frequently on Catholic Answers Forum and came across a delightful topic started by a brave Muslim woman who offered to answer questions about her faith from anyone who might be curious. I thought that was a great idea So here I am to do the same for you. I am not here to convert anyone, just to answer as best I can any questions you may have about the Roman Catholic faith or how it compares to other Christian denominations. To give you some background on myself, my job is to teach young Catholics about their faith, but the church is huge & I am not an expert on every topic. I hope someone out there is curious & look forward to to answering your questions.

Do Catholics follow the strict doctrine of Jesus and follow Jesus as their role model and keep and obey all his laws and customs like His Apostles and desciples did?

NABA wrote: Please explain gospel of Mark ch 16 v 17-18

Exactly what it meant: These will the signs who accompany those who believe so if you don not believe in Jesus you will not be able to do those signs.

Paul was bitten by a serpent in Malta while tending a fire, but he flicked it off and was not harmed (Acts 28:1-6). He certainly did not go out of his way looking for dangerous serpents. Indeed, he did not devote entire church services to messing around with a bunch of deadly snakes.

NABA wrote: Please explain gospel of Mark ch 16 v 17-18

I would be happy to answer your question, but it would be helpful if you could clarify what you are asking.

For example, are you asking for an explanation of how Christians understand the doctrine of the Resurrection or are you asking for an explanation of how Catholics in particular approach Scripture passages such as this?

I look forward to hearing from you!

Luke6_37 wrote: Peace maker wrote: Do Catholics follow the strict doctrine of Jesus and follow Jesus as their role model and keep and obey all his laws and customs like His Apostles and disciples did? Greetings Peace maker - What a beautiful username you have chosen! "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." (Mt 5:9) All Christians believe Jesus is the perfect man and we strive to be like him with respect his love and mercy. Our ultimate goal and purpose in life is to become a saint - a person who is united with Christ in heaven when he or she dies. Only a perfectly sanctified person can be united with Christ for all eternity. We believe it is God's will that all people should be joined to him through Jesus and share in his Divine life (i.e., Zoe). However, HOW that is accomplished is topic in and of itself! All Christians also believe Jesus is the Divine Word of God. That he is that aspect of God through which all of Creation came into being. As such, he was the authority to create covenants with his chosen people. In the Hebrew scriptures, it is recorded that God made four great covenants with his people. They were with Noah, Abraham, Moses and David. These are collectively known to Christians as the Old Testament (i.e., Old Covenant). When the Word came to dwell among us as Jesus the King, he fulfilled all of God's promises from the Old Covenants and instituted a New Covenant (i.e. New Testament) with the Ekklēsia he established (i.e., church). This is the covenant Gentile (non-Jewish) Christians follow. According to Paul, for a gentile to follow any other Covenant would be wrong. This was confirmed by the Apostles at the Council of Jerusalem (see Acts 15). Gentile Christians are required to follow the Covenant of Jesus and none other. Jesus gave us four commandments in the New Covenant. These are: 1. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind 2. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 3. Do this in memory of me (i.e., celebrate the Eucharist) 4. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit All Christians follow these commandments. However, not all Christians attach the same meaning to them. The meaning of the third commandment is a major difference between Catholics and most Protestants. Jesus also gave us loads and loads of examples in what he said and did to show us how these commandments were to be carried out. However, not even this is an exhaustive list. As time went by, the Magisterium of the Church (i.e., the successors of the Apostles who inherited their teaching authority - that is the bishops and Pope) have had to figure out how apply these commandments to new situations that did not exist before. This is what we call the Sacred Tradition of the Church. It is a sacred deposit of wisdom that has accumulated over the years. The Magisterium, Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture are the three pillars of the Catholic Church. I hope that helps answer your questions!

We must seek the wisdom of God and not the wisdom of this world which is foolishness and will bring us no where.
The Churches went and seek their own wisdom and moved away from God's wisdom they set up their rules and regulations in the churches and fail to place God's rules in place and follow His laws and rules.

1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16

Christ the power and wisdom of GOD.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

For it is written:

I will destroy wisdom of the wise,And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

Where is the wise?Where is the scribe?Where is the disputer of this age?Has not God mad foolish the wisdom of this world?For since,in the wisdom of God,the world through wisdom did not know God,it pleased God through foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

For Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom;but we preach Christ crucified,to the Jews a stumbling block and the Greeks foolishness,but to those who are called,both Jews and Greeks,Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men,and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Christ Crucified

2 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Spiritual Wisdom

6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

9 But as it is written:


�Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.�

10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

13 These things we also speak, not in words which man�s wisdom teaches but which the Holy[g] Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For �who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?� But we have the mind of Christ.

We study the scriptures but wisdom came from God through Christ and the Holy spirit and not the wisdom fo this world.


Edited by Peace maker - 14 February 2018 at 6:28pm