Why be a Catholic?
December 22, 2007
I found the following quote from Peter Kreeft’s book, Catholic Christianity, very interesting. Following the quote I will offer some thoughts to consider. (Words in italics represents specific areas of interest to me, not the author)
Why be a Catholic?
If you want to invent your own religion, do not be a Catholic. If you want to teach the Church rather than let the Church teach you, there are plenty of other churches for you, churches that welcome theologies without miracles, moralities without absolutes, and liturgies without adoration. Please do not be a Catholic unless you believe the Church’s claim to speak in these area in the name of Jesus Christ.
There is no such thing as a “cafeteria Catholic“. Catholics do not pick and choose among the Church’s doctrines and laws; we receive them gratefully from God, we “eat all the food Mother puts on our plate”.
A “cafeteria Catholic” or a half Catholic or a 95 percent Catholic is a contradiction in terms. If the Catholic Church does not have the divine authority and infallibility she claims, then she is not half right or 95 percent right, but the most arrogant and blasphemous of all churches, a flase prophet claiming “thus says the Lord” for mere human opinions. It must be either/or, as with Christ himself: if Christ is not God, as he claims, then he is not 95 percent right or half right or merely on of may good human prophets or teachers, but the most arrogant and blasphemous false prophet who ever lived. Just as a mere man who claims to be God is not a fairly good man but a very bad man, a merely human church that claims divine authority and infallibility is not a fairly good church but a very bad church.
The only honest reason to be a Christian is because you believe Christ’s claim to be God incarnate. The only honest reason to be a Catholic is because you believe the Church’s claim to be the divinely authorized Body of this Christ.
So, I guess if you are Baptist or say Methodist you are a member of an invented rather than biblical church/religion.
Presumably, the Catholic Church has something to teach us non-Catholics. Maybe the unbiblical doctrines of purgatory, the immaculate conception, papal succession, or the need of baptism for salvation just to mention a few.
I, along with many, do not accept the claims of the Roman Catholic Church with regards to their “devine authority” or “infallibility”. I do not accept any such claim that the Roman Catholic Church is “the divinely authorized Body of this Christ”. All who trust in Jesus as Saviour and Lord are members of Christ’s Church (the non-physical, universal church), not the Church of Rome.
I suppose, based on Dr. Kreeft’s own words, that the Catholic Church, because she does not possess the authority she claims, is a bad church, the most arrogant and blasphemous of all churches. This, Dr. Kreeft’s words, not mine.
Posted in Catholicism, Doctrine, Peter Kreeft, Roman Catholicism
content rss
December 31st, 2007 at 10:48 am
Hello Shane,
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
I read the quote from Dr. Kreeft and was impressed that you had taken the time to read through it; but then I was amazed at your defensive response to it. Dr. Kreeft believes just as I do that Baptists and Methodists are no less Christian than we are as Catholics.
I do believe the Catholic Church has something to teach you, just as I have learned much from a non-catholic such as yourself. You have never presented anything on your blog, nor have I ever seen any evidence to show where Scripture contradicts the doctrines of purgatory, immaculate conception, papal succession, or sacramental baptism, just to mention a few.
If you do not accept the teaching of the Catholic Church, then you are to be commended for your integrity in not submitting to it. You wrote that “All who trust in Jesus as Saviour and Lord are members of Christ’s Church (the non-physical, universal church), not the Church of Rome”. This is NOT a Scriptural claim. According to scripture (Matthew 16:18) the Lord Jesus Christ said “I will build my Church”, and I believe that this Church that Christ built has been just as physically present as the Lord Jesus Christ for 2000 years. There is no such thing as “an invisible Church” because a body is a visible empirical reality. It’s OK to say (if you don’t believe it), that the Roman Catholic Church is not the Body of Christ. But you have to admit that it is biblical truth that “a divinely authorized body of Christ” exists.
I would like to issue a challenge to you Shane, because I respect your integrity. There are certain words that we as Christians automatically have negative connotations of. The words (sin, Satan, Lucifer, Pharisee, hypocrisy, hell, etc) we assign from Scripture and doctrine a negative connotation; we automatically think “that’s bad”. Try to remove the word Catholic from that list of words (note: you don’t have to think it’s a good thing or be happy about the word); but I challenge you to remain neutral on that word, because you learned the negative connotation from men (as I did) and not from the bible.
“It is impossible to be just to the Catholic Church. The moment men cease to pull against it they feel a tug towards it. The moment they cease to shout it down they begin to listen to it with pleasure. The moment they try to be fair to it they begin to be fond of it. But when that affection has passed a certain point it begins to take on the tragic and menacing grandeur of a great love affair.” – GK Chesterton
February 27th, 2008 at 11:15 am
AMEN to what Brett said. Anyone who takes the time to actually READ more of Dr. Kreeft than this pulled quote…or listens to any of his numerous lectures available for free download from his site, peterkreeft.com, would find that Dr. Kreeft does, indeed, consider Protestants to be Christians. He probably gives as many lectures to groups of Protestants as he does to groups of Catholics, if not more. He is a Catholic convert, having been a Protestant until he began reading the Church fathers while a seminary student.
The quote from Dr. Kreeft’s book, “Catholic Christianity”, is directed squarely at those “modern” Catholics who believe they can pick and choose from the Church’s teachings, and embrace things they like while rejecting parts of Church teaching they don’t like (regarding contraception and abortion, for example).
So, if you don’t believe the Catholic Church has apostolic teaching authority given to it by Christ Himself, then you aren’t a Catholic. It’s as simple as that.
This brings to mind the interesting position that Protestants find themselves in when they simultaneously state that they believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God AND that the Catholic Church…from which the official list of what writings make up that Bible came…is the epitome of error. But that’s another discussion.
Finally, thanks to Brett for posting the Chesterton quote. It’s a good summary of my own journey from Protestantism to Catholicism a few years ago. I wasn’t searching for anything and was quite content attending that community church. However, God caused me to fall in love with the Holy Catholic Church and with Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist…at a time when I knew next to nothing about it. I didn’t deserve His intervention into my life and the faith He planted within me, but I am eternally grateful!