Why do Catholics go to confession? Why involve a priest? I can go directly to God.
Where in scripture does it say that?
OT: Leviticus 5 - priest as instrument
NT: John 20:23 - sins forgive, forgiven, retain = retained.
Counters:
Why do you go to a doctor and not pray? God working through human instruments.
Conclude:
You can go directly to God, but that’s your way. Catholics choose Christ’s way.
Praying to Saints/Mary? Why not pray to Christ himself?
We do. Have you ever offered to pray for someone? Why?
Faith is meant to be shared communally.
We recognize saints and Mary as living holy lives, now in community with Christ in heaven. Asking them to intercede is no different than you asking your mom to pray for you. Arguably better because of their place in heaven.
Why do you worship Mary? Statues? Prayers? Naming churches?
Cheap: taking normal human tradition and making Catholics the bad guys.
Go to Washington DC - statues: Abe Lincoln, GW, Thomas Jefferson… do we worship them?
If you name your child after your grandmother - are you worshipping her?
Fundamental misunderstanding of what the mass is. It is purely and totally worship of Christ and the sacrifice of the cross and being in communion with him - along with all the saints in heaven.
Baptism: baby doesn’t know God. Should wait til they understand.
Challenge: is Baptism something we do for God or God does for us?
Challenge: Is it symbolic or saving?
It’s something God offers to us - “baptism now saves you” as a way to provision us with his Grace. Every time he creates something new - water and spirit. Dozen examples of this. 4 in Gospel of John alone.
- Genesis 1 “spirit over water = creation”
- Genesis 6-9 Noah “dove + flood”
- Exodus 14 “spirit (cloud) led Israel through water (Red Sea)
- Joshua 3 Crossing Jordan, Ark stops water
- Ezekiel 36: Prophecy of new cleansing “sprinkle clean water… put my spirit within you”
- Gospel “Jesus’ baptism” came up from water and spirit descended
- John 3: Jesus + Nicodemus - born of water and spirit cannot enter kingdom of God
- John 4:10 Living Water - drinks water I give said about the spirit
- John 19: Piercing Christs side - water = baptism, blood = Eucharist new life thru spirit
- Titus 3:5 “saved by washing and renewal in Holy Spirit”
- 1 John 5:6-8 “Came by water and blood”
- Revelation 22:1 water of life, lamb of God.
Baptism & Eucharist as Symbolic.
Substance & Material are different. Substance = deepest reality of a thing. Do you believe in a soul? It doesn’t show in an autopsy.
If you insist on what is physically perceivable as real, then doesn’t that highlight the weakness of your faith as well as make materialism your theology?
This is not an easy thing. We are meant to wrestle with our faith because it shows we care. But by diminishing, reduction and comically asserting that a core claim is a joke - I can’t believe you would even flirt with that territory given the topic here is whether a thing is truly Christ or not.
Sola Scriptura
Circular reasoning. It is an interpretation that presupposes an interpretive authority that they cannot ground.
Roman Council Inconsistency.
1) Councils don’t invent doctrine, they clarify it. Scientists don’t change gravity by clarifying.
2) Nicaea, Chalcedon, Constantinople defined incarnation and trinity. Who’s cherry picking now?
Transubstantiation
Do you believe Jesus Christ was true God and true man? No = Nestorianism, 400AD.
“In the Incarnation, Christ’s divinity is veiled beneath His humanity — truly God, truly man.
In the Eucharist, Christ’s divinity and humanity are veiled beneath the appearance of bread and wine.
In both cases, what our senses perceive is not the full truth of what’s present.”
. And that was hard to believe then. Why would you believe in a man claiming to be the Christ when you clearly have such a difficult time recognizing the 2 natures of the Eucharist?
