Friday 26 October 2007

Converting to lovin' Jesus

How real is a conversion to Christianity? And I'm not talking about us Catholics, 'cause with our year-long Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (a process through which interested adults are gradually introduced to the Roman Catholic faith and way of life) with its numerous liturgical rites, anyone undergoing it faithfully has got to be ready to be a practising Catholic. I'm talking about door-to-door baptisms and email asking people to say a prayer to Jesus as a way to become a Christian. Before I continue, I must stress that whether a person accepts, loves and fully trusts Jesus is between that person and Jesus, not matter how he/she was baptised. After all, the Bible (1 John 2:27) states that "Now as for you, the anointing that you received from him resides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, it is true and is not a lie. Just as it has taught you, you reside in him." And the Holy Spirit is 110% capable of teaching anyone to accept, love and fully trust in Jesus all on His own.
But let's get back to the impromptu-baptism business. Can we seriously expect people who received minutes of sales talk about Jesus to be ready to accept Him? Especially if they have been inculcated with beliefs contrary to properly accepting, loving and trusting in Jesus? If even priests with their years of inculcation to fall away from Jesus, what about the aforementioned people? Baptising these people without proper follow-up and inculcation into Christianity is only going to damn them. So for those door-to-door baptisers: are you ready to be responsible for the state of the souls of those you baptise? To stand before the Lord on Judgement Day and tell him that no soul you baptised was lost due to your ignorance and/or negligence? If you are, well and good. Do continue your good work. If not, you know what to do.

Questions, questions...

1) Why did God allow many Christian denominations? Are they equally valid? How true are they to Jesus' teachings? Does it matter?

2) Why are Catholics forced to defend their faith against cartain Protestants? Why are there no Protestants defending their faith against Catholics? Why is it that with so much material out there defending Catholicism Protestant still accuse Catholics of being non-Christian?

3) Why would anyone choose to say no to Jesus' love? Is there any alternatives to this love offered by other faiths and philosophies?