Catholics consider the idea that any living person can be sure of getting into heaven a heresy. Trump isn’t Catholic but he’s still not saying anything theologically controversial here.
That’s not at all a modern American “nondenominational” Protestant attitude though. If you are saved, you are supposed to be assured that you are getting into Heaven.
That’s true, and I think that Trump is actually not a Catholic theologian but rather that he is expressing the view, common among cultural Christians today, that God weighs a person’s good and bad deeds against each other. There’s still the hope for divine forgiveness in this view, but the abandonment of the idea of unearned grace is contrary to the teachings of every Christian denomination, as far as I know.
It’s just odd. Been reading Martin Luther lately and it’s the antithesis to everything he’s saying about faith versus works. And if he was Calvinist, his position in life would be part of being “elect” anyway.
It’s amazing that we have a wannabe theocrat who makes a mockery of the religion that is supposed to be supreme here. Everything’s made up and the points don’t matter.
I wouldn’t say that Trump is interested in being a theocrat - his movement pays lip service to Christianity as part of its nostalgic fantasy of America the way that it used to be, but the actual Christian conservative movement has been sidelined within the Republican party since 2016 (if not earlier). Trump and his inner circle care about Christianity only to the extent that it is a label that divides “us” from “them”.
Confession is not permanent, in the sense that it does not absolve the penitent of future sin. That’s one reason why last rites are important.
CANON XVI.-If any one saith, that he will for certain, of an absolute and infallible certainty, have that great gift of perseverance unto the end,-unless he have learned this by special revelation; let him be anathema.
Here’s a question for the Catholics out there: does absolution work if you aren’t really penitent? If you don’t even understand why what you’re confessing is wrong, can you really be sorry?
I was raised Lutheran, and it was always clear in that church that all that mattered was what was in your heart. No one could act as intercessor between you and God. You couldn’t scam your way out of judgement.
if your confessing you must see it as wrong in some way. keep in mind non general christians see general christian doctrine as you can be the worst possible piece of shit ever second of every day of your life but accept jesus in the last second before death and its all good.
IIRC there are prescribed acts you can do that should be a form of penitence - that whole “Say 10 Hail Mary’s and don’t call Satan in the morning” thing. It feels a little akin to a kid, caught doing something bad to their neighbour’s property by mom, getting dragged to the neighbour’s door to apologize. There’s a good chance they are apologizing without actually feeling penitent, but once the conditions of the punishment are carried out, they are in a sense free to go.
Like with the above, I think the idea is that you should truly feel penitent and these acts are an honest expression of that. But if we take a look at the history of the Catholic Church I’m not convinced that wasn’t put to the wayside a long time ago (see the trade of plenary indulgences in the middle ages).
Second the request any comments from ex- or current Catholics though, this is just my impression from the outside/watching a lapsed Catholic grapple with their faith.
Catholics consider the idea that any living person can be sure of getting into heaven a heresy. Trump isn’t Catholic but he’s still not saying anything theologically controversial here.
That’s not at all a modern American “nondenominational” Protestant attitude though. If you are saved, you are supposed to be assured that you are getting into Heaven.
That’s true, and I think that Trump is actually not a Catholic theologian but rather that he is expressing the view, common among cultural Christians today, that God weighs a person’s good and bad deeds against each other. There’s still the hope for divine forgiveness in this view, but the abandonment of the idea of unearned grace is contrary to the teachings of every Christian denomination, as far as I know.
It’s just odd. Been reading Martin Luther lately and it’s the antithesis to everything he’s saying about faith versus works. And if he was Calvinist, his position in life would be part of being “elect” anyway.
It’s amazing that we have a wannabe theocrat who makes a mockery of the religion that is supposed to be supreme here. Everything’s made up and the points don’t matter.
I wouldn’t say that Trump is interested in being a theocrat - his movement pays lip service to Christianity as part of its nostalgic fantasy of America the way that it used to be, but the actual Christian conservative movement has been sidelined within the Republican party since 2016 (if not earlier). Trump and his inner circle care about Christianity only to the extent that it is a label that divides “us” from “them”.
Yeah because reconciliation isn’t a thing or anything …
Confession is not permanent, in the sense that it does not absolve the penitent of future sin. That’s one reason why last rites are important.
Here’s a question for the Catholics out there: does absolution work if you aren’t really penitent? If you don’t even understand why what you’re confessing is wrong, can you really be sorry?
I was raised Lutheran, and it was always clear in that church that all that mattered was what was in your heart. No one could act as intercessor between you and God. You couldn’t scam your way out of judgement.
if your confessing you must see it as wrong in some way. keep in mind non general christians see general christian doctrine as you can be the worst possible piece of shit ever second of every day of your life but accept jesus in the last second before death and its all good.
IIRC there are prescribed acts you can do that should be a form of penitence - that whole “Say 10 Hail Mary’s and don’t call Satan in the morning” thing. It feels a little akin to a kid, caught doing something bad to their neighbour’s property by mom, getting dragged to the neighbour’s door to apologize. There’s a good chance they are apologizing without actually feeling penitent, but once the conditions of the punishment are carried out, they are in a sense free to go.
Like with the above, I think the idea is that you should truly feel penitent and these acts are an honest expression of that. But if we take a look at the history of the Catholic Church I’m not convinced that wasn’t put to the wayside a long time ago (see the trade of plenary indulgences in the middle ages).
Second the request any comments from ex- or current Catholics though, this is just my impression from the outside/watching a lapsed Catholic grapple with their faith.