Why should you believe in God and the Catholic Faith?
- Nicholas Lim
- Oct 31, 2022
- 16 min read
Based on history, what is the most important event that has ever happened in the world, which has had the greatest impact on other events and has influenced the lives of the greatest number of people?
To answer this question, some people would choose the formation of the great empires of the world. Some of the great empires which are well known are that of Egypt, Babylon, Persia and Rome. But can they be the most important thing that has ever happened? They influenced many people at the time they existed, but nothing remains of them now but monuments that a tourist might visit. They all collapsed or were conquered and no longer influence history.
Others may consider a great general or great ruler, like: Alexander the Great, who conquered an empire against greater odds than any other conqueror ever has; Augustus Caesar, who ruled the huge Roman Empire during a time of peace and prosperity; or Napoleon of France, who dominated Europe for many years. Even after these men died, events were still influenced for a time by the things they had done. But where are any of them now? Their empires are gone and they no longer influence history.
So to find the most important event in the history of the world, we must find an event that had a great influence at the time it occurred, that is still influencing history at the present time, and that even made a difference in history before it occurred. There is only one event that meets all of these requirements. That event is what Christians call the Incarnation: the birth, life, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, who was both God and man.
You will probably think that any discussion of Jesus belongs in a religious book, not in a history book. But Jesus was not only a religious figure, He was a historical figure as well. The Roman historian Tacitus writes about Jesus in his history. The Jewish historian Josephus discusses what Jesus did.
But even more, we cannot really understand the history of the world unless we look at it from the standpoint of the Incarnation. Of all the nations that existed before the Incarnation, only one still exists today: the Jewish nation, the people who prepared the world for the coming of Jesus Christ. Other nations which existed at that time have no effect on the way things are now.
Historians use a dating system which is divided into two parts: B.C. and A.D. B.C stands for Before Christ; A.D. stands for Anno Domini, which is Latin which stands for “Year of Our Lord” referring to the years since the birth of Christ. Here is further evidence of our earlier conclusion that the most important historical event that has ever happened is the Incarnation; even our dating system is based on it.
The Bible is history. There is a great deal of history in it. Many people would not think of the Bible as history, but it records God’s actions in history from the earliest days up to the founding of the Church.
There are also some people who say that the Bible contains very few historical facts but is mainly a collection of stories which didn’t really happen. There is little excuse for this argument, however, because archaeological excavations in the Biblical lands and studies of the documents of nations which existed during Biblical times have confirmed the Bible at all important points."
Extracted from the book : Christ The King Lord Of History
God’s Existence and Perfection.
St. Thomas Aquinas, building on Aristotle’s writings, demonstrated God’s existence by using reason. The Catechism states, “Man’s [intellectual] faculties make him capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a personal God”. St. Paul echoes this in Romans 1:19-20. Aquinas’ Five Proofs and other arguments provide solid explanations for God’s existence.
Additionally, God is all-powerful and all-knowing, and He is eternal by way of His essential perfection – perfect knowledge, perfect power, and perfection of all His other attributes (inherent qualities). The Summa Theologiae, Questions 1-21, provides a more detailed explanation of God’s attributes.
"God is a supreme Spirit, who alone exists of Himself, and is infinite in all perfections.” It means God is the highest and greatest spirit.
He alone was never created; He has always existed and it is His very nature to exist.
His perfections are absolutely without limit of any sort; He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-holy, all-merciful, all-just and so on.
God is called Almighty because He can do all things. “With God all things are possible” (Matt. Xix.26)
But God cannot do what is against reason e.g. make a square circle.
Nor can he commit sin; to sin would be against His very nature since He is by nature all-holy.
He is divine, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, He is Omnipotent - God is all-powerful - everything consistent with God's nature is possible; is Omniscience - God is all-knowing, of past, present and future; is Omnibenevolence (unlimited goodness) - God is all-good/all-loving; and Omnipresence - God is present everywhere.
When God made man, Adam and Eve, they were made perfect and pure without sin, not only their bodies but their souls too.
Due to Original Sin (the sin of Adam and Eve), it left in all our souls a stain; with this stain our souls cannot enter heaven. It is because God is pure spirit therefore heaven where He dwells is also pure and nothing impure can enter it.
Jesus commanded, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Mt 5:48).
Adam and Eve were driven out of Paradise after they have sinned and Paradise was closed to man - the gates of heaven were closed to man.
The soul is the animating principle that makes us what we are. We are finite beings who will live forever because of our souls. The soul is the form that guarantees the continuity between this life and the next. Otherwise, when we “lose” our lives, we just lose them. Nothing more is to be said. The whole drama of what our being really is no longer has any grounding.
God made us out of love and for a purpose. He didn’t make us just to live a life on earth and then die and that’s it? Then what about Jesus coming to die for us such a terrible death to atone for man’s sins? Why do that if man do not posses a soul which can sin? But that our souls can merit heaven, through the precious blood of Jesus, as God out of love wants us to be with Him. Does not the story of the prodigal son show the love of a father for his son?
It is logical because it indicates that God never intended man to die in the first place. Death, as Pope Benedict remarked in Spe Salvi (saved in hope), is both a blessing and a punishment in our present condition. It is a blessing because to live on and on and on in this world is a hell. It is a punishment, but a punishment in line with God’s original purpose in creating us, to associate us in His Trinitarian* life as the whole beings He created in the first place.
Yes, “What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his immortal soul?” The answer is: It profiteth him not at all. The very posing of this question witnesses our dignity. We do not choose to come into existence. We do not choose to be what we are. But we do have to choose to be what we were intended to be. No one else can do it for us.
God made man out of love for us. It is out of this love, knowing that after Original Sin, man will not be able to enter heaven therefore in His mercy, he sent Jesus His only Son to be sacrificed on the cross in order that His precious blood is shed to atone for the sins of man. God is infinite and Jesus being also God is infinite therefore His sacrifice was made sufficient to redeem man (finite creature of God) from their sins. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross provided the perfect atoning sacrifice for the sin of all humanity. We were ransomed by the price of His precious blood; thus making the cross one of the defining symbols of Christianity. Jesus’ sacrificial death is the ultimate expression of God’s love.
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his only son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Humans Are Designed for Truth.
Taking these attributes into account, we can conclude that God knows us eternally and that we cannot exist (with all our attributes) without His eternal knowledge and power. Therefore, humans did not begin to exist by chance, and our ability to think rationally (i.e. conceptually, as to a purpose) is not random. Rather, God created us with a nature designed to learn truth, love truth, and share truth. By observing our human nature, we can conclude that we are made for these things.
Why was there blood sacrifices to God in ancient times?
The sacrifices involving blood in the Old Testament, the blood symbolically represented life. It is the life (blood) of the victim that is the source of the atonement, which, of course, brings the hope of the sinner's union with holy God.
Humanity aware of its sinfulness needed to appease God and begged for mercy. Since the time of Cain and Abel were sacrifices made.
The Israelites needed a system that could turn them away from sin, pay their sin “debt,” cleanse and purify the community and the temple from sin, and allow them to stay in God's presence. That brings us to the practice of animal sacrifice introduced in Leviticus.
The whole of the Old Testament, every book, points toward the Great Sacrifice that was to come—that of Jesus’ sacrificial giving of His own life on our behalf. Leviticus 17:11 is the Old Testament’s central statement about the significance of blood in the sacrificial system. God, speaking to Moses, declares: “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”
A “sacrifice” is defined as the offering up of something precious for a cause or a reason. Making atonement is satisfying someone or something for an offense committed. The Leviticus verse can be read more clearly now: God said, “I have given it to you (the creature’s life, which is in its blood) to make atonement for yourselves (covering the offense you have committed against Me).” In other words, those who are covered by the blood sacrifice are set free from the consequences of sin.
All these blood sacrifices were a precursor of Jesus Bloody sacrifice on the Cross for us.
Hebrews 9:11-18 confirms the symbolism of blood as life and applies Leviticus 17:11 to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 12 states clearly that the Old Testament blood sacrifices were temporary and only atoned for sin partially and for a short time, hence the need to repeat the sacrifices yearly. But when Christ entered the Most Holy Place, He did so to offer His own blood once for all time, making future sacrifices unnecessary. This is what Jesus meant by His dying words on the cross: “It is finished” (John 19:30). Never again would the blood of bulls and goats cleanse men from their sin. Only by accepting Jesus’ blood, shed on the cross for the remission of sins, can we stand before God covered in the righteousness of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Purpose of Religion - Oxford Scholarship Online.
What is the main purpose of religion?
The purposes of the practice of a religion are to achieve the goals of salvation for oneself and others, and (if there is a God) to render due worship and obedience to God. Different religions have different understandings of salvation and God.
How do we know if God exists?
As mentioned earlier, evidence for God's existence is widely available through creation, conscience, rationality and human experience.
Can a person be good without God?
What God says to be right and wrong is steadfast, and without his direction humans would not have a foundation. It is possible to be good without believing in God, but we could not have morals if God did not exist.
Can we be moral without God?
It is simply impossible for people to be moral without religion or God.
How very much God loves us:
Scripture tells us in 1 John 3:1: How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God, and that is what we are! Romans 8 says that nothing, not death, life, nor circumstances, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. 1 John 4:16
God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
What is love?
1 Corinthians 13:4–8a (ESV) Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
God has great love for man. This love which is so real, made God send his son to redeem man after the fall of man into sin.
Why does God love us so much?
God loves you, not because of who you are or what you've done. God loves you because of who he is. God's very being is love.
When we doubt God's love for us, it's inevitably because we're taking our eyes off him and focusing on ourselves — our insecurities, shortcomings, sins and insignificance.
When filled with God's love, we can do and see and understand things that we could not otherwise do or see or understand. Filled with His love, we can endure pain, quell fear, forgive freely, avoid contention, renew strength, and bless and help others in ways surprising even to us.
1 Peter 4:8: Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
Ephesians 5:21: Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
1 John 4:8: Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. Corinthians 13:13: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. What God teaches us about love?
Jesus himself said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. ' ” (Matthew 22:37-39, ESV)
To “love the Lord thy God with all thy mind” is done when our thoughts dwell on Him; and His holiness, and goodness, and love, and mercy, and beauty… Then we reply to His perfection with prayer, praise, perhaps a song, and worship “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23).
No matter what you do and no matter what happens to you, God loves you. He proved it by sending his son to pay for our sins. If we accept God's gift of Jesus Christ, nothing is too much for us to overcome.
A good priest once told me that God loves us so much that even if you were the only one on earth, He would still send His only son, Jesus, to die the horrible and ignominious death on the cross for you.
John 15:13: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
The Latin phrase extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (meaning "outside the Church [there is] no salvation" or "no salvation outside the Church") is a phrase referring to a Christian doctrine about who is to receive salvation.
The original phrase, "Salus extra ecclesiam non est" ("there is no salvation out of the Church"), comes from Letter LXXII of St. Cyprian of Carthage (died 258).
Saint Cyprian says: "He who has not the Church for his mother cannot have God for his Father." And with him the Fathers of the Church in general say that, "as all those who were not in the ark of Noah perished in the waters of the deluge, so shall perish all who are out of the true Church."
The expression comes from the writings of Saint Cyprian of Carthage, a Christian bishop of the 3rd century. The phrase is an axiom often used as shorthand for the doctrine that the Church is necessary for salvation. It is a dogma in the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, in reference to their own communions.
For others, the theological basis for this doctrine is founded on the beliefs that Jesus Christ personally established the one Church, and that the Church serves as the means by which the graces won by Christ are communicated to believers.
The 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church explained this as "all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is His Body." The Catholic Church also teaches that the doctrine does not mean that everyone who is not visibly within the Church is necessarily damned in case of inculpable ignorance.
Only God is the final judge on who is saved and in His mercy, if there are souls who are saved, it is because of the Catholic Church.
One of the most misconstrued teachings of the Church, and the cause for many discussions, is this phrase “outside the Church there is no salvation.” In other words, all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body.
While true, it is important to note that this is “not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church.” Indeed, if these people seek God with a sincere heart, and try, in their actions to do his will as they know it, they may also attain heaven.
Only God is the final judge on who is saved and in His mercy, if there are souls who are saved, it is because of the Catholic Church.
The doctrine is based largely on Mark 16:15-16:
He said to them, "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned."
Justin Martyr:
“Those who act pleasing to God, while not "being" Christian are yet in some sense "in" Christ the Logos.
...Each one, ... shall be saved by his own righteousness, ... those who regulated their lives by the law of Moses would in like manner be saved. ...Since those who did that which is universally, naturally, and eternally good are pleasing to God, they shall be saved through this Christ in the resurrection equally with those righteous men who were before them, namely Noah, and Enoch, and Jacob, and whoever else there be, along with those who have known this Christ.”
St. Jerome wrote: "This is the ark of Noah, and he who is not found in it shall perish when the flood prevails." Bede continues this theme: "And according to this sense the ark is manifestly the Church, Noah the Lord who builds the Church."
All those who wish to be saved, must die united to the Catholic Church. For out of her there is no salvation, because only she teaches what Jesus Christ requires of everyone to be saved, and because only to her did Christ leave the means to obtain all the graces necessary for salvation. Hence Jesus said to His Apostles and to all their lawful successors: "Go and teach all nations: teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. He that believeth not all these things shall be condemned."
Our Divine Savior says: "No one can come to the Father, except through Me."If we then wish to enter heaven, we must be united to Christ - to His [Mystical] Body, which is the Church, as Saint Paul says. Therefore outside the Church there is no salvation.
Again, Jesus Christ says: "Who-ever will not hear the Church, look upon him as a heathen and a publican," a great sinner. Therefore outside the Church there is no salvation.
Holy Scripture says: "The Lord added daily to the Church such as should be saved." (Acts 2:47.) Therefore the Apostles believed and the Holy Scriptures teach that there is no salvation out of the Church.
What did Saint Augustine and the other Bishops of Africa, at the Council of Zirta, in 412, say about the salvation of those who die outside the Roman Catholic Church?
"Whosoever," they said, is separated from the Catholic Church, however commendable in his own opinion his life may be, he shall for the very reason that he is separated from the union of Christ not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36.)..
Many people these days think that after they die they are buried and that’s it. To them it’s about making the best of their lives when they are still alive.
As it has been shown that we were made with souls in our bodies, and a soul is a spirit; we can't say that when we die, our body gets buried and that's it. Then where does the soul go to? It cannot be that the soul just roams aimlessly after death, it doesn't make sense as God creates things for a purpose.
Why did God create us in the first place? Out of love, God created us for himself, for nothing less than to know, love, serve and enjoy Him — now and forever in heaven.
Through sin, however, we’ve rebelled against God and rejected His friendship. As a result, His likeness in us (our souls) has been marred (stain of sin), and we’ve separated ourselves from Him. Since He’s the Source of all that’s good, such separation can lead only to misery in both this life and the next.
Because God loved us so much, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to save us from such a terrible fate. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus offer us, through the forgiveness of our sins, escape from eternal punishment.
But that’s not all. He also reconciles us to God, opening the door to a full restoration of our friendship with Him in heaven.
Baptism – Is it a Necessity for Salvation?
Baptism of Water.
All who who have heard the Gospel, and who have had the possibility of asking for baptism, need to be baptized in order to attain salvation. Jesus affirms the necessity of this sacrament saying, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit” (John 3:5). However, our God is a merciful and loving God. While he has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, God is not bound by his sacraments.
Baptism of Blood.
The Church has always taught that those who die for the sake of the faith, before they have received the sacrament of Baptism, are baptized by their death for and with Christ. This Baptism of blood brings about the fruits of Baptism without being a sacrament. Thus, salvation may be attained.
Baptism of Desire.
Similarly to a Baptism of blood, the desire for baptism, while not a sacrament, also brings about the fruits of Baptism. An individual who were to die before being baptized, but had expressed a clear desire to receive this sacrament, and repented for his/her sins, would be assured salvation.
God’s Mercy and Our Mission
We must always remember the great mercy of God. Jesus died for every single person, salvation is meant for everyone. The Holy Spirit offers every person, in a way known only to God, the possibility of being made partakers of the Paschal mystery (Lumen Gentium, 16). “Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved”.
Many people these days think that after they die they are buried and that’s it. To them it’s about making the best of their lives when they are still alive.
As it has been shown that we were made with souls in our bodies, and a soul is a spirit; we can't say that when we die, our body gets buried and that's it. Then where does the soul go to? It cannot be that the soul just roams aimlessly after death, it doesn't make sense as God creates things for a purpose; and the purpose of giving you a soul is to be able to be with Him in heaven. Jesus’ death on the cross is to make it possible for souls to merit heaven; through His Church and Sacraments.
May you be docile and accept this special grace from God who wants you to be His child and believe. May we live a life filled with the hope of heaven!
May God bless you and keep you.
Glossary:
* What is Trinitarian life?
The three Persons of the Trinity are relational to one another in two internal divine processions: The Father eternally generates the Son, and the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son. (CCC 254) The one Godhead is an inter-relational Being of three Persons. In short, God is a family.
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