Catholics understand The Big Movie. Its huge, complicated set was downloaded out of 3-D pixels to separate sheep from goats in every generation. His obedient sheep follow simple directions that begin with: “Thou shall have no other gods before Me.”
The Good Shepherd was born of Mary in the prophesied place, time, tribe, and family. He Who Fulfilled The Prophecies said clearly to the ages: “Verily, verily I say unto you thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you The Keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.”
Obedient sheep respect Jesus enough to be in The Only Church He Founded.
Others choose the crippling contradiction: “I believe in Jesus and The Bible, but on some issues, I choose to believe that Jesus was speaking symbolically.”
Catholics strive to save such souls. “Please! Consider His words to one man about One Church. He did not say ‘Verily, verily I say unto you thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.’ to anyone else. We may obey by being Catholic.”
Pride keeps Protestants from accepting that. “I can get to Heaven by following Pastor Bob.” Others are proud to let us know: “I am not in any denomination. I am a good person. I will get to Heaven my own way.”
We must remind them that Jesus repeated His clear call to Catholic Communion an amazing 14 times: “If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood you do not have life in you.”
They avoid that with their usual: “Jesus was speaking symbolically.” Every time Catholics point out that Protestants disagree with Jesus, they respond: “Jesus was speaking symbolically.”
Catholics point to the awful cost of avoiding obedience. John 3:36 is clear: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
It is hard to avoid that by saying “That is symbolic, too.”, but that’s what Protestants do.
Catholics understand The Big Movie. We follow The Director’s directions. We pray that all will do so.
