We do not know the exact temperature. It’s hard to tell an exact color. We’re not really sure what time it is. Sea level is almost impossible to find with exact precision. Things are always changing in dimension.
There is one fact: For over a thousand years, one group of people was chosen to write down and preserve things said by those they called “Prophets”. The Prophets made several hundred predictions. A few hundred of them concerned a baby who would be born of a virgin, of the House of David, in Bethlehem. When grown, that child would be lifted up before men, no bone of his would be broken, and he would die a painful death, details of which were also predicted.
After His death, the Prophets said He would be raised from the dead.
The Prophets predicted Jesus Christ. We know that His life fulfilled the Prophets’ predictions in detail so great as to be beyond coincidence or fraud. Later, sheets of copper in the Dead Sea Schools would be found with engraved chapters validating the parchment/vellum records.
So, while we don’t know what temperature it is, or what time it is, or how much we actually weigh, we do know that Jesus fulfilled the prophecies about Him.
That leads us to a first step. If we do all that Jesus says, we may get to Heaven. Many people believe, but mostly in their own notions about Him. If we obey Jesus, and not our often self-satisfying definitions of Him and His rules, we run across two passages that are “Keys to Heaven”.
The First Passage. Mt. 16: 18-20 “And I tell you that you are Peter,[a] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[c] bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[d] loosed in Heaven.”
That first instruction tells us that ordained priests in Peter’s Church will be able to forgive sins, thereby letting people into Heaven. Jesus did not say that to any other religious leader. So, we must take very seriously the idea that we have to be Catholic to be forgiven and accepted into Heaven.
The Second Passage. Jn 6: 53 “If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood you do not have life in you.” The first time He said that, all but the 12 Apostles left Him. It was a test, by which He separates wheat from weeds. The last thing He did before being taken by earthly enemies was to, at The Last Supper, tell His disciples to provide His Body and Blood to those worthily attending Mass.
It is plain to those who think clearly: Only believers within The Church He Founded on Peter can find forgiveness and that which is necessary to have life. We know many who try to lead us away from The Church He Founded into some man-invented schism, denomination, or group.
It is very foolish not to be Catholic.
