The RCC presents a MESS - a fuzzy, muddy, entangled, confusing MESS on what should be the clearest proclamation for Christians (as Paul and Silas did).
The reason for the MESS, this confused, twisted, entangled, knotty MESS the RCC presents is that it AT BEST confuses Law and Gospel, justification and sanctification (narrow sense, both) - or often, just forgets the Gospel entirely and justification wholly. It ends up with a MESS that seems far far closer to Judaism and Islam and some forms of Hinduism where God makes salvation possible, God empowers us, but we save ourselves in a slow, processive, synergistic, insecure process. Or what all my Catholic teachers taught me: "God HELPS those who help themselves." "God opened the door to heaven but you gotta get yourself through it."
I hope this helps:
There are TWO DIFFERENT issue here: Justification and Sanctification (narrow sense, both).
Let me use this analogy:
FIRST: On January 23, 1988, I was born. I was GIVEN life - the miracle, the wonderful, mysterious GIFT of life (we might agree that actually happened about 9 months earlier, but let's proceed). At that point, I became alive. I became a human being - with all that means, biologically and spiritually, all that means in terms of God and me. GIFT. G.I.F.T. This purely, solely, only, exclusively by mercy since prior to that, I did NOTHING. I thought nothing. I willed nothing. I sought nothing. I desired nothing. NO good works. GIFT. G.I.F.T. Mercy. M.E.R.C.Y. On January 23, 1988 - I was removed from my mother (C-Section) - unbreathing, unconscience - I had NOTHING to do with it. NOTHING. N.O.T.H.I.N.G. Gift. Mercy. No merits. No works. No will. Nothing in or from me. GIFT. MERCY. Someone ELSE is to be credited. Entirely. Wholly. Completely. MONERGISTIC. Life is mine - by grace, by mercy, from God, as a GIFT. I am a human being, with all that means - by grace, by mercy, from God, as a GIFT.
In the same way, God saved me (what Protestants mean here is justification - narrow sense). God GAVE me spiritual life, God caused me to be born AGAIN, now not only with physical life but with spiritual life, now I am not only the child of my parents but a child of God. This CHANGES my relationship to God, as a result solely, only, exclusively because of God's mercy, grace, favor; solely, only, exclusively because of what CHRIST has done as THE Savior; solely, only, exclusively because God GAVE me the GIFT of faith in Christ as my Savior: Sola Gratia - Solus Christus - Sola Fide. You know, the worst heresy ever, what Luther was excommunicated for, the view the RCC decided to split Christianity over. We believe this is MONERGISTIC, because CHRIST is the Savior - not me, not you, not the Pope, not Mary, not the RC Denomination. I'm NOT the Savior - in whole or in part - because the job is taken and He didn't blow it. What makes me a CHRISTIAN is that God's merciful, gracious, undeserved, unmerited, free GIFT of faith means I'm looking to CHRIST as THE Savior, not in the mirror as all my Catholic teachers taught me to do, many Catholic sermons taught me to do, as Catholics keep telling us we must do.
This, of course, we are told CONSTANTLY by Catholics is heresy, the antithesis of what the Bible says, condemned by every Christian who lived before 1517. As one of my Catholic teachers told me, "the greatest heresy ever." Luther was excommunicated for this. The RC Denomination split itself so as to anathmatize this. It is what Catholics constantly repudiate, even call "satanic" and "of the devil."
SECOND: Almost immediately after being born (well, maybe some months later, lol), my parents, my society and yes God called me to GROW. To mature. To become more loving, more caring, more righteous, more ethical. Not more human, but more mature. THIS completely OTHER subject is a process (unlike my conception). THIS entirely other subject is synergistic (unlike conception). GROWING to be more God like. GROWING in the directions that my parents, my society, my God call me: "Thou shalt be HOLY just as the Lord God is holy." "Thou shalt be PERFECT just as your Father in Heaven is perfect." "LOVE in exactly the same way as Christ loved us on the Cross." High callings! I'm not "there" yet. I'm still GROWING (well, I'd LIKE to say always growing..... sometimes I'm not, sometimes I even retreat). And I do so in large part because of God's EMPOWERING, not due to some innate homo sapian ability. Yes..... in a few cases, the Bible also calls this "grace" but the CONTEXT tells us this is entirely different, here it means "strength" or "empowering" in this context. It is still ours by mercy (we don't DESIRE anything from Him), but here it means strength. This growing up, this discipleship, this CHRISTIAN-walk is something a CHRISTIAN does, not something that makes one a Christian; it is the RESULT of justification not the cause. My being nice to my neighbor is not what causes me to have physical life, having physical life enables me to be nice to my neighbor. What I do as a growing, maturing, developing man is not what makes me a homo sapien nor worthy of being given life.
It is NOT a case of SELF somehow taping into the "gas" God gives in order to slowly "save" self in a SYNERGISTIC process - almost never complete in one lifetime and so (as in Hinduism) more time is supplied to finish the job, salvation being a JOINT EFFORT: Jesus doing what He can (perhaps) but it's insuffient, inadequate, He fails as a Savior - so we come to the rescue to help save Him from being a failure by supplying what He could not: Jesus does what He could (but it's inadequate, a failure) so WE help Him but adding the really important part, the part that actually results in our salvation (albeit we won't get the job done before we die - thus the RCC now gives us Purgatory). In the view of Protestants, AT THE VERY LEAST, modern Catholicism is confusing DIFFERENT ISSUES: man and God, law and gospel, sancatification and justification - leading to the Christless, Crossless, Bloodless, merciless religion we hear as constant din from them; nearly indistingishable from Judaism and Islam, all boasting of SELF. Yes, I know, a tiny few Catholics like to point out, we get HELP. HELP is the closest Catholics ever get to any "gospel." Of course, this is A point Jews and Muslims ALWAYS point out, always stress - but only a few Catholics do, and then usually only if pressured into it. But God HELPING us gain life is not the same as God GIVING us life. What I see is actually not a blending or confusing or entangling different issues, but the actual ABANDONMENT - entirely - of grace, mercy, Christ, the Cross, the Blood, in spite of such talk. The Gospel has simply been .... abandoned. What is left is just the growing part, the walk part, the maturing part. Christ AS SAVIOR has been lost (the key point of CHRISTianity!), all that is left is the Jewish, Muslim, Hindu point of getting closer to heaven each day by what WE do - with the HELP of God.
You CANNOT agree with me and remain a Catholic because Catholicism excommunicated Luther over this, declares Sola Gratia - Solus Christus - Sola Fide to be the worse heresy over. It likes Islam, the Pope kissed the Koran (which agrees with Catholicism on this point of we save ourselves - with divine help) but Protestants on this point are the worse heretics ever, Catholicism insists, Catholics proclaim.
As I have OFTEN stated, for years now, it is MY OPINION that IN SPITE OF the entangled mess the RCC now teaches, the Gospel has not been killed. Because of the verbatim reading of Scripture..... because of the gospel proclaimed in the liturgy and often in hymns (Often Protestant hymns!), because the ancient festivals continue..... Because God's Word does not return to Him void IN SPITE OF the mess Catholicism presents, Catholics STILL have some concept (however buried) of Christ as SAVIOR. IF..... oh what a big and difficult word that is...... IF you can help the Catholic untangle the MESS they've been taught, you can at times find they are actually Christians after all. I believe this to be the case; I believe Catholics generally ARE heaven-bound in spite of their denomination. Sad. Because the one issue a church should be MOST clear on, the MOST distinctively CHRISTian - that's the very doctrine Catholicism is weakest on, so blurry, so confused, so entangled, so NON-distinctively Christian.
I hope this helps.
