Ticket to Hell, Contract with Satan, call it what you will, either way the result is the same. In a sad and somewhat pathetic attempt to rebel against the church and God, masses of disobedient Catholic Britons, now atheists and agnostics, have taken it upon themselves to attempt to "de-baptise" themselves. (I added the red "warning" to the certificate on the left so as to not materially contribute to anyone's eternal damnation.)
Please don't write this off as just some sort of rebellious "phase" or an insignificant act of disobedience. It's so much more than that. It's most certainly a diabolical and very evil act that is extremely and permanently destructive.
What part of "indelible" (permanent) do they not understand? What they're doing isn't removing the sacrament of Baptism by any means. It cannot be removed by any act of man. And besides, once at or past the age of consent they did knowingly and willfully confirm their baptism through the Sacrament of Confirmation!
What they are doing however, through this act of disobedience, is not the shift back into "neutral" that they think it is in giving up all religion and not believing in God or the Church. In this act, they indeed do recognize their Baptism in Christ only then to fully reject it, renounce the Church that Christ founded and all her creeds and reject Christ Himself. Since the church is the Body of Christ, they fully and completely reject God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
What they are doing is blaspheming against the Holy Spirit leaving an equally indelible and unforgivable sin on their souls. They are deceived into being "tied up with atheism and agnosticism" so that evil one who is stronger may enter and plunder their house. Now who might that be?
Let's think about this for a moment. In Baptism, you share in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ into life everlasting. Everyone baptized will enter into heaven, of that there can be no doubt. But remember, that nothing imperfect enters into the kingdom of heaven and into the presence of God.
By remaining obedient, recognizing and accepting responsibility when we are disobedient, confessing our sins and being repentant through regular confession/reconciliation we minimize the amount of unrepentant sins we die with.
So what happens if we die some weeks, months or years after our last confession and reconciliation with God and have some unrepentant sins on our souls? God's mercy provides us with Purgatory where our souls will be purified and our remaining sins will be cleansed. Everyone that enters Purgatory will enter into the Kingdom of heaven! Some of us might be there longer than others - you know who you are!
Where are those who "de-baptize" themselves to go? We know that one cannot enter into the Kingdom of God in a state of sin, that leaves either purgatory or permanent damnation in the eternal fires of hell.
Purgatory is a place where remaining unreconciled sins are cleansed and forgiven before entering heaven. Baptism is conferred through the grace and power of the Holy Spirit so the denying of one's baptism is a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and that rules out Purgatory. There's no point in trying to wash away that which can never be forgiven as Jesus told us in Mark 3:28-29:
"Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin."Sins stain the soul and can be cleansed, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit leaves an irreparable hole and no amount of cleansing can repair that which is no longer there. Since Heaven is out, and Purgatory is out, there's only one place left for those who deny God in their attempts to "de-baptize" themselves; the eternal fires of damnation aka Hell.
If in Baptism we share Jesus Christ's obedience to God, His death and resurrection and life everlasting in Heaven, then those who foolishly attempt to "de-baptise' themselves will most certainly share in the disobedience of Satan and the eternal pain of damnation in the fires of hell. Does that not make Satan the "god" of atheism or agnosticism?
I hope they will realize there is no second chance. "Never have forgiveness" means never. It would be better for them that they were never born.
God's Blessings,
Bob
Hat tip to The Deacon's Bench, The Curt Jester, and Breitbart.com
9 comments:
From http://www.therealpresence.org/cgi-bin/getdefinition.pl:
BLASPHEMY. Speaking against God in a contemptuous, scornful, or abusive manner. Included under blasphemy are offenses committed by thought, word, or action. Serious contemptuous ridicule of the saints, sacred objects, or of persons consecrated to God is also blasphemous because God is indirectly attacked. Blasphemy is a grave violation of charity toward God. Its gravity may be judged by the capital punishment in the Old Testament, severe penalties of the Church, and in many cases also of the State for blasphemous speech or conduct. In order for a person to sin gravely in this manner, he must use blasphemous expressions and realize the contemptuous meaning of what he says or does. (Etym. Latin blasphemia, blasphemy; from Greek blasphēmein, to speak ill of.)
Since an atheist/agnostic could conceivably not be blatantly antagonistic towards a deity they question the existence of, then they may very well be forgiven. I was baptized as an infant, yet didn't become fully practising until age 30. Not being formulated in CCD I wasn't happy about being baptized into a life I didn't understand filled with suffering and humiliation. I've since come to appreciate the gift and the estatic state of communion I continue to experience with the 3 divine persons.
TomE, God exists equally for all and his existence isn't dependent on our belief in Him. For example; I believe in God. Had I not been born would He be any less God without my belief? No. Nor is he "more" God with my belief. He is that He is.
An atheist/agnostic not believing in God doesn't negate His existence any more than not believing in a tree makes it disappear or less of a tree. That being the case, His laws most certainly apply to all equally, even those that don't believe or have never even had the opportunity to believe. Our belief in God allows us to Love Him, share His Love with others, be obedient and be reconciled to Him in life everlasting through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
I completely understand. My family wasn't particularly religious either and after confirmation I fell away and came back just 3 years ago with a fire and passion! God Bless!
From the catechism PART 3, SECTION 1 1, CHAPTER 1 1, ARTICLE 8, SUBSECTION 4:
1857 For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: "Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent."
Somehow I believe the full knowledge and deliberate consent of the offenders in this case are lacking. My understanding is they are protesting the church's 'archaic' practices, original sin concepts, and artificial birth control policies they believe to be contributing to the spreading of AIDS and other STDs. To argue these criteria were present, one would have to argue the natural law inscribed on their hearts would have made clear to them the gravity of the offense (Thomas Aquinas). I sincerely hope this wasn't the case and that they come to repentance.
The unforgivable sin was only defined when Jesus rebuked the Pharisees who attributed the works of the Holy Spirit to Satan. I've never heard any two clerics give the same response as to what they believed encompassed this unforgivable sin, and so there's much ambiguity.
Regardless of whether or not we agree, I've come to be a big fan and wish God's abundant blessings on you and yours.
PS Nice captcha!
Sincerely,
Tom
Thanks for the compliments, Tom.
I'm with you, I read the catechism and understand the differences in sin but remember even mortal sins are forgivable. This is the only unforgivable sin as per God. Good enough for me and I'd rather err on this side than the other.
Reading that certificate, I see no doubt of intent of anyone that reads it and signs it. There is never a reason to blaspheme against God and we know that there are consequences for everything good and bad.
I'm away this weekend but will be posting more this week. God's abundant blessings on you and yours this Holy Week! Have a blessed Palm Sunday.
I'll keep my original baptismal certificate, at least it's free, and I've got nothing to loose.
Pax, Michael
Let us get serious for a moment. Aside from the fact that the Rabbi Joshua Ben Joseph was himself baptized, which of course shows quite handily that baptism predates the Christ Cult and was performed upon consenting adults, as I say, aside from that - what ever makes you think that a religion as practiced only since Constantine found it convenient as a front for earlier paganism and the only way to save the Roman Empire, can still scare people into believing that a loving, kind and benevolent Creator will dash us into pieces eternally for not following this mishmash of ancient religions? Christianity has nothing in common with a monotheist religion. Look at all the saints and virgins who are prayed to and turned into statues. This is precisely why the Romanish church scrambled around the 10 Commandments to eliminate the one which would have put itself out of business. You fear a somewhat satirical certificate yet you follow men who have no second thoughts about rewriting God's word. The Sabbath? Sunday? I think not, my brother.
Reading your posts I am astonished at how God's Creation scares the, well, bejesus out of you. You cite Blasphemy Against The Holy Spirit? Come on, there. Nobody knows what that means. If you claim to know what it means - then that is itself blasphemy. And your church does not want you to know even this much. For centuries the Romanish church killed people - killed them by the millions - for committing the sin of even just reading the bible. Does Wycliffe ring a bell?
So when people wish to annul what was done to them in infancy, this does not mean they are atheists or rebellious. Many folks resent being dragged into a private club without asking to join. One may easily renounce their infant baptism and then proceed to enjoy that sacrament as an adult with free will. And this Satan/Hell fixation is positively infantile. Besides, this struggle of good versus evil... isn't that the heresy of Manicheanism? You have a lot of the bible memorized, but I dare say, as a biblical scholar myself, you have an enormous amount of learning to do.
Good God, man, do you really think that a human can issue an actual ticket to hell? What kind of a god is it who scares you so?
You want to be a true conservative? Go back to the roots of your Religion. Back before it was tampered with. Before Mary was declared to be a virgin (and what is it with all this virgin stuff? In the day of your "christ" it was a shame for a woman to remain a virgin; and no religious person of the day would have listened to a Rabbi who had no wife or children... get my drift?) I repeat, go back to your roots. Christians, as Migene Gonzales-Wippler so concisely phrased it, are Jews. End of Story
WOW. My reply will be a whole blog article. Stand by!
I find it very hard to conceive that a properly functioning adult cares about this nonsense. Religion and faith are intensely personal and should remain so. Casting aspersions and bandying around damnations only demonstrate your own insecurities. Did you forget "Judge not lest ye be judged"?
Wow, talk about being judgemental! Perfect example of the whole PLANK in your own eye thing.
Besides, who is it that decides who a "properly functioning adult" is? You? I didn't realize that we all had to live by your standards, my apologies.
Who is being a judge now?
I seriously doubt that individual verses of sacred scripture were meant to he thrown like daggers and out of context. It's very unbecoming. The FULL context is:
"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."
That said, I am fully prepared to be judged as I have judged and I stand firmly on what I wrote. I did not criticize but merely pointed out the full consequences of such an act in light of scripture.
Thanks for reading and posting and God's Blessings!
Bob
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