SCROLL DOWN FOR A FEW EXCERPTS FROM THE WRITINGS OF ST. AUGUSTINE, ONE OF THE GREATEST CATHOLIC AND CHRISTIAN THINKERS AND SAINTS WHO EVER LIVED.
BUT FIRST, A FEW NOTES ON ST. AUGUSTINE…..
ST. AUGUSTINE of HIPPO (A.D. 354-430) WAS AN
UNWAVERING SUPPORTER OF THE PAPACY, AND ALL OF THE MAJOR CATHOLIC DOCTRINES,
INCLUDING THE REAL PRESENCE OF CHRIST’S BODY AND BLOOD IN THE EUCHARIST, MORTAL
SINS, VENIAL SINS, PUNISHMENT AND PENANCE FOR SINS, PRAYING FOR THE DEAD IN
PURGATORY, THE POSSIBILITY OF LOSING ONE’S SALVATION/JUSTIFICATION, MARY NEVER
SINNING, BAPTISM NECESSARY FOR SALVATION, THE DEUTEROCANONICAL BOOKS (OR
SO-CALLED “APOCRYPHA”) ON EQUAL FOOTING WITH THE OTHER OLD TESTAMENT BOOKS,
CONFESSION TO A PRIEST, ETC., ETC., ETC.
THE DOCTRINES HE BELIEVED IN OF COURSE CLASH WITH
LUTHER’S DEFINITION OF SALVATION BY FAITH ALONE. FOR EXAMPLE, AUGUSTINE SAID
BAPTISM WAS NECESSARY FOR SALVATION. HE ALSO SAID RECEIVING THE EUCHARIST WAS
NECESSARY FOR SALVATION. HE ALSO SAID THAT ONCE SOMEONE SINS MORTALLY, DOING PENANCE WAS
NECESSARY FOR SALVATION.
BUT FEAR NOT, NO ACT OF PENANCE IS FROM OURSELVES…. ALL ARE ATTRIBUTABLE TO GOD’S GRACE ONLY. THIS IS
THE TEACHING OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, AND OF ST. AUGUSTINE. ALL CHRISTIANS CAN
AT LEAST AGREE ON THAT. ANYTHING DONE APART FROM GOD’S GRACE IS WORTHLESS.
NOW, ON THE ISSUE OF PREDESTINATION, EVANGELICALS ARE QUICK TO
POINT OUT THAT AUGUSTINE’S VIEWS ON THIS TOPIC WERE CLOSER TO THEIRS THAN THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH’S….. AND THEY ARE CORRECT. AUGUSTINE, UNLIKE MOST CHURCH
FATHERS WHO OPPOSED HIM ON THIS SPECIFIC ISSUE, DID MAKE THIS REGRETTABLE
MISTAKE, FAILING TO RECOGNIZE THAT GOD DIED FOR ALL (2 Cor
5:15), DESIRING ALL MEN TO BE SAVED (1 Timothy 2:4) AND NOT JUST THE ELECT.
HOWEVER, HE WAS ALLOWED TO HOLD HIS MISTAKEN VIEW
BECAUSE THE PARTICULARS OF PREDESTINATION WERE STILL UNDER DEBATE AT THE TIME…
LIKE THE TRINITY, THE DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION TOOK SOME TIME TO DEFINE. … SO THE DEFINITION WAS NOT BINDING ON THE
CATHOLIC COMMUNITY AT THE TIME AUGUSTINE LIVED.
IF THE CHURCH HAD OFFICIALLY DEFINED THE TEACHING PRIOR TO HIS DEATH,
AUGUSTINE MOST CERTAINLY WOULD HAVE ACCEPTED IT. BECAUSE, FOR AUGUSTINE, THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH WAS THE FINAL AUTHORITY ON THE TRUTH OF CHRIST’S TEACHINGS.
UNLIKE THE FOUNDERS OF SOLA SCRIPTURA IN THE 16TH
CENTURY, ST. AUGUSTINE WOULD HAVE NEVER DREAMED OF INTERPRETING THE BIBLE APART
FROM THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, WHICH BY DEFINITION HAD TO BE HEADED (AND STILL MUST
BE HEADED) BY A SUCCESSOR OF PETER. HE BELIEVED THAT, ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE,
EVEN IF A DOCTRINE WAS NOT WRITTEN DOWN, IT MUST BE BELIEVED IF IT WAS PART OF
APOSTOLIC TRADITION (1 Cor 11:2, 2 Thess 2:15, 2 Thess 3:6, Jn 21:25, 2 Tim 1:13, 2 Pet 1:20, Mt 23:2-3)
WHAT PREDESTINATION MEANS FOR CATHOLICS
For more
info on predestination, see the web sites below. As a Catholic, I believe
predestination to be this: God foreknew us (ie. He knew us just as
intimately a million years ago as he does today and tomorrow). Capable of
seeing my final day on earth billions of years before I arrived on earth, God
created a space in heaven or hell for me way back when. Everyone whose names he
placed in the Book of Life will go to heaven.
The
problem is, we humans don’t have access to that Book of Life, so the only way
we can be sure we are on it is if on our last day here, we know we have
persevered in grace and in love until the end.
“…the
charity of many shall grow cold. But he that shall persevere to the end, he
shall be saved.” (Matthew 24:13)
WHY DO CATHOLICS REJECT THE PROTESTANT VIEW OF PREDESTINATION?
Evangelicals
believe that God created some people for the purpose of going to hell and with
no consideration of how they lived their life or what choices they made. The
Catholic Church rejects this, saying that a loving Father would never sentence
some of his children to eternal misery without giving them a chance, and
without offering them the grace they need to live in Christ.
My
now-retired parish priest, Monsignor James Meehan, offered this metaphor: a guy
on a motorcycle speeds faster and faster down a straightaway that has a brick
wall at the end, the brick wall being hell. A Catholic would say God knew from
the beginning of time that the guy would crash into the wall, and gave him the
grace he could have used to reject the wall, but didn’t stop him. The
Evangelical would say God steered him into the wall, i.e. God created the guy
to crash into the wall.
Evangelicals
have told me their view of predestination is “so crystal clear” from reading
the Bible.
But how
could it be so crystal clear to my friends who state this when even the Early Church
Fathers had to debate and study for decades before understanding the truth of
predestination? These Church Fathers were brilliant guys, totally immersed in
Scripture…. the “Einsteins” of Christianity. And it
wasn’t clear to them. In the end, they settled upon the Catholic definition of
predestination.
Web sites
on predestination:
Predestination:
Reasons For Centuries-Old Impasse
Grace,
Predestination, and the Salvific Will of God
The
Catholic Teaching on Predestination
OK, HERE’S AUGUSTINE…..
AUGUSTINE ON AUTHORITY OF CATHOLIC CHURCH
“I
would not believe the Gospel if the authority of the Catholic Church did not
compel me.”
AUGUSTINE ON BEING IN UNION WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
"Whosoever
shall have separated himself from the Catholic Church, no matter how
praiseworthy such a person may fancy his life has been, yet for that one crime
of having cut himself off from the unity of Christ he shall not have eternal
life, but the wrath of God shall abide with him for ever." St.Augustine of Hippo ("Letter 141," c. early 5th century)
AUGUSTINE: CATHOLIC CHURCH
IS AN AUTHORITATIVE CHURCH
“The Catholic Church is the work of Divine
Providence, achieved through the prophecies of the prophets, through the
Incarnation and the teaching of Christ, through the journeys of the Apostles,
through the suffering, the crosses, the blood and death of the martyrs, through
the admirable lives of the saints…. When, then, we see so much help on God’s
part, so much progress and so much fruit, shall we hesitate to bury ourselves
in the bosom of that Church? For starting from the apostolic chair down through
successions of bishops, even unto the open confession of all mankind, it has
possessed the CROWN OF TEACHING AUTHORITY.” (emphasis
mine) (Augustine, “The
Advantage of Believing 35…392 A.D.)
SALVATION ONLY THROUGH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (AUGUSTINE)
“A man
cannot have salvation, except in the Catholic Church. Outside the Catholic
Church he can have everything except salvation. He can have honor, he can have
Sacraments, he can sing alleluia, he can answer amen, he can possess the
gospel, he can have and preach faith in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit; but never except in the Catholic Church will he be able
to find salvation.” (Augustine, Discourse to the People of the Church at
Caesarea, A.D. 418)
AUGUSTINE
ON HOW MORTAL SINS AND VENIAL SINS ARE FORGIVEN….ONLY THE BAPTIZED CAN BE
FORGIVEN
“But do
not commit those sins on account of which you would have to be separated from
the Body of Christ; perish the thought! For those whom you see doing penance have committed crimes, either adultery or some other
enormities: that is why they are doing penance. If their sins were light, daily
prayer would suffice TO BLOT THEM OUT.(emphasis mine)
[8, 16] In the Church, therefore, there are three ways in which sins are
forgiven: in Baptism, in prayer, and in the greater humility of penance; yet,
God does not forgive sins except to the baptized.” (Augustine, Sermon to
Catechumens, on the Creed, AD 395)
AUGUSTINE
URGES CHRISTIANS TO PRAY FOR THE DEAD (ONLY FOR THOSE STILL IN PURGATORY (NOT YET PURGED OF
ALL SINS), BUT NOT TO PRAY FOR MARTYRS
WHO ARE ALREADY IN HEAVEN)
“there is
an ecclesiastical discipline, as the faithful know, when the names of the
martyrs are read aloud in that place at the altar of God (17), where prayer is
not offered for them. Prayer, however, is offered for other dead who are
remembered. For it is wrong to pray for a martyr, to whose prayers we ought ourselves be commended.” [Augustine, Sermons inter AD
391-430]
AUGUSTINE
on the CATHOLIC CHURCH AS THE TRUE CHURCH:
“We
believe also in the holy Church, that is, the Catholic Church; for heretics and
schismatics call their own congregations churches.”
AUGUSTINE
on PETER the ROCK and the KEYS GIVEN TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
“Let us
not listen to those who deny that the Church of God is able to forgive all
sins. They are wretched indeed, because they do not recognize in Peter the rock
(3) and they refuse to believe that the keys of the kingdom of heaven, lost
from their own hands, have been given to the Church. These are people who
condemn as adulteresses widows who marry, and boast that theirs is a purity superior to the teaching of the Apostles!”
(Augustine, Against the Letter of Mani, AD 396 aut
397)
AUGUSTINE ON SUCCESSION
“The
succession of priests, from the very see of the Apostle Peter, to whom our
Lord, after His resurrection, gave the charge of feeding His sheep, up to the
present episcopate, keeps me here. And at last, the very name of Catholic,
which, not without reason, belongs to this Church alone, in the face of so many
heretics, so much so that, although all the heretics want to be called
Catholic, when a stranger inquires where the Catholic Church meets (2), none of
the heretics would dare to point out his own basilica or house (3).”
(Augustine, Against the Letter of Mani, AD 396-397)
AUGUSTINE on REAL PRESENCE
“For it
was the Body of the Lord and the Blood of the Lord even in those to whom the
Apostle said: Whoever eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to
himself (15).” (Augustine, Baptism, AD 400)
AUGUSTINE ON SACRAMENTS of BAPTISM and ORDERS
“Both of
these, Baptism and Orders, are Sacraments, and each is
given to a man by a certain sacred rite (1), when he is baptized, and the
other, when he is ordained. In the Catholic Church, therefore, it is not
permitted to repeat either of these Sacraments. For even if their leaders (2),
when they come over to us from among the schismatics,
are received for the good of peace and to rectify the error of schism, and even
it is seen that it is feasible for them to carry on in the same offices which
they had before, they are not ordained again, but, just as with their Baptism,
so too their ordination remains whole; because the defect was in their
separation, which is corrected by the peace that comes of unity, and not in the
Sacraments, which everywhere they are found, are the same. (Augustine,
Against the Letter of Paremenian. [ca A.D.
400]
AUGUSTINE on APOSTOLIC TRADITION
“What the
universal Church holds, not as instituted by councils but as something always
held, is most correctly believed to have been handed down by apostolic
authority.” (Augustine, “Baptism” 4, 24, 31)
AUGUSTINE: BAPTISM AND EUCHARIST NECESSARY FOR SALVATION
“It is an
excellent thing that the Punic Christians (8) call Baptism itself nothing else
but salvation, and the Sacrament of Christ’s Body nothing else but life.
Whence does this derive, except from an ancient and, as I suppose, apostolic
tradition, by which the Churches of Christ, hold inherently that without
Baptism and participation at the table of the Lord it is impossible for any man
to attain either to the kingdom of God or to salvation and life eternal? This
is the witness of Scripture too.” (Augustine, “Forgiveness and the Just Deserts
of sins, and the Baptism of Infants, AD 412)
AUGUSTINE on BAPTISM AS REGENERATIVE
“If anyone
wonders why children born of the baptized should themselves be baptized, let
him attend briefly to this…The Sacrament of Baptism is most assuredly the
Sacrament of regeneration. But just as the man who never lived cannot die, and
one who has not died cannot rise again, so too one who was never born cannot be
reborn…..Unless we voluntarily depart from the rule of the Christian faith it
must be admitted that inasmuch as infants are, by the Sacrament of Baptism,
conformed to the death of Christ, they are also freed from the serpent’s
venomous bite. This bite, however, they did not receive in their own proper
life, but in him who first suffered that wound.” (Augustine, “Forgiveness and
the Just Deserts of sins, and the Baptism of Infants, AD 412)
AUGUSTINE
SAYS TO PRAY FOR THE DEAD IN PURGATORY, BUT NOT THE DEAD IN HEAVEN OR HELL
The prayer
either of the Church herself or of pious individuals is heard on behalf of
certain of the dead; but it is heard for those who, having been regenerated in
Christ, did not for the rest of their life in the body do such wickedness that
they might be judged unworthy of such mercy, nor who yet lived so well that it
might be supposed they have no need of such mercy. (21, 24, 2…..Augustine, “City
of God” A.D.
413-426)
AUGUSTINE: SAYING THE LORD’S PRAYER TAKES AWAY SINS
The daily
prayer, which Jesus Himself taught and for which reason it is called the Lord’s
Prayer, certainly takes away daily sins, when we say daily: “Forgive us our
debts (40).”
(Augustine,
City of God” A.D. 413-426)
AUGUSTINE SAYS MARY NEVER SINNED
Having
excepted the Holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom, on account of the honor of the
Lord, I wish to have absolutely no question when treating of sins, - for how do
we know what abundance of grace for the total overcoming of sin was conferred
upon her, who merited to conceive and bear Him in whom there was no sin- …..”
(Augustine, “Nature and Grace A.D. 415)
DEGREE OF SIN DETERMINES LENGTH OF PUNISHMENT
“Sins
which are punished by an extremely lengthy period of penalties are committed in
an extremely short time (34); nor is there anyone who would suppose that the
punishments should be as quickly over as the offenses were quickly performed,
whether murder or adultery or sacrilege or any other crime whatsoever that is
to be measured, not by how long it took to do it, but by the magnitude of its
wickedness and impiety. (Augustine…”City of God” 21, 11)
AUGUSTINE:
PUNISHMENT FOR OUR SINS NOT COMPLETED WHEN WE DIE, WILL BE COMPLETED AFTER WE
DIE BUT BEFORE JUDGMENT DAY (IE, PURGATORY)
Temporal
punishments are suffered by some in this life only, by some after death, by
some both here and hereafter; but all of them before that last and strictest
judgment (35). But not all who suffer temporal punishments after death will
come to eternal punishments, which are to follow after that judgment.
(Augustine….”City of God”
21, 13)
AUGUSTINE SAYS PURGATORY WILL END BY JUDGMENT DAY
“Let it
not be supposed that there are any future purgatorial punishments, except
before that last and tremendous judgment.”
AUGUSTINE REITERATES THAT SINS ARE FORGIVEN IN BAPTISM
“…..are
cleansed and healed, not only all the sins which are remitted in Baptism, but
even those which are committed later….” (Augustine, “Marriage and
Concupiscence)
AUGUSTINE on UNBAPTIZED INFANTS
“If you
wish to be Catholic, do not believe, do not say, do not teach that infants who
are overtaken by death before they can be baptized are able to come to a
forgiveness of original sins (3) (Augustine, “The Soul and Its Origin, A.D.
419-420)
AUGUSTINE: BAPTISM FORGIVES SINS
“We say
that Baptism grants forgiveness (2) of all sins, and takes away crimes, not
“shaving them off,” nor in such a way that “the roots of all sins are retained
in the evil flesh, like the hairs shaved from the head, whence the sins may
grow again to be cut down again.” (Augustine, “Against Two Letters of the Pelagians, A.D. 420)
AUGUSTINE: BAPTISM REMOVES SIN
“With the
exception of the gift of Baptism, which is given against original sin, so that
what was brought by generation might be taken away by regeneration, -though it
also takes away actual sins, such as have ever been committed in thought, word,
or deed – except therefore, for this great indulgence whereby man’s restoration
begins and in which all his guilt, both original and actual, is removed, the
rest of our life from the age of the use of reason, however much that life may
abound in righteousness, is always in need of the forgiveness of sins….”
(Augustine….Enchiridion of Faith, Hope, and Love, A.D. 421)
“The guilt
of concupiscence is remitted in Baptism….” (Augustine, “Corrections” A.D. 426 aut 427)
AUGUSTINE ON PENANCE FOR VENIAL AND MORE SERIOUS SINS
“Yet those
who do penance in accord with the kind of sin they have committed are not to
despair of receiving God’s mercy in the Holy Church, for the remission of their
crimes, however serious. In the penitential action, however, where the crime
committed was such that he who committed it is separated from the body of
Christ, it is not so much the length of time as the depth of sorrow that is to
be considered.” (Augustine, Enchiridion of Faith, Hope, and Love, A.D. 421)
AUGUSTINE ON PURGATORY
“That
there should be some such fire even after this life is not incredible, and it
can be inquired into and either be discovered or left hidden whether some of
the faithful may be saved, some more slowly and some more quickly in the
greater or lesser degree in which they loved the good things that perish,
-through a certain purgatorial fire.” (Augustine, Enchiridion of Faith, Hope,
and Love, A.D. 421)
AUGUSTINE: VENIAL SINS CAN BE FORGIVEN THROUGH PRAYER
“For the
daily sins of the brief and trivial kind without which this life cannot be
lived, the daily prayer of the faithful makes satisfaction. The faithful can
say: “Our Father, who art in heave (19)”; for to such a Father they are already
reborn of water and the Spirit (20). This prayer takes away completely our
lesser and daily sins.” (Augustine, Enchiridion of Faith, Hope, and Love, A.D.
421)
AUGUSTINE: LIGHTER SINS GET LESS SEVERE PUNISHMENT
“Surely
the lightest punishment of all will be given those who, besides the sin which
they brought with them originally, have added no other; and among the rest who
have added other sins, damnation there will be so much the more tolerable as
their wickedness here was the less serious.” (Augustine, Enchiridion of Faith,
Hope, and Love, A.D. 421)
AUGUSTINE:
PRAYING FOR THE DEAD IS USEFUL, AS LONG AS THE DEAD PERSON IS NOT IN HELL OR
HEAVEN
“The time
which interposes between the death of a man and the final resurrection holds
souls in hidden retreats, accordingly as each is deserving of rest or of
hardship, in view of what it merited when it was living in the flesh. [110] Nor can it be denied that the souls of the dead find relief
through the piety of their friends and relatives who are still alive. When the
Sacrifice of the Mediator is offered for them, or when alms are given in the
church. But these things are of profit to those who, when they were alive,
merited that they might afterwards be able to be helped by these things. For
there is a certain manner of living, neither so good that there is no need of
these helps after death, nor yet so wicket that these helps are of no avail
after death. There is indeed, a manner of living so good that these helps are
not needed, and again a manner so evil that these helps are of no avail, once a
man has passed from this life. (Augustine, Enchiridion of Faith, Hope, and
Love, A.D. 421)
AUGUSTINE
SAYS PRAYING FOR THE DEAD IS A UNIVERSAL TEACHING OF THE CHURCH
“We read
in the books of the Maccabees that sacrifice was offered for the dead. But even
if it were found nowhere in the Old Testament writings, the authority of the
universal Church which is clear on this point is of no small weight, wherein
the prayers of the priest poured forth to the Lord God at His altar the commendation of the dead has its place.
(Augustine, “The Care that Should be taken of the
Dead, A.D. 421)
AUGUSTINE
SAYS YOU CAN LOSE YOUR SALVATION (i.e. CAN LOSE JUSTIFYING GRACE)
“But if
someone already regenerate and justified should, of his own will, relapse into
his evil life, certainly that man cannot say: “I have not received”; because he
lost the grace he received from God and by his own free choice went to evil.”
(Augustine, “Admonition and Grace, A.D. 426 aut 427)
AUGUSTINE ON APOSTOLIC TRADITION
"Those which we keep, not as
being written, but as from, if observed by the whole of Christendom, are
thereby understood to be committed to us by the apostles themselves or plenary
Councils, and to be retained as instituted." (Ep 118).
AUGUSTINE ON APOSTOLIC TRADITION "But
in regard to those observances which we carefully attend and which the whole
world keeps, and which derive not from Scripture but from Tradition, we are
given to understand that they are recommended and ordained to be kept, either
by the Apostles themselves or by plenary [ecumenical] councils, the authority
of which is quite vital in the Church" (Letter to Januarius
[A.D. 400]).
AUGUSTINE ON APOSTOLIC TRADITION "And if anyone seek for Divine authority
in this matter, though what is held by the whole Church, and not as instituted
by Councils, but as a matter of invariable custom, is rightly held to have been
handed down by an apostolic authority." (On Baptism 24
speaking of infant Baptism).
AUGUSTINE
ON APOSTOLIC TRADITION "[T]he
custom of not rebaptizing converts] ...may be
supposed to have had its origin in Apostolic Tradition, just as there are many
things which are observed by the whole Church, and therefore are fairly held to
have been enjoined by the Apostles, which yet are not mentioned in their
writings" (On
AUGUSTINE: THE CHURCH ESTABLISHED BY
CHRIST MUST BE HEADED BY DIRECT SUCCESSOR OF PETER
“For if the lineal succession of
bishops is to be taken into account, with how much more certainty and benefit
to the Church do we reckon back till we reach Peter himself, to whom, as
bearing in a figure the whole Church, the Lord said: ‘Upon this rock will I
build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it!’ The
successor of Peter was Linus, and his successors in unbroken continuity were
these: ‑Clement, Anacletus, Evaristus, Alexander, Sixtus, Telesphorus, Iginus, Anicetus, Pius, Soter, Eleutherius, Victor, Zephirinus, Calixtus, Urbanus, Pontianus, Antherus, Fabianus, Cornelius, Lucius, Stephanus, Xystus,
Dionysius, Felix, Eutychianus, Gaius, Marcellinus, Marcellus, Eusebius, Miltiades, Sylvester,
Marcus, Julius, Liberius, Damasus,
and Siricius, whose successor is the present Bishop Anastasius. In this order of succession no Donatist bishop is found” (Letters of Augustine 53, 2 in
The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 1st series, 1:298).
AUGUSTINE SAYS THE
POPE OF HIS TIME, ANASTASIUS, SITS IN THE CHAIR OF PETER
“If all men
throughout the world were such as you most vainly
accuse them of having been, what has the chair of the Roman church done to you,
in which Peter sat, and in which Anastasius sits
today?” [Against the Letters of Petilani 2:118 [A.D.
402]
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
HAS AUTHORITY. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS THE SUCCESSORS OF THE APOSTLES. EVERYONE
IN THE WORLD KNOWS WHICH CHURCH IS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
“In the Catholic
Church, there are many other things which most justly keep me in her bosom. The
consent of peoples and nations keeps me in the Church; so does her authority,
inaugurated by miracles, nourished by hope, enlarged by love, established by
age. The succession of priests keeps me, beginning from the very seat of the
Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after His resurrection, gave it in charge to
feed His sheep (Jn 21:15-19), down to the present
episcopate.
“And so, lastly, does the very name of Catholic, which, not without reason, amid
so many heresies, the Church has thus retained; so that, though all heretics
wish to be called Catholics, yet when a stranger asks where the Catholic Church
meets, no heretic will venture to point to his own chapel or house.
“Such then in number and importance are the precious
ties belonging to the Christian name which keep a believer in the Catholic
Church, as it is right they should...With you, where there is none of these
things to attract or keep me... No one shall move me from the faith which binds
my mind with ties so many and so strong to the Christian religion...For my
part, I should not believe the gospel except as moved by the authority of the
Catholic Church.”
AUGUSTINE SAID HE WHO SEPARATES FROM
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH CANNOT ENTER HEAVEN
“Whosoever shall have separated
himself from the Catholic Church, no matter how praiseworthy such a person may
fancy his life has been, yet for that one crime of having cut himself off from
the unity of Christ he shall not have eternal life, buth
the wrath of God shall abide with him for ever.” St
Augustine of Hippo (“Letter 141” c. early 5th century)
SOURCE for
Augustine quotes: “The Faith of the Early Fathers” by William A. Jurgens and www.catholic.com
Finally,
what is the difference between St. Augustine and Martin Luther? John Henry Cardinal
Newman explained:
“The main point is whether the Moral Law can in its substance be obeyed and kept by the regenerate. Augustine says, that whereas we are by nature condemned by the Law, we are enabled by the grace of God to perform it unto our justification; Luther [and Calvin equally] that, whereas we are condemned by the law, Christ has Himself performed it unto our justification -- Augustine, that our righteousness is active; Luther, that it is passive; Augustine, that it is imparted, Luther that it is only imputed; Augustine, that it consists in a change of heart; Luther, in a change of state. Luther maintains that God's commandments are impossible to man Augustine adds, impossible without His grace; Luther that the Gospel consists of promises only Augustine, that it is also a law, Luther, that our highest wisdom is not to know the Law, Augustine says instead, to know and keep it -- Luther says, that the Law and Christ cannot dwell together in the heart. Augustine says that the Law is Christ; Luther denies and Augustine maintains that obedience is a matter of conscience. Luther says that a man is made a Christian not by working but by hearing; Augustine excludes those works only which are done before grace is given; Luther, that our best deeds are sins; Augustine, that they are really pleasing to God (Lectures on Justification, ch. ii, 58).” (Source: Catholic Encyclopedia)
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