This is my mother’s response to my previous post:
“I understand what you mean about there being little we can know ‘purely and objectively’ when it comes to God and what the Bible teaches, but after almost a lifetime of ‘living by faith,’ I feel I have come to KNOW the Lord more than just intellectually. Of course, I don't know everything there is to know, but He has made Himself known to me in too many ways to live by faith anymore, not only because of the creation itself, but because of all the things that He has done in my life, your father's life, and the lives of others that cannot be explained by mere coincidence. I wonder if I even live by faith anymore and just accept the FACT that GOD IS because of my experiences with Him, but that's something only someone who knows the Lord can attest to, although in my human frailty, I may be put to the test many times before I die since Satan is still seeking to devour the weak! Unfortunately, anyone living outside God's realm has no clue and will never get there until it's too late.
In condemning the Catholic Church, of course, I can only speak from my experience as a Catholic and your fathers, but I am grateful for what the Catholic Church meant in my early life as far as instilling some kind of belief system about God. It certainly didn't go far enough, however, the Lord used it as my stepping stone to the ‘true church.’ I understand your philosophy coming from the Nicene Creed and men like Kempis, Aquinas, etc., because the Catholic Church has not always been as depraved as it is now, but most people don't live on that plane intellectually, nor do they want to be confronted with more because they only want to ‘eat, drink and be merry’ and live anyway they want. Unfortunately, most Catholics don't go very deep into their religion and think that if they do all their little rituals, it's good enough to get them to Heaven, even if they live like heathens (I only have to look at my experience, as well as my family and Dad's family, to see that, not to mention the testimony of the majority of our church members who have been Catholics or still have relatives who are). I know there will be Catholics in Heaven, but the majority will be in Hell, as will the majority of Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, etc., who don't come to know the Lord as Savior. The condition of the world certainly attests to that, and it doesn't appear that it will change for the better anytime soon. I don't like living in such a "narrow" view of life, and I know the majority looks down upon such intolerance, but the Lord God is the One who runs the show and who am I to question why ‘broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat.’”
A brief thought: I love my mother. These are some of the deepest convictions of the soul concerning proper religion and its relationship to my mother’s life. Highly biblical and conservative in theological understanding, the words demonstrate a strain of steadily dissipating conservative protestant thinking concerning Christianity and the church and its relationship to all other religious expressions. Ironically, the validation of her beliefs – experience - is the same mode of validation of most other religious expressions in America. Experience is the driving factor in American Religious Market. I wonder how much experience has determined my religious viewpoints... I suppose no one is free from it.