#5931
Leigh
Participant

I’m coming out of a reformed tradition. Calvimist. So I wonder if the question about grasping a doctrine and then performing up to standards reflects what I’ve always been taught about Catholics, namely, that they’re legalists trying to climb the ladder of performance to heaven. We knew that was impossible, but our way out took a very dark and more terrible turn. The measure of how awful a failure to perform God’s demand for absolute perfection was not the deed itself but the status and nature of the one whom you offended thereby. God is infinitely holy so that the slightest disobedience or disrespect is infinitely offensive to God. Gods firestorm of wrath against any and all sin was exhausted on Christ. Had to be human; had to be divine. So while we Protestants escaped the presumption of ever being able to please God through our own efforts that escape was accomplished through something even worse then blackmail: a hostage exchange. We were done with anthropology right from the beginning. It’s a dead issue. Don’t waste your time. We are utterly abominable to God and only the sacrifice of Jesus could satisfy God’s infinite wrath.