(From Vox Populi Blog)Saint Augustine teaches Religion is the bond which unites man and God and because it is God who created man it is God who established that Bond with man and because God is one, He only ever established one religion. the religion of Jesus Christ.
God is He who established religion- the bond with Him – and, because He is one God, He established only one religion and there has only ever been one religion established by God and if we don’t get that right we will forever wander around taking false religions seriously.
The Religion of Jesus Christ is as old as time itself but it has not always been as fully taught as it is now since God became man.
The Religion of Jesus Christ in the old testament taught His chosen people about the need for a savior and redeemer and the Old Testament prophets identified His coming over 300 times - who He would be and what He would do - and so the truth was revealed slowly and sequentially owing to the arrogant and ignorance of those He liberated from Egypt and gave them water, food and shelter and even preserved for forty years the original sandals and clothes they wore when they were liberated from their slavery to Pharaoh in Egypt.
His Chosen people had a rough idea of Our Lord and Saviour and they were taught enough so the faithful could be saved whereas some of them had a much more complete idea of the Messias.
So, when you hear of this religion or that religion know that you are hearing about a man created religion and not the bond God established with man, the Religion of Jesus Christ.
There has only ever been one religion
Q. What is religion ?
A. Religion, according to St. Augustine, is the bond which unites man to God ; in other words, religion is the society of man with God.
Q. Explain this answer?
A. Between parents and children there exist ties, or natural and sacred relations. In the same manner there exist relations between God, the creator and father of man, and man, who is the creature and child of God. The ties which exist between God and man are even more sacred than those which unite the son to his father.
Q. Why so?
A. Because we owe more to God than a son owes to his father ; God is our creator and our last end, which cannot be said of our earthly fathers. From which we must conclude that our obligations to God are much more holy than are the obligations of children to their parents.
Q. What does the word religion signify?
A. The word religion signifies the tie by excellence, or the re-tieing. The tie by excellence, because religion unites us in a supernatural manner to God, who is the most perfect of beings ; the re-tieing, because our Lord, by offering himself up to his father as a victim for us, has re-established the supernatural union which existed between God and man previous to original sin.
Q. Is there any other religion than the religion of Jesus Christ?
A . No, there is no other religion than the religion of Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ alone, as both God and man, could expiate sin, reconcile man to God, and re-establish the supernatural tie which united them.
Q. Is the true religion, or religion of Jesus Christ, of ancient date?
A. The religion of Jesus Christ is as ancient as the world. For it goes back to the time when the Son of God offered himself to his Father to redeem man, and has always had as the object of its faith and its hope this same Mediator and the same rewards.
Q. Has religion been at all times as fully taught as it is at the present day?
A. No, religion has not been at all times as fully taught as it is at the present day. But it has not on that account ceased to be the same religion, any more than man, by passing through the different stages of life, ceases to be the same man.
Q. What difference is there between the faithful who preceded and those who have come after the Messiah ?
A . The difference is that the ancient just believed in Jesus Christ to come, whilst we believe in Jesus Christ already come. Our faith, our hope, our religion is the same as that of the patriarchs and prophets.
Q. Why did God delay so long the coming of the Messiah ?
A. He delayed the coming of the Messiah so long, 1st, in order that man might know, by a long experience of his miseries, the need he had of a Redeemer, and that he might desire his coming more ardently.
2d, that he might recognise Jesus Christ as the Messiah, seeing that all the figures, promises and prophecies were accomplished and verified in him.
Q. What has been the object of all the designs of God since the commission of original sin ?
A. The object of all the designs of God, since the commission of original sin, has been to save man. Be fore the coming of the Messiah, all his designs had for their end to prepare man s redemption, and since the coming, to maintain and extend its blessings to all men.
Q. What fruit do we derive from this truth ?
A . The fruit we ought to derive from this truth is, to love God as he has loved us, constantly and solely.
Q. Why did God make known the mystery of the redemption only by degrees ?
A. God made known the mystery of the redemption only by degrees, in order to consult man’s weakness. A great many previous miracles were necessary to di pose him to believe this greatest of all miracles.
The Messiah promised and prefigured. First Promise. Adam and Abel the first and second figures or types of the Messiah.
Q. How did God make known the Redeemer to come
A. God made known the Redeemer to come, 1st, by promises, 2d, figures, and 3d, by prophecies.
Q. What do you understand by figures of the Messiah ?
A. By figures of the Messiah, I understand certain actions, certain events, certain personages, that represented beforehand the characteristics and actions of the Messiah.
Q. How do we know that the patriarchs, the sacrifices, and the whole Jewish people were a figure of the Messiah ?
A. We know that the patriarchs, the sacrifices and the whole Jewish people were a figure of the Messiah, 1st, on the authority of our Lord himself, and that of the apostles and evangelists. St. Paul in particular says that Jesus Christ is the end of the Mosaic law, and that whatever happened to the Jews was a figure of what was accomplished among Christians.
2d, on the authority of the fathers of the church ; St. Augustine says that the whole Jewish people were only a grand figure of the Messiah.
3d, by the conformity or resemblance of the figures to our Lord, for in look ing at several portraits of the same person, drawn by
different artists, no one would say that all these por raits resemble the person merely by chance.
Q. Did the patriarchs and ancient Jews know, in general, the sense of the promises, figures, and prophecies of the Redeemer ?
A. The patriarchs and ancient Jews knew, in general, the sense of the promises, figures, and prophecies of the Redeemer : the better instructed among them had a clear knowledge of it, the rest had what was necessary for their salvation.
Catechism of Perseverance, Abbe Gaume
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