Posted on 02/12/2014 9:14:01 PM PST by ATOMIC_PUNK
Roman Catholics make a huge deal about the importance Scripture, but in this case they will hide behind the smoke and mirrors of their man made doctrines.
Nice try at obfuscation but it doesn’t work. Here’s what God said about taking pagan practices when serving Him.
Deuteronomy 12:30 Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. 31 Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God
Now let’s see what the arrogant RCC said.
“We need not shrink from admitting that candles, like incense and lustral water, were commonly employed in pagan worship and the rites paid to the dead. But the Church from a very early period took them into her service, just as she adopted many other things indifferent in themselves, which seemed proper to enhance the splendor of religious ceremonial. We must not forget that most of these adjuncts to worship, like music, lights, perfumes, ablutions, floral decorations, canopies, fans, screens, bells, vestments etc. were not identified with any idolatrous cult in particular; but they were common to almost all cults” (Catholic Encyclopedia, III, 246.)
Oh goody! Looky there! They even identify themselves with cults. Appropriately I might add.
“When we give or receive Christmas gifts; or hang green wreaths in our homes and churches, how many of us know that we are probably observing pagan customs...the god, Woden, in Norse Mythology, descends upon the earth yearly between December 25th and January 6th to bless mankind...But pagan though they be, they are beautiful customs. They help inspire us with the spirit of 'good will to men', even as the sublime service of our Church reminds us of the ‘peace on earth’ which the babe of Bethlehem came to bestow” (Externals of the Catholic Church, 140).
The Catholic Church knew they were pagan and didn’t care a wit about what God said about not incorporating them into serving Him. God said don’t, the Catholic Church said “so what”. That won’t end well for those who follow that apostate organization.
It’s amazing to me that so many people who claim to read scripture are so blinded.
Feel free to post all the times Jesus spoke about
Why not just admit you don't know.
They like to make a big deal about the Bible being a Catholic document and how the world owes them for preserving it, and blow it off at any opportunity, not recognizing it as authoritative.
They don't even follow it themselves, but place *Sacred Tradition* above it.
Satan's best and oldest tactic. Cat doubt on the integrity of the word of God.
"Did God REALLY say.....? rephrased as *God didn't really say....* and if He did, what He ensured was written down, isn't enough. IOW, God failed at transmitting what He wanted us to know and the Catholic church needs to take up the slack and everyone needs to thank them for it.
What chutzpah....
Catholics, Mormons, and now the Roodites have these “new revelations”. The Roodites actually claim the New Testament we have in the Greek today is a corrupted version of scripture.
....have more in common than many think!
| Issue | Catholicism | Mormonism | Jehovah's Witnesses | Christianity |
| Specific Church Leader on earth |
The Pope |
The Prophet |
Watchtower Organization | none (except, of course, Jesus) |
| Source of Theology | Bible and Tradition | Bible and additional Scripture | Bible and Watchtower Organization | Bible |
| Sample of non-biblical teachings | Purgatory, Penance, Indulgences, praying to Mary, her assumption. |
Many gods, god from another world, goddess mother, you can become a god. | Jesus is Michael the Archangel. No blood transfusions, no hell, 144,000 go to heaven | If it isn't taught here, I don't believe it. |
| Method of Salvation | Faith, grace, baptism, works | Faith, grace, baptism, works | Faith, grace, baptism, works | Grace through Faith |
| True Church |
Their church organization is one true church | Their church organization is one true church | Their church organization is one true church | All who are saved by grace through faith are in the true church |
| Claim of Authority | Apostolic Succession | Apostolic Succession | Being the faithful servant | In Jesus alone |
| Assets | Great Wealth and Power | Great Wealth and Power | Wealth, not much power | Treasures in heaven |
| Goddess-like figure | Mary has godlike abilities: able to hear and answer all prayers of all people all the time, intercede with God. | Goddess Mother who has populated this world with spirits who inhabit human bodies | Not Applicable | Not Applicable |
| Images of God, or Jesus, or Mary, etc. | Used in worship in churches | Used in temples and headquarters |
Not Applicable | Not Applicable |
Who are the homogeneous Protestant members of the group to which you subscribe ? Can you list them and their sign of surety ? I thought if I asked it might lead to a new sect, cult, or denomination but that happens irregardless, even though Jesus commanded unity.
I'd rather follow THIS rabbit trail to the end; before veering down another one.
Have Catholics or non-catholics produced more Lingua Franca translations for folks to use in their native language?
Miriam/Mary heard the Word of God every day and kept it/him. It was not for physical attributes that God chose her but for the grace of her neshama. Yael is certainly blessed. The scope of Miriam's ministry is magnitudes greater. There is no other woman who God chose to bring the Messiah into this world; she cared for and nurtured him, protected him from harm surrounded by the angels of God, loved him all the days of her life, never betrayed him, endured the shame and pain of her son being tortured before her eyes, and witnessed the glory of his resurrection. Why would it be strange for God to honor this Virgin of Israel in any way He sees fit commensurate with her service ?
Mary did nothing any other mother won’t have done.
God chose her because she had the right blood lines and was in the right place at the right time to fulfill the prophecy.
She did what God had for her, just like millions of other people have been doing for centuries, every day, around the world.
Our rewards are not for the job itself based on how magnanimous or menial, but rather our faithfulness in doing the job. She was faithful in doing hers. The rest of us are faithful in doing ours. There’s no difference because God is no respecter of persons.
It’s not what we do, per se, but how we do it.
ANY 'emphasis' they have is BADLY misplaced!
Their entire foundation is sand and lies!
"Now the way he translated was he put the urim and thummim into his hat and Darkned his Eyes than he would take a sentance and it would apper in Brite Roman Letters. Then he would tell the writer and he would write it. Then that would go away the next sentance would Come and so on. But if it was not Spelt rite it would not go away till it was rite, so we see it was marvelous. Thus was the hol [whole] translated."---Joseph Knight's journal.
"In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us."
(History of the RLDS Church, 8 vols.(Independence, Missouri: Herald House,1951),"Last Testimony of Sister Emma [Smith Bidamon]," 3:356.
"I, as well as all of my father's family, Smith's wife, Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris, were present during the translation. . . . He [Joseph Smith] did not use the plates in translation."
---(David Whitmer,as published in the "Kansas City Journal," June 5, 1881,and reprinted in the RLDS "Journal of History", vol. 8, (1910), pp. 299-300.
In an 1885 interview, Zenas H. Gurley, then the editor of the RLDS Saints Herald, asked Whitmer if Joseph had used his "Peep stone" to do the translation. Whitmer replied:
"... he used a stone called a "Seers stone," the "Interpreters" having been taken away from him because of transgression. The "Interpreters" were taken from Joseph after he allowed Martin Harris to carry away the 116 pages of Ms [manuscript] of the Book of Mormon as a punishment, but he was allowed to go on and translate by use of a "Seers stone" which he had, and which he placed in a hat into which he buried his face, stating to me and others that the original character appeared upon parchment and under it the translation in English."
"Martin Harris related an incident that occurred during the time that he wrote that portion of the translation of the Book of Mormon which he was favored to write direct from the mouth of the Prophet Joseph Smith. He said that the Prophet possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone, Martin explained the translation as follows: By aid of the seer stone, sentences would appear and were read by the Prophet and written by Martin and when finished he would say 'Written,' and if correctly written that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place, but if not written correctly it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used."
(Edward Stevenson, "One of the Three Witnesses,"reprinted from Deseret News, 30 Nov. 1881in Millennial Star, 44 (6 Feb. 1882): 86-87.)
In 1879, Michael Morse, Emma Smith's brother-in-law, stated:"When Joseph was translating the Book of Mormon [I] had occasion more than once to go into his immediate presence, and saw him engaged at his work of translation. The mode of procedure consisted in Joseph's placing the Seer Stone in the crown of a hat, then putting his face into the hat, so as to entirely cover his face, resting his elbows upon his knees, and then dictating word after word, while the scribes Emma, John Whitmer, O. Cowdery, or some other wrote it down."
(W.W. Blair interview with Michael Morse,Saints Herald, vol. 26, no. 12June 15, 1879, pp. 190-91.)
Joseph Smith's brother William also testified to the "face in the hat" version:"The manner in which this was done was by looking into the Urim and Thummim, which was placed in a hat to exclude the light, (the plates lying near by covered up), and reading off the translation, which appeared in the stone by the power of God"("A New Witness for Christ in America,"Francis W. Kirkham, 2:417.)
"The manner in which he pretended to read and interpret was the same manner as when he looked for the money-diggers, with the stone in his hat, while the book of plates were at the same time hid in the woods."---Isaac Hale (Emma Smith's father's) affidavit, 1834.
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