“Talk about bilgewater.....”
How would you know? You have no experience of it. Your opinion on the matter is worthless.
“We are to be set apart for God and to God and NO ONE ELSE.”
Because there were Protestants in my life whom I loved and respected, I thought my mother was too harsh when she called them petty and narrow-minded.
“To do so is idolatry.”
Okay, so in your world, to love someone whom Christ loves is idolatry. Wow. I sure am glad that your world is not the one God created.
“If Catholicism is so tied to Mary, then it’s not about Jesus.”
That idea is petty and narrow-minded. God gives with both hands, freely and generously. He gives us wise men to guide us, holy men to show us the way, Saint Joseph to be an example to fathers; the Blessed Virgin Mary to be an example to mothers; Saint Peter to teach us about courage, loyalty, and human failings; Saul of Tarsus to teach us that we can be wrong, and Saint Paul to teach us that even if we are wrong, God can put us right—et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
“If Mary had played such a pivotal role in salvation, God would have told us in Scripture”
Right, sure, that idea is not petty and narrow-minded, because everything God has ever wanted to communicate to us or will ever want to communicate to us is in there. And the KJV is not incomplete and rife with translation errors.
Here’s some news: God still communicates with us; sometimes directly, sometimes through saints. He still works miracles. And sometimes He chooses to allow the Blessed Virgin Mary or some other saint to be the agent of His works.
“All that extraneous stuff that Catholicism loves to add on about Mary is NOWHERE mentioned in Scripture by the Holy Spirit.”
So, if God talks to you, you’re going to reject what He says because it’s not in scripture. Good thinking.
“Mary fulfilled the role God had for her when she, as a virgin, gave birth to Jesus. That was ALL she had to do to fulfill prophecy and once that was done, there is nothing about her life that had or has any bearing on Jesus bringing salvation to the world, or the Holy Spirit working our salvation out in us.”
Reading that filled my nose with the stench of Satan. It’s frightening. Martin Luther would probably have dealt a severe beating to anyone who said that.
“Mary has no power to do what is God’s work alone”
Mary has whatever power God chooses to give her, as is true of all His creatures. We Catholics are aware that, out of love for us, God has given Mary power and authority to help the living. You protestants, for whatever twisted reasons, insist that God is not capable of using Mary—or, apparently, anyone else—as He pleases.
“and to claim that she does diminished the work of God and exalts her beyond what ought to be for a human being”
Bilgewater. A God who can create the universe, all that is visible and invisible, can certainly use His creatures as He pleases. Since Mary wants to help us, God allows her to warn and comfort, and when she prays to Him, He listens. It is truly tragic that you Protestants cut yourselves off from the gifts God offers to us.
“God will share His glory with no other.”
Your god is a third-grader. Your god is stingy. Your god only gives his creatures a tiny fraction of what God offers. Your god is a limited god, a god who can’t rise above human failings, a god who thinks, as did the elder brother of the prodigal son, that anything received by anyone else diminishes himself.
Shake off your ego. Admit that you could have been wrong all these years. Come worship God, the real God, the One who is above pettiness, who can allow His creatures to help Him in His plan—not because He needs help, but because He is infinitely loving. Come worship God, who doesn’t scrimp on blessings, who doesn’t give just the bare minimum needed to scrape our way to salvation, but showers blessings on us even beyond our ability to comprehend.
Some Protestants think “If a person could be saved without this, it must be false.” That’s the way their god rolls. But God wants everyone to be saved, so he gives more than just the bare minimum. If a person *could* be saved without something, that means he *might not* be saved without it, so God offers it anyway—and this, and that, and the other thing, whatever might help.
And you Protestants just fling it back in His face, judge for yourselves what is “necessary” to salvation, and, in so doing, impoverish yourselves spiritually.
Stop that. Come worship God.
That is not license to make up stuff and pass it off as truth.
And who's talking about the KJV anyway?
Why are you dragging that into it?
Have you nothing else left to use but red herrings?
Proof from scripture please. Book and chapter.
Why do Catholics always twist someone's words? No one has said love for someone is idolitry. It's when that "love" comes before Christ.
To that DSC responds:"Your god is a third-grader. Your god is stingy. Your god only gives his creatures a tiny fraction of what God offers."
God says:
Isaiah 42:8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
Hmmm, who to listen to. I'm going with God who metmom quoted.
Chapter and verse?
It is truly tragic that you Protestants cut yourselves off from the gifts God offers to us.
God GIVES us gifts, He doesn't OFFER them and they are listed in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12.
On what planet?
A person can be saved without being baptized, but nobody ever said that baptism is *false*.
The teaching that baptism is required is a false teaching, however.
He gives us wise men to guide us, holy men to show us the way, Saint Joseph to be an example to fathers; the Blessed Virgin Mary to be an example to mothers; Saint Peter to teach us about courage, loyalty, and human failings; Saul of Tarsus to teach us that we can be wrong, and Saint Paul to teach us that even if we are wrong, God can put us right—et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
yada yada yada
Jesus said “Be Holy, for I Am Holy.”
He never said, “Be like Moses, Be like Noah, Be like Mary, Be like Peter...etc...”
Set aside your detestable practices; love and obey The Lord.