Replies

I have never stated at least I have never intentionally stated that one religion is as good as another, I have simply not stated that one religion is better than another. If I did think one church better than another why would my “opinion” be of any value to anyone else. My father once explained to me that opinions were line a—holes, everybody had one and most of them stink.

It appears however that some religions have a much more weighted claim to truth than others. That the “Catholic” churches are the descendants of the church led by Peter seems to be true by evidence we see in historical records. That is some pretty heavy weight. Being the remnant of the original church however does not necessarily make the Catholic faith “THE” only faith approved by our God. As I said earlier therein lies the rub, as Sportin Life said in Porgy and Bess, “it ain’t necessarily so.”

Are there reasons to question The Catholic Church? I should say so, but I am a nobody as we are all nobodies and must make decisions based on the knowledge we have before us. What God has given to us in His infinite wisdom is His Holy Spirit to help us come to a righteous decision about faith.

The thing is, I believe God our Heavenly Father, the Father of us all is a real being, a being who hears my prayers, who loves me simply because I am His child. I am not unique, He loves us all. I believe that Jesus Christ is the literal Son of God and that because I (and all others) are sinners we lost our chance to ever be with God again because only perfection can dwell in God’s presence. I am not perfect. Jesus Christ was perfect, yet He was subjected to the punishment that God’s law prescribes to my imperfection, He did not have to do that, He did it because He loves me. Because He did what He did on that day when I stand before God and the books are opened there will be a blot mark where my sins were, When God questions what was there The Lord, The Savior, Jesus Christ will say the penalty has already been paid, he is mine, I purchased him with My blood. I will then be ushered in to His presence to live with Him forever. I will become an heir with Christ of all that His Father has.

These are things I know through study, prayer and by revelation given to me by The Holy Ghost. There are many that teach these things so I am not alone in my knowledge of them but some that teach those things teach other things that I may not agree with. Some teach that without a righteous priesthood to administer the laws and ordinances of His church that my knowledge of Him and His Father are useless, these people make a good case and are worth listening to. Others who believe the same things but again have beliefs that I question say that authority to administer the laws and ordinances of The Gospel of Jesus Christ come from another source, they come from The Holy Bible and knowledge received from Seminary instruction, from the laying on of hands from wise, educated and respected people. Like Martin Luther they too make a a good case for their understanding.

The problem is as I see it they can’t all be right, they are in fact mutually exclusive. Each church calls the other church wrong and in many cases are singled out by the wise educated people as simpletons, ignoramuses or even worse , evil. The churches I see most singled our are Catholics and Mormons. For some reason the churches that are descended from Catholic are not singled out for the berating that I have seen and heard over and over for the better part of the last seventy years. During my years on earth I have witnessed a few things on my own without the help of others. I have read and re-read the Bible many times. I have read in Matthew 7 how we should pray in secret, I have also read there that by their fruits you shall know them. When I see a TV preacher with an animated prayer and an 800 number on the screen to call to give donations I get turned off and think of rotten fruit. When I see the Catholic Church I see a lot of good fruit. When I see the Mormons I see a lot of good fruit. Is there unrighteousness in those churches? Perhaps but by their fruits they look pretty good.

I am done with criticizing other peoples churches that have good fruit and when I see good fruits I like to acknowledge them and investigate them. When I see churches that ordain queers and teach that marriage between two men or two women is the same as between a man and a woman then I classify that as bad fruit. When I see a church teach that the ten commandments are done away with when The Lord didn’t say that, but that they were fulfilled I see bad fruit. It would be tempting to say that because a minister or priest did something wrong that that is bad fruits but I have decided that what individuals do should not be what we judge a church by, we judge by their doctrines.

When churches do what they think will bring them the most money I have a hard time feeling their inspiration. When I see churches with good fruits I may not believe they are right but I am sure not going to believe they are wrong.