How Can the (Catholic) Church Teach Angels?

Catholic Answers ^ | March 15, 2015 | Tim Staples

[Elsie]

I can see it now!

When DWTS has finally run outta steam; then perhaps DWTA can get on the air.

[Elsie]

I did read THE ERRORS you posted, and I am telling you that you are wrong.

Now you've gotten the Lurkers curious.

They'll re-read her post and wonder , "What errors?"

Shouldn't you really point them out and explain WHY you consider them to be errors?

Angels are waiting to learn...

[vladimir998]

“Does God have feathers?”

Do you have a point? Apparently not.

[vladimir998]

ebb tide, notice Elsie cannot or will not deal with this:

http://www.cin.org/users/jgallegos/web_aug.htm

He/she keeps posting over-and-over again the same comments from Augustine - all while apparently not knowing - or possibly not caring - that Augustine had a very different belief than the one aspect he/she is presenting.

Remember, as John Henry Newman, a former Protestant who knew Protestantism very well wrote:

“If you would have some direct downright proof that Catholicism is what Protestants make it to be, something which will come up to the mark, you must lie...To Protestantism False Witness is the principle of propagation. There are indeed able men who can make a striking case out of anything or nothing, as great painters give a meaning and a unity to the commonest bush, and pond, and paling and stile: genius can do without facts, as well as create them; but few possess the gift. Taking things as they are, and judging of them by the long run, one may securely say, that the anti-Catholic Tradition could not be kept alive, would die of exhaustion, without a continual supply of fable.” (Lecture 4. True Testimony Insufficient for the Protestant View)

[ealgeone]

If you can believe in Jesus rising from the dead, why can you not believe He gave His flesh for men to eat? Logically you can really only answer in a couple of ways - and those ways will always boil down to how you choose to interpret scripture.

If you kept this verse in context you would understand the meaning of what He was saying in John 6.

[Tao Yin]

What I find fascinating in speaking with Catholics about this is that they quote verses about the apostles and automatically substitute Church.

Just about every time the New Testament reveals the radical nature of Christ’s authority, you will find in close proximity Christ then giving a similar authority to the Church.

No! The authority is passed to the apostles. The apostles are not the same as the church. Just look at two of the verses you quoted.

Eph. 2: the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.

1 Tim. 3 the household of God, which is the church

So if the household of God is the church and the apostles is synonymous with the church, Eph. 2 would say that the church is built upon the church.

The church is built upon the foundation, the church is not the foundation.

And you've mis-translated 1 Tim. 3. The church is the bulwark of the truth. This has also been translated as buttress. Neither bulwark nor buttress means foundation. Seriously. Finding what you want to find rather than what scripture plainly says.

[ealgeone]

Afraid not verga.

That catholics don't view the OT as actually telling stories of real people and real events but rather view it as symbolic is telling....and sad at the same time.

[Lonely Bull]

“Does God have feathers?”

Do you have a point? Apparently not.

Oh, various Bible passages can be interpreted "literally" as saying that God has feathers, such as what many translations have as Psalm 91:4. Similar passages mention apparent wings and arms.

My point is that at least in my experience, even self-described "literalists" do not interpret everything equally "literally" and freely acknowledge the existence of things like metaphors and other figures of speech. Of course, not everyone will agree on what is more "literal" and what is "not"; I'm not taking any particular side but rather pointing out that much will depend on interpretation. So it is that I'd wondering, for example, how people interpret Ephesians 3:10 and its context.

Maybe I deserved this response because I should've picked a less obscure reference. Such a one isn't too hard to find: hardly anyone removes eyes or extremities despite what Jesus seemingly "commands."

[Salvation]

Why are you tellin us that the Old Testament didn’t have real people and that Catholics don’t believe in them?

Why are you telling Catholics what we believe?

You are so mistaken.

[Grateful2God]

**That catholics don't view the OT as actually telling stories of real people and real events but rather view it as symbolic **

Hello, E! We had a similar conversation about symbolism.

The two are not mutually exclusive. The Bible is the living, breathing, dynamic Word of God. What the OT brethren lived and did was true-no matter how implausible it may sometimes seem, but with God, nothing is impossible!

At the same time those people, what they said and did, concerned the Covenant of which Jesus is the fulfillment. Our Lord Himself referred to the sign of Jonah, comparing it to His Death and Rising on the Third Day. There is a true story, maybe one of the strangest in the Bible, but true nonetheless, which was stated also as am allegory by Jesus Himself.

God bless you both!

[ealgeone]

Why are you tellin us that the Old Testament didn’t have real people and that Catholics don’t believe in them?

Why are you telling Catholics what we believe?

You are so mistaken.

Gee, I don't know....maybe because of stuff like this....

Catholicsm on creation....

God himself created the visible world in all its richness, diversity and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine "work", concluded by the "rest" of the seventh day (CCC 337).

Catholicism on Noah....

Joe Paprocki Answers

The Author : Joe Paprocki Joe Paprocki, D.Min., is National Consultant for Faith Formation at Loyola Press in Chicago. He has over 30 years of experience in pastoral ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago. Joe is the author of numerous books on pastoral ministry and catechesis, including The Bible Blueprint, Living the Mass, and bestsellers The Catechist's Toolbox and A Well-Built Faith (all from Loyola Press). See more articles by Joe Paprocki (67).

When Scripture says that “God is my rock,” (Psalm 18:2) we are not to believe that God is literally a rock. The image, while not intended to be literal, expresses a truth about God using figurative language – like a rock, God is strong, steadfast, solid, and can be leaned on! Likewise, the story of Noah’s Ark employs a great deal of figurative language to express an absolute truth about God and our relationship with him: when we sin, it is as if we are drowning, however, God will spare us if we live justly as Noah did.

http://bustedhalo.com/questionbox/do-catholics-believe-that-noahs-ark-is-a-factual-event

Catholicism on Jonah....

Catholics are free to understand the story of Jonah and the whale as literal history or as didactic fiction. In Catholicism and Fundamentalism, Karl Keating writes: "The Catholic Church is silent on the proper interpretation of many biblical passages, readers being allowed to accept one of several understandings. Take, as an example, Jonah’s escapade at sea, which readers often find disturbing. Ronald Knox said that ‘no defender of the sense of Scripture ever pretended, surely, that this was a natural event. If it happened, it was certainly a miracle; and not to my mind a more startling miracle than the raising of Lazarus, in which I take it Catholics are certainly bound to believe. Surely what puts one off the story of Jonah is the element of the grotesque that is present in it’ (Ronald Knox and Arnold Lunn, Difficulties, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 109). http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/is-the-story-of-jonah-and-the-whale-a-myth

Salvation....you should have learned by now that I don't make rash statements about the false teachings of catholicism without having researched the position. Apparently catholics, once again, prove they don't know what their own church teaches.

[Salvation]

Please don’t put all Catholics in a category like this. Aren’t you being judgmental — and besides that — are you mind-reading?

[Grateful2God]

Ever hear of Vatican II?

[HossB86]

False dichotomy from a prot, no surprise here.

You are wrong.

Hoss

[HossB86]

Why are you telling Catholics what we believe?

You are so mistaken.

Because apparently Catholics have some issues there. Especially since they're taught to believe that they worship the same false god as do Muslims in CCC 841.

I wonder what the angels think of that heresy.

Hoss

[Iscool]

If you can't/don't believe in a literal six-day creation, then how could you believe Jesus rose on the third day?

It's pretty clear that they don't believe it...Impossible for Jesus to have gone into the grave Friday afternoon and raised at sunrise on Sunday morning...Apparently the rising on the 3rd day is just an allegory to them...

And like their Eucharist, it's likely that many don't believe in the Resurrection at all...

They can't believe in a six day creation since that would destroy their belief in evolution...Why they would want to believe evolution instead of the six day creation likely has its roots in paganism...

So of course, to reject the miracle of creation, one would have to reject the other miracles as well...

If I can believe the miracle of the Resurrection, I can certainly believe the O.T. miracles...And why, some might ask??? Because God says so...

[verga]

To Protestantism False Witness is the principle of propagation.

Anyone with an IQ above room temperature knows this.

[verga]

That catholics don't view the OT as actually telling stories of real people and real events but rather view it as symbolic is telling....and sad at the same time.

Stop telling Catholics what we believe, that is mind reading.

[MayflowerMadam]

A few decades ago, Billy Graham wrote a book on the subject. I believe its title is... “Angels” (go figure!). It’s pretty good, actually.

[WVKayaker]

... are you mind-reading?- sal

Stop telling Catholics what we believe, that is mind reading. - veggie

Ah! The "flailing for something to say" trick, which alleges something never intimated. That seems to be a common plot by some of the Roman Catholic cult herein, these days.

It is a tragedy that none of them disputes the content, but continually lambast the posters. The roman cult must have a good stranglehold on so many, to be able to blind so many eyes to Scriptural truth. Instead, they wish to relinquish faith AND reason and follow blindly down the Hell hole!

Jesus came to save the world, but not all of the world can see His Hands at work...

Romans 8: ///14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.