Posted on 03/13/2015 12:48:46 PM PDT by Steelfish
A Triumph and a Tragedy by Jimmy Akin
I broke off a piece of the popsicle in my hand and placed it carefully in the mouth of my dying wife. Renee lay on her back, restless in the hospital bed, suffering from an advanced case of colon cancer which we had discovered a little more than a month before. She ate several more pieces of popsicle as I broke them off for her, then said she could eat no more, so I let her rest.
When our parish priest arrived he and I went into a conference room down the hall to talk. The news about my wife’s condition was not good. Renee’s caretakers had outlined three things which could kill her in the short term: one of them instantly, one in a week or so, and one in a few weeks. The doctor said she still had a chance of responding to the chemotherapy and might conceivably live for a few months, possibly even six or more, but that a year would be miraculous. In light of the urgent state of Renee’s condition, we talked about accelerating my entrance into the Catholic Church. It didn’t look like there was much time.
I was born in 1965 in Corpus Christi, Texas, and grew up in Fayetteville, Arkansas. My mom and dad took me to a local Church of Christ until I was five or six, but then quit going. After that I was raised outside any church. This did not mean I was uninterested in religion — I was. When I was thirteen or fourteen, I started reading the Bible, but only those parts I thought dealt with the “end times.”
(Excerpt) Read more at jimmyakin.com ...
whatever gets you through..but having been raised catholic and now Christian..have the departed “pray” for us does not fit into Biblical context of after death.
From the article:
Leon wrote, “Most of the Catholic distinctives that are criticized by our Evangelical brothers are rooted in taking Scripture at face value.” This claim shocked my Protestant sensibilities. “What does he mean? Catholics take the Bible at face value on the points where Protestants criticize them?” I asked, flabbergasted at the thought. “How can he possible say that? Everyone knows it’s Protestants, not Catholics, who are taking the Bible at face value!”
Leon backed up his shocking statement by citing the following verses: “Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you’ ” (John 6:53); “This is my body . . . ” (Luke 22:19); “I tell you the truth, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5); “[D]on’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Rom. 6:3); “baptism . . . now saves you . . . ” (1 Peter 3:21); “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven” (John 20:23); “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church . . . ” (Matt. 16:18).
I thought I could deal with most of these verses, but I had no idea how to refute the Catholic interpretation of 1 Peter 3:21 and John 20:23. Most startling was the very suggestion that Catholic theology rested on the literal interpretation of the Bible. This thought stayed with me and kept bugging me. Eventually it played a significant role in my conversion to the Catholic Church.
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If Catholics could be right on this issue, they could be right on other issues as well. It unsettled me to know they were right on the sacrament of confession.
It gives me an entirely different take on Jimmy Akin. Thanks for posting this.
... unless he or she is in heaven, in which case, not so much.???
Sorry, Paul. The Bible does not exclude those who have gone to Heaven from the Communion of Saints!
I think this is another fake story...They are read the same...All use the same handful of scriptures and same unlogic...
This guy of the story failed at the same place they always fail...Zealousness for theology but no interest whatsoever in the bible...If a person wants to know Jesus, he'll study what God said...
Interesting that nothing at all is said of the tremendous amount of scripture that refutes the Catholic position...Guess this guy didn't learn any of that stuff...
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