Posted on 01/26/2018 1:04:07 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose
We are in a time of the first ever mass conversions of Muslims,” Father Mitch Pacwa SJ told me in a phone interview. “God is doing a mighty work among them.”
Pacwa said that mass conversions are happening even in very fundamentalist countries. There is rapidly growing number of conversions especially on the edges of the Muslim world in the western and southern parts of Africa, he said. “Africa is now growing predominantly Christian despite crackdowns,” Pacwa said.
Some of the noteworthy countries he mentioned include Iran, reported to have 3 million Christians, and Indonesia with reports of 2 million a year converting.
“In Mongolia, the president opened the country to Christians and there’s even an archbishop,” Pacwa said. “They built a Catholic school there too. If I was younger, I would have gone.” He said that the desire for a Western education was the impetus to open up the country to the Catholic Church.
There are even conversions happening in many strict Muslim countries, according to Pacwa. He did not want to go on record with particulars for fear of increased retribution. Mass conversions are also being reported among refugees that are filling up the Christian churches left empty by Europeans. Many wonder if those are authentic conversions or just a response to improving their chances for amnesty, but time will tell.
Signs of this conversion are showing up in the U.S. too, Pacwa said. “I was about to celebrate Mass at a Maronite church in San Diego and I said hi to a man who introduced himself as Achmad. I asked if he was a Christian. He said: ‘Yes, I was recently baptized.’ He said he from Morocco. Christians do not have the name Ahmad—that’s a form of Mohammad.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
“What a terrible fate for those who lived and died in the 1450 or so so years between Christ’s resurrection and Martin Luther.
“Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
(I Kings 19:18)
In every age, God has had His people - despite the failures of leaders.
Only those who place their faith in Christ are Christian. Reliance upon anyone or anything else is not Christian.
If a group advocates anything otherwise, they are not Christian.
What a terrible fate for those who lived and died in the 1450 or so so years between Christ’s resurrection and Martin Luther.
It's terrible the Roman Catholics didn't make more of an effort to stay with the Scriptures and get them into the hands of the laity.
Had they done so they may not have verred off the road.
However, even in NT times there were problems. John addressed them in his writings in 1 John and Revelation.
Paul addressed them in Galatians for example.
But he also notes the following in Romans.
18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Romans 1:18-23 NASB
I don't want a laundry list of your objections. I want a contemporary source who described Rome's alleged Apostasy. Someone who was alive in A.D. 250 and watched it happen with his own two eyes.
I don’t see that as a problem at all. That’s how Christianity started and how it has grown.
The fact that the children of “The Revision” scour the Bible for answers that aren’t there, and so invent them through novel interpretation apart from true historical, and might I add pre-literate, perspectives is why there are more Protestant sects than flavors of jelly beans.
Suggest you read Romans and compare it to what Roman Catholicism teaches.
I've been reading Romans 3-5 in the Greek.
It makes a difference in the understanding of the texts Paul is writing.
Read Romans and then let's talk further.
“I want a contemporary source who described Rome’s alleged Apostasy. Someone who was alive in A.D. 250 and watched it happen with his own two eyes.“
Interesting how you defined your demands and assumptions.
“You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
- Jesus
If you don’t recognize that there are more catholic practices then jelly beans you don’t live in reality. And I’ll stick with Gods word over the inventions of the Catholic Church. Even Christ quoted scripture as the authority when answering questions, not the latest encyclicals of the scribes and Pharisees.
You should see some of the beliefs of Roman Catholics on these threads.
Seven Churches. In Asia. Not Rome.
>>14“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. 16“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
17“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
18“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
20“For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. John 3:14-20 NASB<<
14. The key question here is what does it mean to “believe” in him?
17. What is the point being made by citing this verse?
18. As in 14, the question is what does it mean to “believe”?
19/20. What is the point being made by citing these verses?
>>And just what can you do to earn your salvation<<
Actually the relevant question is what MUST you do to avoid LOSING your salvation.
Now it's your turn.
But part of the Church the Catholics would claim as Roman Catholic. Rot starts at the head . The presence of absence of writing from 250 AD proves nothing. The Catholic Church would hardly preserve writings that disagreed with them. You are creating straw man by your demand for manuscripts from 250 AD. The point is the Catholic Church has many apostate and heretical teachings called out time after time not when we have a document calling them out. Even today if the Catholic Church would repent of its heresy it would be welcomed by Christians everywhere
Praise be to God.
Is Christ’s repudiation of Peters error enough for you? Right after the verse that your sect interprets as Christ appointing Peter as the first pope, Christ turns to Peter and says get the behind me Satan! Is that close enough to the founding of your “church”?
Christ cannot be denied. It may take a long while, but Christ’s love always wins out in the end. Has mankind ever had a better gift than Christ’s all enduring love?
And what justifies Protestant false teachings when they claim the Bible as final authority, then clearly “cut and paste” other parts of the Scripture to yield answers the Bible clearly does not give?
Furthermore, constant repetition of the Revisionist “Word of God” doctrine does not make it any less wrong, nor any less disprovable. Rome can, and does, make such a claim for Sacred Tradition, and would never be questioned on it save for Revisionists seeking justification for their Revisionism.
There is nothing I can do to lose my salvation. It is in Christ’s hands and He does not lose... thanks be to God
“Seven Churches. In Asia. Not Rome.
It sounds as if you are indicating that these churches had no overriding authority. No “pope” for example.
I appreciate that clarification.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.