Posted on 01/05/2002 11:55:52 AM PST by Brian Kopp DPM
I think you meant "imply." And no, I do not imply this.
I state it as fact. Simple, unadulterated, inarguable fact. Your lack of familiarty with Jesus' teachings speaks for itself. Read your Bible, and you won't have to ask me where Jesus said this.
You are stating this as not fact, but your warped subjective point of view and poor ignorance of The Church. You have a lot of nerve painting Catholics as having a "lack of familiarty with Jesus' teachings". I suggest you attend a Catholic bible study (News flash: Catholics DO read the bible, and we do this every week at my parish) to see for yourself that Catholics today are NOT ignorant of His teachings, but pray and try to live His teachings daily.
Amazingly, (although not to us) we've had many "converts" including ex baptist ministers, ex prodestant seminary students who have "seen" Jesus' message through the eyes of The Church. Many come back to The Church because they are sick of the "man made" (fill in your own blank) that is passed as "reformation."
We have the gift of what you call "confession" or what it is now called "reconcilliation." We confess our sins to God, in the name of His Son, NOT the priest. The priest is there as our supporter, and offers comfort when we are troubled by our sins. At least, we are not too proud to admit when we sin, or when we are wrong, unlike many of the "holier than thou" crowd.
Bottom line. We are one people, with One God. We are ALL The Body of Christ. Deal with it. Christ has.
Christ gave us the Our Father, which was intended to be prayed repeatedly. God the Holy Spirit inspired other repetitious prayers intended to be prayed and sung repeatedly by believers.
Christ was not condemning repetition, per se, but by "vain repetition" he was referring to prayers offered to false gods such as Zeus and Apollo that are vain because those gods do not exist.
I resent being put in the same category as the "moonies" by your saying that Catholicism is a cult. Remember, if not for Catholicism, Christianity would not exist. Following that line of "thinking" (or lack thereof), if Catholicism is a "cult" as you charge, so are all of the Christian faiths that have evolved from it.
I never painted Catholics as being generally deficient in their Bible study, I chided one person for not being familiar with Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.
If you misread your Bible the way you misread my post, that could be a big part of your problem.
Where in the Bible does Christ tell us to confess our sins to a man (priest)? Where in the Bible does Christ tell us that we should ever pray to the virgin Mary for anything?
If nowhere in the Bible are we thus instructed, then how can it be Biblically sound to do so? That which does not come from the Bible does not come from God, but from Man... or worse.
I do love and pray for you.
If Catholicism is a cult, then it doesn't bode well for Protestantism--that can't get it straight WHAT it believes in as things keep "evolving" and bifurcating.
Keep in mind too that Protestantism is based on the Catholic Church by name and in fact.
Again an accurate summary of your knowledge of Catholicism and the Bible. Too bad you know not Sacred Scripture. Perhaps the Holy Spirit will be able to turn your heart back to the Church that you have rejected.
Repetitve prayer
Matthew 6:7 "And when you are praying, speak not much, as the heathens. For they think that in their much speaking they may be heard." Be sure you read Matthew 6:1-6, for it places this in the proper context.
Matthew 26:44 "And leaving them, he went again: and he prayed the third time, saying the selfsame word."
The Apocalypse 4:8 "And the four living creatures had each of them six wings; and round about and within they are full of eyes. And they rested not day and night, saying: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come."
1 Thessalonians 5:17 "Pray without ceasing."
Confession
John 20:22,23 "When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained."
2 Corinthians 5:18 "But all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Christ; and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation."
James 5:16 "Confess therefore your sins one to another: and pray one for another, that you may be saved. For the continual prayer of a just man availeth much."
Matthew 18:17-18 "And if he will not hear them: tell the church. And if he will not hear the church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican. Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven."
Tobias 12:9 "For alms delivereth from death, and the same is that which purgeth away sins, and maketh to find mercy and life everlasting."
Hail Mary
Luke 1:28 "And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women."
Luke 1:42 "And she cried out with a loud voice, and said: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb."
Not through works. Not through man-made Vulgate mumbo-jumbo, nor via some post-Tridentine/Vatican II modernization (bastardization?) of the same.
Christ left us his Word... God's word, in the Holy Bible. And nowhere in it do you find the stations of the Cross or praying to the saints or bowing to statues.
Jesus does warn against praying to graven images and idols, however. He does caution against putting our faith in men.
If I truly beleived what I am saying (and I do!), and honestly believed that your Salvation depended on your learning these truths, how could I love you and not tell you?
What I say, I say out of the love that Christ had for us all, that none should perish, but that all should be saved. I do love you. May God bless you.
Those rituals found in Catholicism and not in the Bible are man-made, pagan rites.
Your interesting and valuable article devolved into the usual Catholic-bashing.
It happens EVERY TIME!
That is the sticking point. Many folks aren't in the market for that. They want to make up their own minds, particularly when the ethos of individualism is in the ascendency. There is a bunch of other stuff too, like marriage in the priesthood, birth control etc., but maybe that is not central.
This might sound heretical, but I suspect under the pressures of the marketplace, the two strains are becoming less distinctive. That is certainly true as a practical cultural/matter in the US.
Exodus 25 18-22:
18 And the Lord spoke to Moses saying...Thou shalt make also two cherubims of beaten gold, on the two sides of the oracle,
19 Let one cherub be on the one side and the other be on the other,
20 Let them cover both sides of the propitiatory, spreading their wings, and covering the oracle, and let them look one towards the other, their faces being turned towards the propitiatory wherewith the ark is to be covered,
21 In which thou shalt put the testimony that I will give thee.
22 Thence will I give orders, and will speak to thee over the propitiatory, and from the midst of the two cherubims, which will be upon the ark of the testimony, all things which I will command the children of Israel by thee.
8 And the Lord said unto him: Make a brazen serpent, and set it up for a sign: whosoever being struck shall look on it, shall live.
9 Moses therefore made a brazen serpent, and set it up for a sign: which when they that were bitten looked upon, they were healed.
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