Well, the man is following his own conscience and that is as it should be. He hasn’t betrayed me. But I do think it shocking that his idea of the gospel is so flexible. And I wonder also how he can go from not worshipping Mary to now praying to her and bowing before her statues. How can he just give over his understanding of Scripture to the authority of Rome? Or does he plan on being a bad Catholic?
Actually, for me it's not worshipping Mary so much as asking for prayer....much as I would ask my own mother for intercessory prayer, or pray for my children and grandchildren. As for scriptural authenticity, the first part of the "Hail Mary" is pure scripture (Luke 1:42) and the rest is a request for intercession. It's a family thing, Ghost; a great, big, wonderful family thing.....
Catholics do not worship Mary. Catholics are not required to pray to her nor to bow before her statues. She is highly honored as the mother of Christ, an example of one who said “yes” to doing God’s will instead of her own, but she is not God, and we Catholics are well aware of that.
Catholics and other Orthodox Christians (in fact, about 3/4 of all Christians on earth) follow the ancient practice of praying to saints for intercession. The practice is completely optional and is not unlike an Evangelical Christian asking a friend, family member, church prayer group or pastor to pray for them. If one believes in the power of prayer, then the more prayers the better. Catholics also pray for each other and pray directly to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
I converted to Catholicism from a Protestant denomination many years ago. As my deeply faith-filled mother said, “It’s the same Jesus.”
By discovering that the successor of Peter has such authority.
-A8
I don't know this man's personal story, but he probably realised that the Scriptures were given authority by the Church in the first place.
After all, he had already accepted the Churches authority by accepting the Gospels and Acts as Scripture.
He had all ready accepted the Churches authority in NOT accepting the 'Babylonian Gospel', the 'Aquarian Gospel' and any number of gnostic accounts of the life of Christ as Scripture.
Or perhaps his path was completely different - he read Scripture and realised that he needed to eat the Body and drink the Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
I wish a warm welcome to this man, and may God continue to bless him.
And here we go...
How? Here's how - because Jesus told Peter, the first Pope,
"And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Jesus gave that authority to Peter - not to everyone who chooses to interpret Scripture as they see fit.
John 25:21 But there are also many other things which Jesus did; which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written.
If you take the time to read Church history, you would find yourself in awe. Take for instance, did you know that during the first few centuries that Christians were accused and persecuted for cannibalism? Did you know that the Scribes were sola scripture? Did you know that 400,000+ lambs were sacrified from the time of Christ til the fall of Jerusalem but to no avail. Did they love God no less than less than you love Christ? These good people were mislead...
John:6:54 Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.
Eucharistic timeline -
http://www.eucharisticlife.com/ELimages/Timeline/Timeline.html
2000 years - The Church of the Apostles which Christ specifically gave authority to Peter. If Christ did not want to dictate authority, he simply would not have singled out Peter, but spoke to the 12 as individuals to go off and preach.
34,000 Christian denominations all preaching something different. Ever wonder? If you ever knew and you can.