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To: tiki

Thanks for the response.

Funny, I was raised Catholic and ended up a Protestant.

I never held a bible to read until i was in my 30s.

Methodists tend to be a mainline church that focuses on social issues more than the gospel. Was that true of yours?

I think evangelical churches (for the most part ) are a little more gospel focused.


324 posted on 06/06/2007 9:19:46 AM PDT by ears_to_hear
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To: ears_to_hear
Actually, no. Did you not see the part I wrote about the Bible? I feel very sad that you feel you didn't have the Bible as a guide growing up but did you not listen to it at Mass? Why do you think that we sing the Allelluia when the priest is about to read the Gospel. Why do you think we cross ourselves on the forehead, lips and heart, we are asking that the Word is in our minds, on our lips and in our hearts. Or that we ponder the Word, speak the Word and accept it into our hearts.

I also know and knew lots of Baptists, Methodists and kids from every faith who never felt the need to read the Bible. It doesn't mean it wasn't there and present through their church services and the lives of the faithful if they cared to listen. I know a lot of Catholics who say what you say, but they obviously didn't feel called to do the hard work it took to find about what their faith really taught. I believe that if my Catholic friends had been more informed about their faith that I would have become Catholic sooner but I can't whine about that, I believe I became a Catholic in God's own time. Completely oblivious of what I was doing, I believe that God used me to put lapsed Catholic friends back into the church and to ask questions so that they could answer my questions. And some of those same friends ended up Catechizing me when I joined the Church, I just find it amazing!

Anyway it wasn't the fault of the Church that those Catholics didn't know the faith it was the fault of that Catholic who didn't ask the questions.

I have seen 2 citations in the last day of the scripture about mother's milk and eating meat but do they even consider that there comes a time when we have to find our own meal or die, that along with no longer needing mother's milk that we grow and provide our own food? That the mother who sustained us expects us to do something for ourselves.

I've read your posts and you seem to want me and others to listen to your interpretation of the Bible and believe the faith that you are in now. Then you say that you were a Catholic and didn't hold a Bible until you were 30. If not why not? If someone informed you wrongly why didn't you ask questions until you found the truth? Why do you believe that you didn't read the Bible, even if it wasn't in a compiled Bible. I remember scripture from church services before I knew how to read. Why didn't you ponder the Word every week or read it in the missal?

When I became Catholic I didn't ask why God made me a Methodist and wasted my time because I had already asked what the Methodist church believed and while not rejecting most of what it believed, I longed for more. More truth, more meat. Yes, I came to regret what so many Methodist churches had become but not most of their tenets of faith. I didn't curse the faith of my youth, I embrace it gladly to this day, I am just glad He gave me a map and set me on the journey to wholeness.

I would challenge you to take an RCIA course. There are some on the internet, one that I found very simple and informative is the free one from Fr. Lukefahr. They send you a book and then you can answer questions on the net and then they tell you if you understand. I'm not saying this to change your belief but so you can understand what the church teaches and not live with the misconceptions and anger for believing that the church failed you. I see the those misconceptions in your posts and wonder that you could believe some of the things about Catholicism that you seem to believe.

Now, I'm going to shock you. I don't think that I NEED the Bible, personally to be saved. I believe that it contains all the information I need to be saved, I believe that it is the inspired Word of God, I believe that it is infallible, I believe that it is an incredible gift, I believe I can draw unbelievable wisdom from it, I believe I can draw closer to God by reading it but I also believe that God could save me if I had never heard of the Bible, if I couldn't see, or hear or think or if it had never been. If I believed that one had to have the Bible to be saved, I would have to believe that Peter and Paul aren't in heaven because they never saw the Bible and Paul didn't see Christ when he walked this earth. I would have to believe that all those early Christians are lost in some limbo and they will never see the face of God (because surely they wouldn't be in hell) because they didn't read a Bible. If it wasn't written it would still be true. If I couldn't avail myself of the Bible, it would still be true, God alone saves, the Bible is a gift to his people in written form. It is an aid to our salvation and it teaches us, but it does not save, God does.

423 posted on 06/06/2007 10:59:30 AM PDT by tiki
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