More and more people are returning to Catholicism as some other Church’s are turning to the practice’s of suborning their religions to deviant sexual acts, or accepting women as Priests.
Some things I consider basic . They brag on their reading the Bible ,but they appear to pick and choose their passage’s. My knowledge of the Bible is not extensive,but I do believe I understand why Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.
They are very brave people to admit what they used to do.
"Crossing the Tiber" http://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Tiber-Evangelical-Protestants-Historical/dp/0898705770/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280057368&sr=8-1
"Upon the Rock" http://www.amazon.com/Upon-This-Rock-Scripture-Apologetics/dp/0898707234/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280057368&sr=8-2
Both of which helped me to find my way back ionto the Catholic Church
Oh. THIS is going to be a nice friendly thread ....
If anybody needs me, I’ll be in the bombshelter in the basement.
I’m reminded of the relations between the faiths in the small town where I grew up.
It was over 50 years ago. I was raised United Methodist, we didn’t call ourselves “evangelicals”, we were simply “Methodist”. Jewelry, makeup and dancing were all works of the devil - until the preacher’s kids hit their teenage years, then it was acceptable. There was little agreement between Protestant religions, and none between Protestant and Catholic. Our church looked down on the Presbyterians, we believed in free will, the Presbyterians believed in 100% complete predestination - to the point that we were nothing but puppets and God was pulling our strings. Baptists believed only full immersion was true baptism. We took our religion seriously and it was the cause of a number of after school fights. Protestants were taught that Catholics were idol worshippers, after all - they had statues (idols) in their church and actually prayed to (or through) them.
The bickering was why I left the Church as soon as I was old enough to assert independence.
When we moved back a dozen years ago some things had not changed. It wasn’t as wide spread as before, but the small church beside our house was very “old line”. They didn’t claim affiliation with any denomination, considering themselves independent Christians. The big thing that shocked me was their attitude toward education. Less was better. My wife was welcome and given the job of childcare during services. I have a bachelor’s degree and it was made clear I wasn’t welcome.
Bible studies are very much promoted in the Catholic Church now and have been for a few decades.
[“We were trained to evangelise Catholics – we believed you are not saved, that you are going to hell as you follow the Pope instead of Jesus, you pray to Mary instead of God, you have tradition instead of Scripture, you thought you got saved by doing good works instead of by faith in Jesus,” he told about 60 people on Thursday, 8 July, at Trinity College, East Perth.]
Mary was not crucified for our sins, died and buried and risen from the grave on the third day for our salvation and she was not the mother of God, she was the mother of the body of Jesus, a virgin, and was the handmaiden of the Lord but a sinner saved by grace through faith in the God of Israel. And the popes office was created by the church at Babylon(Rome), a religious order that persecuted Jews and Bible believing Christians throuhout the centuries and is in fact the largest cult group that God will destroy during the 7 year tribulation with all false religious groups.
First,all religions can believe but they will but those who do not believe the gospel of salvation as stated clearly in I Corinthians 15: 1-4 are not saved no matter what they belive or do if they do not believe this particular gospel of the Father concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. They have a legal right in America to believe as they will but the gospel is clear and cult religions including Roman Catholicism is not the gospel of the Scriputure. I was never trained to evangelize Christians by the Body of Christ, I was instructed by the Scriptures to preach the salvation gospel of Jesus Christ to all the world baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. The gospel of salvation is;
1 Corinthians 15
1Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
This must be accepted by grace through faith without works as good works are vain for savation without faith in God’s Word in the Scriptures.
Ephesians 2:
4But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
7That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
11Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
And Catholics do beleive they are saved by good works and not just fatih alone and therefore they can not be saved if they trust themselves or Mary or the pope or whatsoever they believe. There is a lot of mysticism and fables and secret knowledge in their church and they worship Mary and the saints and angels, all condemned by God’s Word.
The truth will set you free.
As usual, sometimes, there’s no accounting for taste.
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This fellow is so deluded.
My family were Catholics for 1,000 years. I left the hocus-pocus, paint-by-numbers approach of the Catholic faith at age 15 when I was offered an opportunity to have a living, personal relationship with Christ.
The Lord isn’t impressed by what denominiation or even how religious you are. The whole point of Jesus’ being born as a man, suffering and dying was to offer us a way to receive mercy and foregiveness for our sins in order to have a living RELATIONSHIP with God at the heart level.
It is actually rather easy to just “touch the bases” of the sacraments instead of really being KNOWN by God, which requires the effort that any relationship does. (See Matt. 7:22-23). Yes, there are some Catholics that know Christ personally and are pursuing Him spiritually. But there are so many more in the Catholic Church (and in fairness other mainline Prot denominations too) who rest in the false confidence that you will be saved if you regularly attend mass, etc. irrespective of the life you live the other six days of the week.
Many spiritually hungry Catholics, like me, leave the church when they come to realize that Christ wants a living, active, personal relationship with you, not some rote observance of ceremonial traditions.
Are you one of those hungry Catholics?
For later.
I've been an evangelical since I was eight years old, and I've NEVER been taught these things. I suspect this man is from a more fundamentalist and/or Baptist tradition where certain things are exaggerated.
“we believed you are not saved”
I've always understood that, as in ALL Christian denominations, some are NOT saved, if they don't understand and personally trust in the gospel of Jesus. No less true for Roman Catholics as for the average Presbyterian.
“ that you are going to hell as you follow the Pope instead of Jesus"
True enough...but I've never heard a Protestant claim Catholics followed the Pope INSTEAD of Jesus....so a straw man argument, in my case anyway.
“you pray to Mary instead of God"
Never heard instead of, rather praying to Mary or the Saints IN ADDITION to God...something I never see in the New Testament's detailed instructions to young Christians... (and if you cannot prove something from holy Scipture, please do not try bind my conscience by it...)
“you have tradition instead of Scripture"
Again, NO INSTEAD there, as it is official Roman Catholic dogma (see the Council of Trent) that Tradition has EQUAL weight as holy scripture. Of course when you have two "equal" authorities....one does tend to trump the other, especially the more flexible authority (vs. written authority)...as tradition is, when in the hands of the Church curia....(still never taught tradition is fully "instead of" scripture)
“you thought you got saved by doing good works instead of by faith in Jesus,”
MANY, Many, (many) Christians of all stripes mistakenly think that Good works, plus Gods grace in Jesus = Salvation. The gospel is that Gods grace in Jesus + Salvation = (a life full of) good works.
The way this is worded is clearly meant to demean Christ-followers who aren't part of the Roman Catholic Church. "Recruit"? Huh?
No, we're not trying to "recruit" anyone. We are simply preaching Christ crucified. In some cases, it may serve people to leave Rome in order to come home to Christ.
Praise God for His Church, which is the body of believers who've placed their faith in Christ.
Debates, Ray vs. James White, others:
http://vintage.aomin.org/This%20Bereans%20passage.html
http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/index.php?amount=0&blogid=1&query=Steve+Ray