Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The hidden exodus: Catholics becoming Protestants
NCR ^ | Apr. 18, 2011 | Thomas Reese

Posted on 05/17/2012 5:40:57 PM PDT by Gamecock

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 621-640641-660661-680 ... 1,441-1,455 next last
To: metmom
Because there's always the hope that some day the spiritual blindness will be lifted and the Holy Spirit will be permitted to illumine your mind and you will see the truth.

I see. So it's using scripture like a magic spell or charm.

I've heard there's a lot of that in third world countries, too; mixing Christianity with Voodoo and such.

Guess I shouldn't be surprised....

641 posted on 05/29/2012 6:20:26 AM PDT by papertyger ("And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if..."))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 606 | View Replies]

To: boatbums
What is it you think I'm NOT getting? That the Catholic Church doesn't use Scripture to prove the doctrines it espouses?

Are you saying you don't understand the difference between "using Scripture" and basing the Church's authority from it?

tsk, tsk, tsk. Sounds like a bit of a shell game being played there.

642 posted on 05/29/2012 6:28:09 AM PDT by papertyger ("And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if..."))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 612 | View Replies]

To: stpio
God did not give each person the gift to interpret Scripture, you would see thousands of personal opinions.

God made it available to everyone but those who are in bondage to man/i.e., the RCC are left in the dark because they don't value HIS WORD ALONE. So let's not say what 'God did not'!! HE DID IT ALL! God's Word is spiritually discerned, so the HOLY SPIRIT is the TEACHER. It's HIS Word, HE teaches HIS WORD!

It would result in division. Terrible, terrible fruit.

There is no division with God's people - as they are 'in HIM'. Who would say being 'in HIM' is terrible? Only those who aren't spiritually discerning (the natural man) because they are in bondage to man.

1 Cor 2:14

"A person who isn't spiritual doesn't accept the teachings of God's Spirit. He thinks they're nonsense. He can't understand them because a person must be spiritual to evaluate them".

"But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

Romans 15:15,16

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust IN HIM, so that you may overflow with hope by the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT".

"I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another."

"I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them, again, because of the grace God gave me"

"to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, SANCTIFIED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT".

It's ALL about Jesus. God's Holy Spirit inspired Word is the FINAL Authority.

643 posted on 05/29/2012 6:34:39 AM PDT by presently no screen name
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 618 | View Replies]

To: boatbums
That's funny. My Bible says:
Luk 2:29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:
And that while the scripture clearly states "the Holy Ghost was upon him" in verse 25.

Maybe you need a better Bible.

644 posted on 05/29/2012 6:39:28 AM PDT by papertyger ("And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if..."))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 614 | View Replies]

To: roamer_1
So you don't have John 6:53 in your Bible, either? What about:
Mat 26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed [it], and brake [it], and gave [it] to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

Mar 14:22 And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake [it], and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.

Luk 22:19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake [it], and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.

I don't know about you, but when Jesus Christ, creator of the universe says "This Is": I believe it.
645 posted on 05/29/2012 6:48:51 AM PDT by papertyger ("And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if..."))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 615 | View Replies]

To: papertyger
I've heard there's a lot of that in third world countries, too; mixing Christianity with Voodoo and such

Mixing God's Word with anything brings deception.

The ONLY TRUTH is GOD'S Holy Spirit inspired Word ALONE!

646 posted on 05/29/2012 6:49:14 AM PDT by presently no screen name
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 641 | View Replies]

To: roamer_1
If one proposes that one's church trumps the very words of YHWH, all that can be left is incredulity.... One cannot step back from that and find common ground, because if you truly believe that, then there is no common ground.

Do you not believe Jesus Christ is God incarnate?

Do you REALLY want to claim that any edifice of man has authority over that?

The Church is not "of man."

I should think you would know that....

647 posted on 05/29/2012 6:53:29 AM PDT by papertyger ("And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if..."))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 616 | View Replies]

To: CynicalBear
I am quite familiar with 2 Tim 2:15 and would simply ask you to show me from scripture where we are taught the bodily assumption of Mary or that she is now the “queen of heaven”.

They are not in the Scripture as you well know, but we've already established from Luke 2 that there is more to God's word than what is contained in the Bible.

648 posted on 05/29/2012 6:57:23 AM PDT by papertyger ("And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if..."))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 636 | View Replies]

To: stpio
God is going to bring Christianity together

Christianity is together - God's Word ALONE brings them together.

It is written: "'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.'" Romans 14:11

So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God". Romans 14:12

NOTICE It is Written which means HIS WORD - not man made teachings. And an account of 'himself' and not a church or what it taught!

649 posted on 05/29/2012 7:00:47 AM PDT by presently no screen name
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 541 | View Replies]

To: presently no screen name
Mixing God's Word with anything brings deception. The ONLY TRUTH is GOD'S Holy Spirit inspired Word ALONE!

I didn't approve of the practice.

I'm only making an observation.

Perhaps you should review the story of the "brazen serpent" for a fuller understanding of using sanctified objects as idols.

650 posted on 05/29/2012 7:06:17 AM PDT by papertyger ("And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if..."))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 646 | View Replies]

To: presently no screen name
NOTICE It is Written which means HIS WORD - not man made teachings.

Excuse me, do you think there is something magical about writing things down?

We have already established Luke 2 proves God's word is more than just what is written in the Bible.

651 posted on 05/29/2012 7:10:57 AM PDT by papertyger ("And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if..."))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 649 | View Replies]

To: metmom

Thank you. I stand abashed and corrected.


652 posted on 05/29/2012 7:24:44 AM PDT by count-your-change (You don't have to be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 634 | View Replies]

To: stpio; count-your-change; All
Thanks for explaining but I am slow, I still don’t quite get it. And not to argue. To appear to be reading someone’s mind is a no, no but outright or veiled personal insults are okay? No one can read anyone’s mind but God and a few mystics in history.

I can and do intervene to prevent Religion Forum posters from "making it personal" but there is nothing I can do to prevent them from "taking it personally."

For something to be "making it personal" it must be speaking to another Freeper, personally.

"Protestants are heretics" is not making it personal. "You are a heretic" is making it personal. "Catholics worship Mary" is not making it personal. "You worship Mary" is making it personal.

However, when a poster paints with a brush that accuses an entire religion of criminal behavior - his post will be pulled as flame bait. For example, posts that say "Protestants kill babies" or "Catholics molest children" will be pulled. However, if the post is specific about a non-Freeper, I will not pull it. For example "Rev. Doe says abortion and infanticide are not sin" or "Father Doe was convicted for molesting those kids" would not be pulled.

Statements formd as questions are rarely "making it personal."

"Are you a heretic" is not making it personal. "You are a heretic" is making it personal.

Forms of "making it personal" include mind reading, attributing motive, accusing another Freeper of telling a lie (because it attributes motive, the intent to deceive) - making the thread "about" individual Freeper(s), following a Freeper from thread to thread and badgering a Freeper over-and-again with the same question.

When in doubt, avoid the use of the pronoun "you" and Freeper's names - or put yourself in the other guy's shoes.

653 posted on 05/29/2012 7:29:43 AM PDT by Religion Moderator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 620 | View Replies]

To: boatbums; metmom; caww; smvoice; presently no screen name; RnMomof7; CynicalBear; ...
That Scripture, not being God, draws its authority directly from God, that being its Author is true in the same sense that it is true of a true man of God like Jeremiah, whom God can raise up from stones, (Mt. 3:9) who is such even if rejected of the men who sit in spiritual authority.

However, this ignores the means which such is authenticated as being from God, and thus it is stated that Scripture derives it's authority from the Church. But the church is not God either, and the fact is that the authentic authority of the church itself is established upon Scriptural substantiation (Divine writings being supernaturally established as per below), as was true of the itinerant preacher of Galilee (Jn. 10: 37; 5:36,39; Mt. 22:29; Lk. 24:44, etc.) whose authority was challenged by those who sat in the valid seat of authority. (Mk. 11:28-33)

And thus from the beginning Peter, Paul and others labored to substantiate the truth claims for and of the church by Scripture and the attestation it promised. (Acts 2:14:-36; 4:33; 5:12; 7:1-53; 13:16-41; 15:6-21;17:2,11; 18:28; 28:23; Rm. 15:19; 2Cor. 12:12, etc.)

Going back further, God established the authenticity of the faith and morals of men like Abraham by supernatural means, and thus men followed Moses who was likewise testified to, and who thereby affirmed the faith of Abraham in the One True and living God. And under whom God gave the Law, and which became the standard for obedience and for testing truth claims, as is evident, and by conflation and complementarity in text and power more was added, and such was progressively established as being of God and authoritative due to their Divine qualities (often manifest by those who believed/obeyed them, or on their behalf). Likewise it would become evident in time that there was no more like it.

And contrary to the premise that without an infallible decree establishing an indisputable canon then it would not be credible or widely accepted, conciliar decrees recognizing what is Divine — as warranted and helpful as they can be — are not the reason for the enduring popular establishment of the Divine writings, but this is due to the inherent enduring qualities of these writings, which the corporate body comes to recognize, having “eaten” the Word from Heaven by which life-giving faith comes. (Rm. 10:17) By the same principal souls believed on Christ even without official sanction. The long-established 66 book Protestant canon of Scripture, which is different from that of Trent, the EOs (these two being different themselves) and Luther, serves to example this means of establishment. Likewise most of the writings of Scripture were established as authoritative by the time of Christ, and thus Scripture was abundantly invoked as such, without any evident formal decree as to which ones were.

And by conformity with Scripture in word and in power, men of God and the church of the Living God were and are established as being so.

Replacing Scripture as the supreme authority, as the assured Word of God, and asserting that Scripture derives its authority from the church, which derives its authority directly from God, renders the church to be autocratic, infallibly defining itself to be the assuredly infallible one true Church©, and Truth being whatever she says it is, and is not dependent upon the weight of Scriptural warrant, with whatever Scriptures are invoked only having weight because she says so. Thus the church effectively is as God. And unlike even a Divinely inspired writer of Scripture, she thus asserts that she ever will be infallible whenever speaking according to her infallible defined scope and subject-based formula.

In effectively asserting that the church of Rome is the supreme authority, justification for the assuredly infallible magisterium of Rome is argued based upon the premise that it is necessary for the establishment of Scripture and preservation of Truth, and is derived from the commission of God to teach all things and promises of God's presence and guidance to believers.

However, to reiterate what i previously have said, Israel was the instrument and stewards of Holy Writ, and recipient of the Divine promises, (Rm. 3:2; 9:4) And those who sat in the seat of Moses were also commissioned to teach all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken, as supreme teachers and magistrates, and to Israel were also given promises of God's presence, guidance and perpetuation as they walked as believers. (Lv. 10:11; Dt. 4:31; 17:8-13; Is. 41:10, Ps. 89:33,34; cf. Mt. 23:2 etc.)

And by them writings were established as being Divine, Truth was given and preserved, and through whom Christ came, all of which did not require an assuredly infallible magisterium of men, not did it assure unconditional perpetuation directly through them by formal succession.

But yet Truth was preserved, for as God is able to raise up from stones children to Abraham, so He raised up men who did not have the sanction of those who sat in the seat of Moses, often being done in order to reprove them when they presumed too much. And thus the church was established in dissent from those who laid claim to valid authority and historical decent, but who presumed a level of assured veracity and authority that made their authority and the “tradition of the elders” equal to Scripture. (Mk. 6:3-16)

And according to this principle upon which the church was established, so it is preserved as the body of Christ, the church of the Living God, versus its institutionalized counterpart, though as in Scripture, a mixed multitude exists in its varied organic bodies.

654 posted on 05/29/2012 7:36:24 AM PDT by daniel1212 (Come to the Lord Jesus as a damned+morally destitute sinner,+trust Him to save you, then live 4 Him)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 582 | View Replies]

To: papertyger
What with you and magic?

God's WORD is SUPERNATURAL unlike man made teachings.

It is WRITTEN are the words of JESUS - It means everything to HIS OWN and NOTHING to those who aren't.

655 posted on 05/29/2012 7:40:11 AM PDT by presently no screen name
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 651 | View Replies]

To: papertyger
I didn't approve of the practice.

The Vatican/the RCC does.

656 posted on 05/29/2012 7:46:41 AM PDT by presently no screen name
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 650 | View Replies]

To: roamer_1; papertyger; metmom
"First and foremost the Father explicitly commands us against cannibalism and the drinking of blood... So your interpretation must needfully be incorrect, to say the least."

I suppose that is why you would have been among those to desert Him at the synagogue in Capernaum.

Peace be with you.

657 posted on 05/29/2012 8:14:44 AM PDT by Natural Law
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 615 | View Replies]

To: papertyger
He also said this....

John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

By taking that passage literally, that MUST mean that He is made of bread dough. And by taking that passage literally, that must mean that those who eat Him will never hunger or thirst again. Give me one case of someone who partook of the eucharist who never got hungry or thirsty again.

John 6:36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

Taking this literally, Jesus is teaching salvation by faith, simply by believing one attains eternal life and they are eternally secure in Him as He Himself said that He would lose none of those who the Father gave Him.

John 6:47-48 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life.

John 6:63 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

He comes out right here and tells us that He is speaking spiritual words, spiritual truth.

The flesh counts for NOTHING. It is the Spirit which gives life.

Thinking you're eating Jesus flesh is going to do nothing for you. Jesus said what we do in the flesh counts for nothing.

658 posted on 05/29/2012 8:16:24 AM PDT by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 639 | View Replies]

To: papertyger
I've heard there's a lot of that in third world countries, too; mixing Christianity with Voodoo and such.

Like in predominantly Catholic countries like Haiti?

Yeah, I'm not surprised either. Catholicism is very accommodating to superstition.

659 posted on 05/29/2012 8:18:33 AM PDT by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 641 | View Replies]

To: presently no screen name
What with you and magic?

It's the difference between myself, and my Protestant opposition on this thread.

I, coming from a background both Protestant and Catholic, can discourse cogently about the Christian faith.

These others, who just keep talking trash like they are rooting for their favorite ball team, and ignoring pertinent questions to yet again repeat their sanctified cliches, are merely expressing superstition dressed up in Christian garb. i.e. "magic."

660 posted on 05/29/2012 8:21:06 AM PDT by papertyger ("And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if..."))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 655 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 621-640641-660661-680 ... 1,441-1,455 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson