Posted on 01/23/2014 9:29:40 PM PST by NKP_Vet
1. Best One-Sentence Summary: I am convinced that the Catholic Church conforms much more closely to all of the biblical data, offers the only coherent view of the history of Christianity (i.e., Christian, apostolic Tradition), and possesses the most profound and sublime Christian morality, spirituality, social ethic, and philosophy.
2. Alternate: I am a Catholic because I sincerely believe, by virtue of much cumulative evidence, that Catholicism is true, and that the Catholic Church is the visible Church divinely-established by our Lord Jesus, against which the gates of hell cannot and will not prevail (Mt 16:18), thereby possessing an authority to which I feel bound in Christian duty to submit.
3. 2nd Alternate: I left Protestantism because it was seriously deficient in its interpretation of the Bible (e.g., "faith alone" and many other "Catholic" doctrines - see evidences below), inconsistently selective in its espousal of various Catholic Traditions (e.g., the Canon of the Bible), inadequate in its ecclesiology, lacking a sensible view of Christian history (e.g., "Scripture alone"), compromised morally (e.g., contraception, divorce), and unbiblically schismatic, anarchical, and relativistic. I don't therefore believe that Protestantism is all bad (not by a long shot), but these are some of the major deficiencies I eventually saw as fatal to the "theory" of Protestantism, over against Catholicism. All Catholics must regard baptized, Nicene, Chalcedonian Protestants as Christians.
4. Catholicism isn't formally divided and sectarian (Jn 17:20-23; Rom 16:17; 1 Cor 1:10-13).
5. Catholic unity makes Christianity and Jesus more believable to the world (Jn 17:23).
6. Catholicism, because of its unified, complete, fully supernatural Christian vision, mitigates against secularization and humanism.
7. Catholicism avoids an unbiblical individualism which undermines Christian community (e.g., 1 Cor 12:25-26).
8. Catholicism avoids theological relativism, by means of dogmatic certainty and the centrality of the papacy.
(Excerpt) Read more at ourcatholicfaith.org ...
But only Mary was the mother of God, so when the angel called Mary blessed he was not talking about Jael, who was blessed among many wives. Mary was blessed upon all women, for all ages, for she was the mother of the Lord.
Show me where *full of grace* = *queen of heaven*.
Luke 7:28 I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
In that passage, St. Paul is talking about the Cross, which appears foolish to those who have no faith, no matter how much wisdom they think they have.
It is not a blanket condemnation of rationality.
The prayer incorporates two passages from Saint Luke's Gospel: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,"[1] and "Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb."[2] In mid-13th-century Western Europe the prayer consisted only of these words with the single addition of the name "Mary" after the word "Hail," as is evident from the commentary of Saint Thomas Aquinas on the prayer.[3]
The first of the two passages from Saint Luke's Gospel is the greeting of the Angel Gabriel to Mary, originally written in Koine Greek. The opening word of greeting, χαῖρε, chaíre, here translated "Hail," literally has the meaning "rejoice" or "be glad." This was the normal greeting in the language in which Saint Luke's Gospel is written and continues to be used in the same sense in Modern Greek. Accordingly, both "Hail" and "Rejoice" are valid English translations of the word ("Hail" reflecting the Latin translation, and "Rejoice" reflecting the original Greek).
The word κεχαριτωμένη, (kecharitōménē), here translated as "full of grace," admits of various translations. Grammatically, the word is the feminine present perfect passive voice participle of the verb χαριτόω, charitóō, which means "to show, or bestow with, grace" and, in the passive voice, "to have grace shown, or bestowed upon, one."[4][5]
The text also appears in the account of the annunciation contained in the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Matthew, in chapter 9.
The word grace used in this passage in Luke is used in one other place in the Bible and that is Ephesians 1 where Paul is us that with this same grace, God has blessed us (believers) in the Beloved. IOW, we all have access to that grace and it has been bestowed on us all.
http://biblehub.com/greek/5487.htm
Luke 1:28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
Ephesians 1:4-6 In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Greek word “grace”
charitoó: to make graceful, endow with grace
Original Word: χαριτόω
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: charitoó
Phonetic Spelling: (khar-ee-to'-o)
Short Definition: I favor, bestow freely on
Definition: I favor, bestow freely on.
HELPS Word-studies
Cognate: 5487 xaritóō (from 5486 /xárisma, "grace," see there) – properly, highly-favored because receptive to God's grace. 5487 (xaritóō) is used twice in the NT (Lk 1:28 and Eph 1:6), both times of God extending Himself to freely bestow grace (favor).
Word Origin: from charis
Definition: to make graceful, endow with grace
NASB Translation: favored (1), freely bestowed (1).
It makes no sense to and it violates plenty of Scriptural precedent to not contact the dead.
What's the mater? Can't God handle our requests Himself?
Jesus promised that He would answer our prayers. Why go to someone else when we have access to God Himself? Don't Catholics trust God and believe what He tells us in His word?
So we are all as blessed and as important as Mary was.
Blah, blah, blah, bitta boom, bitta bang. Now why did I expect any different explanation.
Baloney.
God Himself tells us that if we don't provide for our families, we have denied the faith and are worse than unbelievers.
It's not the same thing at all.
So says the all knowing one. It is spoken, therefore it is true.
And as said, if recognizing writings as being of God makes one the supreme authority, in the form of the magisterium, then the church should have submitted to the scribes and the Pharisees.
Yup. We all have a role to play in God’s workings on this earth and what is important is not what the role is but our faithfulness in obedience to that calling.
So it doesn’t really matter that Mary carried Jesus and helped raise Him. She was doing what God called her to do in obedience and will be rewarded as all who live in obedience to Him.
“Thow shalt not bow down before them”.
Has anyone not seen images of Catholics bowing before statues of Mary? One only needs to do a cursory search to see for themselves.
Luke 11:27-28 27 And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. 28 But he said, Nay rather, (Greek Menounge: nay surely, nay rather) blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
I do believe that we all agree that it was the Holy Spirit who spoke through Paul.
1 Timothy 5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.<<
I would suggest that making fun of “the all knowing one” is precariously close to blasphemy.
That's impossible, for in magnifying Rome as if it were God, it is argued by Catholics there were no Scriptures until Rome gave and established them, thus the Church was founded on something that didn't exist.
And as the Jesus in the gospels - which is really all that matters - did not command the disciples to write His words, then "be the church" meant to go into the "world, to teach, and to baptize," without referencing or writing Scriptures, and which they did on their own.
A different church indeed.
Good Lord. I’ve seen it all now.
Now elevating Paul over Mary? Why am I not surprised.
Well afterall, she was just a peasant girl, with all the sins and imperfections that we all have. Nothing more than the luck of the draw when God chose her to give birth to his son.
She did the deed, now disappear. As in go away, you bother us. Maybe God have mercy on your souls.
That's right.
Nothing more than the luck of the draw when God chose her to give birth to his son.
She had the right lineage is all. There was nothing special about her than that.
She did the deed, now disappear. As in go away, you bother us.
There's precious little mention of her after the circumstances surrounding His birth.
Maybe God have mercy on your souls.
He has and I am now saved. You can be too.
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