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Flame war and childishness |
Posted on 07/14/2014 9:20:18 AM PDT by NKP_Vet
To my Protestant brothers and sisters:
It's time to come back to Mother Church. We want you, we need you, we love you.
I've spent a lot of time in dialogue with activist atheists recently, and the direction we are going is not pretty. We are witnessing a rapid cultural decline into amorality.
Satan seeks the ruin of souls through the destruction of marriage and family, and the quickest route to his goal is the profanation of sex. The truth and meaning of human sexuality is our era's cultural fault line, and unfortunately, Protestant denominations have been tumbling into its widening crevace at an alarming pace.
The first cracks denying the sacred nature of human sexuality began mere decades ago with the first tentative acceptance of contraception by a Christian church (the Anglicans). After 1,900+ years of unbroken Christian teaching on the immorality of contraception (including 400+ years of unbroken Protestant teaching), a moral evil was suddenly declared good. The entirety of Protestantism, although horrified at first, soon followed suit.
"Woe to those who call evil good" -- Isaiah 5:20
Then came other issues -- sterilization, masturbation, abortion, fornication and cohabiting, homosexual activity and homosexual "marriage". One by one, Protestant communities have broken from Christian teaching and sided with the secular culture. Many Protestant communities do not accept all the aforementioned evils as good, of course, and some are making a valiant attempt to fight one or more of them. However, there is no guarantee that those denominations won't eventually accept other sexual sins in the same way they accepted contraception, sterilization and masturbation. A majority vote by church leaders could launch an unsuspecting Protestant from the Spirit of the Gospel right into the spirit of the age -- the Planned Parenthood age.
Look where you are standing. Unless you stand with the Catholic Church, you may already have one foot off the cliff.
How to guarantee that you'll stand firmly on the ground of moral Truth? Come back home to the Catholic Church.
For over two thousand years:
The Catholic Church has never taught that contraception is a moral good, and she never will. The Catholic Church has never taught that sterilization is a moral good, and she never will. The Catholic Church has never taught that masturbation is a moral good, and she never will. The Catholic Church has never taught that abortion is a moral good, and she never will. The Catholic Church has never taught that fornication is a moral good, and she never will. The Catholic Church has never taught that homosexual activity is a moral good, and she never will.
The moral teachings of the Church have never changed, and they never will.
Human sexuality is transcendent, life-giving and sacred, and the Catholic Church will teach that Truth till the last day.
Dear Protestant, a church with a changing morality is a church built on shifting sand. If you want to build your life and eternity on something solid, build it on the Rock of Peter. Don't be carried about by every wind of social change; come back to the Catholic Church and stand strong with us -- one united Body as Jesus intended.
America may not survive many more generations at the rate we are going, but the Church and her teachings will stand regardless, speaking the same Truths, undisturbed, till the end of time. Believe me, it's a really nice place to be in a storm. Extremely peaceful.
So, come on. You'll like it here, living in peace and joy and certainty. It's your rightful home anyway.
Come back to Holy Mother Church. It really is time.
It’s time for the Catholic church to come back to the original faith of the Apostles!
Who is worshiping Mary?
That's backwards. For those who consider contraception an evil, it is the symptom of moral decay, not the cause of it.
If the moral decay wasn't already happening, contraception would not have gotten a foot hold.
Evil cannot gain a foothold where is it not allowed.
Contraception is an easy thing to hang one's hat on to blame the state of the world, instead of taking personal responsibility for our own contributions to the decadence of this planet.
Blame-shifting is always easier than doing something about it and feels so much better.
Luke 18:9-14 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The pope kissing the koran. Fits right in with the Catechism of the Catholic church.
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P29.HTM
841 The Church's relationship with the Muslims. "The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day."330
Not interested in a church that panders and bows to muslims.
She has already excommunicated herself.
quote “The moral teachings of the Church have never changed, and they never will.”
well... accept now capitalism is bad, and socialism is good, according to the new pope!
i’ll pass.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latae_sententiae
The poster should be ashamed of him self for sewing discord among Christians AND freepers.
You should be ashamed too.
The pope.
“True, Forgiveness is secured by the Sacrifice of Christ, however, it is not applied to a sinner unless that sinner repents and believes the Gospel.”
Agreed. And how does scripture tell us men are given that forgiveness under normal circumstances as envisioned by Christ and in His instructions to the Apostles? Acts 2:38; John 20:19-23.
“Are you born again as Christ commanded Nicodemus?”
Yes, John 3:5, 22.
“That is the true measure of whether or not you are a Christian.”
Agreed: “I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins...” (Nicene Creed).
“Not adherence to the traditions and processes of a church like the Catholic Church or even any Protestant Church for that matter.”
You create a false dichotomy. Sacred Traditions are not the man-made traditions of Protestants. St. Paul told us to hold fast to the traditions passed down to us: 2 Thessalonians 2:15. The NIV editors deliberately changed the text to say “teachings” rather than “traditions”. Oddly, they put the correct translation in the footnotes.
“And no, you do not Know anything, you Believe what your church, the Catholic Church, tell you.”
No, I KNOW. I know for a few reasons: history, the Apostolic Fathers, Scripture, common sense, and most importantly a personal encounter with Christ. None of that will convince a Protestant since Protestants ignore or distort history, do the same with the Apostolic Fathers, distort scripture, avoid common sense, and my encounter with Christ would simply be countered by what they say was their personal encounter with Christ.
“Don’t Conflate Believing with Knowing.”
I don’t. I just know what I know and believe what I believe. And here they are the same thing.
Although I would never boast of a conversion as dramatic and instantaneous as that of Alphonse Ratisbonne, I agree wholeheartedly with how he summed up the moment of his conversion:
“I came forth from a tomb, from an abyss of darkness ; and I was living, perfectly, energetically living. . . . and yet I shed tears. I saw before me the fearful miseries from which I had been rescued by the mercy of God ; I shuddered at the sight of my innumerable sins, and I was stupefied, melted, almost crushed by a sense of wonder and of gratitude. ... I thought of my brother with a joy beyond words ; but tears of compassion were mingled with my tears of love. Alas, that so many should go quietly down into this yawning abyss with their eyes closed by pride or
by indifference . . . should go down and be swallowed up of this horrible darkness... and then, my family, my betrothed, my poor sisters ! O torturing anxiety! My thoughts were of you, O ye beloved ones, — my first
prayers were for you ! . . . And are you never to raise your eyes towards the Saviour of the world, whose blood hath blotted out original sin ? O, how foul is the blot of that stain ! how completely it obliterates every trace by
which we might recognise the creature that was made in the image of God !”
http://www.amazon.com/The-Conversion-Monsieur-Marie-Alphonse-Ratisbonne/dp/1781486298
RE: It’s time to come back to Mother Church. We want you, we need you, we love you.
I don’t know, but as a non- Roman Catholic Christian, I have never thought that I had left the catholic (universal) church.
So, why do I need to come back? I’m already home.
When I started reading what the bible said I had lots of questions, like “God loves me?” He isn't looking for ways to send me to hell? The priest and nuns told us always how bad we were. The punishment from the nuns and priest would land them in jail today. The only kids not condemmed were the rich kids whose parents gave lots of money to the church. When I was taught about the martyrs I remember thinking that was the only way a sinner like me could get to heaven because I sinned every day and needed daily confession and my church only gave confessions once a week. The odds of getting to confession right just before I died were low.
As a young adult I wondered why the priest never talked about abortion or sex outside of married, the real things happening in our world. I left the church because I heard the good news of the gospel in Gods own words and felt hope and loved by a Father I never heard of.
I was starting to become politically active. I was wondering how politicians who were for abortion and homosexuality could be called a catholic and I knew I learned that people could be excommunicated for living in grave sins, let alone preaching what the church called moral sins. Ever wonder why there are so many liberal catholics? Look at the message the church is sending by allowing Pelosi, Kerry,....call themselves catholic. When Al Gore was allowed to speak at a catholic high school I knew I left a church that was hypocritical. Today they still allow pro abortion politicians who believe in it up to 9 months in the womb, and those who destroy a person for believing in traditional marriage to call themselves catholic. Being catholic means you can promote all kinds of sins and there are no consequences. I carefully chose my church that teaches us to live by Gods word and loves us enough to tell us the truth on right and wrong. I know I don't have to be a martyr to get to heaven, but believe in Jesus death on the cross as payment for my sin. I pray my former church puts Gods word before mans beliefs.
The Church at Pentecost was led by the apostles speaking in tongues.
Over 3,000 were baptized that day.
Christ left his Church in the good hands of the Apostles.
The hymnal is being worked on, thanks to my local Bishop. The latest Readings section has only traditional hymns in it.
But you didn’t know that did you? Look for even more improvements when the music issue (hymnal) comes out at the beginning of Advent for the new liturgical year, and thank Archbishop Sample!
Nonsense.
As long as the Catholic church continues to treat her as a member, they do not consider her ex-communicated even if you do, except when it's convenient to count her as part of the 1.2 billion strong that Catholics love to brag on.
Besides, that argument is nothing more than an excuse for the RCC not taking action. It does not absolve them of the responsibility they are supposed to take to discipline members who are not living according to Catholic doctrine.
But then, since they can just lazily claim that, they are not forced to clean house by applying the same standards of discipline on themselves, which they would have to do if they started working on the laity.
It's a self-serving, abominable action to avoid having to do the dirty work themselves, and by that, condemn themselves in the process.
However, to an outsider, the Catholics have also have built what looks like a formidable bureaucracy around their take on spiritual things, complete with pageantry, ritual and formal rules of behavior, and have maintained them with seemingly as much zeal as with their faith in God.
To the uninitiated outsider, this bureaucracy and its rules and rituals are difficult to understand and they get between the seeker and what I believe is their more completely balanced soul food the seeker hungers for.
My guess is that this bureaucracy also makes it hard for the Protest-ants to come back, since it seems to be why they left in the first place.
“No, you were reached by the Catholic Church, not God.”
Let me ask you a serious question: How would you know? How dare you assume you know what has or has not happened in my life? Where do you get off doing that? I flatly state the truth: Protestantism does not teach the true gospel. Protestants do not believe in the true gospel. I NEVER, EVER deny that some Protestant might have some faith in Christ and I don’t assume that Protestants are unsaved even though they do not know the true gospel in all its aspects. I don’t do any of that because I can’t claim to know every detail about every person - although many details are obvious in what people write. So, where do you get off assuming I have not had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ? Seriously, you need to check yourself.
“Don’t conflate the two.”
Again, you don’t seem to understand the obvious. Christ founded the Church. You can’t separate them.
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