Why I Have Decided to Leave the Catholic Church

timstaples.com ^ | April 1, 2016 | Tim Staples

[YogicCowboy]

I agree wholeheartedly: not funny, and not to be made funny (whether one is a Catholic or not).

[MHGinTN]

“His faith is misplaced. Too bad it’s not in Christ instead of a church.” One of satan’s most effective strategies is getting people to focus upon rituals and orgs rather than The Grace of God in Cheist working just the way the Brass Serpent did so long ago. And it doesn’t matter to satan if the focus is on the Catholic Org, or the Methodist org, or the Baptist org, or the Mormon org, etc., so long as the follower of the org remains focused upon ‘doing to earn’.

[MHGinTN]

And the reality is, this ‘joke’ is more serious than Catholics would like to believe.

[Elsie]

I believe the sole rule of faith for Christians has to be Scripture.

Thanks; Rome; for the book you assembled.

I'm sorry you didn't put everything NEEDED into it.

[daniel1212]

well I was leaning forward toward the RC church but now I am leaning backward Its the pope and no Aprils fools

But there are far greater reasons.

[Elsie]

Look at all the slime in here you hooked with some simple bait.

But they'll go to confession later and be cleansed of it.

[daniel1212]

I joined last Easter. Popes, like presidents, aren’t permanant.

But the multitude of errors of Rome sadly are.

[daniel1212]

Until the last line, it is actually the best thing that Tim Staples has ever written. I pray that the Holy Spirit will convict Staples of the truth of what he thought he was writing in jest.

Amen.

[daniel1212]

I came to that same conclusion about 30 years ago. It wasn’t an April Fools gag.

Same here, thanks be to God. Scripture commands it, and from fellow liberal Prot churches as well. (2Cor. 6:14-18)

[Mrs. Don-o]

Amen to all that.

[daniel1212]

First, He's going to have to show Staples why all his refutations are wrong.

Refutations of his have been shown to be wrong, many even here and here and here and elsewhere by the grace of God. Let me know if anyone posts some more to refute.

[EDINVA]

I KNEW it was April Fools. Don’t trust anyone or anything today!

[daniel1212]

Mary is VERY special. Prophesied of in the Old Testament, fulfilled in the New Testament. She is the Christotokos, Mother of Christ! However she needed to be saved by her Son just like us. Which is why she calls God her “savior”!

One would have a hard time in Bible times explaining kneeling before a statue and praising the entity it represented in the unseen world, beseeching such for Heavenly help, and making offerings to them, and giving glory and titles and ascribing attributes to such which are never given in Scripture to created beings (except to God or to false gods), including having the uniquely Divine power glory to hear and respond to virtually infinite numbers of prayers individually addressed to them

Which manner of adulation would constitute worship in Scripture, yet Catholics imagine that by playing word games then they can avoid crossing the invisible line between mere "veneration" and worship.

Moses, put down those rocks! I was only engaging in hyper dulia, not adoring her. Can't you tell the difference?

Catholics should only do (and I should do more of) what Mary and every believer in Scripture did in praying to Heaven, which was to pray directly to the Lord, not saintly secretaries. But they must truly become born again for that.

Instead, many Caths basically say,

As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes... (Jeremiah 44:16-17)

[boatbums]

Agreed!

[LurkingSince'98]

“Its the pope”

just listen to yoruself

the Catholic Church is NOT the pope nor is the pope the Catholic Church

you forget the Catholic Church made it through the Medici and Borgia popes just fine.

if you not in because of the pope - you were never meant to be ‘in’

AMDG

[terycarl]

Sadly, Roman Catholics do pray TO these people.

no they don't

[Mark17]

Sadly, Roman Catholics do pray TO these people.

no they don't

I can't speak for anyone else, but when used to be a Catholic, I certainly did. How about the rest of you?
I realize I was more interested in looking at the girls, so I didn't pay much attention in catechism class, but that was my experience. 😆😀😃

[metmom]

Yes, they do. They have to to pray to them to ask them to do something for them. Even if it’s just *passing on a request*, it’s still petitioning them for something.

And the prayers TO Mary ask for far more things than just asking God on their behalf.

[metmom]

Catholics DO pray to others besides God for those others to do things for them.

A simple google search on *prayers to saints* gives you about 20,500,000 results in (0.49 seconds).

[knarf]

Oh fer cryin' out loud ... you do so TOO pray to them !

Holy Mary, mother of god PRAY FOR US SINNERS ....

Now, how can Mary pray for us sinners unless you ask HER ? ?