Posted on 04/01/2016 12:41:08 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
I am letting you be among the first to know. It is true. I am leaving the Catholic Church. I want you to know that this has not been a decision made in haste or without serious and intense research and consideration. But I can no longer remain in a church that I no longer believe in.
Let me explain.
I will be writing more about this soon, but for now let me just say there are five main reasons why I am leaving the Catholic Church:
1. I believe the sole rule of faith for Christians has to be Scripture. The Holy Bible is the only unchanging and definitive word of God that a Christian can build his or her life upon. Everything else, including the Catholic claims to authority, in the end, amount to ever-changing and ultimately sinking sand.
2. I believe works or any sense of salvific cooperation with Gods grace as constitutive to a Christians eternal life is unbiblical. not of works (cf. Eph. 2:8-9) means not of works.
3. The idea of Mary and the saints being involved in the salvation of a Christian is tantamount to a denial of the sufficiency of Christs redeeming work on Calvarys cross.
4. #3 can also be said of Purgatory, the sacrifice of the Mass, the Catholic view of salvation/justification, and more. These and more of the elements of Catholic teaching result in a denial of the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ. More to follow in a more detailed post.
5. What Catholics call the veneration of Mary and the saints is actually idolatry.
These are just for starters here. Many of you know that for the last 28 years I have defended the above teachings and more from the Catholic Church. I can no longer do so in clear conscience.
And by the way, just so you know
April fools!
I agree wholeheartedly: not funny, and not to be made funny (whether one is a Catholic or not).
“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’.
And the reality is, this ‘joke’ is more serious than Catholics would like to believe.
Thanks; Rome; for the book you assembled.
I'm sorry you didn't put everything NEEDED into it.
But there are far greater reasons.
But they'll go to confession later and be cleansed of it.
But the multitude of errors of Rome sadly are.
Amen.
Same here, thanks be to God. Scripture commands it, and from fellow liberal Prot churches as well. (2Cor. 6:14-18)
Amen to all that.
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.
I KNEW it was April Fools. Don’t trust anyone or anything today!
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)
Agreed!
“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
no they don't
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. 😆😀😃
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.
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).
Holy Mary, mother of god PRAY FOR US SINNERS ....
Now, how can Mary pray for us sinners unless you ask HER ? ?
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