Posted on 05/10/2017 9:03:36 AM PDT by Salvation
Continuing with the theme of urgency from yesterday’s post, we do well to consider Mary’s fervent requests at Fatima for prayer, conversion, and consecration. This Saturday will mark the 100th anniversary of Mary’s first appearance at Fatima.
It was a critical time in human history. The First World War had claimed more than 17 million lives. Mary urged prayer to end this catastrophe:
Thanks be to God, through the children’s prayers and surely those of others, the war did soon end. In October, Our Lady said,
War is a terrible result of human sinfulness as well as a punishment for it. Sin is its own punishment; when we sow the wind, we reap the whirlwind. Part of the horror of the First World War was the use of chemical weapons. So appalling was the suffering and so great was the loss of life that in 1925 most nations willingly signed the Geneva Protocol, which prohibited their use in international armed conflicts.
But Mother Mary urgently warned that if the people of this world did not repent, pray, and cease offending God, a war far worse would come:
Sadly, as we know, the Second World War formally ensued in 1939. Months earlier, in 1938, a remarkable display of the Aurora Borealis further south than ever observed made international headlines. It was a final warning. More than 60 million people died in World War II. Atrocities were multiplied, and the most fearsome weapon ever contrived—the atom bomb—would haunt the world long after the war. Russia, too, spread Marxist and atheist errors.
See what happens when we do heed the urgent request to pray? Wars can be ended, souls can be saved, and peace can be brought.
But also note the terrible consequences of failing to pray and be converted! Jesus once said to paralyzed man he had healed, See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you (John 5:14). So, too, for the people of that time who, though having received God’s mercies in the end of World War I, fell back into sin. The decadence, financial excess, and foolishness of the “roaring” 1920s, both in Europe and America, brought a harvest of corruption, both morally and politically. It ushered in both the Great Depression and then a war far worse than ever imagined.
Yes, prayer and conversion are both urgent and essential. This is true not only in terms of this world, but also of the world to come. This world’s travails are indeed awful, but they are temporary. Mother Mary sets far greater stakes before us: Heaven or Hell.
Where will you spend eternity? What about your children, siblings, and friends? Have you thought about this at all? Do you understand the urgency? Consider well some of what our Lady of Fatima said by way of an eternal warning:
Here is a mother urgently warning her children of the fires of hell, of the consequences of sin and the final refusal to repent. Here is a mother urgently calling for prayer, reparation, sacrifices, and conversion.
She is urgent; are we? To be urgent does not mean to be in a panic; it means to be sober and alert, to be persistent and consistent in attending to our final end and to that of others to the degree that we are able.
Caritas Christi urget nos: The Love of Christ urges us on! …. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:14, 20).
Well gee, you brought up ‘abuses’ when I first challenged you.
So you either changed the subject now, or then. Nice job.
Oh, and referring to Trent, a council that didn’t end until over 15 years after Luther died, as a fig leaf to defend the corruption and blame him anyways? Wow.
That the RCC “gave” us the Bible.
A distinction without a difference.
The abuse of indulgences was endemic from the bottom to the top of the church structure. How is that NOT teaching?
Why is it so hard to say that they were wrong on selling indulgences without adding excuses?
The heresy of Indulgences has not ended. The Mariology mythos endemic in being rewarded for repetitions of the Rosary and wearing the Brown placards dedicated to the demigoddess Mary absolutions roars onward, always away from JESUS and toward the wide gate ... just more evidence that Catholicism is not Christianity in the same fashion that Islam is Christianity.
Trying to divert attention from the real issue? You're not going to goad me into an argument either with an ad hominem attack.
Arguing is all Protestants know how to do.
Thank God I'm not a Protestant.
I get that you cannot counter my posts with any reply other than it seems to be to either swear or call for my posts to be pulled.
If this upsets you so much, perhaps you best not read these forums and hang out at those sites where only Roman Catholics gather.
Perhaps you should be reminded of the RM's position on these open forums.
It requires thick skin. A poster must be able to make his points while standing his ground, suffering adverse remarks about his beliefs - or letting them roll off his back.
Members of religions which are as much culture as belief sometimes take religious debate personally. If you keep getting your feelings hurt because other posters ridicule or disapprove or hate what you hold dear, then you are too thin-skinned to be involved in “open” RF debate. You should IGNORE “open” RF threads altogether and instead post to RF threads labeled “prayer” “devotional” “caucus” or “ecumenical.”
However, I don't see you criticizing other Catholics who argue among themselves within the protected Caucus threads. Why is that?
If Salvation or anyone else posts something that is counter to revealed Scripture I reserve the right to post and will continue to do so in the open forums.
As I noted before...this is FREE REPUBLIC.
It isn't biblical ANYWHERE in Scripture. Not even in the non-canonical books the Catholic church added later at the Council of Trent.
If there were no benefit in prayer for the dead, there would not be these two different judgements.
There are two different *judgments* for a reason.
Believers, who are already saved, appear before the judgment seat of Christ for rewards for faithful work done.
The other judgment is for those who do not believe and/or wanted to be judged on their works. And they will be. And they will be condemned by them.
Those who are in Christ, who are saved now here on earth, are going to heaven. They have already been judged and passed from death into life, while here on earth.
John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
I'll be that, like the rest of us, AMPU reads the Scripture preserved by GOD for His children.
You don't get out on the RF very much, do you?
Problem is, my feelings aren't hurt, so what you posted from the RM's home page doesn't apply to me.
FYI, Since Catholics understand the doctrine behind the article, Catholics who argue amongst themselves contribute to the intelligent discussion of it. Too bad Protestants can't tell the difference.
Yes, this is Free Republic, where articles are posted so that they can be discussed. Protestants, however seem to believe that the purpose of this forum is for incessant arguing started -- and perpetuated -- by insults, sarcasm, ridicule, digs, mocking, etc., not the intelligent discussion of the contents of the article. Maybe you need to find some apologetics forum somewhere that will appreciate Protestants' obsessive yammering.
Colossians 1:13-14 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Born again/born from above believers are already in heaven with Christ in the spiritual realm.
When we die, the body is gone, along with the old sin nature and all that is left is the new man which is without sin and already seated in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:1-10 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Very perceptive of you.
The heresy of Indulgences has not ended. The Mariology mythos endemic in being rewarded for repetitions of the Rosary and wearing the Brown placards dedicated to the demigoddess Mary absolutions roars onward, always away from JESUS and toward the wide gate ... just more evidence that Catholicism is not Christianity in the same fashion that Islam is Christianity.
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Personally I try to take a gentler touch than normally gets thrown around on the RF forum, though then again, that’s because on the occasions when I need to minister to Catholics, it’s neither the time nor the place, and to challenge them like that tends to do more harm than good.
I dunno, I don’t like these arguments, and the only real reason I get drawn into them is when I get arrogantly told that I’m going right to Hell, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Especially when they can’t point to any reason in Scripture for it.
When THAT happens, I get REALLY riled up. Other than that I just tend to not read the thread and ignore it.
Maybe that just means I’m thin-skinned or cowardly?
Don’t forget the bodily Resurrection!
Though that is admittedly one of my big pet peeves, people forgetting the kind of resurrection that Jesus promises and calling it only spiritual. So no accusations or contradictions, just my own personal chiming in!
Addendum: Never said that YOU were forgetting anything, just making the bodily resurrection more explicit because it’s one of my favorite things to talk about.
Maybe you need to find some apologetics forum somewhere that will appreciate Protestants’ obsessive yammering.
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Obsessive yammering?
On this very forum I had Catholics calling me demon-possessed along with a host of other lesser insults, when the only thing I did to start the conversation was object to being called a heretic for not being Catholic.
Fine, I think I understand why you’re upset about this thread.
But I think you’re very severely mistaken about Catholics always being victims and Protestants always being aggressors.
Why not just go straight to God who actually controls everything.....senseless to seek out a manufactured entity because a religion says it has special powers or access to God that He hasn’t already given to us through his son.
It would seem if one bypasses the son to any other, then in a real sense he’s upsurped the authority God has given.
No one can come to the father but ‘by me’..Jesus said.
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