What is "priestcraft"?
See, the definition of terms is so important...sometimes I think we are not speaking the same language. Nobody worships priests, they are men. Nobody worships humans, including the saints. Nobody thinks they are God, why do you say that?
For 1800 years, Catholics believed Mary was assumed into heaven. It wasn't formalized until Pope Pius XII. But way back in the very early church it was believed and taught.
If what you call Christianity relies on God's word alone, what if you disagree on interpretation or translation? How do you solve that?
Calvinists and other assorted kooks and anti-Catholics typically just make something up, rant about how its the Catholic Church's fault, and then complain when they are not believed.....
Thank you, Judith and the other Catholic defenders of the Faith for keeping the kooks busy here allowing other threads to proceed unmolested.
It’s a task set before you, but I’m glad y’all do it!
Way back is the 4th or 5th century . Hundreds of years after the death of the witnesses to the cross,and the writing of the scriptures .
There is no contemporary witness report.
If God wished Mary to be as "venerated" as she is by Catholics, He certainly would have seen to it that the assumption was memorialized in the scriptures ...but God is silent on Mary after she received the Holy Spirit in the upper room
The Catholic church speculates on where her tomb is ...interesting seeing that they think her tomb is as empties as Christ's'
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14774a.htm
You tell me. You follow them. I don't.
Nobody worships priests, they are men. Nobody worships humans, including the saints. Nobody thinks they are God, why do you say that?
I say that because Rome teaches that its priests are "another Christ;" that Mary is a "co-redeemer;" and that saints are "mediators between God and men."
None of that is true. Priests are not "another Christ;" Mary is not anyone's "co-redeemer;" and saints do not "mediate" anything between God and men.
For 1800 years, Catholics believed Mary was assumed into heaven.
That is not true. That is pure fiction from Rome.
It wasn't formalized until Pope Pius XII. But way back in the very early church it was believed and taught.
Wrong. It was a recent and impious speculation that turned into RC doctrine just over a century ago.
Fiction.
If what you call Christianity relies on God's word alone, what if you disagree on interpretation or translation? How do you solve that?
We search the Scriptures and rightly divide the word to learn what is true. As Augustine said, "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity."
And the vast majority of Protestants are unified in the most important doctrines of Christianity -- that men are saved by God's grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
Protestants believe that. Roman Catholics don't. In fact, Rome disbelieves that so much it anathematizes anyone who does believe it.
Good thing Rome isn't responsible for anyone's salvation.