Posted on 01/23/2014 9:29:40 PM PST by NKP_Vet
1. Best One-Sentence Summary: I am convinced that the Catholic Church conforms much more closely to all of the biblical data, offers the only coherent view of the history of Christianity (i.e., Christian, apostolic Tradition), and possesses the most profound and sublime Christian morality, spirituality, social ethic, and philosophy.
2. Alternate: I am a Catholic because I sincerely believe, by virtue of much cumulative evidence, that Catholicism is true, and that the Catholic Church is the visible Church divinely-established by our Lord Jesus, against which the gates of hell cannot and will not prevail (Mt 16:18), thereby possessing an authority to which I feel bound in Christian duty to submit.
3. 2nd Alternate: I left Protestantism because it was seriously deficient in its interpretation of the Bible (e.g., "faith alone" and many other "Catholic" doctrines - see evidences below), inconsistently selective in its espousal of various Catholic Traditions (e.g., the Canon of the Bible), inadequate in its ecclesiology, lacking a sensible view of Christian history (e.g., "Scripture alone"), compromised morally (e.g., contraception, divorce), and unbiblically schismatic, anarchical, and relativistic. I don't therefore believe that Protestantism is all bad (not by a long shot), but these are some of the major deficiencies I eventually saw as fatal to the "theory" of Protestantism, over against Catholicism. All Catholics must regard baptized, Nicene, Chalcedonian Protestants as Christians.
4. Catholicism isn't formally divided and sectarian (Jn 17:20-23; Rom 16:17; 1 Cor 1:10-13).
5. Catholic unity makes Christianity and Jesus more believable to the world (Jn 17:23).
6. Catholicism, because of its unified, complete, fully supernatural Christian vision, mitigates against secularization and humanism.
7. Catholicism avoids an unbiblical individualism which undermines Christian community (e.g., 1 Cor 12:25-26).
8. Catholicism avoids theological relativism, by means of dogmatic certainty and the centrality of the papacy.
(Excerpt) Read more at ourcatholicfaith.org ...
Don't know much bible, do ya???
But the Catholic Church doesn’t want “Biblical literalists” as members, remember? “G-d” set up all those Fundamentalist Protestant “sects” for people who just aren’t smart and intellectual enough to understand the sublime Catholic dogmas of evolutionism and higher criticism.
You are so right on the mercy.
While we are alive, Christ is perfect mercy.
At the moment of our death, Christ becomes perfect justice!
All the rest of us are under Jesus Christ...He's the head of our church...
“And being a Catholic does not guarantee you anything either.”
Yes, and no. Being Catholic does not mean you are saved. Being Catholic does mean that you have access to the means of salvation as given by Christ to the Church.
“Grace comes with faith. Not kissing the bishops ring.”
And you believe that someone believes kissing a bishop’s ring gives them grace for salvation?
I don’t see where there’s a true, factual statement in that entire diatribe...
“They’d realize that their doctrines did not exist from the very beginning, that, actually, their doctrine developed over time, even their claims to the Papacy and the primacy of Rome, and that their religion directly contradicts the teachings of many church fathers. That’s the summary for you.”
Except your summary is false. As Newman said, and he certainly knew more about Church History than you ever could, “To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.”
You do no such thing. Only God can forgive sins. Any Christian can proclaim that sins have been forgiven by God if the sinner admits his sins but no man can forgive sins. Those sins were already forgiven by God.
Mark 2:7 Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?
“justified by faith alone , not works”
James 2:24
“There is no chain-of-command in the Church.”
Sure there is and always was. Clearly St. James as an Apostle had more authority than St. Stephen who served at table.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. (Ephesians 2:8)”
As I said, we are saved by grace alone. That’s exactly what Ephesians 2:8 says. We receive that grace through faith and works and not by faith alone (James 2:24).
“Good. Then the *church* isn’t needed.”
So Christ sent out something into the world that St. Paul called His Body and His Bride but it isn’t needed?
You will find that the word alone is not in the original text...but was added by Luther...
No, that in Romans 3:28 that Luther did that.
“Actually, I’m not a baptist.”
Alright, even though you attend a Baptist church you say you’re not a Baptist. You’re still a Protestant. You’re still a Christian. And?
“The church I happen to go to now affiliates itself with the baptist organization. I don’t.”
That’s like saying, “The county I happen to live in now is part of the State of California. I don’t live in California.”
We are saved by grace alone. You either accept that or you believe in another gospel than that taught by Christ and the New Testament church.
Being a Christian means you are already saved...And when you are saved, you are added to the church...There are no unsaved people in the church, the Body of Christ...
Jesus really does live in my heart.
I will give you the keys to the kingdom, and what you declare bound on earth will be bound in heaven, loosed on earth will be loosed in heaven...I believe that Jesus was giving authority over the church and its doctrines to Peter...
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