Posted on 03/19/2014 1:32:10 PM PDT by rwa265
If a Protestant looking into the claims of Catholicism were to ask me, “What one book should I read, where I can find a quick answer to any question I have?” I would tell him to read Devin Rose’s new book The Protestant’s Dilemma. I would also recommend this book to Protestant apologists, even those of many years, well-skilled in polemics. It will remind them of the heavy burden of proof they face, and the weakness of their position on point after point. The truth may set them free and bring them home too. (It has happened.)
All this may seem like overstatement — the obligatory praise from one Catholic blogger to another. But it is not.
Consider first the range of issues this book takes up. There are thirty-six chapters, each one on a different topic, from the papacy to sola scriptura, from the canon of the Bible to Purgatory, from confession to Eucharist to infant baptism. If something about the Catholic Church troubles you, this book has the answer. If you think you have found the point on which Catholicism fails, this book will show you why it is one more point upon which Protestantism fails.
Consider also the brevity. The book is just over 200 pages long, which means that Mr. Rose’s answers get to the root of the question without a knot of academic detail. It is harder to do than it might seem. This is the book of a man who has spent a long time studying the questions that divide Protestants and Catholics, and who knows how to present his case in a way that is easy for anyone to understand. At the same time, the book is useful for the professional apologist, for it recalls his mind to the basics.
(Excerpt) Read more at scottericalt.com ...
To be clear....that wasn’t my post.
That was an answer to one of my posts regarding why pray to Mary when you can go straight to Christ.
I believe we do have direct access to Christ....at any time of the day, week or year.
But Catholics view it as a “work” do they not.
That’s part of the problem with the Catholic belief system.
Too many rules not based on the Bible.
Care to explain Pope Urban II’s promise for the remission of sins to those who fought in the Crusades?
To be clear on this....
You believe you can lose your salvation due to something you do...or don’t do?
You wrote, “Catholics don’t pray to Mary either. Instead, we ***ask her*** to pray for us, and to pass our needs on to her Son.”
So, you don’t “ask” God for anything? Or you define “prayer” as something besides communicating with God?
Goodness, the linguistic gymnastics you go through to try to say that you “pray” to God but don’t “pray” to Mary ...
Maybe one day you’re come to your senses and reject the twisted doctrines of the corrupted Roman Church and instead embrace Christ’s Church. Yes, that’s offensive. Because the corrupted doctrine you’ve accepted is very offensive.
I thought God wrote the Bible. Imagine His surprise.
Roman Catholics wrote the Psalms? The Proverbs? The prophetic books? The Pentateuch?
You betray your denominational arrogance.
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:for they are foolishness unto him:neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
—1 Corinthians 2:14
I’m truly sorry you don’t understand me. I’m merely sounding the alarm for anyone with ears to hear. If I didn’t care for the souls of Roman Catholic people, I wouldn’t bother warning them.
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
The truth is it is the Catholics on this website who hate. All day long, each and every day they propagandize for popery and then they cry and get belligerent when Bible-believing Christians respond. Most Catholics here are woefully ignorant of both Scripture and history and it’s heartbreaking. They naively act as mouthpieces for the false religion of the Beast. If you think I’m nuts and that Rome has it right, then by all means ignore me for my warnings aren’t for you. As for me and my house, we serve The Lord, so I will continue in His service. I know God has a people and that His sheep will hear His voice and follow Him. The truth has a power all of its own. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. (See Romans 1:16)
Do you really know the Gospel?
The Gospel Discerned and Defined
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=81901181950
Unmasking the False Gospel
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1010665821
I can say that he misunderstands me after he called my post hate?
That “can” should have been “can’t”
But two wrongs do not make a right. If you are the object of mind reading, let me know by Freepmail. Don't fight fire with fire.
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
Ah I see Mr. Rose knows the answers better than the Apostles.
Mark 8:18 NKJV
Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?
Mr. Rose created his own version of a Roman Catholic BOM!
Yeah, it's called the Bible.
Oh, baloney.
The internet abounds with well known prayers to Mary asking her for things, not just to pray for us.
On infallibility, please check into how many dogmas have been pronounced infallible. I think you will be surprised. And did you know that much doctrine was written in the Didache by the apostles? Imagine that?
No. It's well past time the Catholics started providing some links to all their assertions instead of denying everything someone else says and then telling them to look it up themselves.
If you don't then the default response by non-Catholics should just be to declare a win as there is no evidence to support the Catholic's contentions, therefore there is no obligation to believe them.
Catholics need to do their own work to support their own assertions and church. Nobody else is interested or willing to do it for y'all.
You receive the Gifts of the Holy Spirit at Confirmation and a Catholic is expected to use these gifts. In fact, we all receive a call at our Baptism. What are you doing with your call? OSAS is a false belief.
The security of the believers is well founded in the following Scripture, some of which is Jesus own words.
Security of the believer
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.
John 10:25-30 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.”
Ephesians 1:13-14 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
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.
Colossians 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
2 Corinthians 1:21-22 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
2 Corinthians 5:4-8 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
Of course they do.
From calling Mary *the mother of GOD*, to praying to her and bowing down before her, to giving her the names, listed in the CCC, that rightly belong to the Godhead, they do confer divine status on her.
From the Catechism of the Catholic church....
http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p123a9p6.htm
969 “This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation .... Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.”510
Names of God from the Bible. Compare them to the names given to Mary in the above prayer.
Jesus
Hope (our) - 1 Timothy 1:1
Counselor - Isaiah 9:6
Advocate - 1 John 2:1
Mediator - 1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 9:15, Hebrews 12:24
Holy Spirit
Comforter - John 14:26
Helper – John 14:16
This is worship of Mary if ever there was.....Attributing to her the attributes of God is idolatry.
What? There are 2,000 + year old Catholics running around?
Who knew?
>>I thought God wrote the Bible. Imagine His surprise.<<
Indeed. I thought He had the copyright on His Own Words.
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