Posted on 05/31/2014 3:30:55 PM PDT by boatbums
The Wizard of Oz has fascinated adults and children for many years. You know the story: a farm girl from Kansas finds herself in the middle of an unwelcomed adventure in an attempt to find the fanciful wizard, who, she hopes, will help her return home. After many trials and tribulations, she, along with her newfound friends, ultimately arrives at the Emerald City only to discover, much to her chagrin, that the "wizard" was really no wizard at all. He wasn't much of anything. In modern parlance, he was a wimp.
Believe it or not, many-a-Protestant claims to have experienced a disenchantment similar to that of Dorothy. And like the disenchanted Dorothy who just wanted to go home, so too these disenchanted Protestants want to go home. The home these Protestants long for, however, is not the home they left behind. These Protestants are Romeward bound.
True, the number of Protestant converts to Catholicism is less than the other way around. And there are less actual converts to Rome today than during previous points in the history of Catholicism. Nevertheless, there is something unique about this modern conversion phenomenon, since "the kind of converts appears to be quite different, with fewer obligatory conversions for such reasons as marriage. A significant number of Protestant evangelicals...are among those moving to Rome...."
Many evangelical Protestants are converting to "Roman obedience." Or, in the words of one such convert, they are "getting churched" or "poping." Jocularity aside, it is important for Protestants to come to grips with the reasons why these Neocatholics have set their compasses toward Rome, only then will Protestants be able to see some of the shortcomings of their espoused faith. Only then will they be able to meet the needs of those who are "taking the plunge."
(Excerpt) Read more at reformed.org ...
But what Catholicism is, I have come to discover, is true.
I despise the insulting term "cheap grace" and I doubt the Lord cares for it very much, either. There is NOTHING cheap about what Jesus did for all of us on that cruel cross. Only God knows what is within a person's heart and whether or not faith is genuine. Regardless, salvation is BY grace THROUGH faith and not of ourselves or our works. If we had to earn, merit or deserve the gift of eternal life, it no longer would BE grace OR a gift. Once that blessed truth is absorbed, no life will ever be the same.
There is no cost to grace.
You can’t call it cheap because if you have to pay for it, it ain’t grace.
Grace by it’s very nature, is getting something we don’t deserve.
If it comes with a price, it’s wages due, not grace.
You do not know much about Confession, do you? To be absolved the penitent must have true sorrow for his sin and a firm resolution to sin no more.
Reject the Catholic faith if you must but first take the time to know what you are rejecting rather than a made up caricature used to justify your own beliefs.
Catholics love to label people and the only thing that they can actually deal with in why someone leaves the Catholic church is that it MUST BE (in their minds) a moral issue.
It is simply beyond their comprehension that there is some lack in Catholicism that would cause people to leave, so they must rationalize it by inventing other reasons. And the issue of morality is their favorite. It allows they to feel all smug and morally superior while condemning others who don’t agree with them.
The spiritual pride is rank.
They split, but they did not secede, since there wasn't a universally accepted supreme pontiff for the churches in both halves of the Roman Empire, whether in Rome, Ravenna, or Constantinople.
Rome is also the only church with church sanctioned divorce.
They just repackage it, rewrap it, and relabel it as *annulment*, and make a nice profit from the process to boot.
That’s only an opinion.
I can testify that when I become obsessed with winning a debate it is because of my sin of pride.
http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=11&article=1246
Thanks, that was an interesting page
Those who believe that faith is a gift (i.e., miraculous imposition) from God, often point out that in this verse “faith” is the nearest antecedent of “that” (“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God”).
Since Greek is an inflected language, I would think that the gender matching would matter far more than position. Unfortunately, my Greek is not nearly as good as my Latin. In the Vulgate the gender of the Latin is less certain. Grace is in the feminine, Salvation is in the masculine, Faith is feminine, but the pronoun hoc is neuter. I guess, then, that the whole process - salvation through grace by means of faith - is the antecedent in the Latin
I have to admit that Faith, as a virtue, seemed more understandable to me as something that is strived for rather than a gift that is given while salvation is a gift that we receive.
If truth is reinforced by great big, bold letters, then you’ve done it.
Thank you.
Why do I doubt the sincerity of that, lol?
When I first understood the gospel (by reading John 10:27-30, actually) and the Holy Spirit opened my spiritual eyes and heart to receive God's grace, I knew immediately that this was the truth and I had had not been told it before. The idea that I would go ever back to Catholicism is foreign to me. I can't imagine any reason why I would ever want to. I know I have eternal life in Christ and I need never fear being cast out, lost or plucked from His hands.
Even the apostles doubted.
Amen!
They just miss their mother...
If you are going to worship the pope’s calendar, pope’s holy days, pope’s sabbath, and pope’s savior, why would there be a need to be anywhere but with the pope and the mother church?
Yet you said:
No. The “so what” is that these Protestant ministers know their Protestant faiths (despite other Protestants claiming otherwise) and they risk everything to become Catholics while there are few “notable” Catholics who become Protestants and those who do are either breaking a vow or are lay people who seem terribly catechized in the Catholic faith.
Your contention is that "notable" Catholics who convert to Protestantism are doing so by "breaking a vow" or they were "terribly catechized". You have made several other comments on this thread that condemns Protestantism as "adultery" and, by definition, all Protestants. I know what you meant and I have no desire to play your word games.
Me too!
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