Posted on 10/08/2014 11:39:09 AM PDT by NKP_Vet
Why would intelligent, successful people give up their careers, alienate their friends, and cause havoc in their families...to become Catholic? Indeed, why would anyone become Catholic?
As an evangelist and author who recently threw my own life into some turmoil by deciding to enter the Catholic Church, I've faced this question a lot lately. That is one reason I decided to make this documentary; it's part of my attempt to try to explain to those closest to me why I would do such a crazy thing.
Convinced isn't just about me, though. The film is built around interviews with some of the most articulate and compelling Catholic converts in our culture today, including Scott Hahn, Francis Beckwith, Taylor Marshall, Holly Ordway, Abby Johnson, Jeff Cavins, Devin Rose, Matthew Leonard, Mark Regnerus, Jason Stellman, John Bergsma, Christian Smith, Kevin Vost, David Currie, Richard Cole, and Kenneth Howell. It also contains special appearances by experts in the field of conversion such as Patrick Madrid and Donald Asci.
Ultimately, this is a story about finding truth, beauty, and fulfillment in an unexpected place, and then sacrificing to grab on to it. I think it will entertain and inspire you, and perhaps even give you a fresh perspective on an old faith.
(Excerpt) Read more at indiegogo.com ...
I rather doubt that...Without the multi-million dollar cathedrals, the gold, tapestries, paintings, the pomp and especially the religious garb, there would be very little appeal to your religion...
Gamecock, another one for you list.
We have direct Greek words declaring Stephen "full of Grace" but not for Mary. Catholics don't declare Stephen sinless yet he is the only one clearly declared "full of grace".
Then you used the term "Panagia" a Greek word meaning "all holy". Really? Mary is " all holy"?
1 Samuel 2:2 There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God.
And we have no account in the NT of panagia ever being applied to Mary. It is another failed attempt by the roman cult to elevate Mary to something the Bible doesn't accord to her.
The use of the Greek destroys a lot of the claims the roman cultists make about Mary not supported by Scripture.
That begs the question of what constitutes an infallible Church teaching.
Intriguing!
Should we despise relics,then?
Acts 19:12
so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
How blessed it is to put your faith upon Jesus, and Jesus alone!
Why would anyone seek after Mary, Peter or any other human authority?
How utterly blasphemous!
There are several problems with this approach 1.Except one is using the same translation all the time for a particular language, or except one (still) dreams in the original language(s), which it seems to me only a few of us here do, one is reduced to a couch ensconced sports fan, as it were, composing a fantasy team to assist oneself in forming doctrine in the National Polemics League.
2.It seems to me that this also opens up the question of whether the Textus Receptus and it's English KJV is the inspired words of the Holy Spirit, which I had thought the traditional Protestant, Fundamentalist, while perhaps not Evangelical (that team is free agent all the way) persuasions.
3.It seems to be one should use the same translation for a native tongue, except your Hebrew and Greek are flawless, and be consistent. Do not cherry-pick translations to argue doctrine.
If one uses the Greek a lot of catholic teachings, especially those on mary, fall apart quickly. Perhaps this is why I've rarely seen any catholic on this blog refer to the Greek. It's usually the catechism or a handful of verses the catholic has learned, usually out of context, to attempt to illustrate their point.
I do agree that the translation one uses influences their take on the Scripture. For this reason I rely upon the 4th Edition United Bible Societies for the Greek and NASB for English. The USB is recognized for its scholarly accuracy while the NASB is the closet word for word translation currently available.
Greek scholars such as Mounce, Wallace, and others have forgotten more Greek than I'll ever learn. Having completed two seminary level Greek classes has really opened a deeper meaning of the NT.
The Catholic Church sure didn’t take that to heart did they.
Catholics do like adding words don’t they.
I think a weakness of this "first hint, whoa, the third century, must be an innovation!" reaction is the assumption that if the first writings we have in print are from 250 AD, it must have been invented by the writer in 250 AD.
That is dubious on the face of it. Consider that the term "Trinity" wasn't used until about that time ---- mid-third century, Tertullian --- and the term "Incarnation" with its precise definition wasn't hammered out officially until 100 years after that, at Nicaea, and was still being refined as late as the Council of Chalcedon in 451.
The art and inscriptions concerning Mary found in the Catacombs of Priscilla date, as well, from the mid-third century They show what the Christian martyrs in the Coliseum held dear and certain, what they were willing to die for. This tells us, not only Christian doctrine, but Christian culture.
It would be foolish to say that the earliest Christians did not, on the basis of Apostolic testimony, believe in the Trinity or in the Incarnation. As you surely know, the spark-plugs of conflict and controversy are historically instrumental in getting the engine of definition and doctrine moving: one does not define a commonly-accepted doctrine with elaborate precision unless somebody has been challenging or denying it. The challenger raises his arguments, and then the Church is forced by the crisis of the situation to refine its terms to defend the Truth which was first received centuries earlier, and preserve the Unity of the Church.
Second, Origin was writing at a time of blistering controversy, in which anything that seemed dicey would have been grist for the polemical mill. If anybody thought "Panagia" was heretical, I'm sure Jerome, Ambrose, Eusebius, Demetrius of Alexandria, or any of his other Alexandrian or Cappadocian critics would have blown the whistle on him. But they didn't.
This is not the say that everything Origen wrote was orthodox. Not at all. It IS to say that we can get a pretty good idea of what was serenely received as unexceptionable, and what was not. A sheer innovation would never have been considered "unexceptionable" if it created some sort of interference pattern with the sensus fidelium (if you will permit me a physics analogy) -- not when there were so many there to debate it.
Acts 19:12
so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
So when did you start carrying around skulls and severed hands?
Oh! Hand = handkerchiefs! It all makes sense now!
Whats next, boiling the skulls to make stock for Saint Soup?
-— So when did you start carrying around skulls and severed hands? -—
Is that what Catholics do?
Regarding Mary....were all of the ECFs in 100% agreement in their writings on Mary?
What your so called “early Christians” did is immaterial. Already in Paul’s day we see “Chrrlistians” going off track where he chastized them and corrected them.
One person does something, so extrapolate it to all Catholics like to do it.
Typical.
To add to SR's analysis, a broader context might also be applied: This same malformation of authority and infallibility was present in Temple Judaism and among the Pharisees, who, if Yeshua is Messiah, were found to be stone-dead-wrong... Not only were they without authority (as Yeshua demonstrated), but they, by that very fact alone (with many other examples noted) were found to be notably fallible.
To assume today what was proven untrue then is a grievous mistake.
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