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 ...
When you deny His Church, you deny Him.
God gave Abraham a son. Then He told Abraham to sacrifice the child. Abraham demonstrated obedience to God.
If Jesus appeared to you and told you to leave all Catholic rituals and practices and follow Him alone, what would you do?
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Absolutely not. Whoever taught you that, CynicalBear, was flat-out lying to you. It is a complete fiction.
Read this carefully: Any form of prayer you Protestants can use, Catholics also can (and do) use. In addition to that, we can ask others to pray for us (both other living Christians, and those who have passed on).
God does not need any "intecessory" prayers to act, or any "middlemen" or "middlewomen". However, God often chooses (in His Sovereign Holy Will) to use human beings as "middlemen/middlewomen".
For example, if God wanted to, He could easily tell each of us everything that is contained in, say, the Bible Book of "Luke", but He chose instead to use a middleman (Luke) to write that Gospel, and pass on His information to each one of us who access that Gospel.
(God didn't need to do that, but He chose to do that, and actually takes great delight in using humble human servants to do things for Him, even though He does not need them to do those things at all.)
It is an absolutely wonderful thing to pray for other humans in need, and it does not stop being a wonderful thing for people who made it to heaven to keep on praying for other human beings in need.
To love something more than Jesus is to hate Jesus. If you choose something over Jesus is to reject the One who died on your behalf.
John 15:18-25
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
John 10:27 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 28 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:≤/font>
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Amen.
If you’re not following the Shepherd, where are you being led?
“John 4:23 but, there cometh an hour, and it now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father also doth seek such to worship him; 24 God is a Spirit, and those worshipping Him, in spirit and truth it doth behove to worship.’”
Catholics really ought to try following Him alone.
If Jesus appeared to you and told you to follow all Catholic rituals and practices and follow Him as Founder of His Church, what would you do?
I post God’s word.
You post silly little pictures.
God’s word is edification to me and to others.
Who is edified by your silly little pictures? Will they grant you parole from Purgatory?
Call on Him.
If Jesus appeared to you and told you to follow all Catholic rituals and practices and follow Him as Founder of His Church, what would you do?
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We do.
1 John 4:1-6
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Are you saying you can completely ignore Mary? There’s no harm in ignoring the Rosary. Never say a “Hail Mary” and everything is hunky dory?
Suppose a man prays to Jesus for His salvation and dies unbaptized. Will he be immediatly in God’s presence?
God’s word edifies all.
What value is found in your silly pictures?
Will silly pictures rescue you from destruction?
Please don't play that game with me. Catholics are NOT just asking their so called saints to pray. They pray TO them to have them perform specific acts. Catholics also tell us those so called saints or Mary have more influence. They claim only those proclaimed by the CC are saints. Then they tell us it's those saints that present the prayers. If only saints present prayers to God and you are not a saint God must not hear your prayers unless they go through saints. It's all double speak.
Communicating with those who have passed from this life is not supported by but is condemned in scripture. Communicating with those who have passed from this world is only found in paganism.
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There is absolutely no requirement for Catholics to ever pray the Rosary, or to ever say a "Hail Mary". Who told you there were such requirements for Catholics? (If you want to know what Catholics really teach, read the "Catechism of the Catholic Church".)
(However, why would someone not want Mary (or any other saint) to pray for them? I want as many people praying for me as possible, and it would seem senseless to me to not seek those prayers of the saints and others when there is a need.)
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"Suppose a man prays to Jesus for His salvation and dies unbaptized. Will he be immediatly in God’s presence?"
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Nothing is impossible with God. Think about the so-called "good thief" on the cross. As far as we know, there is no record of him having ever been baptized. God uses ordinary means to do things, and sometimes uses extraordinary means to do things. My belief is that we should learn and do whatever we can to determine and carry out what God wants us to do (to the best of our ability), but we should also always trust fully in God and His loving providence.
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