Posted on 03/21/2015 4:27:12 PM PDT by NYer
From The Salem News in Massachusetts:
If the deacon is a different sort of religious figure for the church, then Chuck Hall, 62, is a different sort of deacon. He came of age as an evangelical Protestant. Only slowly did he gravitate toward conversion, drawn by, of all things, the priest abuse scandals.
As one damaging headline followed another, he sensed an imbalance in the treatment of the church. Moreover, he saw the Roman church as at the very foundation of Christianity. While he never faulted the press for following the story, the fierce hostility brought on by the scandals seemed to him an attack on Christianity itself.
“It made me go back and study some church history. … I let the church speak for itself,” he said. The more he studied and understood, the more he began to feel that the conflicts always cited between Protestants and Catholics were overdrawn: “‘Do you worship Mary?’ No.”
The lessons of inclusion brought by Vatican II, the “inspirational” writings of G. K. Chesterton, also a convert, and the courage of Pope John Paul II eased Hall’s path.
“I went to my first Mass,” he said. The very interior of the church shouted of difference — the stained glass, the bright colors of the priest’s vestments, the statuary.
“A lot of things about being Catholic take some getting used to,” he laughed. But Hall began to see the beauty in these things and, sitting recently in the bright, soaring interior of St. John the Baptist, he smiled at the thought that God can be seen in such beauty.
“Art is a great gift,” he said. “The creative life is when we most imitate God.”
There is an added irony in Hall’s attraction to Catholicism. When he married 25 years ago, his wife, Mary, was teaching the Catholic catechism. As he was drawn toward her religion, however, she was drifting away. She currently worships in the Anglican church. Yet, he says, “She has been supportive of everything I’ve wanted to do.” They have no children.
The article has much more on deacons. Check it out.
I’m talking about the Psalms... which last I checked is in everyone’s bible.
Are you saying the Psalms are simply empty words.
How can the inerrant words of scripture... be concurrently empty?
I went to your home page and you did a wonderful job of capturing quite a number of monumental thoughts pertaining to the subject and you put them in a very clear,comprehensive and short recap. Thanks.
1 John 2:27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit--just as it has taught you, remain in him.
The Holy Spirit that guides true believers is NOT a "flimsy foundation".
I can only imagine how appalled you are at the words of Jesus to the Pharisees.
Or could it be that Jesus was referring more to their insincerity than to that which was being prayed. From the verse you chose:
6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret...
The image reflected in this post, toward Catholics and our prayer lives, was a more than a bit stereotypical. The Rosary, by the way, is prayer based on Scripture. It replaced the practice of the Psalter, all 150 each day, for the common people who did not read, nor could carry a big heavy Bible around if they could- they needed to work, it was the Middle ages at the time of St. Dominic.
Thank you! That was very kind; God bless you...
I didn’t ask where it was found in the catechism of the Catholic Cult. I asked where it was found in scripture.
No where in scripture is there such a thing as "vicar" of Christ. Jesus said "wherever two or three are gathered in my name there I am in the midst of them". He didn't say "there I will send a "vicar". We are also told that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth and that He would be within each and every true believer.
The capacity to learn, as with the Greek, is a gift from God and ought not to be lorded (no pun intended) over others, not taken for granted. I rely on the Teaching authority, the Magisterium of the Church for interpretation. I am not too proud to admit if i don't know something, and many holier people, more scholarly people, and better human beings than I have done the interpretation for me. I have the advantage of the fruits of their labor.
It is worth noting that the Jews did not rely solely on the Torah, but on oral tradition as well during the time of the Second Temple, during which Jesus lived.
...Nevertheless, Jews sought to determine from the Torah all of the details of a complete legal system. As tradition describes it, from the time of the very giving of the written Torah, Moses already had received a companion Torah she'b'al peh (oral Torah), which he proceeded to teach to the people of Israel during their travels in the desert. It is clear that from the very beginning, Jews needed additional authoritative law, or halakhah ("going," or "path"), to govern regular life. These halakhot (plural) were passed on through the generations, and during the period of the Second Temple (fifth century BCE-first century C.E.), halakhot, both those developed through custom and those derived from interpretation of the Torah, were collected and transmitted. Following the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E., the earliest rabbis gathered and transmitted the laws learned from earlier sages.
...Everywhere and throughout the Talmud, the rabbis worked with several basic assumptions. Given a controversy between two early sages, the goal was not to determine according to whom was the practical law; the goals was to make sense of each opinion. This underlying assumption that opinions are not simply fickle choices but the rational decisions of sages confronting differing ways of describing legal reality, is the hallmark of the Talmudic process.
Also worthy of note is that the Rabbis were the one considered the wisest, most learned, and holiest- NOT ORDINARY MEN. By the time the oral tradition was written, one of these was the great Gamaliel, personal mentor of Saul of Tarsus- later to become St. Paul.
Thus, in their practice of Judaism, neither Jesus Himself nor St. Paul were instructed only through the written Torah, but Jewish Sacred Tradition, as well. Not sola scriptura.
Catholics simply need to prove from an infallible source that what the Catholic Church refers to as “tradition” is exactly what the apostles called “tradition”. Do that and your premise will have been proven. Can you do that for us?
The capacity to learn, as with the Greek, is a gift from God and ought not to be lorded (no pun intended) over others, not taken for granted. I rely on the Teaching authority, the Magisterium of the Church for interpretation.
Unfortunately the teaching authority is not relying upon the Greek. The Greek helps clarify a lot of the issues people debate. For example, the catholic teaching on the perpetual virginity of mary goes out the window when the texts are evaluated using Greek. I think this is why the catholic church downplays using Greek.
The security of the believer comes through in the Greek as well. Ephesians 1:13-14 really shows this in Greek.
There isn't an attempt to lord it over anyone, at least that's not the intent, but rather to help explain the meaning of the texts.
I am not too proud to admit if i don't know something, and many holier people, more scholarly people, and better human beings than I have done the interpretation for me. I have the advantage of the fruits of their labor.
Yes we do have people who've done a lot of research, but there isn't anything that precludes us from checking what they've done and comparing it to Scripture to see if it measures up.
It is worth noting that the Jews did not rely solely on the Torah, but on oral tradition as well during the time of the Second Temple, during which Jesus lived.
You will also recall that Jesus trashed their tradition on a number of occasions.
When catholics rely upon tradition, they claim it doesn't contradict Scripture. However, this is not true. Again, the concept of Mary's perpetual virginity contradicts Scripture....yet it's catholic tradition. So someone is wrong in the understanding. I think part of this is that catholicism has built so much around mary they can't back off now and admit they're wrong. It would destroy the roman catholic church.
Read 2 Thes 3 and see what you think the tradition is Paul is talking about.
It’s the Psalms... what do you have against praying the Psalms?
Are you familiar with the Psalms and that they are scripture?
It's funny -- and sad -- that the one thing that you didn't say about your "christianity" is the ONE thing that you need: faith.
Ephesians 2:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Emphasis mine
Funny. I have yet to see where in scripture that it says that baptism saves... it's certainly an outward sign of the profession, but I don't see it listed above!
And a calendar certainly doesn't save. And weekly readings don't save.
Faith does. Through God's grace. The one thing you need, you didn't mention.
How sad.
Hoss
Roman Catholicism is one of the most complex salvation schemes ever concocted by the minds of men.
It didn’t come from the mind of man...
When he married 25 years ago, his wife, Mary, was teaching the Catholic catechism. As he was drawn toward her religion, however, she was drifting away. She currently worships in the Anglican church.
Seems like an even trade.
Satan is working overtime to get people away from faith alone in Christ alone.
I think we can guess where this is going to go: his wife, who was teaching catechism, was herself improperly catechized.
But he was well catechized.
Funny how that works out!
...or maybe it was the teacher in the catechism class. Could be that..."
:D
Hoss
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