I am trying to defend a Church. Seems like all you are defending your own opinion. So did Luther, Henry8, , Calvin, Joseph Smith and Mohammed et al and et al.. You have lots of company.
Suggest you really study Catholicism.
I was raised Catholic in a Catholic family that included priests and a nun in the extended family.
I KNOW Catholicism.
And the more I learn, the less it resembles Scripture.
Why on earth would I want to waste my time studying a man-made religious system that can’t even promise me what it claims it can give me, when I can read and study the very word of God?
And your claim that Catholicism is correct is no less an opinion than what you claim mine is. You re just throwing in your lot with someone else instead of thinking for yourself.
You are defend your opinion that the church is correct, which has no basis since you can’t even use Scripture to support so much of it..
We did study Catholicism, all of us. We were all raised Catholics. We studied it very well. I don't know all the reasons my friends here ultimately rejected the RCC, but I suspect it was for similar reasons that I rejected it too.
For me, the RCC was its own worst enemy. The priests and nuns told me not to read or interpret the Bible for myself. Now, I am a cantankerous, rebellious, in your face kind of guy. When they told me that, what do you suppose was the first thing I did? Right, I started reading the Bible and interpreting it for myself. It wasn't long after that, I left permenantly, never to return. I discovered salvation is in a relationship, not in some church organization, no matter how much some may claim otherwise.
Frankly, I don't care much about all kinds of silly little arguments about different doctrines. I only care about one thing. Heaven or Hell, and how to go to the first, and avoid the second. Nothing else matters a hill of beans.
Now, I have complete assurance of salvation, that my name is written in the Lamb's book of life. If that makes me guilty of committing the sin of presumption, so be it. It's not going to change anytime soon.
. Seems like all you are defending your own opinion. So did Luther, Henry8, , Calvin, Joseph Smith and Mohammed et al and et al.. You have lots of company. Suggest you really study Catholicism.
So you are opposed to seeking to ascertain the validity of Truth claims by examination of the warrant for them since heretics exist, and instead call us to submit to Rome in order to know what Truth is? If not, what is the basis for your assurance of your beliefs?