Posted on 07/13/2020 7:27:43 PM PDT by metmom
"For those who disbelieve, 'the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner stone,' and, 'a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense'; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed" (1 Pet. 2:7-8).
Rejecting Christ leads to spiritual damnation.
Israel was a unique nation, chosen by God to be the guardian of His Word and proclaimer of His kingdom. The Old Testament records His miraculous and providential care for her throughout the centuries, and the prophets told of One who would come as her great Deliverer. Israel eagerly awaited the promised Messiah.
But the story has a surprise ending. In the Person of Jesus Christ, the Messiah finally came and presented Himself to Israel. The religious leaders examined Him carefully, measuring Him in every way they could. But He didn't fit their blueprint. They expected a reigning political Messiah who would instantly deliver them from Roman oppression. They felt no need for a spiritual deliverer, so they rejected Him and tossed Him aside like a worthless rock.
That rejected cornerstone is precious to believers but remains a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to unbelievers. A "stone of stumbling" was a stone on which someone tripped while walking along the road. A "rock of offense" was a rock large enough to crush a person. The point: rejecting Christ brings spiritual devastation of enormous proportions.
All who reject Christ do so because they are disobedient to the Word. Rebellion against the written Word inevitably leads to rejection of the living Word. Of such people Peter said, "To this doom they were also appointed" (v. 8). They weren't appointed to reject Christ, but to receive the judgment that their rejection demands. That's a frightening reality that should motivate you to take every opportunity to evangelize the lost.
Suggestions for Prayer
If you have family or friends who are rejecting Christ, pray for them often, asking God to grant them saving faith.
For Further Study
Read Romans 9:30-10:17, noting Israel's false standard of righteousness and Paul's prayer for her salvation.
What about the EO and Roman rite?
You are correct MM. Here is one my dad told me, not a priest. He said if a guy died, fighting for his country, he would go to Heaven. What a crock that is.
My dad asked me if I ever thought about becoming a priest? I said I hadn’t really thought about it, since I had determined I was not going to be without female companionship. 😁 He asked me why I stopped taking communion. I never answered, but I stopped, because I was committing a thousand mortal sins a day. 👎 If I had a sin meter, that spun every time I committed a mortal sin, they could have used it as a prop for a Russian Tupolev 95 Bear. 👎 Like most cult members, I enjoyed sinning. 😁
The rite of Eastern Orthodox Churches is very similar (almost identical) to some of the Eastern Catholic rites. That is the liturgies are the same.
But the theological differences you listed are real. Your list is pretty accurate. I would change a few words but pretty right-on. Those differences are not differences in rite but theology.
If someone is stalking and harassing you by FReepmail, you can complain to the mods. They WILL deal with it.
FReepmail is not a means by which one can get away with stuff they’d otherwise not be able to get away with. That’s abuse of FReepmail privileges.
Say, didn't you just quote this at someone recently??????
Matthew 7:1-2 Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
Like in post 110 to Roman_War_Criminal??????
Say, didn't you just quote this at someone recently??????
Matthew 7:1-2 Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
Like in post 110 to Roman_War_Criminal??????
Well, that pretty much removes any basis for Catholics complaining about the multitude of *Protestant* denominations then.
Because the reason for so many denominations is not necessarily differences in theology. Most of them are far closer theologically to each other than many of the Catholic rites are.
And she conveniently left out the rest of the verses following it. Just like the LGBTQ community does when they misquote scripture.
Indeed, including exalting their Mary as being an almost almighty demigoddess as a women who never sinned, and was a perpetual virgin despite being married (contrary to the normal description of marriage, as in leaving and sexually cleaving: Gn. 2:24; cf. Ruth 3:9) and who would be bodily assumed to Heaven (despite lack of evidence) and exalted (officially or with implicit sanction) as, • an almost almighty demigoddess to whom "Jesus owes His Precious Blood" to, • whose [Mary] merits we are saved by, • who "had to suffer, as He did, all the consequences of sin," • and was bodily assumed into Heaven, which is a fact (unsubstantiated in Scripture or even early Tradition) because the Roman church says it is, and "was elevated to a certain affinity with the Heavenly Father," • and whose power now "is all but unlimited," • for indeed she "seems to have the same power as God," • "surpassing in power all the angels and saints in Heaven," • so that "the Holy Spirit acts only by the Most Blessed Virgin, his Spouse." • and that “sometimes salvation is quicker if we remember Mary's name then if we invoked the name of the Lord Jesus," • for indeed saints have "but one advocate," and that is Mary, who "alone art truly loving and solicitous for our salvation," • Moreover, "there is no grace which Mary cannot dispose of as her own, which is not given to her for this purpose," • and who has "authority over the angels and the blessed in heaven," • including "assigning to saints the thrones made vacant by the apostate angels," • whom the good angels "unceasingly call out to," greeting her "countless times each day with 'Hail, Mary,' while prostrating themselves before her, begging her as a favour to honour them with one of her requests," • and who (obviously) cannot "be honored to excess," • and who is (obviously) the glory of Catholic people, whose "honor and dignity surpass the whole of creation." Sources and more. They reject Him by rejecting the food and drink He gives us for our salvation(in the Eucharist). Read John Chapter 6. Which is isolationist eisegesis while NOWHERE in Scripture is spiritual life obtained by literally physically eating anything, much less by NT priests feeding them, but rather than souls obtaining life in them by taking part in the Lord supper ("except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you," and note, you have some verse numbers wrong)) that is never taught as a means of obtaining spiritual life. Instead, (once again) it is be believing the gospels that souls are saved, (Acts 15:7-9; Eph. 1:13) and nourished (1Tim. 4:6) and built up (Acts 20:32) by the hearing of it. Thus the preaching of the word, which is called "milk" (1Cor. 3:2; 1Pt. 1:22) and "meat" (Heb. 5:12,14) to feed the flock (Acts 20:28) is the primary active function of pastors. (2Tim. 4:2) Again, in John and rest of the Scripture spiritual life is never obtained by literally physically eating anything, nor spiritual nourished by the same, but by believing the gospel and being strengthen in faith by the word of God, and thus living it out. Consistent with this, it is the word of God that is referred to as "milk" (1Cor. 3:2; 1Pt. 1:22) and "meat," (Heb. 5:12,14) and is said to nourish souls, (1Tim. 4:6) and build them up, (Acts 20:32) and thus the primary active function of pastors is to preach the word, (2Tim. 4:2) which is how they "feed the flock." (Acts 20:28; 1Pt. 5:2) They reject Him by following false prophets and false teachers. Which is what Catholics are shown to be following, since distinctive Catholic teachings are not manifest in the only wholly inspired substantive authoritative record of what the NT church believed (which is Scripture, in particular Acts through Revelation, which best shows how the NT church understood the gospels). They reject His Catholic Church and follow heretics. Rather, besides the EO's which also lay claim to being The one true Catholic Church but with whom you have irreconcilable (o(1,000 years) conflicts with, your church is that which is heretical, in contrast to the NT church of Scripture, which you cannot lay claim to being. And thus must rely upon the novel and unScriptural premise of ensured perpetual magisterial infallibility as per Rome (and basically in primary cults). For Rome has presumed to infallibly declare she is and will be perpetually infallible whenever she speaks in accordance with her infallibly defined (scope and subject-based) formula, which renders her declaration that she is infallible, to be infallible, as well as all else she accordingly declares. They reject Him by rejecting Baptism. Rather, evangelicals such as Baptists believe in baptism, but not as effecting regeneration by the act itself (ex opere operato), but as expressing the heart-purifying regenerating faith which is imputed for righteousness, and thus enabled one to increasingly become in heart and practice what he is positionally, thus that is the order of the exhortation. (Col. 3) They reject His Sacraments. Wrong again, for "His Sacraments" are not all those which Catholic espouses, which instead means of conveying grace (which obedience results in) include Biblical conversion and Baptism, the laying on of hands in healing (Mark 16:18) and ministering the Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:5) and ordination, (1 Timothy 4:14) and anointing of the sick, (James 5:14.15) and the Lord's supper. (1 Co. 11,12) And most Catholics manifestly do not experience Biblical conversion, never having come to God as sinners convicted of their damned condition and morally destitute of any means by which they can be saved from Hell and obtain Heaven, and thus believe on the risen Lord Jesus whose saves them by His sinless sherd blood, but instead, while professing belief in the facts of Christ death and resurrection, they trust that the Catholic church and her rituals and merits (their own) will save them. They reject Him with sexual sins and prideful behavior. Actually, those whom Rome manifestly considers members in life and in death include: 40% Roman Catholics vs. 41% Non-R.C. see abortion as "morally acceptable"; Sex between unmarried couples: 67% vs. 57%; Baby out of wedlock: 61% vs. 52%; Homosexual relations: 54% vs. 45%; Gambling: 72% vs. 59% http://www.gallup.com/poll/117154/Catholics-Similar-Mainstream-Abortion-Stem-Cells.aspx
Committed Roman Catholics (church attendance weekly or almost) versus Non-R.C. faithful church goers (see the below as as morally acceptable): Abortion: 24% of R.C. vs. 19% Non-R.C.; Sex between unmarried couples: 53% vs. 30%; Baby out of wedlock: 48% vs. 29%; Homosexual relations: 44% vs. 21%; Gambling: 67% vs. 40%; Divorce: 63 vs. 46% ^
Comparing 16 moral behaviors, Catholics were less likely to say mean things about people behind their back, and tending to engage in recycling more. However, they were also twice as likely to view pornographic content on the Internet, and were more prone to use profanity, to gamble, and to buy lottery tickets. ^
In a survey asking whether one approves or rejects or overall sees little consequence (skeptical) to society regarding seven trends on the family (More: unmarried couples raising children; gay and lesbian couples raising children; single women having children without a male partner to help raise them; people living together without getting married; mothers of young children working outside the home; people of different races marrying each other; and more women not ever having children), 42% of all Protestants were “Rejecters” of the modern trend, 35% were Skeptics, and 23% were “Approvers.” Among Catholics, 27% were Rejecters, 34% were Approvers, and 39% were Skeptics. (Among non religious, 10% were Rejecters, 48% were Approvers, and 42% were Skeptics.) Pew forum, The Public Renders a Split Verdict On Changes in Family Structure, February 16, 2011 http://pewsocialtrends.org/2011/02/16/the-public-renders-a-split-verdict-on-changes-in-family-structure/#prc_jump
50 percent of Protestants affirmed gambling was a sin, versus 15 percent of Catholics; that getting drunk was a sin: 63 percent of Protestants, 28 percent of Catholics; gossip: 70 percent to 45 percent: homosexual activity or sex: 72 percent to 42 percent. Ellison Research, March 11, 2008 http://ellisonresearch.com/releases/20080311.htm http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080312/study-behaviors-americans-consider-sinful.htm
Combined aggregate results from 9 surveys conducted from 2001 through 2004 show 71% of Protestants (68% of regular church goers) and 66% of Catholics (59% of regular Catholic church-goers) support capital punishment. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/gallup-poll-who-supports-death-penalty
73 percent of Catholics rejected Catholic teaching artificial methods of birth control. Catholic World Report; 1997 survey of 1,000 Catholic Americans by Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Connecticut
They reject Him by having a false faith without works and love and not truly returning His love.
Actually, while Catholics profess to believe in works and criticize evangelicals as marginalizing them, yet based upon their testimony,
Thirty percent of Protestants listed God as their most important connection (relationship) versus 9% of Catholics. Barna, 2008 http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/13-culture/44-americans-identify-their-most-important-relationships
Political conservatives were almost three times as likely as political liberals to identify God as their most important relationship (33% vs. 12%, respectively). ^
About 56 percent of Evangelicals currently say they're strongly affiliated with their religion, while only 35 percent of Catholics say the same, and 4% lower than mainline Protestants (devoutness of Mainline Protestants [distinct from evangelicals] fell to roughly 30 percent in the late 1970s to late 1980s before gradually climbing to 39 percent in 2010) https://www.barna.com/research/protestants-catholics-and-mormons-reflect-diverse-levels-of-religious-activity
Bible Reading: the highest was 75%, by those going to a Pentecostal/Foursquare church who reported they had read the Bible during the past week (besides at church), while the lowest was among Catholics at 23% ^
Volunteer church work (during past 7 days): Assemblies of God were highest at 30%, with the lowest going to Catholics at 12%. ^
Donating Money (during the last month): Church of Christ churches were the highest at 29%, with Catholics being the lowest at 12% ^
American evangelicals gave four times as much money, per person, to churches as did all other church donors in 2001. 88 percent of evangelicals and 73 percent of all Protestants donated to churches. John Ronsvalle and Sylvia Ronsvalle, The State of Church Giving through 2004: Will We Will? 16th ed. (Champaign, Ill.: Empty Tomb, 2006),12. http://www.generousgiving.org/stats#
Data from a variety of researchers indicates that Catholics give one-third to one-half the portion of income that Protestants give. http://www.emptytomb.org/cathgiv.html
A Catholic survey reports that 4 percent of US Catholics described themselves as “very” involved in parish or religious activities other than attending Mass, and 11% as “somewhat involved, and 64% as “not involved at all.” Among weekly (or more) attendees (approx 22% of adult Catholics), 13% were very” involved, 29% “somewhat involved and 25% not involved at all.” http://cara.georgetown.edu/CARAServices/FRStats/devotionpractice.pdf
59% of Catholics (and 80% of weekly attendees) reported they had a statue or picture of Mary on display in their home, but 48% never pray the rosary.
By denomination, 61% of the those associated with an Assemblies of God church said they had shared their faith at least once during the past year, as did 61% of those who attend a Pentecostal/Foursquare church, and ending 14% among Episcopalians and just 10% among Roman Catholics. http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/5-barna-update/54
25% of Evangelical Christians and 20% of other Protestants and 7% of Catholics said the read the Bible on a daily basis. 44% of Catholics said they rarely or never read the Bible, along with only 7% of Evangelical Christians and 13% of other Protestants. http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/general_lifestyle/december_2008/catholics_protestants_practice_faith_in_different_ways
They reject Him by making false claims against His Truth.
Which is the testimony of Catholicism when what it asserts is God's Truth is not what the NT church of Scripture is shown to believe, and which includes the the novel and unScriptural premise of ensured perpetual magisterial infallibility, which is what the veracity of her distinctive teachings rest upon.
They reject Him because their opinion is greater than God’s Truth.
Meaning in the case of the distinctive teachings of Catholicism they reject the God of Scripture and the NT church thereof because their opinion is considered to be God’s Truth.
By that measure no where in the Bible does it state there are papal successors or Catholic apostles - quite the contrary. Scripture never teaches or examples that all the churches were to look to Peter as the bishop of Rome and the first of a line of supreme infallible heads reigning over all the churches, and having the final defining judgment in questions affecting the whole Church, even without the consent of the bishops. Which is contrary to what Scripture reveals of Peter, and which modern research even by Catholics provides testimony against.
Scripture never manifestly mentions or intimates preparation to choose a successor for Peter by electing a elder as a apostolic successor, much less conveying total supreme papal authority. Unlike king David and the promise of his son Solomon to reign over Israel and his institution as king, (1 Chronicles 29) and the record of his son Rehoboam reigning in his stead (2 Chronicles 9:31) and so forth, the Bible not only does not record Peter’s death but it also does not foretell of a successor or speak of preparations for one.
Neither does Scripture mention any apostolic successor for any apostle (even though the apostle James who was martyred: Acts 12:1,2) except for Matthias being chosen for the apostate Judas (which was in order to maintain the foundational number of apostles: Acts 1:15-26; :cf. Rv. 21:14), which was by the non-political Scriptural means of casting lots, (cf. Prov. 16:33) which Rome has never used to select popes. While Barnabas is called an apostle (Acts 14:14) and the word is also used for others (Phil. 2:25), "no where in the Bible does it state" Timothy was, while what Scripture does teach is that of presbyterous (not Cath. priests) being ordained to oversee the flock of God. (Acts 20:28)
Sometimes the Church is accused of teaching “salvation by works,” but this is an empty accusation.
Oh? Then you do not believe in RC (not EO) Purgatory as necessary to make one good enough to actually enter Heaven, contrary to RCs as these:
The Catholic Encyclopedia states that St. Augustine "describes two conditions of men; "some there are who have departed this life, not so bad as to be deemed unworthy of mercy, nor so good as to be entitled to immediate happiness" etc. (City of God XXI.24.)
And thus by the close of the fourth century was taught "a place of purgation..from which when purified they "were admitted unto the Holy Mount of the Lord". For " they were "not so good as to be entitled to eternal happiness".
One "cannot approach God till the purging fire shall have cleansed the stains with which his soul was infested." -Catholic Encyclopedia>Purgatory.
"Every trace of attachment to evil must be eliminated, every imperfection of the soul corrected." - John Paul II, Audiences, 1999.
"The purpose of purgatory is to bring you up the level of spiritual excellence needed to experience the full-force presence of God." ( Jimmy Akin, How to Explain Purgatory to Protestants).
Likewise Catholic professor Peter Kreeft states, "...we will go to Purgatory first, and then to Heaven after we are purged of all selfishness and bad habits and character faults." Peter Kreeft, Because God Is Real: Sixteen Questions, One Answer, p. 224
However, wherever Scripture clearly speak of the next conscious reality for believers then it is with the Lord, (Lk. 23:43 [cf. 2Cor. 12:4; Rv. 2:7]; Phil 1:23; 2Cor. 5:8 [“we”]; 1Cor. 15:51ff'; 1Thess. 4:17) Note in the latter case all believers were assured that if the Lord returned, which they expected in their lifetime, so would they “ever be with the Lord,” though they were still undergoing growth in grace, as was Paul. (Phil. 3:7f)
And the next transformative experience that is manifestly taught is that of being like Christ in the resurrection. (1Jn. 3:2; Rm. 8:23; 1Co 15:53,54; 2Co. 2-4) At which time is the judgment seat of Christ, which is the only suffering after this life, which does not begin at death, but awaits the Lord's return, (1 Corinthians 4:5; 2 Timothy. 4:1,8; Revelation 11:18; Matthew 25:31-46; 1 Peter 1:7; 5:4) and is the suffering of the loss of rewards (and the Lord's displeasure) due to the manner of material one built the church with, which one is saved despite the loss of such, not because of. (1 Corinthians 3:8ff)
And while works do justify one as being a believer, since they go together as Scripture and Luther taught, and God rewards the "obedience of faith" in grace (though man can take no credit for such, which is both enabled and motivated by God), yet our own works and holiness is not the basis for acceptance with God, as instead penitent faith appropriates justification, which purifies the heart (Acts 15:9) and is counted for righteousness (Romans 4:5) and renders one accepted in the Beloved (on His account) and positionally seated together with their Lord in Heaven, (Ephesians 1:6; 2:6) from where they await the Lord's return and His final subduing of our "vile body," that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body," (Philippians 3:21)and which is the only transformative change after this life that the Scriptures speak of.
However, RC emphasis upon it leads its souls to trust in their works. How do you think RCs would understand such statements as those from Trent as,
"If anyone says that the good works of the one justified are in such manner the gifts of God that they are not also the good merits of him justified; or that the one justified by the good works that he performs by the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ, whose living member he is, does not truly merit an increase of grace, eternal life, and in case he dies in grace, the attainment of eternal life itself and also an increase of glory, let him be anathema." (Trent, Canons Concerning Justification, Canon 32. Also see The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, in Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1919 ed., Decree on Justification, Chapters V, VI, VII, X, XIV, XV, XVI) (emphasis mine)
Shortened, this teaches, "If anyone says that the one justified by the good works that he performs by the grace of God does not truly merit eternal life, and in case he dies in grace, the attainment of eternal life itself, let him be anathema." Such is most naturally understood as meaning that a believer's works actually obtain eternal life, and thus one presumes they will enter glory because they are good enough, albeit "by grace," as in "salvation by grace thru works," rather than salvation by grace thru faith which produces works.
Meaning your made a fallible judgment to trust in a church that has presumed to infallibly declare she is and will be perpetually infallible whenever she speaks in accordance with her infallibly defined (scope and subject-based) formula, which renders her declaration that she is infallible, to be infallible, as well as all else she accordingly declares.
How convenient.
Meaning only Catholics can charge others with teaching mistaken ideas about Prots and evangelicals? Like, "all other christian religions left the Catholic faith... they chose to create their own religions and doctrines that were not God’s Truth.
Many cannot and should not believe that the RCC is the uniquely one true church which she asserts she is, for distinctive Catholic teachings are not manifest in the only wholly inspired substantive authoritative record of what the NT church believed, which is Scripture, in particular Acts through Revelation, which best shows how the NT church understood the gospels. And which includes her false gospel of salvation by merit and her metaphysical contrivance of the Lord's supper Read the links, by the grace of God, before issuing your compelled denials.
. Many have left the Catholic Church because the path is too hard
Too hard? Are you serious? Rome manifestly considers even proabortion, prosodomite public figures to be members in life and in death - and which you must own unless you reject the judgment of your pastors - and testify to being vastly inferior in commitment and unity in many core truths, yet RCs imagine we conservative evangelicals are to leave our conservative fellowships and become brethren in your unholy amalgamation.
And
Those who have left Catholicism outnumber those who have joined the Catholic Church by nearly a four-to-one margin. 10.1% have left the Catholic Church after having been raised Catholic, while only 2.6% of adults have become Catholic after having been raised in a different faith. Pew forum, Faith in Flux (April 27, 2009);https://www.pewforum.org/2009/04/27/faith-in-flux3">https://www.pewforum.org/2009/04/27/faith-in-flux3
4% of Americans raised Catholic are now unaffiliated; 5% are now Protestant. ^
Over 75% of those who left Catholicism attended Mass at least once a week as children, versus 86% having done so who remain Catholics today.^
Regarding reasons for leaving Catholicism, less than 30% of former Catholics agreed that the clergy sexual abuse scandal played a role in their departure. ^
71% of converts from Catholicism to Protestant faith said that their spiritual needs were not being met in Catholicism, with 78% of Evangelical Protestants in particular concurring, versus 43% of those now unaffiliated. ^
Only 23% (20% now evangelical) of all Protestants converts from Catholicism said they were unhappy about Catholicism's teachings on abortion/homosexuality (versus 46% of those now unaffiliated); 23% also expressed disagreement with teaching on divorce/remarriage; 16% (12% now evangelical) were dissatisfied with teachings on birth control, 70% said they found a religion they liked more in Protestantism.
55% of evangelical converts from Catholicism cited dissatisfaction with Catholic teachings about the Bible was a reason for leaving Catholicism, with 46% saying the Catholic Church did not view the Bible literally enough.
81% of all Protestant converts from Catholicism said they enjoyed the service and worship of Protestant faith as a reason for joining a Protestant denomination, with 62% of all Protestants and 74% Evangelicals also saying that they felt God's call to do so. ^
42% of those now unaffiliated stated they do not believe in God, or most religious teaching. ^
Meaning such RCS make provocative claims about her elitist church which thus invite challenges but which they seek to censored?
I have not seen that, but glad that Mark17 pinged me to this one, since it provides another opportunity to expose the elitist self-proclaimed uniquely "one true Church" as lacking clothes to cover its naked unscriptural deceptions. By the grace of God, glory to Him.
Because, as a former RC, raised devout and a weekly Mass and HDOB RC in my late do's, after becoming manifestly born again thru deep repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus to save me as a damned and destitute sinner, i increasingly realized both the over spiritual dead nature of Catholicism and its contrast with what we read of the NT church in Scripture. And as God answered pious prayer, he led me out in evangelical fellowship, thanks be to God.
May God peradventure grant you "repentance to the acknowledging of the truth." (2 Timothy 2:25)
You have already seen one list, but do you want more? You are mistaken.
Rather, like that of your church, despite your Roman self-assertion it is your attempts to show the Catholic faith is that of the NT church of the Bible that has failed, and nothing can rescue them.
I rely not only on my own logic and reasoning, but on the Catholic teachings passed down by Christ and the Apostles for 2000 years and many Catholic scholars.
Actually such are a means to an end, which is (for a faithful RC) to trust in Rome. For notice that in Catholic theology one needs to submit to Rome to assuredly know what is of God:
RC: People cannot discover the contents of revelation by their unaided powers of reason and observation. They have to be told by people who have received in from on high. - Cardinal Avery Dulles, SJ, "Magisterium: Teacher and Guardian of the Faith, p. 72;
...the believer cannot believe in the Bible nor find in it the object of his faith until he has previously made an act of faith in the intermediary authorities..." - Catholic Encyclopedia>Tradition and Living Magisterium
.in all cases the immediate motive in the mind of a Catholic for his reception of them is, not that they are proved to him by Reason or by History, but because Revelation has declared them by means of that high ecclesiastical Magisterium which is their legitimate exponent.” — John Henry Newman, “A Letter Addressed to the Duke of Norfolk on Occasion of Mr. Gladstone's Recent Expostulation.” 8.
It was the charge of the Reformers that the Catholic doctrines were not primitive, and their pretension was to revert to antiquity. But the appeal to antiquity is both a treason and a heresy. It is a treason because it rejects the Divine voice of the Church at this hour, and a heresy because it denies that voice to be Divine... I may say in strict truth that the Church has no antiquity....Primitive and modern are predicates, not of truth, but of ourselves...The only Divine evidence to us of what was primitive is the witness and voice of the Church at this hour. — Dr. Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, Archbishop of Westminster, The Temporal Mission of the Holy Ghost: Or Reason and Revelation (New York: J.P. Kenedy & Sons, originally written 1865, reprinted with no date), pp. 227-228.
Thus, to avoid circularity,
..when we appeal to the Scriptures for proof of the Church's infallible authority we appeal to them merely as reliable historical sources... - Catholic Encyclopedia>Infallibility;
But what is the basis for Catholic assurance that there church is what it claims to be, the one true infallible church? It is because she has Rome has presumed to infallibly declared she is (if conditionally infallible), thus,
The mere fact that the Church teaches the doctrine of the Assumption as definitely true is a guarantee that it is true.” — Karl Keating, Catholicism and Fundamentalism (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1988), p. 275.
Catholic doctrine, as authoritatively proposed by the Church, should be held as the supreme law; for, seeing that [according to infallible us] the same God is the author both of the Sacred Books and of the doctrine committed to the Church, it is clearly impossible that any teaching can by legitimate means be extracted from the former, which shall in any respect be at variance with the latter.." [as the premise is false, so is the conclusion] (Providentissimus Deus;Providentissimus Deus (November 18, 1893) | LEO XIII)
We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty..." "We have addressed to Catholic people, either collectively or individually; and above all, let them lay down for themselves as a Supreme Law, to yield obedience in all things to the teaching and Authority of the Church, in no narrow or mistrustful spirit, but with their whole soul and promptitude of will." - Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae - Papal Encyclicals
You are confusing occasion with causation. NO WHERE in ALL of the Bible with its over 200 prayers recorded by the holy Spirit is there even one prayer addressed to anyone else in Heaven but God. While Christ is stated to be the only heavenly intercessor btwn man and God, (1 Timothy 2:5) and by Him believers have immediate spiritual access with humble contrite boldness into the holy of holies in Heaven to pray to the Lord God, (Hebrews 10:19) while the Spirit within believers cries out “Abba, Father,” (Galatians 4:6) and not “Mama, Mother.
So since you defend a church which historically damned the likes of Mark17 and me as well as all who do not submit to the pope, and in its modern morphation she denigrates Prots churches as being unworthy of the proper name "church," then you should expect to be judged consistent with the elitst judgment of your church.
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