Posted on 11/19/2022 4:37:14 PM PST by MurphsLaw
Cameron Bertuzzi, a popular Protestant YouTube host, announced Thursday online that he is in the process of converting to Catholicism.
“So, the big announcement is that on Sept. 20, 2022, I decided to become Catholic. I’m currently in an RCIA program and will be confirmed this coming Easter,” Bertuzzi said in a YouTube video.
His conversion “came at the tail end of a deep study into the evidence for and against the papacy,” he said.
“As a Protestant, I went into the study with an open mind. Ultimately, I told myself that I would follow the evidence wherever it leads, even if that conclusion is uncomfortable for me or for my family,” Bertuzzi said.
His Protestant friends were “very confident” that his study would only confirm his Protestant faith, “but they were wrong,” he said.
“What I found was that the evidence strongly suggests that the papacy is true,” he said.
Bertuzzi, whose Capturing Christianity YouTube channel has just short of 150,000 subscribers, said that he will be speaking about the details of his conversion on other channels, not his own.
Matt Fradd, popular Catholic YouTube host of the channel Pints with Aquinas, “got so excited about this news, as you can imagine, he decided to pay to fly me out to the Vatican, the one in Rome, to detail my journey on his channel,” Bertuzzi shared.
“So, if you’re interested in my reasons for conversion, the impact this decision has had on me and my family, and all the rest, then join Matt Fradd and I live on Pints with Aquinas from the Vatican tomorrow,” meaning Friday, Nov. 18.
Bertuzzi has hosted a multitude of well-known Christians and Catholics on his channel. Among them are Catholic apologists Trent Horn and Jimmy Akin of the apostolate Catholic Answers; Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester; theologian and professor Scott Hahn; Fradd; and Father Vincent Lampert, an exorcist for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
Videos with Barron and Lampert both gained hundreds of thousands of views respectively.
Bertuzzi’s channel can be seen here.
Once again, the question still hangs in the air like a Cheshire grin:
What does all this Mary, ahem, attention get a person that merely mentioning her at Christmas and Easter doesn't?
Try it and find out.
God is more Merciful than Sola Scriptura zombies want Him to be.
He’ll even extend His grace to people, in humility, asking Saints to pray for them.
So; you don’t know.
More Roman platitudes ain’t gonna get it.
I guess this sentence doesn't REALLY mean what it plainly says...
1 Timothy 2:5-6
For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself as a ransom for all people.
A better question is why do you want her to be perpetual? Your position is the extraordinary, so there must be a need for it.
The Protestant position is that her virginity was only necessary for the birth of Jesus. Whether she remained a virgin post-birth has no effect on our salvation.
On ZERO evidence and the FACT that Rome pushes the idea that ' brother' really means 'cousin'.
even though the SCRIPTURES state:
1 Corinthians 7:1-40 ESV
... each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.
For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does.
Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer;
but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
HMMMmmm...
I wonder why ALL those men DECIDED that it was a good idea for 'Mary' to remain a virgin?
Why, why, why...
If it WALKS like speculation and TALKS like speculation then there MUST be no good reason why Catholicism can't incorporate it into it's lexicon of belief; right?
The bible does not record Jesus ever going poo-poo in His didee, therefore He didn't.
Her virginity after the birth of Jesus has ZERO bearing on who Jesus is, the work He did, or our atonement. It is totally irrelevant to salvation outside of the need for the virgin birth. The perpetual virginity of Mary has no support from Scripture either.
Matthew tells us that Joseph was commanded to take Mary as his wife and that entails everything. DOCTOR Luke Notes that Mary gave birth to her FIRSTBORN son, not her ONLY son. I expect someone as educated as a doctor would know the difference between firstborn and only.
Additionally Scripture mentions His brothers many times.
Now in order to perpetuate the perpetual virginity of Mary, Catholicism make make many assumptions and engage in a lot of questionable theological gymnastics.
The assumption that Joseph was much older and they were his children has no basis in Scripture. It's pure speculation, rationalization at best.
The argument about the Greek word for brother and sister is equally weak.
The grasping at straws about her being the ark of God and how dare Joseph even think of touching her in a carnal way, is beyond laughable.
Mary was a normal, sinful human being, by nature of being human, and needed redemption as all of us do. She was not sinless, nor was she perpetually virgin.
All that is speculation aimed at deifying Mary, elevating her to a place she does not belong.
FWIW, I do not care what Luther or Calvin had to say on the matter. Their opinion is not Scripture and is irrelevant so appealing to them as if that would change my mind is a waste of time.
Why not want her to be perpetually virgin? Because there is no Scriptural support for it and teaching as truth that something happened that cannot be verified by any other means that rationalization, leads to error.
So the question remains, why is it so important that Mary have remained a perpetual virgin? How does that affect Jesus and His atonement? How does that affect our salvation? What need is there for it?
Why is virginity so lauded as the highest ideal by a church that insists on Catholic couples having as many children as possible?
Is not the denying of sex by one person in the marriage to their spouse grounds for an annulment in Catholicism? Something about defrauding the other person?
Mary of the Bible certainly did have other children...
Matthew 1:18-25 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
Psalm 69:8 I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother's sons.
Matthew 1:24-25 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
Matthew 12:46-47 While He was still speaking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. And someone said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.”
Matthew 13:55 “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?”
Mark 6:2-3 And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands?”... “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?”
Luke 2:1-7 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
John 2:12 After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother, and His brothers, and His disciples; and there they stayed a few days.”
John 7:2-5 Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” For not even his brothers believed in him.
Acts 1:14 These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers
1 Corinthians 9:4-5 Do we not have a right to eat and drink? Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?
Galatians 1:19 But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord’s brother
Strong's Concordance
http://biblehub.com/greek/80.htm
adelphos: a brother
Original Word: ἀδελφός, οῦ, ὁ
Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine
Transliteration: adelphos
Phonetic Spelling: (ad-el-fos')
Short Definition: a brother
Definition: a brother, member of the same religious community, especially a fellow-Christian.
Here is a link to the occurrences of the Greek word *adelphos*.
http://biblehub.com/greek/80.htm
The word *sister* (adelphe) in the Greek is the same.
http://biblehub.com/greek/79.htm
The word used is *brother* not *cousin*.
It can't mean a member of the same religious community in the context in which they occur, because then that would mean every man in Israel could be identified as Jesus' brother. So that would not identify Jesus as anyone in particular's brother.
It's not going to mean *brother in Christ* as that concept was not yet in place and the Jews, who knew Jesus as a Jew and knew His brothers as Jews, would not even begin to understand the new birth and what being in Christ meant.
They didn't even understand who JESUS was, much less being a *brother in Christ*.
The only definition left then, is to mean physical brother.
And it would not be *cousin*.
The word for *relative* that is used for Elizabeth is *suggenes*, not *adelphe*.
http://biblehub.com/greek/4773.htm
Strong's Concordance
suggenes: akin, a relative
Original Word: συγγενής, ές
Part of Speech: Adjective
Transliteration: suggenes
Phonetic Spelling: (soong-ghen-ace')
Short Definition: akin, a relative
Definition: akin to, related; subst: fellow countryman, kinsman.
We ask Christians still here on earth to pray for us.
Why should their going to Heaven mean their prayers are suddenly less effective? (”He is not the God of the dead, but the living.”)
Asking someone to pray for you is not the same as calling up the spirits of the dead and asking them to foretell the future for you: which is the Old Testament command usually trotted out to mistakenly insist that we can’t ask Saints to pray for us.
I know you have probably told me before, but there may be some lurkers in this thread that have not heard your explanation of just who the 'dead in Christ' are.
Wanna inform them?
I’ll see you and raise you a “TODAY you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
Jesus said unto him, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me."
Matthew 19:21 Wanna apply THIS to everyone?
So are a lot of the other verses Protties quote and use as 'BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES™'.
The implication of your reply, is that there is a Paradise some people go to when they die, which is NOT Heaven.
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