Catholic Caucus: YOPIOS = Your Own Personal Interpretation Of Scripture

I don't place freerepublic before God...

In 1976 I was a Catholic atheist went to mass because the children needed an ethical foundation and churches do that.

My husband was asked to make a religious retreat… He went and then expected me to go.

.To keep the peace in our home I went. . Now I was a very busy woman in those days I had 6 children and was pregnant with the seventh. I was also a part time college student and I worked part time to pay my tuition. Taking time away was not my plan. but it was Gods

The retreat was a three-day retreat that heavily uses psychological tools. Being a student that was of particular interest to me. So as the women gave their talks I took notes in my notebook about the Psychological tricks that were a part of that weekend

Then something happened that I did not expect. I had a God moment. I had heard people talk about a “personal God” but I could never understand the concept. We had a chapel visit. When I went in and sat down I was suddenly aware of the presence of God in a way that was unlike anything I had ever known. I started to weep in the presence of God and all I could say was “Why me? Why me” I could not understand why God had bothered to bring me to that weekend. Or why He loved me. I was no longer an atheist

I returned to the retreat in a new frame of mind. I wanted to listen now

At the end of the retreat every woman was given a pocket sized Good News for modern man New Testament. I had never read the bible. Now I owned one of my very own

I went home hungry to read it…. I loved it. I could not get enough of it. I went out and bought a small Good News that contained both testaments. I never would have understood another translation at that point. But I could read and understand that and I did .I read and I read for days. God was talking to me. imagine that:?:>)

Two weeks after I got home from the retreat …now a certified religious nut I went to the altar after mass. I knelt down and asked God who Jesus was. Was He the God of the JW’s the angel Michael? Was he the God of the Mormons? Was He God or was He the Son of God? Who is this Jesus?

I was sitting in the tub a few days later. I was talking to God. Please show me who you are. Teach me

God then showed me who I was. I had not asked for that. But that is what He did. He showed me how He saw me. Not how I look to the world, how I look in the Holy presence of God

I started to weep…I felt so filthy in His presence. I climbed out of the tub and I fell to my knees…what else can one do in the presence of The Holy majesty of God? I wept and sought His forgiveness. I had seen who Jesus was when I saw who I was. He was my savior and He was my righteousness I kept asking Him why He would bother with someone like me. I asked His forgiveness and I asked Him to take my pathetic life to do with, as He wanted.

I did not know scripture back then. But in the 26 years since I have learned that when you stand in the presence of God your life forever changes

Rom 10:17 So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God

And you make that assumption about the rest of us?

I went to church today. The service was 2 hours long..the message was almost an hour long.

Time flys in the presence of God :>)

Scripture was tested, put together by Apostolic Tradition..

The Old Testament was handed down to us by the The Jewish people ,the New Testament by the bulilders of the New Church..both are written by ordinary men from all walks of life under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost...THAT is why we "bother with it" *grin*

We had a chapel visit. When I went in and sat down I was suddenly aware of the presence of God in a way that was unlike anything I had ever known.

Thank you. Interesting that your sudden awareness of the presence of God occurred in a Catholic chapel. Any significance in that?

Your conversion story sounds similiar to others I have heard...and it happen when you were attending the Catholic Church..doesn't that speak to you?

the New Testament by the builders of the New Church..

Catholic...

two minds :) LOL

Chuck Gods people are all over the place..there are saved Catholics..many post on FR ...But Chuck I was NOT saved by the tradition It was the word of God .

The question is always can one be saved and stay a Catholic.? I have friends that have they simply ignore the doctrine they find troubling. I am a honest person..I could not go to communion when I do not believe it is the body of Christ.I could not sit silent during a practice that troubled me spiritually. I remained and was VERY active in the church for a few years..I worked retreats, I assisted bring a Prison ministry to our area, I lectured and played in a folk group, I taught CCD..But the moment of truth came when I realized the scale had tipped and I disbelieved more doctrine than I believed. I had to go if I was to be honest. I could not teach other women in the name of the church or minister in that name..I left

I have known many Catholics over the years that went to mass on Saturday and a protestant church for scripture teaching on Sundays

You know me well enough to know that I am honest if not suave and clever:>) I can not pretend to be what I am not..

There was only the church of Jesus christ when those letters and Gospels were written..

1 John 2:27

Becky

YOPIOTPOPIOS

Hmmmmm. I like it.

DFMINKY. (Courtesy of Jesus)

"16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction. "

Here see Peter warning about ignorant people twisting scriptures to make it mean what the want it to. Here are two perfect examples of what he meant

1) Polycarp tells us that the Eunich in Acts couldn't understand Scripture without someone explaining it to him. Very true.Phillip explained the Scripture to him and then baptised him in the Spirit and left.After the baptism the Eunich wouldn't need Phillip.

2)Catholicguy use the road to Damascus conversionm to show us his ignorance of Scripture. He tells us Saul was sent to the nearest Catholic Church to learn. In Galatians Paul tells us a different story

" Gal 1:11-12 11 I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. (NIV) "

Polycarp and Catholicguy, the unlearned and unstable that Peter warned you about, just tried to "wrest" the scriptures to you. It is only by the Scriptures that you can prove their ignorance.

"17 You therefore, brethren, knowing these things before, take heed, lest being led aside by the error of the unwise, you fall from your own steadfastness. "

Peter tells us here that if we know Scripture in advance we wouldn't be led astray.Thank you for your words of wisdom, Peter. It makes the unstable and unlearned easy to spot.
Poly and CG are prime examples of what they are trying to discredit.

It is curious that the RCC made it a point to persecute those who made the Scriptures available in the native tongues of people around the world. In fact, the RCC purposely kept the Bible away from the people on the grounds that we could not understand it. Now the RCC states that we should have the Bible available to us. Don't your find these positions contradictory?

The only reason why the RCC slams the doctrine of sola scriptura is because the Bible clearly repudiates the teaching of the RCC. If people in the RCC actually read their Bibles they would reject Rome. Therefore, this is nothing more than an ill-begotten manipulation technique. Their reasoning is rather circular. They say that only the church is qualified to interpret the scriptures. The reason is that the scriptures, which can only be interpreted by the RCC, say so. By the way, I get a kick out of the papists claims that the Apostles in the Acts were involved in a nascent Catholic church. My Baptist friends claim that the apostolic church was a nascent Baptist church. Personally, I believe the church in Acts was a nascent Presbyterian church. I know so because historic presbyterians have said so.