A protestant who is torn in half

  • Thread starter Thread starter Finding_Faith
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
F

Finding_Faith

Guest
I have been a believer in Christ my whole life,i thought, and went to church a few times when i was young.my girlfriend of 4 years started going to church every sunday about 2 years ago.one day i went with her and started think where i was in my life with god.before that i never really thought about god.but after that sunday with her religion took over my life,that was all i could think about.did i believe,why religion is true,who is right,and etc.well i prayed for answers and started going to church with her every sunday and got a lot of questions answers.but i still felt a void in my life,a void that wasnt getting filled.i started looking into the catholic faith and feel in love with it.i learned all the creeds and why catholics believe what they do.i even got a rosary,and prayed the rosary, too help me understand and be closer too it.
well soon i found out my girlfriend did not agree with anything with catholics,she didn’t even like them or even believe they were Christians.so for the past year i been talking here and there with her about the catholic faith.i got her too understand that they dont pray to mary they ask her to pray for them,that if it wasn’t for catholics we wouldn’t have a bible,and that we wouldn’t have the doctrines about jesus,the father,and the holy ghost being one god ( the samething baptist so strongly believe ).she still don’t agree with how they do things or believe but she has a better understanding.
well I am here to hopefully get help because i am torn.I have been reading and studying the bible so close here for a long time and find verses that proof the claims catholics have and verses that disproof the claims catholics have.what should i do.i still struggle with mary always remaining a virgin and Jesus having step brothers.I have read pages wroth on here and other websites for the past year on both subjects and still can’t fully believe the claims for mary and jesus brothers,and the bowing in front of images.why wasn’t mary so central to the first Christians like john,paul,or peter.why didn’t they hold her up high like today.these are the things that are keeping my where i am at,and i am not a baptist i just go to church with my girlfriend,i have much different views then them as you can see here.and why do catholics always say,“who can get us closer to jesus then his mother herself”.Jesus can,can’t he make us closer to him and the father himself.
i have more questions that i will ask in this thread later but for know thats enough.Thank you all who read this and help.
 
Finding_Faith said:
I have been a believer in Christ my whole life,i thought, and went to church a few times when i was young.my girlfriend of 4 years started going to church every sunday about 2 years ago.one day i went with her and started think where i being one god ( the samething baptist so strongly believe ).she still don’t agree with how they do things or believe but she has a better understanding.
asn’t mary so central to the first Christians like john,paul,or peter.why didn’t they hold her up high like today.these are the things that are keeping my where i am at,and i am not a baptist i just go to church with my girlfriend,i have much different views then them as you can see here.and why do catholics always say,“who can get us closer to jesus then his mother herself”.Jesus can,can’t he make us closer to him and the father himself.
i have more questions that i will ask in this thread later but for know thats enough.Thank you all who read this and help.
Click to expand...
Well, here is an account of the death of Mary and where the disciples were…

pages.uoregon.edu/sshoemak/texts/dormitionG2/dormitionG2.htm

And of Mary and Joseph…prior to the nativity:

newadvent.org/fathers/0847.htm
 
HI FF,
WELCOME!!!

hope you hang around. If I may suggest…

…slow down…
...listen to the still, small Voice
 
Many Catholics wouldn’t say “Mary can get us closer to Jesus that Jesus Himself can.”
The official catechism of the Catholic Church doesn’t say it either.

As it happens, it isn’t accurate to say that none of the apostles cherished Mary.
John took Mary home to his own place and provided for her for the rest of her life after Jesus died. Though in extreme agony on the Cross, Jesus made to effort to ask him to regard His own mother as his own. Clearly, Jesus loved her dearly enough to think of her and provide for her even when he was in extreme anguish, knowing He wouldn’t be there to do so.**John 19:25-27.

** Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.**"
Efffectively, Jesus had bequeather His loved mother to John not simply to watch over, but to accept her with all the love and care as if she were John’s own mother.

Luke wrote of Mary, and of Jesus’ conception. Have a look again at what the Angel Gabriel said to her, showing God’s clear choice of her as mother of His Son,
and read also of the reverential way the Angel greets her:

** God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God" **Luke1:26-35

Just in these three instances, you have God honoring Mary for a unique choice, to become mother of the incarnate Lord,
the personal reverence of the archangel greeting her as favored by God,
and the apostle who accepted Mary as his own mother at the request of Jesus…

There are other scriptural references that can help in understanding Mary’s position…for instance, the Wedding feast of Cana, John 2:1-11 Jesus showed His respect for His mother by acceding to her request for extraordinary action even though He protested that it wasn’t yet time for such things…so Jesus certainly valued His mother…so we who love Him, will we not love and respect the mother whom He loved so much. This great concession to His mother’s faith and request is a good reason why we Catholics sometimes do also ask Mary to make our requests to Him, in addition to asking Him ourselves**
 
When people bow in front of images…I can’t say I do, as I prefer to love/honor in the heart. And they aren’t honoring the images, but the Person. We don’t have Jesus standing in front of us for the eyes to see, but if a person bows to an image of Jesus, they’re bowing to something they can see, only with the intention of bowing to Him whom they cannot see.

Regarding brothers and sisters, we tend to use the term brothers and sisters in a literal sense but many tribes and nations, especially of old, referred to cousins or any other relatives as brothers and sisters. Remember that we do refer to the tribes of Israel, and that the Jews referred to themselves as such. Jesus Himself was born in Bethlehem because, for the census, Joseph had to travel to the city of his tribe.

Mary isn’t central, Christ is.
571 The Paschal mystery of Christ’s cross and Resurrection stands at the center of the Good News that the apostles, and the Church following them, are to proclaim to the world. God’s saving plan was accomplished "once for all"313 by the redemptive death of his Son Jesus Christ.
scborromeo.org/ccc/p122a4p1.htm

If you wish to read the official teaching of the Cattholic Church regarding Mary, you may like to read, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

scborromeo.org/ccc/p122a3p2.htm

books.google.com.au/books?id=VZ-xgfJkNNgC&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=Catechism+of+the+Catholic+Church+,+centrality+of+Christ&source=bl&ots=rHKt3P5bx3&sig=I32hCwHfPLfTRe0hRTqPicQ_5xU&hl=en&ei=RLq7TaLWMYKovQPv7by9BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Catechism%20of%20the%20Catholic%20Church%20%2C%20centrality%20of%20Christ&f=false
 
God bless you in your search.
May God bountifully reward your courage and sincerity.
May God bless you and your girlfriend.
I thank God for you and for the graces by which God is leading you. 🙂
 
Welcome! At the risk of sounding like a skipping record, I can wholeheartedly suggest that you obtain a copy of Catholicism for Dummies and have a read. It will answer many, if not all of your questions. For those questions which remain, we are always here, always available for answers, and always available for prayer. The Holy Spirit is leading you to the truth - which is always hard for us to accept. Just be aware that the majority of great theologians throughout history have been Catholic. They examined every doctrine in detail and their faith was not shaken. An Apostolic Church which traces directly back to Jesus and the twelve Apostles is the only Church which will withstand scrutiny.
 
God is calling you to the Catholic Church, you will never know peace until you answer the call.

Here are some links to help you in your journey, ultimately however you will have to decide to simply have faith:

scripturecatholic.com/blessed_virgin_mary.html
home.inreach.com/bstanley/breth.htm
home.inreach.com/bstanley/brothers.htm
home.inreach.com/bstanley/ven.htm
home.inreach.com/bstanley/honr.htm
home.inreach.com/bstanley/marypr.htm
home.inreach.com/bstanley/mediate.htm
home.inreach.com/bstanley/virgin2.htm
 
Finding_Faith said:
I have been a believer in Christ my whole life,i thought, and went to church a few times when i was young.my girlfriend of 4 years started going to church every sunday about 2 years ago.one day i went with her and started think where i was in my life with god.before that i never really thought about god.but after that sunday with her religion took over my life,that was all i could think about.did i believe,why religion is true,who is right,and etc.well i prayed for answers and started going to church with her every sunday and got a lot of questions answers.but i still felt a void in my life,a void that wasnt getting filled.i started looking into the catholic faith and feel in love with it.i learned all the creeds and why catholics believe what they do.i even got a rosary,and prayed the rosary, too help me understand and be closer too it.
well soon i found out my girlfriend did not agree with anything with catholics,she didn’t even like them or even believe they were Christians.so for the past year i been talking here and there with her about the catholic faith.i got her too understand that they dont pray to mary they ask her to pray for them,that if it wasn’t for catholics we wouldn’t have a bible,and that we wouldn’t have the doctrines about jesus,the father,and the holy ghost being one god ( the samething baptist so strongly believe ).she still don’t agree with how they do things or believe but she has a better understanding.
well I am here to hopefully get help because i am torn.I have been reading and studying the bible so close here for a long time and find verses that proof the claims catholics have and verses that disproof the claims catholics have.what should i do.i still struggle with mary always remaining a virgin and Jesus having step brothers.I have read pages wroth on here and other websites for the past year on both subjects and still can’t fully believe the claims for mary and jesus brothers,and the bowing in front of images.why wasn’t mary so central to the first Christians like john,paul,or peter.why didn’t they hold her up high like today.these are the things that are keeping my where i am at,and i am not a baptist i just go to church with my girlfriend,i have much different views then them as you can see here.and why do catholics always say,“who can get us closer to jesus then his mother herself”.Jesus can,can’t he make us closer to him and the father himself.
i have more questions that i will ask in this thread later but for know thats enough.Thank you all who read this and help.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the forum!!
There are a LOT of materials on defending Mary to those who think we Catholics put too much emphasis on her. You can find many of them right here at catholic.com.

**I wrote a 16-page response to my anti-Catholic Evangelical sister who wrote a very anti-Marian tract for her church. Last year, my pastor asked me to give a lecture for the parish based on that tract. I have separated it into several short, easy-to-read tracts that can be found on my blog: **http://catholicinfo.blog.com/category/mother-of-god/

Defending the Catholic position on Mary is very easy - once you understand what Biblical prophecy and the traditions of the Early Church have to say about her. 👍
 
nice to hear about a real life apologetic experience from someone who I see interacting on CAF so frequently elvis. well done and thanks for the link

FF, welcome to CAF! I’ve learned a lot on my own since I joined this forum, but reading this forum has helped me direct and enhance my learning. Praying for you.
 
FF

listen to kepha. walk minute by minute into the Kingdom. when the time is right consider that when you say “started think where i was in my life with god” is an inclination that began in heaven. think of this, slowly. the Holy Spirit is the souce of this.

peace
 
I’m sure that all the folks in this forum can easily deal with your concerns over faith issues my only advise is to remember you are responsable for your own faith not your friend so I suggest while not leaving your friend you still need to focus on getting the answers to convince yourself what is right for you. Mary will not let you down ; you have found in the Rosary the greatest spiritual help you can have outside of the sacrements. Mary will lead you to the truth about Christ and His Church and in time with more prayer may even lead your friend 😃
 
Thank you all.and most of the links that some of you have posted i have read before.for some reason i feel like i am not doing something right.every since i have been praying the rosary and learning more about the catholic faith i have felt closer to god.but i still feel a emptiness,if that makes senses,that i cant explain.here lately i been thinking that the reason for this is because i am not in the church i need to be.i think i need to go to a catholic church to have this void filled.but i don’t want my family to be mad at me.i know i am 22 years old but my family is close to me.and when my brother seen i had a rosary and i was thinking of going to a catholic church he told me don’t do it because he don’t want me to go to hell.i was shocked and asked him why he thought i would go to hell.he said because catholics pray to mary and not jesus,and that is a sin.i try to explain to him the church just ask he to pray for them,like how his church people say please pray for me.but he didn’t want to hear it.i try to explain it is not worship praying,it’s asking praying if that makes senses.
but my void i have in my life i think is because i am not attending a catholic church,and when i think about going to one i have this feeling inside me.a feeling like it’s where i want and need to be.
 
Finding_Faith said:
Thank you all.and most of the links that some of you have posted i have read before.for some reason i feel like i am not doing something right.every since i have been praying the rosary and learning more about the catholic faith i have felt closer to god.but i still feel a emptiness,if that makes senses,that i cant explain.here lately i been thinking that the reason for this is because i am not in the church i need to be.i think i need to go to a catholic church to have this void filled.
Click to expand...
You are on a search for the Truth, which is Jesus Christ. Be strong and do not be swayed by friends or family who are not on the same journey that you are. The emptiness you feel is your natural desire for the Holy Eucharist. Up to this point in your life, you have tasted only that which leads to death. In the Eucharist, for the first time, you will taste life. Once the truth of the Eucharist settles in, you will be overwhelmed with gratitude and thankfulness to God. Perhaps a little reading and reflection on John 6, Matthew 26 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-34 might help.

Christ’s peace be with you.
 
I’m someone from a Protestant background on their way into the Catholic Church. The evidence for Mary isn’t as widespread in the Bible because the Bible is primarily to teach us about Christ. You might want to compare Revelation 12 and Micah 5:1-3 though. This is talking about Mary so you have some evidence from 95AD (when Revelation was written). The Church historian Eusebius also makes a very brief mention of Mary in his ‘History of the Church’. As a bonus you’ll learn a lot about the early Church if you read that.

You have found a great pearl in the Catholic Church. Treasure it!
 
Remember its your soul; but look again at the Rosary

Apostles Creed

Our Father - the prayer Christ tod us about

Hail Mary - all parts of the bible scriptures except the last bit that says pray for us Sinners…

Glory be to the Father and The Son and The Holy Spirit

at the end of each decade OH Jesus forgive us our sins ; save us from the fires of hell ; lead all souls to heaven especially those in need of thy mercy.

Of the 20 mysteries 18 are reflecting on Christs life.

Its Prayers to The Father ; The Son ; The Trinity ; Its scripture verses about Mary as well as requests for her to pray for us. And its Primarily focused on Christs Life and Mission in the Bible.

Hope that helps 👍
 
Finding_Faith said:
snip…
but my void i have in my life i think is because i am not attending a catholic church,and when i think about going to one i have this feeling inside me.a feeling like it’s where i want and need to be.
Click to expand...
The void will never be filled till you start to recieve the Body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord and savior in the Eucharist.
 
fbl9 said:
The void will never be filled till you start to recieve the Body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord and savior in the Eucharist.
Click to expand...
:clapping::yup:

He is being called to closer communion with Our Lord. I pray that he will find the courage to soldier on even if it means leaving his family to do so…
 
Let’s not forget to pray for this poster and for his family and friends, too.
 
Thank you all so much.i would really love to hear some more answers for my other questions from more posters.and thanks to all who have replied and gave answers.my next questions is about traditions.me and my girlfriend was talking and this came up.she said her biggest issue with the church is that she think that catholics hold there traditions more highly then god.like sprinkling baptized of people,candles,rosary,ect.she found a versus that she said sounds like catholics,mark 7:9"Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition’.she said that catholics would rather have there traditions then fully obey god.she believes that catholics mean well in what they do,and that they worship jesus and are saved ( it took me more then a year for me to get her to understand catholics believe in god and are saved,and pleased understand she has been a southern baptists her whole life and the church she goes too always take shots at catholics.she doesn’t see it but i do ).

another thing she doesn’t like is that catholics bow,kiss,and call the pope holy father.she says that there is only one holy father and that is god,and no should have that title on earth but him.can you give me more details why those things are done for the pope and why priest are called father.because she uses the versus where it says call no man on earth father.i try to explain that in there heart they are not saying father or holy father like they would God the father himself.but i can seem to explain in my own words to her.

Thank you all so much,you guys are helping more then you know.God bless all of you.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top