Roy the only thing unbiblical is the “doubt” in your mind, and thats created by loose interpretations of Scripture, wrongly taught and promoted for monetary gain today. It not only neglects Oral Tradition totally, and a Church that existed since Christ established it. It further reduced the reformers work to two simple beliefs of 1] The Cross, 2] The Holy Spirit at Pentecost, which today many would have you believe was the start of the Pentacostal Church of today. There resides the aspect which isn’t consistant with the Divine Circle which God created through the Holy Family and Apostles thus HIs Church, and gave all the “opportunity” to share in through Apostolic Succession, thus the FAMILY remember MARY, Gods Mother…FAMILY that sustains the life of the church through Gods Sacrements such as, here’s a lost concept…“Marriage”.
There is no Historic, Written/Oral tradition to support any claims you have made in regards to scripture. Very much the opposite. Its a complete break from Bible/Scripture, in fact its no longer even Scripture, its an opinion of Scripture which makes it just that, an “opionion”. Thus your not following anything but what you conceived in your opinion to be the truth. In “doubt” a lie that became the truth.
“Jesus didn’t seem to appear to her after his resurrection as he did to others.”
Read the other thread on the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption/Dormition which is right here at the moment. All these interretations of yours date to very early church teaching. The IC to 60-AD with the Acts of Andrew. The writtings on the Assumption/Dormition are so profound they place Mary in the exact place where the Catholic Church and the Apostolic Churchs view Her today. Luther had no issue with this, he was Catholic. His issue occured during the monastic reform of his period which is no different than St Theresa or St John of the Cross. He chose to leave and start his own church in “anger” and “hurt” which spills into his work and the following reformers. The Saints reformed the Monastic life. And where does that exist in the Protestant Church today? Oh, I forget Luther didn’t care for it so it was done away with.
In fact if you get right to point of the Reformation and debates with Erasmus. Erasmus held this “main point,” the Church has served the family so effectively for centurys, that we ought admit mankind doesn’t have all the answers and stick to the Church teaching non-dogmatically. And what is the result of the family in the USA and Western world today? The Catholic Church hasn’t budged on its views since the FIRST CENTURY. It was all these “modern” churchs you choose to salute, which promoted that man some how “evolved” out of his barbarism, and who now is educated enough to also have the modern church evolve also to more modern thinking [the we got it, we’ll take it from here theory], like contraceptives, abortion, sola-scriptura, etc. Thus the breaks not only take place with oral/written tradition and misinterpretation of Bible, they totally break from the most important aspect…The Family which sustains LIFE, thus the Sacrements which provide Grace for Spiritual battle, and that battle is the History of Man.
The only aspect man has accomplished is technical advances. We are just as barbaric as ever, in fact we just kill more effectively from a very disconnected distance now. Makes it easier to swallow the guilt. In fact there were more martyred last century in the Church than the first three togther. The parallel line of civil/savage has always existed and has gone no-where. In fact Christ is the only reason for “civil” man. But to actually believe He will Bless by Grace some half-baked idea on not only His Kingdom, but what you think, he thinks? Wow, now there’s some a formula of folly for ya.
Your issue isn’t with Catholic teaching, or with the early church fathers, in fact you spent more time reading bad Christian writting. So that now your issue is in your own mind, with doubt. And the only thing which could create doubt is fear. Which is the direct opposite of Love, and thus not the working of God but man which leads to the open door of evil.
God made no mistakes, and you can best believe the Blessed Mother is more important to Him today, than when He placed His life in Her Hands, so I"d say She was not only important than but “THE PLAN” thus His DNA ran through HER body.
Every single of these loose shooting congregations today avoid the correct teaching of the Four Gospels. I’ve listened to them, they all stop short, such as in Luke 22 and the man holding the Jug of Water becomes the Holy Spirit thus the Water, and the Bread of LIfe which is the “POINT,” of not just first three Gospels but pounded home in JOHN, aside from the entire text of the OT/NT is completely overlooked and ignored. Never mind the priesthood from OT/NT. And of course it has to be this way because it would confirm CC teaching otherwise!! And the mulit million-dollar, monetary gain motivated organizations would fall apart.
Do they bring you in the realm of Jesus Christ? Of course they do, and for this reason they can’t be disregarded but respected. But the Truth, is still the Truth. And in some form or shape they are all lacking it this aspect. I would read “Scott Hahns” work, I can’t think of the name of his show on EWTN, but the book I would recommend is titled in that show.
Mary? read “Mary through the Centurys”, its written by a Lutheran. Jaroslav Pelikan, he also wrote Jesus through the Centurys. Thats if you don’t to read “Catholics” which is why I mentioned Scott Hahn, though now Catholic and teaching Bible, spent a few decades in the Protestant Church.
on another thread, a poster, stated that the dogmas relating to our Blessed Mother were “wildly un biblical.” to go into this would have derailed that particular thread, and out of respect to the posters wishes not to pursue this debate, i have decided it would be interesting to hear from anybody at all, Catholic or protestant who believe that the Marian dogmas are un biblical. i myself, do not see them as such. when a side by side comparison is made between Mary and the Ark of the Covenant. there is a very strong parallel. when we read o.t. accounts, about solomon for example, and bathsheba( the queen mother, who had her sons ear) there seems to be a deeper meaning pointing to another Mother and Her Son, and how She would intercede to Him on our behalf. just a few examples. feel free to come up with your own. its wide open. the immaculate conception, the virgin birth, the assumption into heaven. all of it. peace to all of us, and may this be a friendly discussion. 