Some people like to talk just for the sake of talking…I’m not saying that OS (or anybody else for that matter) is doing that but it seems a lot of people on here do…Where I stand on the Authority of the church and with the Papacy starting with St. Peter is this…When God says, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”…I BELIEVE GOD. It is up to you whether you want to believe God or not…That is why Sacred Scripture says, “And without faith it is impossible to please him.” I may not be an “Old Scholar” but when God speaks, I BELIEVE.
**Do you believe God when he says this:
Of course I do. What follower of Christ wouldn’t believe that?
How about, in some of them you don’t have to believe in God to be ordained. How’s that for a change. The “changes” you listed for the Catholic Church were matters of discipline, not dogma. Priestly celibacy is a discipline, and can be changed. Not ordaining women to the priesthood is a defined dogma and is not subject to change.
These people are not Catholics. Anyone involved in these “ordinations” has excommunicated themselves.
Believe me, Mormons do not have a monopoly on the “Great Apostasy”. Its become such a convenient alibi, that numerous other faiths have latched onto it, such as the Church of Christ. Its sort of like the “Trail of Blood” theory, if it implicates the falsity of the Catholic Church, then its got to be true, even if there’s no proof to verify it!
We hold to everything God says, including what he taught through His Apostles. You hold to only that which is written down - its almost like worshiping a book.
We would all be better Christians if we were as committed as the Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses. You must agree they take their religion seriously.
So what do you believe about the Baptists?
That is painting with a VERY broad brush. It seems you are quite biased towards the Mormons and JW’s. We are called to not be lukewarm for our faith…Rev 3:16 “So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.” I take my faith in Christ VERY seriously.
The reason we worship on Sunday and not Saturday is because our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was resurrected on Sunday. Wouldn’t it make sense to worship the risen Lord on the day He was risen?
For Catholics though, Mass is every single day. If you have the time, you could attend Mass every day of the week even though Holy Obligation is only on Sunday because of the aforementioned reason. But I am sure you would like some scripture to go along with this reasoning and here ya go! Acts 20:7 “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and he prolonged his speech until midnight.”For one to be a Christian, you should be baptized in trinatarian form…Look at Matthew 28:18-20…Believe Jesus Christ is God…John 3:16…Repent from your sins…Luke 13:3…and confess Jesus as Lord Romans 10:9-10. Faith alone doesn’t cut it…I’m not implying that you believe in that but for the benefit of those out there that do…Even St. Paul wasn’t sure he was saved…He said, Php 2:12 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”
It isnt as much that we have to rely on the church to tell us what it says. It is just that there are so many different interpretations out there that we need to know what the TRUE interpretation of certain verses are and that can only be found in the church that was given the Authority by Jesus Christ Himself (Matthew 16:18).
Show me at least one inkling of historical proof that “everything was fine…then Rome got too involved.” Peter was given the Keys and then eventually He went to Rome to help Paul preach to the Gentiles. Unfortunately they both met their demise in Rome but, from that time forward, all the Popes from St. Peter to the present Pope have all resided in Rome. Maybe you can go into more detail what exactly you mean by Rome getting too involved as well.
Have fun at the beach. I await your response upon your return. God bless.
I’m not OS but I think I’d like to take a crack at this one
If the Catholic church never existed, then the church wouldn’t exist. Mat 16:18 “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.” There is only ONE church that Peter is the rock of and that is Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic church. No Catholic church, no Authority from Jesus Christ Himself, there would be nothing for reformers to reform from.I’m interested to hear this answer as well. It says in his profile that he is “non-catholic, non-protestant.” That really doesn’t leave very many other churches other than Mormons and JW’s.
That is what is so great about the Catholic church. You don’t have to wait a whole week to worship God one day. You can do it every single day!
That’s the way the Apostles wanted it…Act 2:42 “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Act 2:46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts.” Yes we should all be thankful for the Pope. Without the Authority passed down to him by St. Peter who received the awesome grace of Authority by Jesus Christ Himself, the Catholic church would be nothing more than another denomination and would have never lasted 2000 years. It is only through Christ’s divine powers that His church has withstood time and MANY humanly errors. Remember that the church is never sinful but the people inside it are! Just my :twocents:“As I said, here in the 4th century was when it first started. Yet no primacy established, just cooperation by all”
I feel your pain as well. Even though I have only been around for close to 30 years, I can see how the moral fabric of our society is getting worse by the second. Things that you mentioned such as abortion and contraception are considered “choices” and marriages, relationships, work, etc. are being destroyed by the pornography industry. But, going back to contraception, did you know that most, if not all, churches believed in no contraception until 1931 when a Methodist preacher, I believe, agreed to it? Look at it now. Babies are being given no chance to live through constant contraception being used and also being murdered when a mother feels “she’s not ready” for a baby or it cramps her lifestyle. I have heard all the debates about how its a woman’s choice to keep her baby. What about if the baby she has murdered is a female? What happens to the sacred “woman’s choice” then? It gets annihiliated before the baby girl has a chance to become a woman. Thank you for bringing these issues up. The Catholic church is the foundation of Western Civilization as we know it and brought the morality, love, and ultimate message of salvation to this side of the world. If you’re not Catholic, what exactly has your church done to benefit this world? It certainly has, and never will, reach the good that has come from Christ’s church; the Holy, Apostolic, and Catholic church that Christ established with Peter as the Rock and given the Keys to the Kingdom by Jesus Christ Himself. God bless you all.
The lists you mentioned were many and varied until the 4th century.
Yes I have, more than once. I always wonder why, during the Eucharist, they don’t follow God’s instructions and let the laity drink of the cup???