At the risk of being jumped, but hey that’s people’s perogative, I would like to say something about conversion. We have a saying in my part of the world, ‘there but for the grace of God go I.’ To cradle Catholics who have never had a crises of faith, meaning; not simply doubt even serious ones, but the total destruction of everything you believed in and held dear, try to see things from anothers perspective. That was my experience as a JW. I felt I was simply waiting for God to kill me at Armagedon and I experienced the blackest time in my life which I am still coming to terms with. Even if you have had exactly the same experiences as another in your life, you have still experienced it as another human individual. How do we know that under certain circumstances, there is not one of us here could completely loose faith, not that we want to, and how would we handle it? As a convert myself, I would say that converts have a tendency to become very devout because, at the risk of using another cliche, ‘familiarity breeds contempt.’ For a convert, Catholicism, or convertion to any new faith for that matter, is a very new experience and we therefore perhaps have a greater thirst for new knowledge, make up for time we feel we lost with God and it opens up so much that we never knew was there. Things such as Christ as God and the mystery of the Blessed Trinity places a great demand on faith and the dogma of transubstantiation perhaps places the greatest demand on our faith. They are not easy things to believe in and can only be believed in by the grace God bestows on us in order for us to be able to believe. A friend I made on a pilgimage to Lourdes teases me that I am a real doubting Thomas as I often think, is God really working wondrous things in my life or is it all in my imagination? The reason for that is I’m not sure if the conversion ‘process’ ever really stops. We are always deepening our understanding and because Catholic belief places such a demand on our faith as it is not something which can be understood by intellect alone, we sometimes wind up thinking we don’t believe in anything due to the limitations of human thinking. If someone told me they where absolutely sure of everything they believe in I would worry about them! If we where absoluetley sure, we would have no need of faith. What we can be assured of, is that God bestows on us whatever we need in order to believe and we don’t need to be convinced in advance in order to ask him to show himself to us. I had terrible trouble believing that Christ was God and the more I read the Bible and books on Theology, the more confused I became. I remember reading the Catholic Cathechism and thinking ‘I don’t believe any of this!’ but realistically, how could I have been expected to understand and believe the deep things of God simply by reading about it? In my personal experience, my greatest aid was prayer, even if it was just to shout at God about what was wrong with the world, the Church, and on occasion have even told God I don’t believe in anything anymore because it’s just too difficult, yet the are the very things we should say in prayer as it opens the way for God’s grace to take effect.
what kind of god a man should look for himself? if you dont believe in Heaven or hell, why one should be looking for a god? for what purpose? your statement sounds very much like paganism.
anyone should make up his or her own god. every man for himself right?
i believe heaven and hell exist on earth, a man should find his own way to live in heaven as much as possible, understand life’s principles and that you cannot be happy if you make others unhappy. we reap what we have sown (pardon my english, is that correct?), in this very life. the way of love, peace, care and truth is the way of wisdom and the way of living in heaven and not in hell.
what kind of god a man should look for himself? if you dont believe in Heaven or hell, why one should be looking for a god? for what purpose? your statement sounds very much like paganism.
anyone should make up his or her own god. every man for himself right?
amen!
Close to Jesus teachings?
Read with an open mind.Sorry but I couldn’t even read the whole thing. To think everyone but Catholics are going to hell is absurd and ignorance and hatred like this is one of the reasons for so many turning away from the faith. On behalf of Jesus and Mary I apologize to all who were offended by this.For those who are torn about their Church, thinking of leaving their non Catholic Church, and leaving their Catholic Church, torn between which Church to follow etc this article worth reading. Follow the link and click on the link
God Bless.
The One True Church, by Fr. Arnold Damen S.J.(1815-1890) - Good Message for all of us
forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=3606552&postcount=94
The Church or the Bible by Fr. Arnold Damen, S.J. (1815-1890 )
forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=3606655&postcount=95
), which I suppose reflects his late nineteenth-century outlook.Dear Jennifer,
I have been what they call a "church hopper" for years. My mom started me off on this when she took me to baptist churches and than to pentecostal churches, not being able to decide which one she liked better:rolleyes: . I entered the fray when I became an adult. I had what to most people would have been a minor event (A girl that I liked had married someone else) become a major heartache for me, and it lead to a deep sense of grieving and loss. I started to study with quasi Christian groups such as the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, but finally deciding that I was a Seventh Day Adventist at heart. I stayed there, but while I believed, I certainly didn't live according to what they believed in. I listened to Rock Music, Ate meat, and Smoked both weed and tobacco. Later, I became even more confused, and started to investigate the new age (Particularly Shamanism- attracted to it because of a Techno band that promoted that religion) After this, I decided I needed a "Compromise" between new age claims and the traditional Christian beliefs that I grew up with, and decided to become a baptized mormon. I stayed with that church until I read a book called "Transformed by truth" by Joseph Tkach, Junior. It described how a group that used to be a cult turned around to embrace fundamentalist christians. I joined them and was happy for a while - but soon got tired of the judgementalism and pride that this particular church engaged in. I also got tired of it in another church that I was going to that was close to the VOA apartment complex I lived at. A friend of mine, An Agnostic, talked about how in his church, they had marched in the Civil Rights movement and how they church that he had gone to wasn't opposed to people thinking for themselves. That's how I embraced Catholocism, because a good friend of mine saw how unhappy I was and was willing to help me out. I still get confused sometimes, but I am infinitely more happy and content in the Catholic church than I have ever been in any other church. They are less apt to judge, for one thing- and their approach to scripture is quite refreshing. Instead of believing the bible dropped out of the sky and should be interpreted in a fundamentalist way (Except, of course, John 6 and John 20:23, which according to Fundamentalists, are merely figurative), A contextualist tries to first discover what type of literature he or she is investigating and tries to best understand what it was saying to the people who it was written to. I enjoy this inspiring and refreshing approach to Bible Study. Have a good day to all, and God bless....I like the second sermon too. I agree.Agreed. The idea that God threatens people with damnation in order to persuade them to believe is quite repugnant to the conception of a God Who is Love and desires repentance and joy for all men.
Not to mention his factual accuracy is rather quaint at times (the Vulgate is the absolute best basis for Scriptural translation
I like his second sermon a bit better, though. He does a pretty good job of exposing the logical inconsistency of Protestantism.
Glad to hear that you are happy and content in the Catholic Church and get confused sometime is normal. We are only human and not perfect. Never stop praying to God for continuous guidance. God bless you.Hello there,
I have been what they call a “church hopper” for years. My mom started me off on this when she took me to baptist churches and than to pentecostal churches, not being able to decide which one she liked better
Tommy
The general position of Orthodoxy is that Heaven and Hell are the reactions of the human soul to the experience of God’s uncreated energies. All men will be raised on the last day and taken to the presence of God. This is our destiny as humans, and it is universal; we, in our free will, choose what to do with that destiny. Those who love God will experience Him as eternal joy; those who hate God will experience Him as eternal destruction.
Sorry, didn’t mean to persecute you! I didn’t convert until the age of 34 and for many years was very turned off by Catholicism. I knew many Catholics over the years (went to Catholic school at the age of 15), and I know that arguments, justifications and pride often send people in the opposite direction, that’s all. I also know that love and gentle and quiet and slow sharing do lead people to want to know your faith. Maybe such arguments are a necessary part of evangelization, I don’t know, personally I don’t think so, but I could be wrong…I accepted your persecution!
Hey there Jennifer that is okay. Hurt a little bit when you said that I am scaring others but that won’t stop me from loving you as the believer of Christ and His Church. I understand. Don’t worry about it. I forgive you and I hope you forgive me too. My husband himself was a former Baptist and now he is a Catholic and I myself born into the faith. I know it is not easy for those who were not born into the faith to understand and I want you to know that I understand your position. Thank you for pointing out my mistake. I should have been more sensitive. And to all my fellow Protestant brothers and sisters out there I apologised to all of you too. That being said I think we all need to focus on what unites us not divide us. And pray for one another and set example by humilty just what you said.
Welcome Home morning_star, glad and happy to hear that you found your way home. I have a sister married to a Muslim man. I would love to see her come home one day. The last time I spoke to her I told her no matter what happen never never let go of her believe in Jesus Christ for dying on the cross for the sin of the world. Typical answer from a muslim she told me that Jesus were spoken in the Quran but it is just not the same way we Christian know Him. She converted because there is no other way and no way for Muslim from my country to convert to Christianity. Her husband I guess I can say very moderate muslim and nice man. His parents once told her that they were treated better by non muslim than their muslim friends in term of when they need help.