Ex-Protestants

[LaughingBoy1503]

Were any of you taught that Apparitions of the Virgin Mary were really the Devil? This one will stay with me until I die. I will ALWAYS remember this.

And, there’s no way that Rev 12 could be Mary? Because it refers to a dragon & we know there’s no such thing as dragons?

Evolution is DEFINITELY NOT a possibitlity…at all?

What I’m asking, overall, is, were you taught (I went to a dispensationalist school for two years) anything so SUBTLELY anti-Catholic that you still have issues today about it? (That a miracle can be attributed to the devil…even though I know a house divided cannot stand…is a big one for me.)

Other things I have heard from other Protestants…

The deuterocananocal books were left out of the Protestant Bibles because they were written too late to be valid (though, lots of Protestants like the history of Maccabees).

The Papacy isn’t REAL because successors can only come through bloodlines.

Purgatory & Limbo are on the same level.

“Brother” HAS to be literal because, even IF there was no word for “Cousin”, they would still say, “My father’s brother’s son’s” if it wasn’t true…

…these are what I can remember right now. Please all, contribute because it never ceases to amaze me the new things I hear and the ignorance I have heard… I especially want to know that whole Mary’s aparitions are the devil thing…how much THIS has been propegated…

I was taught in Sunday school as a kid that The Catholic Church changes the Bible about every ten years. Though I am sure that was just what that particular teacher thought, not what that church taught.

My mothers husband at the time gave my Grandmother a video that said that Marian apparitions were of the devil because in some of them, the apparition of Mary is making herself equal to Jesus, therefore pointing away from Christ and toward herself as savior.

I was taught that anything “unbiblical” was man made and of the devil. And the Catholic Church has a lot of unbiblical teachings. Sola Scripture was a big reason why I was hesitant to become Catholic even when I started believing that maybe the Catholics were right

Believing all these things and others a a kid does still somewhat affect me even as a new Catholic. Worshiping Christ in the Eucharist was tough for me at first because as a protestant I would have considered that idolatry since I did not believe in the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist. And I use to have a lot of trouble with the thought of asking the saints to pray for me because as a protestant I was told we should only pray to Christ so praying to someone was equal to worshiping them in a way.

It just got to the point where I had to say that if I truly believe The Catholic Church is the Church of Christ and cannot be wrong in her doctrine by the guidence of The Holy Spirit, I was just going to have to trust the Church and its teachings over what had already been so strongly planted in my head as a child. Once in awhile even up to acouple hours before my baptism (last saturday ) I would even wonder if I was being decieved by the devil in comming into The Church. Just short-lived thoughts, nothing intense or somthing I would take seriously. I know The Catholic Church is Christs Church. But I think those thoughts stem from what I was taught as a child. Hope that all makes sense.

 

[Jerry-Jet]

Here’s a question that everyone should ask themselves:

if it were up to Satan and he had to choose whether the Eucharist would be symbolic or “Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity”–

Which would Satan choose?

his choice is OBVIOUS–Symbolic–Not Real–and certainly NOT

Christ’s Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity!

Why a person with Christ REALY inside them could defeat Satan and avoid dying in a state of mortal sin and thereby going to Hell!

Which let’s get real–isn’t that the real reason Satan inspired the symbolic view?

Real Faith that really justifies is the faith that believes Jesus “even though it is a hard saying”!

REAL Faith that really justifies not only believes in the reality of one’s own soul even though it is invisible–

but believes in the REALITY of Christ’s Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity because Jesus said “This IS my body and This IS my blood”.

Now get real people–wouldn’t the devil try to advance such silly arguments as "What the definition of IS–IS?

Real justifying faith believes what Jesus SAYS OVER what one’s eyes say!

If you don’t have that kind of faith do you really have faith?

How can you be guilty of the “Body and blood of the Lord” if the body and blood are only a symbol?!

How can you receive the sacrament if you don’t “DISCERN the body” like St. Paul says?

If you want a REAL PERSONAL relationship with Jesus Christ there is no realationship more personal than EATING Jesus’s Body and Blood–what He called "TRUE food and TRUE drink–having Christ’s Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity inside you–NOURISHING you!

Didn’t Jesus say that we must become as children to enter the Kingdom of God?

The Eucharist is the way that Jesus FEEDS His children!

It’s the way He is “with us until the end of the world”!

For Jesus to be with us it must be more than JUST spiritually because Jesus is BODY, and Spirit!

All religions believe in the spiritual–SO WHAT?

Jesus rose from the dead–His body rose from the tomb!

You want to know something more miraculous than that?!

The Eucharist–the SUBSTANTIAL REAL presence regardless of what the sight of the accidents tell you!

Now belief in that–That’s REAL JUSTIFYING faith!

Think about it Protestants–move on up to the BIG leagues of faith!

I converted to the Catholic faith and I can tell you this–I have never known Jesus more or been closer to Him–personally united to Him and felt His love more than I do now as a Catholic when I receive Him in the Eucharist!

The Eucharist is a slice of heaven!

 

[CompSciGuy]

For me, the greatest stumbling block was believing in the tradition of the Church instead of scripture alone. I am sure that you are familiar with the way Protestant parents drill the idea of sola scriptura into the heads of their children until it is practically a natural instinct. I still have trouble defending mariology when talking to protestants but it isn’t because I have a hard time with it myself, it is because it is hard to explain it to someone who is so far removed from it and has already been taught that Catholics worship Mary. I think the biggest struggles I have are from my exposure to secular thought while I was in college rather than my protestant upbringing.

As far as apparitions are concerned, I still have a hard time believing in some of them, not because of my protestant upbringing, but because of the nature of the apparitions. For example, in the gospels you hear our Lord teaching a lot of profound things, about charity, helping the poor, etc. But in the apparitions of Mary and Jesus, like with St. Faustina and St. Dominic, the revelations seemed less profound; they were saying basically “take these beads and say this prayer a bunch of times and I will give you special graces.” It is hard to imagine the Jesus of the new testament saying something like this. The way these apparitions are phrased, it seems more like a sales pitch for that particular devotion than anything else.

 

[Miriam1947]

For me, the greatest stumbling block was believing in the tradition of the Church instead of scripture alone. I am sure that you are familiar with the way Protestant parents drill the idea of sola scriptura into the heads of their children until it is practically a natural instinct. I still have trouble defending mariology when talking to protestants but it isn’t because I have a hard time with it myself, it is because it is hard to explain it to someone who is so far removed from it and has already been taught that Catholics worship Mary. I think the biggest struggles I have are from my exposure to secular thought while I was in college rather than my protestant upbringing.

As far as apparitions are concerned, I still have a hard time believing in some of them, not because of my protestant upbringing, but because of the nature of the apparitions. For example, in the gospels you hear our Lord teaching a lot of profound things, about charity, helping the poor, etc.** But in the apparitions of Mary and Jesus, like with St. Faustina and St. Dominic, the revelations seemed less profound; they were saying basically “take these beads and say this prayer a bunch of times and I will give you special graces.” It is hard to imagine the Jesus of the new testament saying something like this. The way these apparitions are phrased, it seems more like a sales pitch for that particular devotion than anything else.**

And ain’t it great that no Catholic has to believe in any apparitions at all? The revelation is only mandatory on the receiver of the apparition. And the Church only says that they are not against Church teachings and worthy of belief. The Church has never said we must believe or do what the apparition said to do.

 

[october_baby]

And ain’t it great that no Catholic has to believe in any apparitions at all? The revelation is only mandatory on the receiver of the apparition. And the Church only says that they are not against Church teachings and worthy of belief. The Church has never said we must believe or do what the apparition said to do.

can’t argue with that.