How do you explain conversion?

[Lampo]

You can get the straight facts from the IRS, but you can’t always get the /truth/ from the IRS

Rest assured you can get the Ttuth from the Catholic Church. - 1 Tim. 3:15

 

[peacelight]

Yeah, but you need to take everything they tell you with a grain of salt. You can get the straight facts from the IRS, but you can’t always get the /truth/ from the IRS

I am sorry BloodWashed - Are you saying that what ever Catholic said that had been proven again again back up by facts, history and traditions is a lie? 2000 years of history, tradition, faith is a lie, this truly showing that you call God’s words and teaching is a lie? Obviously you really doesn’t want to know the truth. I may be wrong about you but I cannot help but wonder? If the Church did not tell the truth all of his flock evaporated by now no Church nothing. THe gates of hell shall not prevail against it - maybe on his flock because we are sinners but not His Church. His Church will always be spotless, Sinless…till the end of time just as Jesus Promised.

 

[beckycmarie]

Bloodwashed,

How do you reconcile the fact that for the first 1000 years of Christianity, all Christians were Catholics?

The Baptist Church has only been around since the 17th century. So Christians were running around in total error for the first 1600 years or so until Baptists created their version of Christianity?

The Catholic Church is the only one that has been there since the Resurrection, with historical apostolic succession leading straight back to Peter. If you do the research, you’ll find that this is true.

 

[jmcrae]

I only skimmed the article, because it was very long, but from a superficial look ot seemed good. I apologize if there were errors.

He goes against the Bible in his very first paragraph; how in the world did you miss that? There is nothing in the Bible about “faith alone” being able to save us from our sins.

The term “faith alone” appears exactly once, in the Bible, in James 2:17, which says, Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

As for why do I go to non-Catholics to get information on Catholics? If I wanted to get a good deal on my taxes, I wouldn’t go to the IRS

If you are really open-minded and wanting to learn about someone, you don’t get your information from their enemies. You wouldn’t want me to learn about you from people who hate you, would you? So have the courtesy to learn about the Catholic Church from sources that are friendly to the Church; not from its enemies.

 

[Evlogitos]

Bloodwashed,

That’s an awesome testimony. I’m very happy for you. A very dear friend of mine has a similar story, and thanks be to God, he ended up in the Orthodox Church once he opened his heart to God from atheism.

While it’s perfectly understandable that, in your newly converted zeal, you would want to burst forth and start witnessing to other folks, I would suggest perhaps that you spend a good while just immersing yourself in learning more about all the many facets of the Christian Faith. God will call you to account on the last day for the word you proclaim. As the Apostle James said:

My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.

So I’d suggest that you partake of milk before you try your teeth on meat, to avoid biting off more than you can chew.

That said, I would not be a bit surprised if you decided to press on and keep excitedly talkin’ back and forth, and I have no problem with that. But we should always be interested in true dialogue and real sharing of ideas. So, since you seem fairly sure in your opinions on your faith and the Catholic faith, let me ask you:

What would you be willing to accept as proof that perhaps you are not presently aware of the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth, as it were?

May the Lord richly bless you.

Pax,

Seraphim

 

[living_water]

Yeah, but you need to take everything they tell you with a grain of salt. You can get the straight facts from the IRS, but you can’t always get the /truth/ from the IRS

Blood Washed, I must tell you as former Baptist and as an officer of the federal government you are terribly, terribly, terribly misinformed about the purpose and intention of both Catholicism and the IRS (though I do not work for that particular agency). Granted, there may be cases of over-zeaolous agents of the Justice and Treasury and bad policies, but your perspective is naive if you believe the IRS is inherently untrustworthy and that the IRS gives people mis-information to trick them into paying taxes they do not owe.

Where can I even begin? The federal government is not a capitalistic machine that seeks to profit. The executive branch is bound by the laws made by Congress and bound to serve the public interest. The people who take your money are the people who pass our laws, and so you have elected the people who are taking your money.

Now, moving on to Catholicism, you have accepted the image of Catholicism created by Fundamentalists, and have never questioned the validity of that message, in much the same way that you have a distorted view of the IRS.

I would invite you to open your mind to a more mature and evidence-based discernment of the world.

 

[Ilroy]

As for why do I go to non-Catholics to get information on Catholics? If I wanted to get a good deal on my taxes, I wouldn’t go to the IRS

So, you get a good deal on your taxes by going to someone who tries to get around the IRS…what happens then? You get audited…it is found that the so-called good deal turned out to be tax fraud…what do you get then? Fines, Jail and who knows what else…No, if you want to know what the Catholic Church REALLY teaches, come to the Church to find out what She really teaches.

Now, I am quite happy that you have found Christ and have STARTED your journey to Him…don’t rest on that though…you need to keep following Him and seek to get the fullness of Truth.

 

[Fisher]

The plan of salvation debate is age-old: Bible-Believers (by that I mean Bible only) have their ideas, and Catholics have theirs. To me, the most obvious thing to find the truth would be to test the plan in action. The Bible says that when you get saved, you become a new creature in Christ, that you lose your old desires, and you become born-again.

I was pretty messed up before I got saved. At the tender age of 15, I was a vehement atheist. I hated Christianity, and the Bible. I hated Christians for being “stupid” and “ignorant” and “bigoted” and “close minded.” I spent my free time surfing the internet for proof that the Bible was a book of lies and that God didn’t exist. I was also heavily involved in a serious homosexual relationship. When I wasn’t disproving God, I was proving that homosexuality was normal.

My partner who I was with happened to be a born-again Christian who had backslidden. She finally came to her senses, and she broke up with me, and started hounding me about getting saved. It was the last thing I wanted to do, because I hated Christianity even more at this point for ending our relationship, which I had been using to fill the Jesus-shaped hole in my heart. But I finally went. After three visits, I got saved.

Within the next week, I suddenly understood all the things I had once hated about Christians, and began doing them myself. Within a few months, I converted from being an uber liberal to a radical republican. Within a few more months, I was finally able to let go of the relationship I had been in for close to 2 years. And now, 7 months later, I firmly despise the sin of homosexuality as much as any Christian, when this time last year I was preparing to participate in the day of silence.

Now, forgive me if this seems preachy and stupid and like I’m trying to seem pious. I just thought it would be interesting to share my testimony. What do you Catholics think about a non-Catholic church changing a person’s life like that? What do you think caused it?

And if anyone else–Catholic or Bible-Believer, has a similiar testimony, I’d be interested to hear it.

Forgive me again for the length

Praise God

 

[Fisher]

Psa 19:7 The law of the LORD [is] perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD [is] sure, making wise the simple.

 

[peacelight]

Although the Catholic Church believes that it is the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church founded by Jesus Christ, the church acknowledges that the Holy Spirit can make use of Christian communities separated from itself to bring people to salvation, and that Catholics are called by the Holy Spirit to work for unity or ecumenism among all Christians. Modern challenges faced by the Church include the rise of secularism, and opposition to its pro-life stance on abortion, contraception and euthanasia.

If you ask me it is great that non-Catholic be able to bring you back to Christ.

 

[BamaRider]

I’ve read the posts here and all I can say is God Bless ya for stepping in here, and we love having ya in our forum. You are newly converted from atheist, and your enthusiasm is obvious, and like you said, you are here to spread the truth to Catholics.

But like my daddy always use to say, “don’t wish for something too hard, or ya just might get it.” Meaning the more you hang around here, the more you’re gonna start asking questions, and you might not like the answers you’ll get.

The answers may come from the good folks on this forum (that know way more than me) or directly from the Holy Spirit.

Who do you think guides this web site m’am? Does all this just happen? Just a bunch of people with a fast broadband connection and bandwith? Noooo, it is something much more than that. Catholics from all over the world gather here to share what we have, with each other, and our brothers and sisters from other Faiths.

All I kinow a door was opened for you to come here, what happens after that I dunno. In the very least you will learn what Catholics truly believe, and that is a good thing.

 

[water]

RE: How do you explain conversion?

BloodWashed, I am very happy to know that Jesus is in your life. Praise the Lord for His goodness.

To a few, conversion is an over-night process; but to many, it is gradually changing.

One can call himself that he is born again, yet he isn’t a Saint until the day he reaches Heaven.

For all, conversion takes place throughout their entire life. Sometime in their lives, no matter how saintly they might be, they could still fall and stumble. With God’s grace, they get up and walk again.

 

[cyberjacques]

The Bible says that when you get saved, you become a new creature in Christ, that you lose your old desires, and you become born-again.

Praise be to God for the steps you have taken toward Him. That being said, where exactly does the Bible say that being reborn in Christ removes your old desires? Jesus certainly never said that, and neither did any of His apostles. In fact, in the various letters of the apostles, they speak at some length about an increased responsibility to keep ones desires in check, lest they spoil ones new relationship with God. Sins and the desire to commit sins are two completely separate things.

In the not too common case that a sinful desire is taken from someone, it’s truly a miraculous thing. Such a mercy is to be prayed for. But it’s not a guaranteed item in the package.