Im thinking of leaving the church

[Doberman]

Im thinking of leaving the catholic church for the protestant, iv done a lot of thinking. We have statues of Jesus and saints that we pray to when we have issues. THERE IS EVEN ONE FOR BALDNESS!

Maybe its cause the roman catholic church is roman. The romans accepted God, but they couldnt let go of polytheism and several Gods, maybe thats why we have saints?

Protestants uses the bible, Gods word. All arguments for catholism seems to come from other catholics.

 

[Roman_Catholic_1]

Doberman. I believe you should know what you are leaving before you leave it. What you tried to explain here was not Catholicism. Do a good thorough study of Catholicism and pray about it before you decide to leave. There are answers for everything you just brought up.

The romans accepted God, but they couldnt let go of polytheism and several Gods, maybe thats why we have saints?

This is what I mean. The saints are not Gods. Do your homework.

Protestants uses the bible

I guess that explains their unity.

God bless

 

[I_Leatherman]

Im thinking of leaving the catholic church for the protestant, iv done a lot of thinking. We have statues of Jesus and saints that we pray to when we have issues. THERE IS EVEN ONE FOR BALDNESS!

Maybe its cause the roman catholic church is roman. The romans accepted God, but they couldnt let go of polytheism and several Gods, maybe thats why we have saints?

Protestants uses the bible, Gods word. All arguments for catholism seems to come from other catholics.

The saints are your friends, don’t forget that. If protesters don’t want to remember them thats their loss.
Catholicism uses the bible - in fact it wrote the bible.

Take a mould of the saints statue for baldness, cast them, and sell them - quick, before someone else thinks of it.

 

[El_camino]

Im thinking of leaving the catholic church for the protestant, iv done a lot of thinking. We have statues of Jesus and saints that we pray to when we have issues. THERE IS EVEN ONE FOR BALDNESS!

Dear Doberman, if you are a true practicing catholic who knows what the church teaches you should know that the statues are not to what we are praying to. The statues are a way to focus and meditate on the prayer.

Icons are also a way to remember or to be inspired by what the saints have done and thus try to follow their example. By the same token I carry pictures of my daughter and wife in my wallet.

Doberman:

Maybe its cause the roman catholic church is roman. The romans accepted God, but they couldnt let go of polytheism and several Gods, maybe thats why we have saints?

You are wrong at that. The Eastern churches also use icons to aid on prayer and as a way to remember and be inspired by Christ and the Saints.

Doberman:

Protestants uses the bible, Gods word. All arguments for catholism seems to come from other catholics.

Really… and may I ask which of the thousands of brands of Protestantism are you planning to join? and if so why? why not join the Lutherans instead of the presbyterians, or the presbyterians intead of the baptist?

All of them say they follow the bible but all have VERY different interpretations of it (e.g., lutherans maintain the infant baptism is necessary, baptism regenerates and is necessary for salvation, the Eucharist contains the body and blood of Christ, whereas the baptist deny all this important doctrines), nonetheless all of them claim that they have the correct interpretation of the BIBLE and that you should join them.

Which one should you follow? all of them are in the same position as all of them based their doctrines in their private interpretion of Scripture.

At the end, protestants DO NOT FOLLOW THE BIBLE, they follown THEMSELVES, because it is up to them to decide, which Bible interpretation is correct and which isn’t.

Many blessings,

E.C.

 

[mikeledes]

We ask saints to pray for us, just as you or I ask fellow Christians to pray for us. A certain saint may be identified with a certain cause because they may have experienced it. Catholics do not pray to or worship statues. They are simply visual aids that can help us in our prayer life, but are not necessary. We have images of saints in our churches and houses the same way you or I have a picture of a loved one.

God bless,
Michael

 

[VociMike]

Doberman, the bible is not God’s written word. Prove me wrong. It is critical that you can do so, if you are going to become a bible-only believer. Prove that the thing you would make the core of your faith is what you say it is.

 

[clmowry]

Well before you do that. Ge out your bible and start reading.

Take a look at the Catechism.

It’s got plently of references to the bible and apostolic tradition to support it’s teaching.

If your looking for an interpretive free for all, then yeah, your not going to find it in the Catholic Church.

But if you think that the Bible is going to disprove Church teaching, you couldn’t be more wrong.

Chuck

Im thinking of leaving the catholic church for the protestant, iv done a lot of thinking. We have statues of Jesus and saints that we pray to when we have issues. THERE IS EVEN ONE FOR BALDNESS!

Maybe its cause the roman catholic church is roman. The romans accepted God, but they couldnt let go of polytheism and several Gods, maybe thats why we have saints?

Protestants uses the bible, Gods word. All arguments for catholism seems to come from other catholics.

 

[ricmat]

Doberman, Catholics don’t worship saints. Or statues.

Praying is a form of communication, and we believe that the saints are alive, even more alive than we are because they are with God in Heaven, while we exist in a not-as-good sort of shadow of the Heavenly reality. We talk to the saints to ask them to pray to God to help us, just like we would ask earthly friends to pray for us.

Some saints had particular gifts, or particular problems, so we sometimes “adopt” a certain saint to ask for help on certain things.

Catholicism is based on many things, the Bible being a key one. But it even says in the Bible (John 20) that everything is NOT in the Bible.

The Mass is totally scriptural .

 

[Ani_Ibi]

Im thinking of leaving the catholic church for the protestant.

I would have thought you might be more interested in posting on the Spirituality forum in that case. The Apologetics Forum seems like a very odd place to post a swan song. In any case, all the best to you.

 

[Hellisreal]

Dear Doberman,

I am glad you are only “thinking” about leaving the Church. This means you are willing to talk about it.

Can I ask how long you have felt this way?

 

[Like]

Im thinking of leaving the catholic church for the protestant, iv done a lot of thinking. We have statues of Jesus and saints that we pray to when we have issues. THERE IS EVEN ONE FOR BALDNESS!

Maybe its cause the roman catholic church is roman. The romans accepted God, but they couldnt let go of polytheism and several Gods, maybe thats why we have saints?

Protestants uses the bible, Gods word. All arguments for catholism seems to come from other catholics.

Doberman, It sounds like to me anyway that you don’t really know much on the teachings & history of the Church. And, I wonder if you really have any interest in learning about the Church. The home of this forum " Catholic Answers" has a whole lot of good liditure that I wish you would check out. Also go to this thread and read the opening post: forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=150710

God bless you & I will pray for you to at least learn more before jumping ship!

 

[utica]

Doberman -

From reading some of your other threads, it appears that you are a Catholic from Iran.

I must confess that even though I’ve known several Iranian exiles, I really don’t know anything about the Church in Iran.

It may be helpful if you shared some of your experience of the Church there and your catechesis. I’m assuming here that you were Catholic when you left Iran, but perhaps I’m mistaken and you converted where you are now living.

Either way, that would give the folks here more information to perhaps help you with your discernment.

God Bless!

 

[rwoehmke]

Im thinking of leaving the catholic church for the protestant, iv done a lot of thinking. We have statues of Jesus and saints that we pray to when we have issues. THERE IS EVEN ONE FOR BALDNESS!

Maybe its cause the roman catholic church is roman. The romans accepted God, but they couldnt let go of polytheism and several Gods, maybe thats why we have saints?

Protestants uses the bible, Gods word. All arguments for catholism seems to come from other catholics.

Doberman if I understand correctly what you are saying you would not be leaving the Catholic Church. It sounds like you were never in it.

 

[Doberman]

I am in the church, im not saying that the church doctrine is about other gods but idols. Remember when Moses went down from the mountain after he had made the 10 commandments? He saw that the people had made a statue of a calf, statues or other forms of idols to glorify God is forbidden.

And isnt saints idols? People to look up to like if they where something bigger than us?

 

[Doberman]

And the bible was written in greek not in latin.

 

[ricmat]

I am in the church, im not saying that the church doctrine is about other gods but idols. Remember when Moses went down from the mountain after he had made the 10 commandments? He saw that the people had made a statue of a calf, statues or other forms of idols to glorify God is forbidden.

And isnt saints idols? People to look up to like if they where something bigger than us?

Looking up to somebody is NOT worship.

Saints are in Heaven (by definition). We SHOULD look up to that. They are powerless to help us by themselves, but can pray to God to help us. So we ask them to do that. It is not worship to ask the saints to pray to God for us.

 

[Lazerlike42]

Doberman, God Himself commanded the creation of statues in the context of worship. He commanded statues of angels to be made and put on the Ark of the Covenant, and later in the Temple. Now angels are beings in Heaven, so if God’s prohibtion against statuary was against just making the statues for worship, then He would be contradicting Himself. However, if His prohibition was about worshipping the statues as other gods, then God is consistent with Himself.

 

[NotWorthy]

I am in the church, im not saying that the church doctrine is about other gods but idols. Remember when Moses went down from the mountain after he had made the 10 commandments? He saw that the people had made a statue of a calf, statues or other forms of idols to glorify God is forbidden.

And isnt saints idols? People to look up to like if they where something bigger than us?

And then God instructed Moses to make what? A statue of angels to go over His Ark. It’s NOT the statues that are bad.

It’s worshipping them as gods, as they did the calf.

 

[DanteAlighieri]

I am in the church, im not saying that the church doctrine is about other gods but idols. Remember when Moses went down from the mountain after he had made the 10 commandments? He saw that the people had made a statue of a calf, statues or other forms of idols to glorify God is forbidden.

And isnt saints idols? People to look up to like if they where something bigger than us?

No, no – a thousand times NO!

Doberman, Moses freaked out and smashed the original tablets in outrage that the Israelites were worshipping the statue(s) they had made. They had deliberately turned their backs on the God who had just delievered them, and knowingly, too. They decided to “create” a god to worship. Moses wasn’t upset that they had made a mere statue; he was upset that they had made a “god”.

Furthermore, nothing in the Bible forbids making statues or images for the glorification of God. It is making images to be worshipped in place of God that is sinful.

We do not worship the saints; as many have pointed out in this thread, we ask them for their prayers – just as you might ask your friend, spouse, or neighbor to pray for you.

Please, please, PLEASE – don’t leave without first learning the truth of the Church. Ask your questions, and be open-minded about the answers, and you’ll find what you are seeking.

Peace,
Dante

 

[DanteAlighieri]

And the bible was written in greek not in latin.

Now you seem to be stringing together random thoughts – misguided ones, at that – rather than making a coherent presentation of your question(s).

Parts of the Bible were written in Greek; others in Aramaic, and others in Hebrew.

In any case, what has this to do with idolatry?

Peace,
Dante