These are honest questions and not intended to insult you, only to determine the credence of your conversion and desire to assert your faith true and the Catholic Faith, lets say “inadequate”.
Hi Tom - I haven’t been avoiding your questions intentionally. You have done a massive amount of work here, so I need some time to digest and find your questions.
I don’t want the dialog to end with statements about what I believe and/or don’t believe. Don’t excommunicate me from the site because I disagree - please.
My personal feelings may not be held by the Mormon church or discussed publically by them either. We do not spend time bashing churches or their beliefs. I am as familiar with the scriptures as any one of you and I love them, they are my rock, sail and anchor. They are the true word of God. I have found more than 30 interpretations of the same and from the threads in these forums there is opinion, dialog, bias and positions.
I do not believe the Roman Catholic church is the true church not because I think my church is true(topic for another discussion)… , it is because I believe there is too much pomp and circumstance, ornament and grandeur for me to consider it authentic in its services.
Christ is meek and lowly in heart and I do not envision a God that would welcome such a scene of showy irreverence. I feel people have the wrong idea about God if this is okay with them. Just as I have attended some Protestant churches with microphones, multiple big screen TVs, a brass band and hell fire and brimstone sermons… they are more like Naval Academy pep-rallies then a place where you can even hear or feel the spirit. They have replaced spiritual things with the enthusiasm of the emotional response. Get rid of the Wow factor and I will listen.
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Matt. 11: 29 (D-R has meek and humble - similar difference to me) God is meek and lowly in heart. This I know. And our worship of him through prayer, song, thoughts and behavior should likewise be.
“And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.” 1 Kings 19:11-12 (D-R 3 Kings 19:11-12 slightly different words but you will get the gist)
This is the voice of the Spirit I am used to, one which is as gentle and quiet as the wind - not all of the noise and/or rituals that to me put the mind into a comatose state and cause people to watch their clocks.
Yes God looks inward on the heart of His children and the sincerity of their intents (all people generally have good intents), but the ceremony in the name of tradition does not settle well with me in the least, and perhaps is the reason I looked elsewhere. It is not something I believe is pleasing to Him and it certainly never stimulated any desire within me to want to know Him in this way.
I am sorry if this offends anyone. This is not something Latter-day Saints dwell on or teach. The gospel of Jesus Christ is participatory and how many people of your faith come and go and never read the scriptures, never consider their own mortality until faced with crisis, think about the ‘deeper’ things of life, even eternal life. (rhetorical questions – they exist in all churches)
My experiences, those that are sacred and those published, have confirmed to me the Plan of Salvation taught only in one place, in one church. That is what we call a testimony, a witness that the doctrine taught by Latter-day Saints is true.
There is some common ground between our religions… yes, I even wrote a book about it… but there are stark differences in theology that will continue regardless of our dialog. The twelve tribes of Israel, central to our collective beliefs were not born of the same wife. How do you recon that one? I heard that Catholics once taught of a pre-mortal life but that was squashed by someone along the way. There are now more revisions of the Bible than I can count on both hands and feet but all claim theirs is the infallible one and their interpretation the correct one.
No - I do not believe the Catholic church is the true church for the simple reasons sited above and much, much more that I know from my own personal experience living the principles taught only by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Its really that simple for me.
I am an experiential author and probably don’t make a very good apologetic. If you want to know something is true, simply live the doctrine. If you learn one doctrine to be true, don’t assume all the rest of your beliefs are true… try them all.
I will go back and read your posts Tom this week, sorry for the delay. I have posted a numebr of unanswered questions too.
Thank you all for your patience, dialog, testimony, and even dogma.
Respectfully - Vinny
