Because I have been asked so many times about them, I forced myself to read some of them.
You’re right they’re entertaining, I read a couple of chapters from one book that my grandfather picked up (he’s into reading, so he didn’t really use his best judgment when picking this one up, basically he’ll read anything that’s free/cheapI read them all - they are actually somewhat entertaining but on a little more elementary writing level. I enjoyed ferreting out the non-Catholic parts of the story, as parts were certainly consistent with Catholic since there are some similarities between any Christians. It was actually fun to re-read the parts of the Bible where they cite Scripture, and see where they construe things in a different way. I also grabbed some good Catholic commentaries to learn from.
I actually learned a lot about the Catholic teachings of Revelation by doing this, which is the reason I went after it. Some people can’t stand to read anything other than the absolute truth, either because it makes them mad or they consider it a waste of time. If you are in that group, don’t read them you won’t be a happy camper
). The books have no Biblical basis in them whatsoever, and apart from that, the “theology” behind them is strictly a product of American Fundamentalist Dispensationalism (with some ties to the Charismatic Movement). For a group of people that claim to be Sola Scriptura, they sure do twist scripture to get their theology to work. Good for a laugh, but I wouldn’t buy these books new (so they don’t get any royalties), so if you have to read them to counter them, pick them up used.Thanks, I appreciate your taking the time to post. I didn’t realize they were from Bob Jones. I do remember, now that you mention it, that the Vanity Faire story mentioned them really looking forward to Armgeddon. There were a group of them visiting the Holy Land which is when the story was done. I remember reading that they can’t wait for their enemies to suffer (which I guess includes us). Scary.
A) He did leave it that way. He left it in the hands of a living magisterium, the bishops, the successors to the Apostles, to interpret it. You’re last statement makes no sense at all. That’s our argument for submitting to the magisterium: if there was no teaching office, people would hive off on their own and form their own churches based on their own “interpretations.”
One of my co-workers said that he has studied these books and asked deep questions, etc. My first thought was how can you take these books seriously-there is no inspiration of the Holy Spirit here. These are fiction books. And this person is definately anti-Catholic. I can see that he is hungry for what we have in our Faith-the writings of the saints, the historical facts, the Papal teachings. I feel bad that he is looking in all the wrong places for his answers. I just try to set an example and let him know that I will converse whenever he wants.
I don’t get this post at all. Are you claiming that the Left Behind series is the Word of God? They’re fiction novels. If you have any serious inquiries to about why the Catholic Church does/says, stick around and I’m sure we’ll do the best to answer your questions. Please go to catholic.com and type in “rapture”. The CC believes in a second coming of Christ, but she does not believe in pre-tribulational “rapture”. The rapture is an invention of the 18th century. As to the claim that the Catholic Church doesn’t do what the bible says, then you’re the one that’s going to have to back up that claim and start another thread (this one is purely discussing the Left Behind series).
God didn’t leave the Bible in a way that would confuse us or leave us open to misinterpretation. He left it in the care of the Catholic Church - first to write it, then assemble it and weed out the imposter writings, and finally to interpret it.
Oh dear, not another supposedly “fallen away Catholic” claiming to have seen the “true light” of the “Just Me and Jesus” reformation and coming to rescue us all from our “traditions of men!”
So I guess you, too, believe that Jesus spoke plainly in John 6, John 20:21-23, Matthew 16:18-19, Matthew 25:31-46, and John 21: 25.
Do you honestly think the Bible fell down in a leather bound KJV red-letter edition from heaven?? A council of Catholic bishops infallibly determined which books written by Catholic writers were inspired and infallibly determined the New Testament in 393 AD (council of Hippo) .
I’m a convert to Catholicism and my Baptist relatives never really thought about where the Bible came from. This is an interesting fact about those who say they make up their own minds while the Catholics look to the Pope - most of them are gettting all their info from their pastor! They aren’t thinking for themselves. “Oh, I’ll have to ask my pastor…” Good grief.