My pentecostal friend bashes my catholic beliefs, what should I do?

[hausofferni]

I have a friend who constantly bashes my belief in Catholicism. She states that im going to hell, that we worship falls idols, the pope is the devil etc. I know that i could easily prove her wrong, and state facts, but i don’t want to offend her. She knows nothing about Christianity as a whole. She believes that her church started first and that Catholicism broke away from it…yeah. So i really don’t know what to do. I hold back on saying ALOT of things but i usually just brush it off. What should i do or tell her? She is a dear friend of mine, and i pray for her but sometimes its too much. Thank you all and God bless!

 

[DavidFilmer]

IShe believes that her church started first and that Catholicism broke away from it…yeah

I have effectively demolished this position in this post. I demonstrate that the pentecostal church as we know it today (mostly centered in the Assemblies of God) did not exist prior to the actions of the students of Charles F. Parham (a Methodist Holiness preacher) at his short-lived theological school, Bethel Bible College, in Topeka, Kansas, on New Years’ Day, 1900, when one of Parham’s students (Agnes Ozman) became the first Christian since the Corinthians who claimed to speak in tongues.

As an aside, I wish to thank our gracious moderator, Michael Francis, for resinding the longstanding ban on Charismatic threads in this Forum.

 

[Lou2U]

I have a friend who constantly bashes my belief in Catholicism. She states that im going to hell, that we worship falls idols, the pope is the devil etc. I know that i could easily prove her wrong, and state facts, but i don’t want to offend her. She knows nothing about Christianity as a whole. She believes that her church started first and that Catholicism broke away from it…yeah. So i really don’t know what to do. I hold back on saying ALOT of things but i usually just brush it off. What should i do or tell her? She is a dear friend of mine, and i pray for her but sometimes its too much. Thank you all and God bless!

She doesn’t sound like much of a friend to me…

I would politely tell her that you no longer wish to discuss your religious beliefs with her, and if she tries to argue, say “I do not wish to talk about this”. If she still doesn’t respect your beliefs and insults them again, I would suggest you break off the friendship. Real friends don’t insult your beliefs.

Lou

 

[aicirt]

She was put in your path for a reason so if you can answer her questions, answer them.

She obviously doesn’t know history e.g. Luther and Henry VIII. Just pointing out when and how Protestanism began should be very interesting to her.

 

[Sarcelle]

I have a friend who constantly bashes my belief in Catholicism. She states that im going to hell, that we worship falls idols, the pope is the devil etc. I know that i could easily prove her wrong, and state facts, but i don’t want to offend her. She knows nothing about Christianity as a whole. She believes that her church started first and that Catholicism broke away from it…yeah. So i really don’t know what to do. I hold back on saying ALOT of things but i usually just brush it off. What should i do or tell her? She is a dear friend of mine, and i pray for her but sometimes its too much. Thank you all and God bless!

Hmm, you don’t want to offend her but she seems more than willing to offend you.

First you can tell her to cease and desist on the constant bashing. If she is indeed a friend she will probably take that into consideration. Only then can you begin the rational discussion. Otherwise you may just talk over and at each other instead of with each other which not is productive in my opinion.

 

[Memaw]

I have a friend who constantly bashes my belief in Catholicism. She states that im going to hell, that we worship falls idols, the pope is the devil etc. I know that i could easily prove her wrong, and state facts, but i don’t want to offend her. She knows nothing about Christianity as a whole. She believes that her church started first and that Catholicism broke away from it…yeah. So i really don’t know what to do. I hold back on saying ALOT of things but i usually just brush it off. What should i do or tell her? She is a dear friend of mine, and i pray for her but sometimes its too much. Thank you all and God bless!

Get a new friend. How can a “dear friend” be so unkind. She doesn’t seem to mind offending you. With friends like that, who needs enemies?? I would just tell her that if she wishes for your friendship to continue she must stop bashing your Catholic faith which she does NOT understand or she wouldn’t do it.
I ask those who do that if they believe in the 8th Commandment!! God Bless, Memaw

 

[Trident_H]

I don’t know if this is good advice or not, but I think you should thank her for worrying about you, but that you are OK with taking your chances with the Church that Jesus Himself set-up when He appointed Peter to be the rock upon which His Church would stand. I mean make sure you have a sweet and innocent look when you say it. Maybe even a slightly dumb-looking smile. Eyes wide open. Looking a bit off to the side and unfocused helps too. Because that’s the way you should deliver obvious news to people who don’t read much. You have to be on their level.

Peace.

-Trident

 

[dmar198]

I have a friend who constantly bashes my belief in Catholicism. She states that im going to hell, that we worship falls idols, the pope is the devil etc. I know that i could easily prove her wrong, and state facts, but i don’t want to offend her. She knows nothing about Christianity as a whole. She believes that her church started first and that Catholicism broke away from it…yeah. So i really don’t know what to do. I hold back on saying ALOT of things but i usually just brush it off. What should i do or tell her? She is a dear friend of mine, and i pray for her but sometimes its too much. Thank you all and God bless!

I would set a time to talk to her about these issues. Ask her if it’s okay to meet sometime to talk about idols and images. Look up some apologetics info about sacred images and ask her what she thinks of it, maybe send her a link.

Then talk about the pope. Read a Catholic tract about why we have a pope, maybe send her the link, and ask her what she thinks about it.

Then, if you know your stuff, you can talk to her about Church history. Learn about Church History yourself using the free Bede Series of Church History, make sure you look up some of the free “For further study” materials in the pdf documents for each age of Church History, and then talk to her about it. Ask her: if your church was the first church and ours broke away from yours, how come I can find so many Catholics is 100 A.D., 300 A.D., 500 A.D., 700 A.D., etc., but not one Pentecostal? If your church is the true church, where was the true Church for so many years? If it was hidden, how come they didn’t speak out? If they did speak out, how come no one wrote about them? If they did not speak out, then how were they the true Church? Because the true Church preaches always.

Use that line of reasoning and it may get her to study Church history. Please let me know if that helps. God bless!

 

[Irishmom2]

She doesn’t sound like much of a friend to me…

I would politely tell her that you no longer wish to discuss your religious beliefs with her, and if she tries to argue, say “I do not wish to talk about this”. If she still doesn’t respect your beliefs and insults them again, I would suggest you break off the friendship. Real friends don’t insult your beliefs.

Lou

Thank you Lou, for saving me from saying the same thing.

 

[Neofight]

Philippians 4:4a – Rejoice in the Lord Always!

And, for that, thank your friend, for:

Matthew 5:11-12 – *“Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.

What a wonderful friend you have!

 

[adf417]

There are Pentecostals who do not believe what your friend is saying and they can’t both be right.

Peace!!!

 

[Dorothy]

This quote from St. Augustine is wise:

spiritualdirection.com/2015/08/25/let-them-bark-as-much-as-they-wish-for-my-heart-looks-to-jerusalem?utm_source=Catholic+Spiritual+Direction&utm_campaign=b77a06936e-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9dd96593f8-b77a06936e-59775773

 

[1ke]

I have a friend

No, you don’t.

Friends act in a respectful and loving manner with other friends. This person is being disrespectful and belligerent.

Ask for an agreement that religion is off the table as a topic and that she be respectful of your beliefs. If she refuses, or continues her attacks, you have a decision to make regarding whether you continue to spend time with this person.

 

[Casilda]

I have a friend who constantly bashes my belief in Catholicism. She states that im going to hell, that we worship falls idols, the pope is the devil etc. I know that i could easily prove her wrong, and state facts, but i don’t want to offend her. She knows nothing about Christianity as a whole. She believes that her church started first and that Catholicism broke away from it…yeah. So i really don’t know what to do. I hold back on saying ALOT of things but i usually just brush it off. What should i do or tell her? She is a dear friend of mine, and i pray for her but sometimes its too much. Thank you all and God bless!

I can understand you keeping this friend if you are concerned for her soul. She needs to be educated on the truth of our Catholic faith. I know lots of ex-pentacostals who are now pleasantly Catholic here is short video of an AOG pastor who met Mary, the Mother of God. He admits there were holes in AOG theology, his search for the truth led him to study Catholicism, the Catechism of the Catholic church. Do you have a copy you could study together? I find extra copies in thrift stores, Half-Price-Books, etc.

It is ignorance that keeps believers of Christ away from the church, share with her the truth of our faith.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=-QZTB64-26M

 

[TimothyH]

This is a very beautiful post.

-Tim-

 

[zz912]

The very first thing you need to do is to ask her if she is infallible. Her particular denomination denies that anyone is infallible, so she will be forced to say she is not. She’s not going to want to admit that she isn’t, because she knows that admitting she is fallible means she could be wrong.

The first response she will have to this question is something along the lines of “men are not infallible, Scripture is”. (because she believes that she is NOT interpreting Scripture, only reading it clearly, which is false). Your response to her answer should be agreeing that Scripture is inerrant, but you want to be clear about her response. Make sure you keep asking if she is infallible, until she admits she is fallible.

Once you have reached this point, then ask her why her flawed, fallible opinion about Scripture is more authoritative than yours. She won’t want to ever get to this point in the conversation. She will attempt a dozen deflection tactics, of new “attacks” against the Church or Church teaching, attempting to steer the conversation away from this topic. Don’t let her do this. If she attempts to deflect the conversation, simply respond that you are happy to answer her questions, once she has answered yours first.

If your friend refuses to answer your question, then leave it at that, and refuse to continue the conversation until she is ready to do so.

 

[midori]

I went to a Baptist university in Waco for undergrad-- it wasn’t one of those nominally-Christian universities, but their faith really permeated everything, which was cool. The guy I was dating at the time had some roommates who knew I was Catholic, and were happy to practice their missionary skills on me. I almost missed lunch a couple of times because we would talk about Purgatory, or Mary, or whatever. I was fortunate that their points were pretty predictable, so I was usually able to leave the conversation with them saying, “Hm. Interesting. I’ll have to read more.” (Which really translates to: “You win the conversation, but we still think you’re wrong.”)

Even if you’re not able to convince your friend of the truth of your position versus theirs, at least use it as an opportunity to become well-versed in your own faith so you can at least hold your own. If someone challenges you on x point, read up on it to the point where you’re able to (a) know the objections and (b) know the answers to them. Truth will be able to stand up to challenges.

 

[TARRAT]

You don’t want to offend somebody who wishes to offend you? Sometimes the best defense is DEFENSE.

Ask her to prove her claims with reliable sources. You don’t need to be nasty but you shouldn’t put on kid gloves, be straight forward.

Like others have said “Some Friend”.

 

[pocaracas]

It’s always fun to watch different christian denominations going at each other’s throats!

But really, why don’t you just buddy up and bash muslims and :shudder: atheists!

As for who came first, someone needs to learn some history. I recommend starting at the beginning: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamia
Before that, it’s called pre-history.

If who came first is important, then I guess shamans are calling dibs!

 

[Memaw]

Sometimes that doesn’t work, I know from experience. She would not be “leaving”
her friend in ignorance. Some people refuse to understand. She does not have to be a doormat for someone who claims to be her friend, while bashing her faith. How would the friend like it is she did the same to her Pentecostal faith? The friend needs to learn, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Your putting the blame on the OP. God Bless, Memaw