metal4jesus:
hello, thank yall for all the posts on this. ill try to respond to em all. but christ for the nations institute is pretty much anti-catholic i guess you could say. im not too sure on how the faculty feel about catholicism except for they sorta speak against things that catholics do, but they never come out and say catholicism is bad and stuff like that. but i told my roomate that i was attending an episcopal church and he was like “ooh no! thats not good” and i asked why he thinks that and he was like “well they do all those rituals that those catholics do”. so i know he’s like waaaay anti catholic. and also the whole thing about speakin in tongues here at the school sorta makes me think differently about this school. becuase the apostle paul in second corinthains said that let no more than two or three give a message in tongues, and let on interpret. but if there aint no interpreter, then he shall be silent to himself and to God. and christ for the nations doesnt do that. out of all the messages in tongues ive heard here, none of them have been interpreted. and everybody screams in tongues and its sorta scary. so im a lil uneasy feelin about that doctrine here. and im pretty sure that the pentecostal church i was thinkin about is the same way.
I would say since the evidence that Christ founded the Catholic Church is right there in the pages of Scripture, anything that attacks the Catholic Church is directly attacking Christ, as we are His body. I would agree like most here that attending RCIA is a great way to learn what the Catholic Church truly teaches, and I promise you, once you find out, you will have no need dto look further. There is a reason we say we are the FULLNESS of the faith. If you have the mindset to explore other churches there should be nothing holding you back from at least learning the Catholic faith - and like it has already been said, going through RCIA does not mean you will need to join the Church, and it is highly unlikely that you will be persuaded, or forced into joining if you do not feel it is right. Catholics are good about putting the Truth out there, and letting the Holy Spirit do the rest in you. By the way, I am a convert from non-denominationalism myself, and when I found the Catholic Church, I found everything I was missing in my faith. I saw the non-denominational churches I attended as more like motivational gatherings, but little more than that. I mean I could read Scripture on my own at home, what was really the purpose of attending that church for anything other than entertainment value…?. I did not find worship there so much, and there was not the same type of reverence for our God as the Catholic Church holds so high. In the Catholicism, Mass is a celebration of Christ and His sacrifice, but they still have plenty of fellowship and religious-‘entertainment’ outside of the Mass during the week and at other times to bring Catholics together in the same way as non-denominational churches, but the key point is, they seperate the two. Hopefully I explained that in terms that make sense…
The way I see it, if you TRULY search for Chrsit, you will be led to the Catholic Church anyway, its a matter of deep you dig for the Truth though, because on the surface, its easy to say Christian is Christian, but there is plenty more there to really explore and understand.
Peace,
Chris
thanx!
