I’m not usually as direct or blunt as I am with the following questions, but in light of your questions and what seems to be the reasons behind your questions I felt I had to be blunt. I don’t mean to offend.
Who told Catholics that the Virgin Mary was sinless or immaculately conceived? Please show references.
Or who told Cathlolics Peter was the first Pope? Again references please. Did you know Peter was married. If he is your example, why don’t popes or other priests get married? Do you know priests and other church leader in the Bible usually were married?
Who told Catholics that Jesus didn’t have brothers and sisters (Mary and Joseph’s children) because the Bible says He did have sibblings? References please.
Who told Catholics to call their priests ‘father’ when the Bible says not to call anyone father because there is one Father, our Heavenly Father? References please.
I guess I’d rather have a contradictory belief form other Christians that I can see some evidence for in the Bible than believe things that are different from the direct teachings of the Bible.
DorKiamas Hope you have time to read :
. Was Mary immaculately conceived?
. This means she had no stain of sin at her conception, no ‘Original Sin’.
. GOD and sin are mutually excludable. God cannot co-exist with sin. Rev 21:27
. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were thrown out of Eden and the gates of Heaven were closed (Gen 3:24). There was no salvation of mankind until Jesus Christ died on the cross, and the gates were reopened.
. When GOD gave the plans of the Ark of the Covenant’, to the people, he was very meticulous as to just how the ‘container’ of His ‘WORD’, the stone tablets of the ‘Ten Commandments’, was to be constructed. It had to be perfect and without blemish. Ex 25:8-40 E. The ‘New Ark of the Covenant’, the vessel that was to ‘contain’ the ‘WORD’, Jesus Christ Incarnate, had to be ‘made’ without blemish also.
. The ‘New Ark of the Covenant’ is Mary. She was to give birth to the ‘WORD’, Jesus Christ. Jn 1:1,14
Read Luke 1:28, ‘And when the Angel had come to her, he said, "Hail full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women’." Luke 1:30, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for thou hast found Grace with GOD’. ‘Full of Grace’, and ‘Grace with GOD’, could only mean Mary was without sin. John the Baptist had not yet appeared to start the Sacrament of Baptism. If GOD created the entire universe out of nothing, don’t you think the GOD who imposed Adam’s Sin on mankind could make one little Jewish girl without original sin?
She had to be ‘Immaculately Conceived’ to satisfy the fact that GOD cannot coexist with sin.
. Was Mary always a virgin? Did she have other children?
. Mt 13:55-56 and MK 6:3 say, “Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, the ‘brother’ of James, and Joseph, and of Jude and Simon? And are not His ‘sisters’ here with us?”
At first it looks like Jesus had brothers and sisters. These are the main two verses that some say ‘prove’ He did. Lets look at the definitions.
. From four different dictionaries, the word ‘brother’ means, sons of the same parents, OR, friend, ally, kinsman, fellow man, member of the same clan, fellow member of a Church etc. Which definition fits the verses?
. Compare Mt 10:2-4, Mk 15:40, Jn 19:25, and Acts 1:13 and you will find that James, Joseph, and Jude were sons of Cleophas (Alphaeus) and ‘the other Mary’, not Mary the Mother of GOD. Simon was the ‘Canaanite’ of Mk 3:18, and the ‘Zealot’.
. NONE of the four ‘brothers’ were sons of Mary, the Mother of GOD. They were ‘fellow men’. This makes the word ‘brother’ a non-argument. Mt 12:50