Reading the Bible with a Protestant

[Church_Militant]

Yeah, unnecessary isnt it? Some Christians denigrate each other. And it happens both ways unfortunately.

Actually, it doesn’t. You will never go to a Catholic Mass and hear a homily that bashes…or even compares and contrasts our faith with anyone else’s.

What you will hear, is a message on how to follow our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ more closely and be as much like him as possible. All of this in the context of several scripture readings.

 

[JRKH]

Sirach and JSSD…Great posts from both sides. This exchange really is a good example of how such a discussion might go.

Something I should like to point out - and it fits largely with JSSD’s view is that most protestants have already heard the majority of these arguments and have a response to them…maybe not a good response (to our ears) but a response, and one that they believe to be correct. The same thing is true of the common arguments that protestants bring against Catholicism.
We should keep this in mind any time we are in such discussions and so be gentle and patient in our approach.

I like Sirach’s point of tying the removal of the books to Timothy and “All Scripture is God breathed” etc. One can plant a good seed in such cases. Another aspect of this that I find useful is how Scripture was arrived at by the Church. It was through council - several councils in fact - and it was reconfirmed by other councils both before and after the East west Split.

Councils are highly biblical as we see in Acts 15 where the Church met to resolve matters of doctrinal conflict. We are also told in Mt 18:15-18 to take difficult questions to "The Church and to listen to “The Church”. So we have an instruction from our Lord and an example of that instruction in practice.

So - The Canon of Scripture was established by the Church in about 400 AD using the biblical model of the (Spirit guided) council. My question to the protestant is this…
Where, in the history of the Reformation, is the council that established the 66 book canon?
This can lead to the more general question of where is the protestant council to resolve ANY of the early doctrinal conflicts?
Of course there were none - at least none that could carry any real weight. Each group went their own way…and this is not biblical.
So how can one claim to be SS when they do not use the biblical model to resolve conflicts?

I offer the above as a relatively gentle approach to a discussion. Such discussions can be quite interesting and fruitful. That is, if the person is open…

Peace
James

 

[TxGodfollower]

The apology came immediately. He knows I am not the best with words on the spot so he understood and accepted my sorry. He forgave me, but neither of us knew how to continue that conversation so we just… didn’t.

TxGodfollower, I am not quite well versed enough to be able to do that without a reference to tell me where in the Bible to look for certain topics. Would it is weird if I had my laptop out to look things up immediately before pointing it out in the Bible??

angell1, yes. Thank you for bringing that possibility up. I should be careful not to forget that.

Good thing you have an understanding guy.

Now, that might be weird, but it really depends on what kind of emphasis he places on the Bible. Is he the kind of guy who can pull out verses on stuff on the spot? If so, I’d advise against using a laptop, because you will be sending the subliminal message that you claim to uphold the Bible in a similar manner to him, but you know very little about it.

Most KJV people tend to be that way, or hold it very closely to themselves. What I would recommend instead is you make a list of Catholic beliefs (both those embraced by non-Catholics and those that aren’t) and go one topic at a time. Start with the shared beliefs (virgin birth, divinity of Christ, etc.) then go to the ones that are different. I don’t think you should use a laptop, but a short cheat sheet would be fine (just to make sure you don’t forget an important verse).

I think you should realize this will probably take time. Getting him to convert could be a very far off. What I think your objective should be would be to clean up the misconceptions and mistakes about Catholicism. That way, if you were able to accomplish nothing else (and you two were to get married and have kids), the two of you could work together to raise them. They might not end up Catholic, but it won’t be because of his unintentional detracting from Catholics. Based on his statement in your first post, he believes Catholics are Christians, so I agree it is probably a subconscious bias.

 

[JSSD]

Sirach and JSSD…Great posts from both sides. This exchange really is a good example of how such a discussion might go.

:tiphat: Although admittedly it is easier for the two of us to have this discussion since we ultimately do believe the same thing.

What I would recommend instead is you make a list of Catholic beliefs (both those embraced by non-Catholics and those that aren’t) and go one topic at a time. Start with the shared beliefs (virgin birth, divinity of Christ, etc.) then go to the ones that are different. I don’t think you should use a laptop, but a short cheat sheet would be fine (just to make sure you don’t forget an important verse).

This is really good. Several books mentioned above go through many of these topics.

I think you should realize this will probably take time. Getting him to convert could be a very far off. What I think your objective should be would be to clean up the misconceptions and mistakes about Catholicism.

10 years in my case. Like JRKH mentions, you just want to plant a seed. Mine took a while to grow. I just needed some time to “marinate” it. * And there are still some concepts I can academically describe but am still not completely comfortable in my heart with. It may come.*

 

[JRKH]

:tiphat: Although admittedly it is easier for the two of us to have this discussion since we ultimately do believe the same thing.

Yes that makes it easier…But I still think that it serves an excellent purpose.

This reminds me of the various postings on the web saying something like:
“10 questions that protestants ( or Catholics) can’t answer”.

You take a look at the questions and if you try them out on someone you quickly find that actually the DO have answers for them. One may not agree with their answer but it IS an answer, and sometimes a pretty darn good answer.

I think that your exchange with Sirach illustrates this idea quite well.

Much better to assume that the person we are talking to has some intelligence and has done some study.

Peace
James

 

[Mintaka]

You don’t have to believe anything Catholic to start RCIA. Some people even take it as just an informational class, so that they can understand the Catholics in their lives. (Assuming your parish does an informational RCIA class, and not just one about sharing experiences or something.)

Of course, we always hope that RCIA classes will get them to want to join up!

A lot of parishes are okay with people starting partway through the classes, or at any time of the year. You should find out what your parish thinks.

Anyway, good luck to both of you!

 

[jbejon]

Hi!

My boyfriend, a member of Calvary Chapel (whose pastors frequently insert subtle anti-Catholic propaganda), and I sometimes read the Bible together. He recently asked how he can become a Catholic. I become confused and told him that he can’t, because he does not believe what we do; he often bashes Catholicism because of his lack of knowledge of our beliefs and does not understand how hateful he acts towards us. My intention was to encourage him to learn more about it seeing as I think that must be the first step towards conversion, but I sort of accidentally convinced him that it wasn’t a good idea instead. Oops.

Next time we read the bible together, is there any specific book that we can read together to re-open the door (that I accidentally slammed shut) to get him to consider Catholicism as a possible option for him? He has a lot of issues with the Church, and I know a single reading isn’t going to change anything for him, but I would love for him to eventually convert and am always praying that he someday will. The fact that he expressed interest (something that HE brought up, I did not) makes me think that there’s a chance!

Thanks in advance

EDIT: when we read, we use his Bible, a King James version. Mine is on my nook and his is paper so it is easier to share that way. I don’t know if that is an important detail, but just in case…

I don’t personally think there are any books in the Bible which would convince someone to become a Catholic as opposed to a Protestant. I think it’s great that you read the Bible together though! Good for you!