kate(name removed by moderator):
Ive been on my slow jouney toward the Catholic Church for some time now. Ive read so many books & articles about both sides…Both claiming to have it right…My head is spinning
Ive been reading some stuff by former preist Richard Bennett. Anyone familiar with him?
I feel very educated about all debates & arguments, Im just trying to decide which way is best for me?
Rome claims to have all the “right answers” but how can I be sure?
Ask God. He will answer.
One thing that helped me is history. If you want to believe that the Catholic Church is not the true Church, then you have to believe that it Christianity had become unrecognizably corrupt by 200 AD, because the various epistles and writings from before then are just plain Catholic.
What’s more, something that I find interesting is this: In all my time listening to debates, reading websites, and listening to apologists from both sides of the fence, I’ve noticed something. I’ve never heard or read a Catholic apologist take something out of context. I’ve never heard or read one cut off a quotation just a sentence too early. I’ve never heard or read one appeal to very outlandish arguements. At the same time, I hear anti-Catholic apologists do it
alll the time.
Often the “mistake” they make is just so far out there that I can’t imagine these folks could really not know the error they were making, or the context they were skipping, or the end of the quote they were ommitting. I’m not talking about folks around here. I’m talking about professional, very educated men. It just seems to me that if
I know there’s more to that quote, James White sure as heck should!
So I get the impression that a lot of the anti-Catholic apologists go on this notion that they just
know Catholicism is wrong, so they are somehow justified using these illegitimate arguements, because any means justifies the end of “saving” people from Catholicism. It comes across to me as a stubborness of sorts, as if these apologists just know for a fact Catholicism is wrong and they won’t change their minds, because any evidence that supports it still doesn’t make it true, as if Jesus showed up to them and said, ‘hey listen Catholicism is wrong no matter what the evidence says,’ so they just
know its wrong and don’t even pay attention to the facts.
So it just seems to me that is Catholicism really were false, they wouldn’t have to rely on half-quotations and out of context Bible passages and whatever other half-truth arguements they make. If their positions were right, they could just come out and give the straightforward truth, without having to dance or to cut quotes off halfway through or anything… just like the Catholics do.
