StratusRose:
Thanks so much! I used both of them for the thread. I hope you don’t mind me plagiarizing.
Anyone else got some good info??
Status Rose:
We the Nicene Creed: we say (Anglican version}, "
“I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, the Giver of Life, …”
or (Catholic Version),
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life…"
Please note, since the Anglican Communion opened the door to Christians using and accepting the use of Artificial Contraception in 1931, the Divorce Rate among Christians whose denominations have accepted its use, or who have used it themselves, have been almost indistinguishable from the non-believing world.
The Catholic Church had a Divorce Rate of under 4% until Catholics began to use Contraception, in disobedience to the Teaching of the Church, in the 1960’s. Since then, the Divorce Rate among Catholics has been indistinguishable from that of the secular world and of Christians who use Contraception.
At the same time, the Divorce Rate of those families who obeyed the Teaching of the Church and used ONLY NFP has remained at 4%.
The sex act is a SACRAMENTAL ACT. Grace is meant to be conferred on married believers who participate in that act with their husbands and/or wives (“the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life” is the third partner in the act). Contraction blocks the possibility of LIFE from happening as a result of the act, and thus blocks the action and person of the Holy Spirit (“The Lord and Giver of Life”) from participating in the act. This prevents the act from transmitting God’s Grace or of having any Salvific benefit!
That accounts for the difference in the divorce rate - Using contraception is like going to Mass and accepting Christ’s Body and Blood while in a state of Mortal Sin! It’s lethal to the marraige!
This is not something that most Protestants would think about, but the Divorce Rate is.
You could also remind them that it was against the teaching of ALL of their Churches until AFTER 1931, and that most of the Bible believing Churches did not allow their members to use Contraception until the late 1950’s, early 1960’s, and that this caused Contraception to be ILLEGAL in the United States until the 1960’s because of the opposition of various Christian and other religious groups.
These are at least two things to think about.
Blessed are they who act to save God’s Little Ones. Michael