Talking with an Evangelical

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eddy714

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Hello Brethren in Christ,

I haven’t been here in a while, my faith has been on the weak side in the sense that for choice I haven’t been reading the Bible. But I go to Daily Mass and Sunday mass I was on fire before, but I have let other non important things take over my life. But I want to be on fire again. I woke up today mad in general but then I gave thanks to God for giving me a fresh new day and then went to Mass.

After Mass I was walking with my mom to the store and there was some evangelicals in the corner handing out there paper tracts. They told me that I should accept God into my life, and I told them that I just came out of Mass and that I did accept God into my life because I took part in the Eucharist. He was like this :eek: so we continued talking and took me to where he had his Bible. But he didn’t get a chance to open it, then other fellow Evangelical came also to talk to me.

He was telling me about his conversion and how he left “Religion” and that now he just praises God and Jesus. I listened for 1+ hrs as he talked about the Spanish Inquisition and about that Priest Scandal and Infant Baptism. I just stood quiet and listed then when it was my turn to talk he kept interrupting me, we just got in to the infant Baptism and I told him about Cornelius and how his house hold was Baptized. And he right away said that there was no children in that house hold and I told him what made him assume that there wasn’t any or if there where some? He said that a baby can’t accept Jesus because he doesn’t have reasoning yet. So then I told him how about a Kid that is handicapped or has mental problems can he be saved? He then said that was up to God so then I went back to infant Baptism and said the same thing that it was up to God not him and he changed subject.

Long story short I gave him him my # and he said he would call me to discuss more about the bible and that he had a alot of knowledge about the Bible. I told him to call me a week before so I can get some things ready for we can talk, and that he was more then welcome to come into my house and have a civil conversation.

He said that he hasn’t met someone like me that was patient and listened and that I knew about my faith. I told him in general what they where doing is good, as now in society people don’t even bring up God or believe in different thing. And that we should be doing this in unity.

So now I wait but at the same time this is the boost I was looking for to be on fire and I thank God for this. I love being Catholic I know our Church has had its ups and downs but our Faith in God will over come all this.

Praying for the Souls in Purgatory :gopray2:

Pax Tibi
 
eddy714 said:
Hello Brethren in Christ,

I haven’t been here in a while, my faith has been on the weak side in the sense that for choice I haven’t been reading the Bible. But I go to Daily Mass and Sunday mass I was on fire before, but I have let other non important things take over my life. But I want to be on fire again. I woke up today mad in general but then I gave thanks to God for giving me a fresh new day and then went to Mass.

After Mass I was walking with my mom to the store and there was some evangelicals in the corner handing out there paper tracts. They told me that I should accept God into my life, and I told them that I just came out of Mass and that I did accept God into my life because I took part in the Eucharist. He was like this :eek: so we continued talking and took me to where he had his Bible. But he didn’t get a chance to open it, then other fellow Evangelical came also to talk to me.

He was telling me about his conversion and how he left “Religion” and that now he just praises God and Jesus. I listened for 1+ hrs as he talked about the Spanish Inquisition and about that Priest Scandal and Infant Baptism. I just stood quiet and listed then when it was my turn to talk he kept interrupting me, we just got in to the infant Baptism and I told him about Cornelius and how his house hold was Baptized. And he right away said that there was no children in that house hold and I told him what made him assume that there wasn’t any or if there where some? He said that a baby can’t accept Jesus because he doesn’t have reasoning yet. So then I told him how about a Kid that is handicapped or has mental problems can he be saved? He then said that was up to God so then I went back to infant Baptism and said the same thing that it was up to God not him and he changed subject.

Long story short I gave him him my # and he said he would call me to discuss more about the bible and that he had a alot of knowledge about the Bible. I told him to call me a week before so I can get some things ready for we can talk, and that he was more then welcome to come into my house and have a civil conversation.

He said that he hasn’t met someone like me that was patient and listened and that I knew about my faith. I told him in general what they where doing is good, as now in society people don’t even bring up God or believe in different thing. And that we should be doing this in unity.

So now I wait but at the same time this is the boost I was looking for to be on fire and I thank God for this. I love being Catholic I know our Church has had its ups and downs but our Faith in God will over come all this.

Praying for the Souls in Purgatory :gopray2:

Pax Tibi
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Please do not invite someone who you do not know into your home ieven if he claims to be a christian he could be wolf in sheeps clothing.
 
eddy714 said:
Hello Brethren in Christ,

I haven’t been here in a while, my faith has been on the weak side in the sense that for choice I haven’t been reading the Bible. But I go to Daily Mass and Sunday mass I was on fire before, but I have let other non important things take over my life. But I want to be on fire again. I woke up today mad in general but then I gave thanks to God for giving me a fresh new day and then went to Mass.

After Mass I was walking with my mom to the store and there was some evangelicals in the corner handing out there paper tracts. They told me that I should accept God into my life, and I told them that I just came out of Mass and that I did accept God into my life because I took part in the Eucharist. He was like this :eek: so we continued talking and took me to where he had his Bible. But he didn’t get a chance to open it, then other fellow Evangelical came also to talk to me.

He was telling me about his conversion and how he left “Religion” and that now he just praises God and Jesus. I listened for 1+ hrs as he talked about the Spanish Inquisition and about that Priest Scandal and Infant Baptism. I just stood quiet and listed then when it was my turn to talk he kept interrupting me, we just got in to the infant Baptism and I told him about Cornelius and how his house hold was Baptized. And he right away said that there was no children in that house hold and I told him what made him assume that there wasn’t any or if there where some? He said that a baby can’t accept Jesus because he doesn’t have reasoning yet. So then I told him how about a Kid that is handicapped or has mental problems can he be saved? He then said that was up to God so then I went back to infant Baptism and said the same thing that it was up to God not him and he changed subject.

Long story short I gave him him my # and he said he would call me to discuss more about the bible and that he had a alot of knowledge about the Bible. I told him to call me a week before so I can get some things ready for we can talk, and that he was more then welcome to come into my house and have a civil conversation.

He said that he hasn’t met someone like me that was patient and listened and that I knew about my faith. I told him in general what they where doing is good, as now in society people don’t even bring up God or believe in different thing. And that we should be doing this in unity.

So now I wait but at the same time this is the boost I was looking for to be on fire and I thank God for this. I love being Catholic I know our Church has had its ups and downs but our Faith in God will over come all this.

Praying for the Souls in Purgatory :gopray2:

Pax Tibi
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I hope you don’t live alone! I admire your desire to spread the faith, but I’d be a little more cautious about inviting strangers to come to your house!
 
eddy714 said:
Hello Brethren in Christ,

He was like this :eek: so we continued talking

Thank you for making me laugh with your :eek: emoticon! Your story made me smile! Thank you for sharing. Praying that God will give you the words to share with others the reasons why we believe what we believe. I LOVE being Catholic too!! Remember we have lots of friends in heaven praying for us! 🙂

God Bless!!!
Click to expand...
 
**1. Infant Baptism: **Here is how you answer the issue regarding infant baptism.

2. “Religion” vs Personal Relationship
Go over this Scripture:
[BIBLEDRB]1 Tim 2:3-4[/BIBLEDRB]
Ask your friend: what is the MEANS by which one comes to knowledge of the truth to be saved? It isn’t the Bible. The Bible did not exist except in Catholic churches and monasteries until the printing press was invented in the 1400s. Thus, it was not possible for someone to have a personal relationship with Jesus based only on the Bible and not on what your friend calls “religion” until then. That’s over a thousand years of “religion” as your friend puts it.

In other words, your friend’s “personal relationship with Jesus” is non-Catholic Christianity. There was no such thing as non-Catholic Christianity for the first 1,500 years of Christianity unless you count the Orthodox who your friend would consider Catholic. Before then there was only “religion.” Thus the only way for your friend to be able to reject “religion” as being untrue is if Jesus abandoned everyone to be unsaved and not have knowledge of the truth for over a thousand years.

Ask your friend if he is willing to bet his salvation on Jesus supposedly walking out on the Church and letting everyone go to hell who was so unlucky as to live within that thousand year period because the only thing they had was “religion.” If he says that Jesus would actually do such a thing, have him reconcile that with 1 John 4:8 (“God is love”) and 1 TIm 2:3-4 (God wills ALL MEN to be saved and come to the truth.) Is God not Love? Is God not able to accomplish His Will of offering everyone salvation? How can your friend say he truly knows Jesus personally if he or she thinks these things of Jesus? Further explanation here.

3. Inquisition
The Spanish Inquisition was actually very mild compared to secular courts of the day. People would always want to be tried by the Inquisition rather than the civil courts. The caricature of the Inquisition as being horrible and evil is a Protestant myth. In reality, when the Inquisition started to try Jews, the Pope protested and Spain ignored him.

4. Abuse scandal
As concerns the sexual abuse scandal, there have been credible allegations against less than 2% of Catholic clergy. That is the same percentage of sex abuse that one sees in the general population. But in the public school system, almost 10% of students have experienced some kind of sexual misconduct (p. 20). Your friend would be out of his or her mind to send a child to a public school instead of a Catholic one if he or she was concerned about sexual abuse.
 
I would meet in a coffee shop, not smart to invite a stranger that you don’t really know to your home.
 
LoriLo
Thank you for making me laugh with your emoticon! Your story made me smile! Thank you for sharing. Praying that God will give you the words to share with others the reasons why we believe what we believe. I LOVE being Catholic too!! Remember we have lots of friends in heaven praying for us! 🙂
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God Bless!!!
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Well I am glad that it brought a 😃 to your face. Yes I know we do have a lot of Brethren in Heaven that pray for us.
God Bless you Pax Tibi.
Luvtosew
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I would meet in a coffee shop, not smart to invite a stranger that you don’t really know to your home.
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Yea I guess I will do that but 1st will see if he calls back but thanks for the suggestion a good 1 for sure. 👍

Thanks for all the replies I didn’t think I was going to get many responses, lets keep the faith strong and God Bless.
 
eddy714 said:
Hello Brethren in Christ,

I haven’t been here in a while, my faith has been on the weak side in the sense that for choice I haven’t been reading the Bible. But I go to Daily Mass and Sunday mass I was on fire before, but I have let other non important things take over my life. But I want to be on fire again. I woke up today mad in general but then I gave thanks to God for giving me a fresh new day and then went to Mass.

After Mass I was walking with my mom to the store and there was some evangelicals in the corner handing out there paper tracts. They told me that I should accept God into my life, and I told them that I just came out of Mass and that I did accept God into my life because I took part in the Eucharist. He was like this :eek: so we continued talking and took me to where he had his Bible. But he didn’t get a chance to open it, then other fellow Evangelical came also to talk to me.

He was telling me about his conversion and how he left “Religion” and that now he just praises God and Jesus. I listened for 1+ hrs as he talked about the Spanish Inquisition and about that Priest Scandal and Infant Baptism. I just stood quiet and listed then when it was my turn to talk he kept interrupting me, we just got in to the infant Baptism and I told him about Cornelius and how his house hold was Baptized. And he right away said that there was no children in that house hold and I told him what made him assume that there wasn’t any or if there where some? He said that a baby can’t accept Jesus because he doesn’t have reasoning yet. So then I told him how about a Kid that is handicapped or has mental problems can he be saved? He then said that was up to God so then I went back to infant Baptism and said the same thing that it was up to God not him and he changed subject.

Long story short I gave him him my # and he said he would call me to discuss more about the bible and that he had a alot of knowledge about the Bible. I told him to call me a week before so I can get some things ready for we can talk, and that he was more then welcome to come into my house and have a civil conversation.

He said that he hasn’t met someone like me that was patient and listened and that I knew about my faith. I told him in general what they where doing is good, as now in society people don’t even bring up God or believe in different thing. And that we should be doing this in unity.

So now I wait but at the same time this is the boost I was looking for to be on fire and I thank God for this. I love being Catholic I know our Church has had its ups and downs but our Faith in God will over come all this.

Praying for the Souls in Purgatory :gopray2:

Pax Tibi
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I’m praying for your efforts.

God bless.
 
You could read my conversion testimony I posted as a thread here on CAF, I make many Scriptural references, as the Bible was Catholicism’s largest advocate in my conversion. Just look under ‘threads I’ve started’ on my profile and look for the one that says “Former Baptist Conversion Testimony.” In my experience, anti-Catholic notions spring from ignorance about the Catholic faith. :twocents:

Here’s the link if you’re interested, God bless you:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=609490
 
First, when it comes to evangelicals, note that I are one 🙂

My first point would be to express my faith in a way he can understand. When many hear Catholics speak about Baptism and Holy Communion they wrongly assume (in many cases) that the Catholic speaking to them has faith only in these “ceremonies” rather than the Lord Jesus Christ who is behind them. We (protestant evangelicals) should not do this. The answer is to share your faith in Christ that is expressed in your obedience to Him in receiving Holy Communion. I trust that ultimately, your faith is in Christ. Tell him that.

Also note that we tend to put a lot of stock into one’s “testimony” - meaning how we were first converted. I have such a story - my wife and my kids, having grown up in the church, have a testimony that is not dramatic and clear. Many evangelicals cannot tell you when they first came to faith - but that does not mean they are not saved. For all of us, the important thing is where we are, not how we got there.

In regards to Baptism, if I understand Catholic theology correctly, one’s Baptism is affirmed by the adult in confirmation. This is the case in our Protestant Evangelical church as well.

I would also encourage you to get into the Bible. It couldn’t hurt 🙂

Finally, these folks sound much more like “fundamentalists” than evangelicals. IMHO Catholics can be and are evangelicals. As a Free Methodist Minister I have known very evangelical Catholic Priests and laypeople. Being an evangelical simply means that one believes in the good news of salvation by Grace through Faith in Christ. That’s why Catholic Churches participated in Billy Graham crusades.

By the original definition, a fundamentalist is someone who believes in the Virgin Birth and Deity of Christ, the inspiration of Scripture, the sacrificial death of Christ on the Cross, the bodily Resurrection of Christ, and His Second Coming. It was an early 1900s response to Protestant Theological liberalism - and an effort to put divisions aside and rally around the “fundamentals” of the Faith. By the original definition a Catholic could easily be a “fundamentalist”.

Sadly, this is not what the term means today. Today, “fundamentalist” means that one “majors in the minors” by preaching against things like women wearing pants. They spend a lot of time attacking other evangelicals. Those who started the movement would be very disappointed.

As you may have guessed, I am quite friendly towards Catholics, and although we differ on many important issues, I expect that the vast majority of folks in heaven will be Catholic and Orthodox. We are brothers and sisters in Christ - there is one Lord, one Faith and one Baptism - that unites us in Christ. Even though we are not all Catholic, we are all catholic - members of the body of Christ.

There is only one IF affecting the above: If we really have faith in Christ. Many Protestants do not have this faith and many Catholics do.

Grace and Peace,

Vince
 
Vince, thanks for your thoughtful and insightful post. I appreciate your honesty and knowledge of both of our faith traditions. If we are to truly be the visible active body of Christ we will need more dialog such as this. Peace, brother
 
If you ask most Evangelicals what they mean by “having a relationship” with Jesus, they will start talking about their emotions and their prayer life - good things, to be sure, but they can be very subjective experiences.

One thing I realized shortly after my conversion was that, in receiving the Eucharist, one becomes related to Christ by blood. Without that blood relationship, we can never have a relationship (a family bond) with Christ; we can only (at best) be good friends with Him - which of course is a good thing - although sometimes I wonder if the emotional side of the relationship is purely imaginary on my part, much like a little child’s “relationship” with a teddy bear or a doll - I feel like I’m making a lot of stuff up on that side of things, based on my feelings. It doesn’t help that I am gifted with a very active imagination.

But with the physical relationship in the Eucharist, that’s something objective that I can see and know for sure that it really happened. I think that’s why the Sacraments are important - they cannot deceive us. Either they happened, or they did not, and you can know, one way or the other, without worrying about how you feel about them. It is Jesus who operates through them, which is how we know that we have a real relationship with Jesus. If someone says, “Are you born again?” I can look at my Baptismal certificate and say with certainty, “Yes, I am.” But if I had to rely on an emotional experience, I would have my moments of doubt from time to time, about whether it really happened or not.

I find it hard to understand how someone can know for a fact that they have a relationship with Jesus, if all they have to go by are their feelings. After all, how often in the world of human relationships do we misunderstand each other, and get our signals crossed? You think your child or your mother is mad at you, when really, they just have a headache, or you think someone likes you, and you respond in kind, only to find that they meant something else. When we make these mistakes about people we can see and hear, how much easier would it be, to think that we have one kind of relationship with Jesus, when it is not the case at all - He is thinking something entirely different than what you thought He was thinking.

Without the Sacraments, how would you know? 🤷
 
PastorVW said:
In regards to Baptism, if I understand Catholic theology correctly, one’s Baptism is affirmed by the adult in confirmation. This is the case in our Protestant Evangelical church as well.
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I very much like your post but shortened it for the sake of brevity. I’m not sure what a Free Methodist is but if it matters, my best friend is a pastor in the UMC.

====

Catholic theology is that all sin, original sin inclusive, is removed through baptism, and through baptism we are grafted onto the vine. Through the sacrament of baptism, we become members of Christs body and participants in the new covenant. The sacrament leaves an indellible mark on the soul - it cannot be undone - and is effective regardless of age.

Contrary to what the name might imply, confirmation is not confirming one’s baptism. Baptism cannot be undone and does not need to be confirmed at any time in the future. What Catholics do however, is renew their baptismal promises. We do this implicitly at every Mass when we recieve the Eucharist and when we dip our finger into holy water and make the sign of the cross. We do this explicitly every Easter. But we do not confirm our baptism.

I explain confirmation as our personal participation in Pentacost.

Before Pentacost, the disciples had locked themselves in the upper room out of fear. At Pentacost however, they were given power and began to speak out boldly in the name of Jesus Christ, not even fearing death. Peter went before the Sanhedrin and was not afraid to speak out and Stephen spoke out to the point where he was stoned to death and was not afraid to die. Being given power to speak out boldly without fear.

-PAX-

-Tim-
 
www.newadvent.com has several resources like the summa church fathers catechism etc…
Also www.defendingthebride.com has almost every church teaching in language understandable to the average laymen also you can search the forums or main site here
Hope that helps

SHALOM
GOD BLESS:cool:
 
:blessyou:
PastorVW said:
First, when it comes to evangelicals, note that I are one 🙂

My first point would be to express my faith in a way he can understand. When many hear Catholics speak about Baptism and Holy Communion they wrongly assume (in many cases) that the Catholic speaking to them has faith only in these “ceremonies” rather than the Lord Jesus Christ who is behind them. We (protestant evangelicals) should not do this. The answer is to share your faith in Christ that is expressed in your obedience to Him in receiving Holy Communion. I trust that ultimately, your faith is in Christ. Tell him that.

Also note that we tend to put a lot of stock into one’s “testimony” - meaning how we were first converted. I have such a story - my wife and my kids, having grown up in the church, have a testimony that is not dramatic and clear. Many evangelicals cannot tell you when they first came to faith - but that does not mean they are not saved. For all of us, the important thing is where we are, not how we got there.

In regards to Baptism, if I understand Catholic theology correctly, one’s Baptism is affirmed by the adult in confirmation. This is the case in our Protestant Evangelical church as well.

I would also encourage you to get into the Bible. It couldn’t hurt 🙂

Finally, these folks sound much more like “fundamentalists” than evangelicals. IMHO Catholics can be and are evangelicals. As a Free Methodist Minister I have known very evangelical Catholic Priests and laypeople. Being an evangelical simply means that one believes in the good news of salvation by Grace through Faith in Christ. That’s why Catholic Churches participated in Billy Graham crusades.

By the original definition, a fundamentalist is someone who believes in the Virgin Birth and Deity of Christ, the inspiration of Scripture, the sacrificial death of Christ on the Cross, the bodily Resurrection of Christ, and His Second Coming. It was an early 1900s response to Protestant Theological liberalism - and an effort to put divisions aside and rally around the “fundamentals” of the Faith. By the original definition a Catholic could easily be a “fundamentalist”.

Sadly, this is not what the term means today. Today, “fundamentalist” means that one “majors in the minors” by preaching against things like women wearing pants. They spend a lot of time attacking other evangelicals. Those who started the movement would be very disappointed.

As you may have guessed, I am quite friendly towards Catholics, and although we differ on many important issues, I expect that the vast majority of folks in heaven will be Catholic and Orthodox. We are brothers and sisters in Christ - there is one Lord, one Faith and one Baptism - that unites us in Christ. Even though we are not all Catholic, we are all catholic - members of the body of Christ.

There is only one IF affecting the above: If we really have faith in Christ. Many Protestants do not have this faith and many Catholics do.

Grace and Peace,

Vince
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Wow well thanks Vince for all that insight and God Bless 👍.
Cat Herder
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Thanks for the links I have taken a look at them a lot of valuable information.

I dont think he will call me but thats ok, I do thank him for getting me on track with my faith 👍.

Thanks to every one for your valuable responses I know I can always count on you guys God Bless.

Pax Tibi
 
eddy714 said:
Hello Brethren in Christ,

I haven’t been here in a while, my faith has been on the weak side in the sense that for choice I haven’t been reading the Bible. But I go to Daily Mass and Sunday mass I was on fire before, but I have let other non important things take over my life. But I want to be on fire again. I woke up today mad in general but then I gave thanks to God for giving me a fresh new day and then went to Mass.

After Mass I was walking with my mom to the store and there was some evangelicals in the corner handing out there paper tracts. They told me that I should accept God into my life, and I told them that I just came out of Mass and that I did accept God into my life because I took part in the Eucharist. He was like this :eek: so we continued talking and took me to where he had his Bible. But he didn’t get a chance to open it, then other fellow Evangelical came also to talk to me.

He was telling me about his conversion and how he left “Religion” and that now he just praises God and Jesus. I listened for 1+ hrs as he talked about the Spanish Inquisition and about that Priest Scandal and Infant Baptism. I just stood quiet and listed then when it was my turn to talk he kept interrupting me, we just got in to the infant Baptism and I told him about Cornelius and how his house hold was Baptized. And he right away said that there was no children in that house hold and I told him what made him assume that there wasn’t any or if there where some? He said that a baby can’t accept Jesus because he doesn’t have reasoning yet. So then I told him how about a Kid that is handicapped or has mental problems can he be saved? He then said that was up to God so then I went back to infant Baptism and said the same thing that it was up to God not him and he changed subject.

Long story short I gave him him my # and he said he would call me to discuss more about the bible and that he had a alot of knowledge about the Bible. I told him to call me a week before so I can get some things ready for we can talk, and that he was more then welcome to come into my house and have a civil conversation.

He said that he hasn’t met someone like me that was patient and listened and that I knew about my faith. I told him in general what they where doing is good, as now in society people don’t even bring up God or believe in different thing. And that we should be doing this in unity.

So now I wait but at the same time this is the boost I was looking for to be on fire and I thank God for this. I love being Catholic I know our Church has had its ups and downs but our Faith in God will over come all this.

Praying for the Souls in Purgatory :gopray2:

Pax Tibi
Click to expand...
I absolutely LOVE when the Mormons or the Jehovah’s Witnesses come buy.There is one thing I do know…those folks will NOT come into your house if you are a woman who lives alone…I assume you’re not a woman, but if one or more of them ever do want to talk, I would say have someone who is Bible savy as you. I still remember, after living with an Evangelical from a mega church, my spiritual advisor said…“if she is REALLY looking for the truth, she will find the Church.” he went on to say that “fighting about God is blasphemous” so keep your cool, which again, seems like you’re good with. What I found the best apologetics is being the BEST Catholic I can be. from doing that, vs arguing with my old roomate she has found herself out of mega churches stating they worship their pastors,and moved onto a smaller “Bible” church. Now amazingly she is starting to respect the Church as she learns and participates in the Messianic Jewish tradition (Jews for Jesus movement) she learned about tradition, which the jewish faith is steeped in. that was her issue with the Catholic Church was that it wasn’t JUST the bible, which I guess she thought at the time, fell out of the sky approximately at pentecost. It’s some weird twists and turns but once you know that tradition is just as important as the Bible, then you can move past some major problems with people looking at Catholicism as a viable option. Thanks for being a Catholic who knows why you believe what you beileve, and are able to meet an evangelical in the absolute ONLY place you can meet them…the Bible. Just as with the Mormons you need to know what is in the Book of Mormon and doctrine’s and covenants etc. I find the book “strangers at your door” to be a great resource book. as well as the "apologetics’ series…quick references to objection from all angles. I love how you chose to be ecumentical over “right” you rock my friend!
 
eddy714 said:
Hello Brethren in Christ,

He said that a baby can’t accept Jesus because he doesn’t have reasoning yet.
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When sharing and defending your Catholic Faith, start with one topic at a time. Evangelical’s like to confuse by switching from topic to topic especially when the topic starts to make sense from a Catholic perspective and they start to feel uncomfortable.

Infant Baptism and accepting Jesus are dear to my heart. I remember when I went to a “non-denominatonal” Bible study and we were told that if we were baptized as infants that it was just a “sprinkling” and to be “authentically” baptized we had to be rebaptized first by accepting Jesus as our Savior and second be baptized by full immersion in water.

I was insulted that someone would assume that God thinks my Infant Baptism to be invalid in His eyes. Who are we to presume what God thinks.

As far as defending Infant Baptism, who are we to deny an infant or anyone for that matter the life saving waters of Baptism and the opportunity to grow in our faith and the opportunity to know and love Jesus Christ based on their age? Wouldn’t that be discriminating against someone because of their age?

As far as the comment about a baby not being able to reason and therefore “accept Jesus” until they are “of age”, as parents of infant babies, when we desire Baptism for our infant babies, we make a Baptismal Promise that we will uphold that promise by teaching our children about Jesus and we uphold that Baptismal Promise by teaching them about the Church He established. We are our babies first teachers. We also promise to bring our infant babies to Church on Sunday (we don’t exclude anyone from coming into Church and listening to God’s Word during Mass, we are universal and we accept all to come to the feast).

Also, we do have “an age of reason” for children to accept Jesus in their life in the Catholic Church. There are 2 other Sacraments that we receive that completes Baptism and brings us into the fullness of initiation into Jesus and His Church. They are the Sacrament of First Holy Communion around the age of 7 after 2 years of formal religious education study (the first time we invite Jesus into our hearts and not to just be around us, He is now in us), and the completion of Baptism which is the Sacrament of Confirmation (around the age of 13 or 14) where the Holy Spirt comes and dwells inside us to guide and guard us on our mission to edify the Church and its members. Confirmation is suppose to be a continuation of our spiritual walk home to heaven, not an end or a graduation and now we are done.

We also can’t pin all the blame on The Catholic Church for not teaching us everything we should know about our faith. Our parents and godparents owe part of that responsibility as well as our Faith Formation teachers and we also have a responsiblity to learn the truth about our Catholic Faith so we can understand it, share it and if possible defend it.

And last, if you seek the truth about the Catholic religion, go directly to the source and see what their beliefs and practices are not to a Protestant religion to see everything they don’t believe in the Catholic religion.

Peace 2u
 
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