To Protestants: Why aren't you Catholic?

[boogablue]

Why Protestants (in general) are not Catholic…:

1. Sola Scriptura…
2. The Immaculate Conception,…

I think it has more to do with simple relationship. All of these things are in the suburbs, whereas God lives in the inner city. It’s all a part of the same metro area, but it’s all cluttered by crosstown traffic. The best place to be is with God. What does all of this “mess” have to do with getting to God? Especially when the purpose of Jesus the Christ was to get us back to God!
The Iambic Pen:

1. The Catholic belief in losing one’s “saved” state …

God is The Holy Father and Almighty King. He loves his kids, but his duty is to act as King. He loves his children, but they must go through the process to re-enter the Kingdom. They have to get their Passports stamped - the stamp for their return passport is the Blood of Jesus. Once you’ve returned to country, the ony way to lose your citizenship in the kingdom is to deny that Blood of Jesus Christ is the stamp on your Visa.
The Iambic Pen:

1. The Catholic emphasis on ceremony and rituals…

Ceremony is great as long as the focus is on the reason for the ceremony as opposed to the focus being on the ceremony. That’s gotten lost somewhere along the way. Christ is the Intercessor - the High Priest through whom we speak through unto God. How so? It is Christ’s blood that makes us whole in the eyes of God, therefore through Christ, we can and do speak with God directly. There has been no other man that has shed blood to cover our sins, so unless you can meet that standard you are no/can be no intercessor.
The Iambic Pen:

1. Protestants are not likely to study other churches…If a Protestant goes to a church where he or she feels fulfilled, he or she is not likely to look elsewhere.

Churches aren’t the problem. Religions are the problem. Religions have people killing each other…the Catholic church has a long history of murder in the name of the Catholic Church.
Even worse…Murder in the name of Jesus. WOW!!! Now THAT’s messed up.
The Iambic Pen:

1. Most Protestants see the Church as…

It doesn’t matter who is the “True” church if your doctrine and dogma adds limitations to human beings in understanding the fullness of an Almighty God!!
The Iambic Pen:

1. …Many Protestants believe…the Protestant Reformation was a necessary event, restoring the truth to Christianity.
2. Many Protestants believe …we are saved by our faith in Christ, apart from any effort of our own.

I constantly ask the question: What on Earth do you think you could ever do to add one more drop of the Blood of Jesus on that cross? It’s not about effort, it’s about ability. Once one caused all to sin, we were unable to save ourselves - it was designed that way by God. Only God could come up with a solution - and his solution was Jesus Christ. There is no better or more qualified solution!
The Iambic Pen:

1. Some Protestants believe the Catholic Church is so false as to be dangerous, leading millions of people to Hell. It is the “whore of Babylon,” the Pope is the Anti-Christ, and if there are any Christians in the Catholic Church, they are not very good Catholics…).

The Pope isn’t the Anti-Christ, George W. Bush is the Anti-Christ. I think the Catholic church wants to maintain political power. I don’t think the Catholic Church is false, I think it doesn’t let people know who or what they really are.
It categorizes them into “laypeople” among other bad categorizations and essentially states that they are diminished in stature before God.
These people are SAINTS who deserve the rights, Responsibilites, privileges and power of the true Children of God.
Until that changes in the minds of Catholics: that they are all Saints and Children of an Almighty God, and that each and every one of them have those responsibilites, privileges, rights and power through the Blood of Jesus Christ, the church will remain sick…just like ALL the rest of them.
The Iambic Pen:

In closing, there was a time not too long ago when I feared Catholicism was true and hoped it wasn’t. Now I hope it’s true and fear that it isn’t. I guess maybe that’s progress…
God bless!

I am not a Catholic, I am not a “Christian.” Those are terms devised to separate and categorize you in order to destroy you.
Religion, and its fractures and splits, has destroyed man and will destroy many more men before this Earth comes to pass.
I am a Child of God, Citizen of the Kingdom of God. The Blood of Jesus Christ has reconciled me unto the Kingdom of God.
This is not belief - this is knowledge and understanding.
I now stand as Brother to Jesus Christ, Son of the Almighty God, and Ambassador to this nation from the Kingdom of the Almighty God. I am My Father’s son. I call no man “Holy,” nor do I call any man “Father.”
That is why I am not a Catholic.

 

[Nun_ofthe_Above]

**Hi Paris, **

I guess I have always wanted to be Catholic…still do; but why am I not?

**Love **

I love God so much, that to be less than honest with Him, is totally unpalatable.

Yes, I am a sinner of huge proportions; yes, I could join the Catholic Church, obey the teaching authority; yes I could fullfil my obligations and support the Church, etc; yes I could attend regular confession; but…and this is a huge BUT…I have a few issues I am working on, and could not honestly support them at this time, which would mean I would be lying when I profess myself to the Church, which means I would be totally unworthy to receive our Lord in the Eucharist. Until I can profess belief in all the Church dogmas, I would be lying to God, the Church, and myself.
Please pray for me; that I may gain clarity regarding my ‘issues’.
May God’s will be done.

---

Until that time arrives, I will make a concerted effort to attend the Catholic Church often, whilst keeping my obligation to my current church. (This entails going to the Saturday Vigil Mass at the CC or I can attend the Sunday morning Mass when my Church has their service in the evening)

---

In much love,
your Sister-in-Christ.

---

 

[allischalmers]

I think it has more to do with simple relationship. All of these things are in the suburbs, whereas God lives in the inner city. It’s all a part of the same metro area, but it’s all cluttered by crosstown traffic. The best place to be is with God. What does all of this “mess” have to do with getting to God? Especially when the purpose of Jesus the Christ was to get us back to God!

 

[Mickey]

Doreen:

Were you there? Do you know that there was no outrage? See?

History would have recorded it, my friend. Drastic changes in doctrine were always recorded. See?

Doreen:

You have sided with a “side” of the outrage…and therefore, you only follow what that “side” maintains as correct theology.

There is no “other” side until the reformation! Unless you are asking me why I did not side with early heresies. And so yes, I will side with the early Christians and the deposit of faith they received from Christ and the Apostles.

Doreen:

If there was no outrage…then there’d today be “One Church”…but there is not just “one church” as you define “church”…but many.

There is one Church with the fullness of truth and there are many churches with some truth.(This is not meant to sound arrogant or insulting).

Doreen:

What I am showing by the definition of “tradition” is that there is clearly a difference of opinion about which “tradition” was to be continued…passed down…

There is big “T” and there is little “t”.

Doreen:

I have asked the Lord to show me what is His greater truth on all these questions (especially regarding the many sacraments the Catholics do as acts of penance, etc…)
He led me to Colossians 2:6-23
Paul is writing about the churches who have become “luke warm”…as in the Laodiceans…

Being lukewarm has nothing to do with the Sacraments of the Catholic Church. I fear you have been deceived.

Doreen:

All the old covenants were a shadow of the new

Yes, and a wonderful example of this is why infants are baptized just as infants were circumcised.

Doreen:

He’s warning against following rules that are based on human commands and teachings…so clearly there was confusion at the very start of “the church” as to what “acts” were considered necessary for salvation.

Bingo! Which is why God sent the Holy Spirit to protect the Church from teaching error.

Doreen:

He is not saying we can do whatever we please, because in Chapter 3, he says “put to death…whatever belongs to your earthly nature.”

Yes. We are to fight against the passions of the flesh–they are from the evil one.

Doreen:

It’s not as if the protestant thinks they can do as they please…perhaps SOME do so…just as SOME Catholics have little visible fruit of “circumcision”.

Pray for them all.

Doreen:

This is where I become troubled by the Catholic theology…I have yet to separate the practices of the church from those mentioned in Colossians 2:8…
"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than Christ."."

What’s your dilemma? This is quite clear.

Doreen:

See, for me all the sacraments were specific hoops I had to jump through and once I did those things, I was okay with God. I know that is not what is taught…and I know that was not the intention when these things became a part of the doctrine…the point is, though that they became a stumbling block for me, because I just understood if I did a, b, and c…then I am going to be accepted by God.

I am saddened that you had this misunderstanding. The sacraments are certainly not “hoops” and certainly not stumbling blocks. They are wonderful graces from God.

Doreen:

I didn’t learn about the Holy Spirit…I didn’t understand that without the indwelling presence of Christ in the Spirit, I was never going to change…never going to move away from my sin.

Never say never. With God all things are possible.

 

[Mickey]

valient Lucy:

Now, obviously, since I am joining the Catholic Church this Easter (praise be to the Holy Trinity!), none of these issues are preventing me from joining the church.

God bless you and welcome home!
img133.imageshack.us/img133/8394/icnymphios5ch.th.jpg

 

[Tonks40]

boogablue:

I think it has more to do with simple relationship. All of these things are in the suburbs, whereas God lives in the inner city. It’s all a part of the same metro area, but it’s all cluttered by crosstown traffic.

I agree with you that the message that Christ came down to give us is simple. But you can’t discount the means in which the Catholic Church uses to acheive this. If you looked into the Church’s teachings, it’s all centered on our relationship with the Lord.

boogablue:

Ceremony is great as long as the focus is on the reason for the ceremony as opposed to the focus being on the ceremony. That’s gotten lost somewhere along the way. Christ is the Intercessor - the High Priest through whom we speak through unto God. How so? It is Christ’s blood that makes us whole in the eyes of God, therefore through Christ, we can and do speak with God directly. There has been no other man that has shed blood to cover our sins, so unless you can meet that standard you are no/can be no intercessor.

Have you ever been to a Catholic Mass??

boogablue:

Churches aren’t the problem. Religions are the problem. Religions have people killing each other…the Catholic church has a long history of murder in the name of the Catholic Church.
Even worse…Murder in the name of Jesus. WOW!!! Now THAT’s messed up.

The same can be said of Henry VII and other ‘reformers’ at the time of the reformation who persecuted and killed Catholics for not submitting to their beliefs. Please keep it balanced.

boogablue:

Until that changes in the minds of Catholics: that they are all Saints and Children of an Almighty God, and that each and every one of them have those responsibilites, privileges, rights and power through the Blood of Jesus Christ, the church will remain sick…just like ALL the rest of them.

I am not a Catholic, I am not a “Christian.” Those are terms devised to separate and categorize you in order to destroy you.
Religion, and its fractures and splits, has destroyed man and will destroy many more men before this Earth comes to pass.
I am a Child of God, Citizen of the Kingdom of God. The Blood of Jesus Christ has reconciled me unto the Kingdom of God.
This is not belief - this is knowledge and understanding.
I now stand as Brother to Jesus Christ, Son of the Almighty God, and Ambassador to this nation from the Kingdom of the Almighty God. I am My Father’s son. I call no man “Holy,” nor do I call any man “Father.”
That is why I am not a Catholic.

It’s good that you recognize the saving power of Christ’s sacrifice. But you seem to operate outside of God’s commands, which could be detremental to your salvation.

 

[valient_Lucy]

Thank you Mickey. That means a lot to me.

 

[LRThunder]

For me, it was mostly because I was raised Protestant. Only when I started college, have I really started to think of any other reason I’m Protestant and which denomination I was in accordingly.

 

[Eden]

## How about…oh, I don’t know - Tradition, perhaps ?

Ha Ha! Good one. But it seems that when we discuss Sacred Tradition with Protestants they are still confused about Sacred=from God.

 

[St.Eric]

boogablue:

I think it has more to do with simple relationship. All of these things are in the suburbs, whereas God lives in the inner city. It’s all a part of the same metro area, but it’s all cluttered by crosstown traffic. The best place to be is with God. What does all of this “mess” have to do with getting to God? Especially when the purpose of Jesus the Christ was to get us back to God! God is The Holy Father and Almighty King. He loves his kids, but his duty is to act as King. He loves his children, but they must go through the process to re-enter the Kingdom. They have to get their Passports stamped - the stamp for their return passport is the Blood of Jesus. Once you’ve returned to country, the ony way to lose your citizenship in the kingdom is to deny that Blood of Jesus Christ is the stamp on your Visa. Ceremony is great as long as the focus is on the reason for the ceremony as opposed to the focus being on the ceremony. That’s gotten lost somewhere along the way. Christ is the Intercessor - the High Priest through whom we speak through unto God. How so? It is Christ’s blood that makes us whole in the eyes of God, therefore through Christ, we can and do speak with God directly. There has been no other man that has shed blood to cover our sins, so unless you can meet that standard you are no/can be no intercessor.
Churches aren’t the problem. Religions are the problem. Religions have people killing each other…the Catholic church has a long history of murder in the name of the Catholic Church.
Even worse…Murder in the name of Jesus. WOW!!! Now THAT’s messed up.

It doesn’t matter who is the “True” church if your doctrine and dogma adds limitations to human beings in understanding the fullness of an Almighty God!!
I constantly ask the question: What on Earth do you think you could ever do to add one more drop of the Blood of Jesus on that cross? It’s not about effort, it’s about ability. Once one caused all to sin, we were unable to save ourselves - it was designed that way by God. Only God could come up with a solution - and his solution was Jesus Christ. There is no better or more qualified solution!
The Pope isn’t the Anti-Christ, George W. Bush is the Anti-Christ. I think the Catholic church wants to maintain political power. I don’t think the Catholic Church is false, I think it doesn’t let people know who or what they really are.
It categorizes them into “laypeople” among other bad categorizations and essentially states that they are diminished in stature before God.
These people are SAINTS who deserve the rights, Responsibilites, privileges and power of the true Children of God.
Until that changes in the minds of Catholics: that they are all Saints and Children of an Almighty God, and that each and every one of them have those responsibilites, privileges, rights and power through the Blood of Jesus Christ, the church will remain sick…just like ALL the rest of them.
I am not a Catholic, I am not a “Christian.” Those are terms devised to separate and categorize you in order to destroy you.
Religion, and its fractures and splits, has destroyed man and will destroy many more men before this Earth comes to pass.
I am a Child of God, Citizen of the Kingdom of God. The Blood of Jesus Christ has reconciled me unto the Kingdom of God.
This is not belief - this is knowledge and understanding.
I now stand as Brother to Jesus Christ, Son of the Almighty God, and Ambassador to this nation from the Kingdom of the Almighty God. I am My Father’s son. I call no man “Holy,” nor do I call any man “Father.”
That is why I am not a Catholic.

religion
One entry found for religion.

Main Entry: re·li·gion
Pronunciation: ri-'li-j&n
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English religioun, from Latin religion-, religio supernatural constraint, sanction, religious practice, perhaps from religare to restrain, tie back – more at RELY
1 a : the state of a religious <a nun in her 20th year of religion> b (1) : **the service and worship of God or the supernatural ** (2) : commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance
2 : a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices
3 archaic : scrupulous conformity : CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
4 : a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith

It seems you are religious afterall…

 

[St.Eric]

boogablue:

I am not a Catholic, I am not a “Christian.” Those are terms devised to separate and categorize you in order to destroy you.
Religion, and its fractures and splits, has destroyed man and will destroy many more men before this Earth comes to pass.
I am a Child of God, Citizen of the Kingdom of God. The Blood of Jesus Christ has reconciled me unto the Kingdom of God.
This is not belief - this is knowledge and understanding.
I now stand as Brother to Jesus Christ, Son of the Almighty God, and Ambassador to this nation from the Kingdom of the Almighty God. I am My Father’s son. I call no man “Holy,” nor do I call any man “Father.”
That is why I am not a Catholic.

religion
One entry found for religion.

Main Entry: re·li·gion
Pronunciation: ri-'li-j&n
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English religioun, from Latin religion-, religio supernatural constraint, sanction, religious practice, perhaps from religare to restrain, tie back – more at RELY
1 a : the state of a religious <a nun in her 20th year of religion> b (1) : **the service and worship of God or the supernatural ** (2) : commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance
2 : a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices
3 archaic : scrupulous conformity : CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
4 : a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith

Seems you are religious afterall…

 

[ChristFollower]

…what did we reform to?

that’s the question.

“God’s word”

is the answer.

…and that is why.

 

[Eden]

ChristFollower:

…what did we reform to?

You reformed to Martin Luther’s interpretation of God’s Word.

 

[onesimplemind]

Eden:

You reformed to Martin Luther’s interpretation of God’s Word.

Not unless he believes Mary is ever Virgin and prays the Rosary.

I think you mean…

‘You reformed to (insert your name here) interpretation of God’s Word.’

 

[ChristFollower]

No single man’s interpretation, and really all it took was the ability to read for people to see they being taken for a ride - unless paying for salvation is somehow biblical and Godly (a big issue with the early reformers)

…one thing I’ve found funny is how Catholics pretend everything was going great until those evil reformers started actually reading God’s word.

 

[Eden]

onesimplemind:

Not unless he believes Mary is ever Virgin
‘You reformed to (insert your name here) interpretation of God’s Word.’

Other “reformers” reformed Martin Luther and axed the Virgin Mary. Luther expressed a devotion to her.

davidmacd.com/catholic/martin_luther_on_mary.htm

 

[Eden]

ChristFollower:

No single man’s interpretation, and really all it took was the ability to read for people to see they being taken for a ride - unless paying for salvation is somehow biblical and Godly (a big issue with the early reformers)

…one thing I’ve found funny is how Catholics pretend everything was going great until those evil reformers started actually reading God’s word.

Commentary on St. John: ``We are compelled to concede to the Papists that they have the Word of God, that we received it from them, and that without them we should have no knowledge of it at all.’’ - Martin Luther

Please do some research before you make uninformed posts like the one above again.

 

[St.Eric]

ChristFollower:

No single man’s interpretation, and really all it took was the ability to read for people to see they being taken for a ride - unless paying for salvation is somehow biblical and Godly (a big issue with the early reformers)

…one thing I’ve found funny is how Catholics pretend everything was going great until those evil reformers started actually reading God’s word.

Now THAT is funny!!! You have some serious history lessons to undertake. And I mean real history…NOT the history of Jack Chick and/or Lorraine Boettner…

 

[ChristFollower]

No, I think you might have the history lesson to look forward to - how does a Luther quote have anything to do with my post? - I’m no follower of Luther (read the nick) - and Jack Chick? isn’t he a cartoonist? Was that some way to deny the Cathoilc religion was corrupt and to say that there was no need what-so-ever to reform to God’s word?

 

[Eden]

ChristFollower:

No, I think you might have the history lesson to look forward to - how does a Luther quote have anything to do with my post? - I’m no follower of Luther (read the nick)

If you are Protestant, your belief system came from Luther; “Sola Scriptura” et. al. Which specific denomination are you? Your name doesn’t reveal which Protestant church you belong to.