Why are you so cynical Fredericks? Why are you so judgemental? Why can’t you believe that somebody may simply be honestly curious? These attitudes sure are’nt consistent with someone who’s been saved and has a real faith in Christ.
You should not base your faith on what others are doing around you but on what is Truth. I assume you have no sinners in your new church. But is Jesus there? Jesus came for the sinners, not the righteous.
They did not have sound-systems or entertainment in early Christian worship. The Mass is a solemn event to some degree as we are present at Calvary - His once-for-all sacrifice being the focus of the Mass.
If you go to Mass every day for 3 years you will have heard the entire bible (including the books the Protestants threw out).
Again you are relying on others for your own spiritual nourishment. Is going to church supposed to be a social club or a time for communion with God? How do you know those people that appear “dead” are not in quiet, meditative prayer?
St. Teresa of Avila, St. Therese of Lisieux… There are so many saints who have known Him in their heart daily.
That is true. But how do you know what it says? You are making your new pastor the final authority, or his interpretation. Or maybe you disagree with him, in which case you are making yourself the final authority. This is not right, as the Scriptures point out (2 Peter 1:20, 3:16) God ought to be your final authority. God is not the author of confusion (1 Cor 14:33) as there is in Protestantism and non-denominationalism, where there are tens of thousands of churches all disagreeing with one another. If He is not the author of confusion, then He could not have authored a religion where there are tens of thousands of disagreeing churches. If the Bible is truly His word, then He must have left some authority to interpret it here on earth so that there would not be this confusion. This is why He left us His Church. If He did not really leave us His Church, then the Bible is not really His word, because He would have left the book that created more confusion in the world then any other.
Thanks Eden.I just want to say that I am grateful for posters like Fredericks. Unlike some people who come here just to be antagonistic, Fredericks actually engages in debate.
If we did not have anyone coming in here questioning what we belive, we would not have the opportunity to explain our beliefs.
I think many non-Catholics who have read through threads in which posters like Fredericks have participated have learned a lot from them. They can see Catholic responses to questions they may also have had. Then we leave it to them to decide (with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, hopefully!)
God has shown us many ways in which He turns error or deception into something fruitful for the faith (I am not saying you are *trying *to deceive Fredericks, but your believe-system and that of all Protestants is based on error and deception).
Having posters like him are useful for us to evangelize to others - unless, of course, we don’t take the time to respond.
By the way, I just want to mention that the words “judgment” and “argument” are not spelled like this “judgement” or “arguement”. I’m sorry to be such a spelling stickler but I see this mistake made so often on these forums, I had to mention it. Sorry everyone. I’ll hope you’ll forgive me for pointing it out.
I do believe you are. Please keep posting!
Fredricks:
So calling something a set up IS justification for calling someone cyncial, judgemental, and questioning their salvation and faith? Just trying to make sure I understand.
I am blunt. I was not aware that being blunt causes someone to lose their salvation or not have faith. I also thought that calling someone judgemental is in of itself, “judgemental”
DO you find it rude if someone questions someones salvation because of perceived rudeness?
Lazerlike42:
I don’t intend to be rude to you, I just believe that based on your post you are making judgments of a person that goes beyond their actions. Let’s look at the original post:
sadie2723:
Sadie said that he is posting it as a parallel thread to the Why do Protestants become Catholic because he had been enjoying that one a lot, and because he is interested to learn about the perspective of Protestants aside from the technical, this verse vs. that verse stuff that is discussed around here all the time. If you believe it is a set up, then you have to believe that A) sadie lied about it simply being a parallel thread, B) he lied about simply enjoying the other one, and C) he lied about wanting to understand Protestants’ perspectives. Even if you only believe he is lying about one of them, you are still making a judgment that is wrong to make. You can judge a person’s actions, but never their heart. You can only call someone a liar when you have evidenciary proof for it. Otherwise, it is nothing more or less than judging an internal aspect of his heart which only God can see. I said you were cynical because there is no way one could get “set up” out of the OP unless they are already coming in with the a priori conclusion that something sneaky is going on. A person would have to believe that Catholics are not honest to come to the conclusion you did.
I couldn’t agree more. that’s what I was taught also.
If you feel that Catholics have many things wrong, then this means you are against many of their teachings and doctrines. Isn’t that anti-Catholic?
Your deacon was mistaken. Here is a link to what the catechism says about reading and interpretting scripture.
I guess I’m confused. You had never read the bible and were taught not to. But it was on a catholic retreat that you were encouraged to read your Bible and where God revealed himself to you in his word. Then you left the church because Catholics discourage people from reading the Bible. Do you see a contradiction here?
There are some similarities between us, except for one very very important thing.
Yes. Once you read the Scriptures, and then read what the earliest Chritians wrote, and then see the continual teaching up until the reformation, everything becomes quite clear.
