Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why would anyone become Catholic?
https://www.indiegogo.com ^ | October 2, 2014 | Indiegogo

Posted on 10/08/2014 11:39:09 AM PDT by NKP_Vet

Why would intelligent, successful people give up their careers, alienate their friends, and cause havoc in their families...to become Catholic? Indeed, why would anyone become Catholic?

As an evangelist and author who recently threw my own life into some turmoil by deciding to enter the Catholic Church, I've faced this question a lot lately. That is one reason I decided to make this documentary; it's part of my attempt to try to explain to those closest to me why I would do such a crazy thing.

Convinced isn't just about me, though. The film is built around interviews with some of the most articulate and compelling Catholic converts in our culture today, including Scott Hahn, Francis Beckwith, Taylor Marshall, Holly Ordway, Abby Johnson, Jeff Cavins, Devin Rose, Matthew Leonard, Mark Regnerus, Jason Stellman, John Bergsma, Christian Smith, Kevin Vost, David Currie, Richard Cole, and Kenneth Howell. It also contains special appearances by experts in the field of conversion such as Patrick Madrid and Donald Asci.

Ultimately, this is a story about finding truth, beauty, and fulfillment in an unexpected place, and then sacrificing to grab on to it. I think it will entertain and inspire you, and perhaps even give you a fresh perspective on an old faith.

(Excerpt) Read more at indiegogo.com ...


TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; Charismatic Christian; Evangelical Christian; General Discusssion; Mainline Protestant; Other Christian; Religion & Culture; Theology
KEYWORDS: catholic; willconvertforfood
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 2,781-2,8002,801-2,8202,821-2,840 ... 3,541-3,550 next last
To: JPX2011; BlueDragon
Assume for the sake of argument that the current Democrat party becomes able to completely eradicate the Republican party, and for the next five generations is able to systematically rewrite the history of this period, while destroying most if not all documentation that contradicts their official line?  Do you think it would be easy to get an accurate picture of present day Republicanism? No, they demonize us now.  Think what awful things they could say, and with a united front, if we were all forced into hiding and poverty and reduced in number to almost nothing, for generations.

So too the history of the Waldensians is a tangled muddle, and discernment of the truth is not about quick forum soundbites, but the hard work of sorting through many layers of source material, reaching back past the one-sided histories, the forced confessions, the misidentified heroes and villains, to discover, as much as is possible, what really happened.  My own research so far suggests the Vaudois/Waldensians/People of the Valley were of greater antiquity than Peter Waldo's Poor of Lyons outfit, though the two doubtless interacted and shared many beliefs, and that their beliefs were more nearly orthodox than their assailants have led us to believe. And such assailants they had. Google for example "Piedmont Easter," and look at the variety of results. Even Milton was moved by these events.

Were all those atrocities true as reported?  Something happened. Where there's smoke there's fire.  Once Rome presumes to itself a synthesis of ecclesiastical and temporal power, the game's afoot, because humans are, in one sense, irresistibly logical. If you create a condition that can be abused, it will be.  Someone will try it. Jesus gave us a limit, denying such a synthesis, for now, for His spiritual Ecclesia, because God knows our weaknesses.  We have a hard enough time applying the natural law to your question of horse thievery under the civil law.  Add the capacity to apply the coercive means of the civil law to doctrinal disputes, and you have a recipe for famous acts of torture followed by a set of ready rationalizations, such as creating a new class of felons called "soul murderers," or believing the false accusations of civil uprising spun by the Duke of Savoy against the harmless people of the Piedmont, or distancing the civil pawns from the ecclesiastics who moved them about for the principle purpose of suppressing the enemies of papal tyranny.

The bottom line is this.  You can bring from Scripture no example of, nor even any theoretical support for, the New Testament Ecclesia exercising civil coercion via temporal instruments such as capital punishment, over issues that reside within the sole jurisdiction of said Ecclesia, i.e., matters of doctrine and spiritual state. Not until the great sacral fusion event of Constantine's transformation of Christianity into a state religion do you have such confusion imposed on the faithful shepherds of Christ's flocks.  By sacral I mean that fusion of religion and state into a single, monolithic entity which imposes on all members of the society an obligation to observe all the principles of said religion regardless of whether one is actually an adherent. You may recognize this in Islam.  Their vision of sharia law is exactly that of a sacral culture, exceptions from orderly belief being as criminal as exceptions from orderly behavior, where the difference between a semipelagian and a horse thief is a practical nullity.

I should also point out that efforts here to advocate for a return to sacral society under Rome or any other religion is fundamentally at odds with the principle of freedom for which FreeRepublic stands.  Our freedom is in large part owing to the teaching of Christ that we should render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's, in which Jesus Himself makes the break between the civil power and the religious, the result of which, over time, has produced a society with greater freedom, both in civil terms and in terms of voluntary devotion to and practice of Christian truth, than has ever been produced before, and which we are now at risk of losing, because of the impulse of Marxism to pull us back into an atheistic sacralism that brooks no dissent from it's evils.

Peace,

SR
2,801 posted on 10/21/2014 5:32:30 AM PDT by Springfield Reformer (Winston Churchill: No Peace Till Victory!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2782 | View Replies]

To: terycarl
sure they were

And they worshipped in CATHOLIC CHURCHES located...

Revelation 1:10-11

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

2,802 posted on 10/21/2014 5:34:04 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2773 | View Replies]

To: Springfield Reformer

“principle purpose” should be “principal purpose.” spellchecker liked ‘em both ...


2,803 posted on 10/21/2014 5:36:30 AM PDT by Springfield Reformer (Winston Churchill: No Peace Till Victory!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2801 | View Replies]

To: terycarl

So you don’t see killing someone who disagrees with you as murder?


2,804 posted on 10/21/2014 5:39:21 AM PDT by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2760 | View Replies]

To: Springfield Reformer

and “is fundamentally at odds ...” should be “are fundamentally at odds ...” Sure could use an edit button. Oh well ..


2,805 posted on 10/21/2014 5:39:41 AM PDT by Springfield Reformer (Winston Churchill: No Peace Till Victory!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2801 | View Replies]

To: terycarl
My church was there to take notes and write <>B>everything down...

It didn't do it...

Poor Mary got ignored.

2,806 posted on 10/21/2014 5:45:51 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2776 | View Replies]

To: JPX2011
Well, you're certainly free to ignore them and not respond.

#1463


2,807 posted on 10/21/2014 5:46:57 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2781 | View Replies]

To: JPX2011
I think you mean the authority of Alfonso II, Pedro II, Francis I, Charles Emmanuel II, etc.

While YOU have the 'authority' of...



Pope Stephen VI (896–897), who had his predecessor Pope Formosus exhumed, tried, de-fingered, briefly reburied, and thrown in the Tiber.[1]

Pope John XII (955–964), who gave land to a mistress, murdered several people, and was killed by a man who caught him in bed with his wife.

Pope Benedict IX (1032–1044, 1045, 1047–1048), who "sold" the Papacy

Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303), who is lampooned in Dante's Divine Comedy

Pope Urban VI (1378–1389), who complained that he did not hear enough screaming when Cardinals who had conspired against him were tortured.[2]

Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503), a Borgia, who was guilty of nepotism and whose unattended corpse swelled until it could barely fit in a coffin.[3]

Pope Leo X (1513–1521), a spendthrift member of the Medici family who once spent 1/7 of his predecessors' reserves on a single ceremony[4]

Pope Clement VII (1523–1534), also a Medici, whose power-politicking with France, Spain, and Germany got Rome sacked.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bad_Popes

2,808 posted on 10/21/2014 5:48:48 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2782 | View Replies]

To: terycarl

There is no such place as purgatory. True believers are totally cleansed by the blood of Christ.


2,809 posted on 10/21/2014 5:48:49 AM PDT by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2761 | View Replies]

To: JPX2011
You're free to leave at anytime. Just stop posting.

You wish!

2,810 posted on 10/21/2014 5:49:28 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2787 | View Replies]

To: Elsie; kinsman redeemer

At the rate this thread is going; we’ll hit 3,000 soon!


2,811 posted on 10/21/2014 5:50:33 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2790 | View Replies]

To: terycarl
Christ died for our sins...we all believe that, but He certainly expected us to try our best to refrain from sins after that.

Yes, He does, but our salvation and forgiveness is not contingent on that because then it would be wages due instead of actual forgiveness given by grace.

Grace is not grace unless it is FREELY given. If you have to do something to earn it or keep it, it's not grace.

Did we, absolutely not, and to think for one minute thast you can choose whatever lifestyle you please, commit any act that seems pleasurable, take anything that you desire from whoever it may be, and then die and be immediately forgiven and go straight to Heaven is the height of niavity.

No one ever stated that we can sin with impunity and without consequences. Find the links to comments anyone has made that shows them making those statements. Nevertheless, no matter what the believer has done, the blood of Christ has cleansed them. They are new creatures in Christ, they have a new redeemed nature, and when the body of flesh dies, all that's left is the new nature, and yes, that is what is qualified to go to heaven, directly to heaven, without a stop in purgatory, because the new nature has no sin it in to pay for, even if something besides Jesus' blood could do it, which it can't.

If you are guilty of serious sin and do not express sorrow and get yourself right with the Lord you will fry in Hell.

No we won't. If someone believes that, they are not trusting the finished work of Christ on the cross. God does not count our sins against us, He has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves and does not hold our record of guilt against us.

If you are guilty of less serious violations, you will spend a little time in purgatory where you will take responsibility for your actions and be forgiven them.

Nope. Sin is sin and any sin results in death, separation from God and makes the sinner ineligible to be in God's presence. The ONLY thing that cleanses that sin is the blood of Jesus. NOTHING else can do it or Jesus died for nothing. His death was the needless torture and execution of an innocent man.

None of what you claim can be supported anywhere in Scripture.

2,812 posted on 10/21/2014 5:59:40 AM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2771 | View Replies]

To: editor-surveyor
>>Matthew 5:[20] For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven<<

True believers who put their full faith in Christ alone are freely and fully clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Those who preach that righteousness is earned by any other means are preaching another gospel and should be considered accursed by God.

2,813 posted on 10/21/2014 6:01:58 AM PDT by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2765 | View Replies]

To: Springfield Reformer

Thanks to your provided link, I’ve found myself online beginning to read A History of the Vaudois Church, courtesy Princeton Theological Seminary.

Oh, that I would show other FReepers the same graciousness as did the author in his Dedication. Too often, I respond with do unto others as others have done unto me.


2,814 posted on 10/21/2014 6:02:18 AM PDT by Resettozero
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2801 | View Replies]

To: boatbums
I was wondering how those who believe Paul (and, by extension, the church) was pronouncing an actual death sentence on this member who was guilty of a grave sin can explain how his spirit/soul is saved in the day of the Lord? How does killing a heretic ensure his salvation?

That is an excellent question, but not pertaining to heretics in general, but rather to those examples of scripture. I've often pondered it in the scriptural cases and hope for mercy. We have examples from the Bible of many Israelites who were in covenant with God but were punished with death. Will some, all, or none of them be in the kingdom of heaven ? I think it unwise to extrapolate and apply doctrines of men in this regard. In the case of the Corinthian we know the sentence was given "that" (in order that) the spirit may be saved. It could be he immediately became I'll unto death but repented. It could be that he died, and his spirit was saved anyway (as would succor the case for Ananias and Sapphira). There is another verse in 1 Cor has another reference. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. Regarding heretics in general, the Gentiles may have used this verse, and misunderstood their Apostle (yet again) to burn people alive for heresy, and so committed grave sins themselves in their zeal, knowingly wicked or ignorantly wicked, to please God. It seems to me if one's word of judgment against a heretic does not trigger a divine judgment, then one does not have God's approval to kill a heretic by another means. The 18th century BC law code promulgated by Babylonian king Hammurabi specifies several crimes in which death by burning was thought appropriate. Looters of houses on fire could be cast into the flames, and priestesses who abandoned cloisters and began frequenting inns and taverns could be punished by being burnt alive. Furthermore, a man who began committing incest with his mother after the death of his father could be ordered by courts to be burned alive.[2]

I see capital punishment granted and confirmed throughout the scriptures. Jesus was treated as a capital criminal and heretic, And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. He upheld capital punishment regarding adultery, with So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. I understand this as she deserved death but could only be stoned by those who had not committed adultery themselves, including the sin of lusting after another. Thus the lesson is to exercise judgment and show mercy when appropriate. Woe to him who executes another outside the King's commandments. Oh look, Oscar Pistorius just received a five year sentence for killing his girlfriend

2,815 posted on 10/21/2014 6:03:33 AM PDT by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2778 | View Replies]

To: terycarl
so, no matter what we do, how evil we are, how degenerate our lives, how many people we molest, how we steal, pillage ,etc etc...we die and go straight to Heaven....good luck with that theory.

Past tense. No matter what we've done.

No redeemed believer will continue to live like that.

For one thing, they have a new nature that finds sin revolting.

For another, God will not let someone continue to live like that.

That kind of thinking reveals the appalling lack of understanding on the part of Catholics as to what the new birth is all about and what having a new nature and the Spirit of God living within one, is like.

It's clear evidence that the person who thinks like that has never experienced the new birth otherwise they would know that someone born again does not, and could not think that way.

The born again believer has the mind of Christ, has been given a new heart and new mind that does NOT think that way.

2,816 posted on 10/21/2014 6:04:16 AM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2775 | View Replies]

To: JPX2011

This is not the first time you have expressed your support for the killing of *heretics*.

Many of us remember well the last time you did it.

You are not going to convince anyone that you didn’t mean it at this point and all the deflections you post, in apparent attempts to blame shift and accuse others, is not going to change anyone’s recollection or mind.


2,817 posted on 10/21/2014 6:08:59 AM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2783 | View Replies]

To: terycarl
If you don't know what day it is don't call it the sabbath day trying to leave the impression it's the day God set aside. If you don't even know what day it is then don't play like it's God's Sabbath.
2,818 posted on 10/21/2014 6:11:18 AM PDT by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2768 | View Replies]

To: Springfield Reformer

AMEN!!!!

Preach it, brother!!!!!!!!


2,819 posted on 10/21/2014 6:12:46 AM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2801 | View Replies]

To: terycarl; metmom
>> If you are guilty of less serious violations, you will spend a little time in purgatory where you will take responsibility for your actions and be forgiven them.<<

To deny the all sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice is to deny Christ Himself. Thinking that man can add anything is blasphemy.

2,820 posted on 10/21/2014 6:16:16 AM PDT by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2771 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 2,781-2,8002,801-2,8202,821-2,840 ... 3,541-3,550 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson