EWTN - The Journey Home - November 10, 2014 - Dale Ahlquist, convert from being a Baptist

EWTN ^ | 11.10.14

[daniel1212]

Ping to see above extensive post on Christian growth/decline WW if you want. Praise God for the strength to do it, and for the increase in many places it tells of.

[daniel1212]

Also this should have been added to the Latino section:

Hispanics make up at least  32% of Catholics, and 47% of Catholics btwn 18-29 in the US.

Also of note, not counting blacks would eliminate 6% of evangelicals (15% of blacks), and 5% of Catholics.

[Heart-Rest]

"My KJV doesn’t have a study guide. What’s he talking about?? Now my dad had a Scofield reference Bible. But not me. Not most Christians I know. Puzzling ..."

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Wow, you must not know many Protestant Christians then, Springfield Reformer.     There are tons of those KJV Bibles with study guides in them out there, and many protestants use them.

For anyone who wants to really know the truth about this (and avoid deception), just do a couple quick searches for yourself.

First, Google king james version bible with study guide and look at some of the tons of results that come back from that search, and exactly what they point to.

Then go to Amazon and do the same.

Some quick examples of KJV Bibles with study guides built in are these:

"The Expositors Study Bible King James Version (Crossfire Edition)"

"The Holy Bible (Including The Jimmy Swaggart Bible Study Guide) (Old and New Testaments in the King James Version, Giant Print Reference Edition, with Concordance and Special Helps)"

There are many other versions like that, but both of those particular examples come from this famous protestant:

Jimmy Swaggart

[redleghunter]

Will have to finish tomorrow:) but the below stat is accurate in that look at the “red and blue” map over the past 3 election cycles. The map tells the story:

>>Protestants with a strong religious identity continue to increase as Catholics with a strong religious identity continue to decline, according to a March study by the Pew Research Center. The proportion of Catholics reporting strong religious affiliation declined by almost twenty percentage points over the last few decades, from 46 percent of Catholics in 1974 to 27 percent in 2012. Protestants reporting strong religious affiliation increased more than ten percentage points during the same period, from 43 percent to 54 percent.<<

[redleghunter]

I hope you know the NABRE now comes in a Bible study format.

Look at a paper copy before buying it. The electronic version I have seems to have just footnotes and not much commentary.

Now the Orthodox Study Bible is good. Their footnotes point out the differences of the LXX.

[Heart-Rest]

"I hope you know the NABRE now comes in a Bible study format. Look at a paper copy before buying it. The electronic version I have seems to have just footnotes and not much commentary. "

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A print version of this NABRE is good:

"New Catholic Answer Bible: New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)"

and I'd also recommend this New Testament Study Bible:

"Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament"

(I like the Orthodox Study Bible too.    Their "Early Church Fathers" references add depth, and the many prayer icons they include in their Study Bible provide a glimpse into their deep contemplative prayer life too.   They use the NKJV for their New Testament.)

[Springfield Reformer]

lol! Well, in my six decades I’ve known plenty of Protestant Christians, mostly Baptist. But I still don’t know any, not one, who specifically uses any kind of KJV study guide. Thompson chain reference counts, maybe, but it’s not actual commentary. Someone gave my son one of those. Just an index in the center column pointing to related verses. I gave up on Bibles with study guides after quitting Scofield’s dispensationalism. I guess there’s still an active market for them. Just no one I know uses them. They would, like me, consider them intrusions, unwanted interlopers on the pages of Scripture.

Bottom line, when I want to know what God says, I go to my Bible. When I want to know what other godly teachers have thought about a given passage, I go look for a good commentary. Or better still, break out the Hebrew or Greek, with morphology tags, along with some good lexicons. But there is no substitute for regular, reflective, reverent reading of the pure words of God in Scripture. All the explanatory notes or catechisms or confessions or language aids in the world won’t do any good if God isn’t right there along side you helping you understand His own words.

Peace,

SR

[Elsie]

No, they’re getting the ideas from the culture - which is heavily Protestantized.

Then we should be like Mexico; which is HEAVILY Catholic.

[Elsie]

The Holy Eucharist, through which Christ abides in us and we in Him, will be our wedding feast.

Rev 19:9 “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

Sure doesn't sound like any FEAST I've ever been invited to!

If he's hungry; let him eat at home...

[Elsie]

Like mother - like Son...

[Elsie]

Mom...

...how come you and Joseph never got it on after I was born?

[Elsie]

...those particular examples come from this famous protestant...

Who came BECAUSE of THESE infamous Catholics...

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

[daniel1212]

Since the Catholic church "considers" and claims as Catholic anyone who was baptized in a Trinitarian denomination, does that leave Trinitarian Protestant susceptible and liable to future inquisitions?

When dealing with an autocracy, any such thing is possible.

[metmom]

And while the US Catholic church is growing as a result of illegal immigration (Hardly something to brag about), that by default means the Catholic church in those countries is shrinking.

It’s a version of sheep stealing. The churches aren’t really growing, just constantly trading members.

New people coming in? Awesome!

Other people leaving? Well, they weren’t really part of our church anyway.

[metmom]

No. Catholics choosing to act like Protestants are harming other members of the Church. Protestants themselves have nothing to do with it.

And just whose fault is that?

Seems the RCC isn't doing such a great job of catechizing its members and is remiss in dealing with that.

You're complaining to the wrong people about how Catholics are behaving.

[metmom]

True. However with an established hierarchy and chain of command, is it not the duties of the bishops to correct error in organizations proclaiming to be Catholic?

Should not the bishops provide a list of Catholic universities true to Catholic doctrine?

Oh, come on now.

Are you actually suggesting accountability?

Be real.

[metmom]

where does it say in the bible that in order to be saved, you have to “accept” Jesus Christ as your Lord.

John 1:12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

Greek word for *receive*

http://biblehub.com/greek/2983.htm

Strong's Concordance

lambanó: to take, receive
Original Word: λαμβάνω
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: lambanó
Phonetic Spelling: (lam-ban'-o)
Short Definition: I receive, take
Definition: (a) I receive, get, (b) I take, lay hold of.

HELPS Word-studies

2983 lambánō (from the primitive root, lab-, meaning "actively lay hold of to take or receive," see NAS dictionary)
– properly, to lay hold by aggressively (actively) accepting what is available (offered).
2983 /lambánō ("accept with initiative") emphasizes the volition (assertiveness) of the receiver.

[CynicalBear]

Wow! That was a chopped up corruption of scripture. You listed Revelation 20:17 with the words "For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride [the Church] has made herself ready". Here are the real words of Revelation 20:17.

Revelation 20:17 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

I'm sure you meant Revelation 19:7-8 but even then the Greek words used do NOT mean what you try to imply. The "righteous deeds of the saints" does NOT mean their deeds as the English could be understood. It means "a sentence of acquittal". It is God's forgiveness that clothed in white.

Once again the corrupted Catholic interpretation of scripture causes error.

[vladimir998]

“Then we should be like Mexico; which is HEAVILY Catholic.”

Actually the Catholic Church was technically illegal in Mexico for decades. As the Wall Street Journal noted:

In 1979, for example, when Pope John Paul II made his first pilgrimage to Mexico, priests were still legally banned from wearing clerical collars in public, owning property, or voting. Incredibly, government officials claimed that the Pope violated Mexican law by wearing his habit. (But in a gesture that exemplifies the complex relationship between the Mexican church and state, then-President Jose Lopez Portillo himself offered to pay the 50 pesos fine.) http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703740704575095704065365166

The persecution in Mexico was so severe that in 1935 there were 17 states in Mexico that did not have a single licensed priest legally allowed to minister to the people.

There are millions of Mexicans who call themselves “Catholics” because that’s what their parents and grandparents said, but they are not even baptized and have never been catechized. I’m not kidding. I know this because I seen it on this side of the border with Mexican immigrants (legal and not) who are adults and have never been baptized.

[vladimir998]

“And just whose fault is that?”

Theirs.

“Seems the RCC isn’t doing such a great job of catechizing its members and is remiss in dealing with that.”

Many bishops, priests and lay people are not doing as well as they should. It is not the Church, just some of the workers.

“You’re complaining to the wrong people about how Catholics are behaving.”

I’m not complaining and I’m not complaining to the wrong people.