Rejecting Mariology

Two-Edged Sword ^ | February 05, 2007 | Lee

[boatbums]

Protestants sometimes object to the term, “Protestant,” preferring the label, “Christian,” instead. But their Christianity seems to consist almost entirely of protesting against Catholic doctrines and practices. Perhaps it’s because “we’re not Catholic!” is the only doctrine all Protestants agree on, except for “Sola Scriptura.”

On the contrary, I'd say the vast majority of "Protestants" never give Roman Catholicism a second thought. Perhaps four or five centuries ago it was not necessarily so, but no one defines their faith by what they don't believe. I think that is more a propaganda or pretended persecution tactic of argumentative RCs - especially so on these RF threads, it seems.

What I find bemusing is when a non-Catholic posts a thread discussing what IS believed on certain topics, little time elapses before some Roman Catholic joins in to assert whatever was stated in the article is wrong/in error and had to have been posted for polemical purposes and is anti-Catholic. Heavens forbid if it is a former Catholic testifying to why he/she left Catholicism for a non-Catholic denomination!

And while we are on THAT subject...explain why FRoman Catholics feel perfectly justified in posting threads explaining all the things Protestants get wrong and how Catholicism is the superior and "full" Christian faith or threads that boast of former Protestants who came "home" to Rome, and then pitch a fit if a non-Catholic dares express disagreement? A few have even astoundingly asserted there NEVER is or have been threads that are anti-Protestant! Irony indeed!

[boatbums]

Jesus absolutely affirms that these who have gone on before --- Moses and Elijah, like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob --- are alive in Him. Do you actually think that Moses and Elijah are "dead"? Jesus says (Mark 12:24-27) "You know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God... You are very much mistaken."

Jesus was speaking to the Sadducees - the Jewish sect that rejected the resurrection of the righteous. It that particular passage, Jesus was correcting their attempt to trick him by asking about marriage in the afterlife (something they didn't believe existed and I don't doubt they had used successfully against their rivals the Pharisees):

Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!" (Mark 12:18-27)

So, rather than Jesus somehow okaying praying to the dead, he was instead asserting that ALL are alive TO God - even when they have passed from this life into the next - and there is no "marriage" in heaven.

The Jewish king Saul died because:

Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord; he did not keep the word of the Lord and even consulted a medium for guidance, and did not inquire of the Lord. So the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse. (I Chronicles 10:13-14)

The Prophet Isaiah warned:

When they say to you, "Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter," should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. (Isa. 8:19-20)

It really doesn't matter what others in the past have done - even those who claim to be Christians - there is not one place in the New Testament that people pray to Mary or saints in the early church. The apostles never wrote of it in the book of Acts or any of the epistles. There is no Old Testament or New Testament teaching of praying to the dead. and while they may be very much alive in heaven the Bible categorizes them as dead because they are no longer with us here on earth after their body is put to the ground.

[verga]

Please come out of the lie of Protestantism.

[Elsie]

Don’t be a complete, inflammatory jerk, Elsie.

Will it be alright with you if I'm merely an incomplete, smouldering one?

[Elsie]

(I might as well be playing chess with pigeons,.)

Instead of flocking with turkeys?

[boatbums]

There is no "lie" that I am IN to come out OF. In fact, I came out of the lie of Roman Catholicism going on forty-six years ago now and God has seen fit to KEEP me from backsliding. Every day that goes by, He continues to assure me of the right decision and helps me to grow in His grace by a life of faith. Maybe you should try it!

[metmom]

There you go...making sense again on the RF.

[metmom]

The “ anti-Catholic” label has been thrown around so much with so little basis as to render it meaningless.

I posted some Tozer threads which in no way referenced Catholicism, and they were keyword spammed with “ Catholicbashing”.

A persecution complex indeed.

[metmom]

The only rationalization is when someone takes the verse out of context and makes it into a command of Jesus, ignoring the context of church disciple.

It is not a blanket coomand of Jesus to demand submission of everyone to Catholicism.

[verga]

The voice you are "hearing" is saying: Did God really say....

I will continue to pray for you, and pity you.

[paladinan]

:)

[boatbums]

The voice you are "hearing" is saying: Did God really say.... I will continue to pray for you, and pity you.

And how could you possibly know what I'm hearing or thinking? Attempting the parlor trick of mind reading once again? Save your prayers and "pity"...I don't need or want them. They would be better spent on yourself to clear out the cobwebs in your ears and the beams in your eyes.

[verga]

I see that you do desperately need both the prayers and the pity.

[boatbums]

I can’t see any other legitimate reason.

[boatbums]

You “see” nothing of the kind. Stop making it personal for a change and discuss the subject of the thread. This lying in wait for a chance to toss condescending and patronizing “zingers” is unbecoming of one who claims to be a Christian.

[verga]

As I have said a number of times before there are only two non-Catholics on these threads that are actually Christians. I feel a Novena coming on for you.