Posted on 04/01/2016 12:41:08 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
I am letting you be among the first to know. It is true. I am leaving the Catholic Church. I want you to know that this has not been a decision made in haste or without serious and intense research and consideration. But I can no longer remain in a church that I no longer believe in.
Let me explain.
I will be writing more about this soon, but for now let me just say there are five main reasons why I am leaving the Catholic Church:
1. I believe the sole rule of faith for Christians has to be Scripture. The Holy Bible is the only unchanging and definitive word of God that a Christian can build his or her life upon. Everything else, including the Catholic claims to authority, in the end, amount to ever-changing and ultimately sinking sand.
2. I believe works or any sense of salvific cooperation with God’s grace as constitutive to a Christian’s eternal life is unbiblical. “… not of works” (cf. Eph. 2:8-9) means not of works.
3. The idea of Mary and the saints being involved in the salvation of a Christian is tantamount to a denial of the sufficiency of Christ’s redeeming work on Calvary’s cross.
4. #3 can also be said of Purgatory, the “sacrifice” of the Mass, the Catholic view of salvation/justification, and more. These and more of the elements of Catholic teaching result in a denial of the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ. More to follow in a more detailed post.
5. What Catholics call the “veneration” of Mary and the saints is actually idolatry.
These are just for starters here. Many of you know that for the last 28 years I have defended the above teachings and more from the Catholic Church. I can no longer do so in clear conscience.
And by the way, just so you know…
April fools!
Let's try some easy math:
There are approximately 1.2 billion Catholics world wide;
If merely 1% of them 'ask' Mary for help just once each day;
that means that 12 million separate prayers are headed Mary's direction every day.
Given that there are 86,400 seconds per day... (24 hours times 60 minutes times 60 seconds)
...that means that Mary has to handle approximately 139 'requests' per second!
Purty good fer someone NOT 'divine'!
SOME body had to do it!
The book(s) that Joseph Smith Brigham Young used to build ZION was(were) assembled mostly by Joseph Smith.
Oh?
Who VOTED this 'stupid Argentinian' into power anyway?
More STUPID Catholics?
Just WHERE does the STUPID stop?
But millions of PROTESTANTS have 'prevailed' pretty well!
The Catholic positions on many issues add to Scripture.
Then you need to go and learn the meaning of this Scripture:
And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges.
Better still, perhaps you could boil down a single point that doesn't require becoming a neo-gnostic to appreciate?
Then why, when a non-Catholic wishes to support their position do they post Scripture, but when a Catholic wishes to support their position, they virtually always post the ECF's, the CCC, and other sources?
Show me, from Scripture, where there's justification for calling priests *father* when Jesus Himself specifically forbade it.
Show us from Scripture, that sins are forgiven by suffering in purgatory or through penance.
Show us from Scripture one place where we are told to pray to departed saints.
Details, details.......
Compare the wording in the Catholic Bible with the wording in nearly every other version of the Bible, including the Septuagint, on the Genesis passage where God explains to Eve, satan, and Adam what is the result of Adam’s rebellion. The Catholic Bible wording has been altered to read that Mary will bruise satan’s head ... but that won’t even register in a catholic mind because the magicsteeringthem has told them to accept all that the Vatican declares.
I have chosen. If this denomination goes homosexual in 2 months, I will go orthodox. I’ll pray about returning to seminary. I suspect I’d be an old man before they’d let me out. Lol.
” I suspect I’d be an old man before they’d let me out. Lol.”
Being older than you, you’ll get no sympathy from me, young man! :)
No one else is maintaining the standards.
Your point is not without controversy.
I tend to shy away from “my scholar is bigger than your scholar” arguments because oftentimes those engaging in such disputes are not sufficiently trained to recognize weaknesses in the argument they’re using, even if those weaknesses are in fact demonstrated by the opposition.
The net effect tends to be intransigence on both sides.
Even so, what I find even more illustrative in such disagreements is the demeanor shown by the participants. Do we observe charity, patience, and a genuine concern for the welfare of the opponent, or do see see mocking, spite, and hauteur?
Judge for yourself which is more appropriate.
“No one else is maintaining the standards.”
I can’t comment on that, I think most people try to do the best they can, but I can say that if anyone knows and understands human nature and the fallen state of this world, it’s us. We’ve been at this a very long time in a very difficult part of the world. But we don’t despair because, “Christ is Risen and you, O death, are annihilated!”
I meant denominations when I said ‘no one else’.
That was the point of my search. To find which best clings to the truth as handed down to us.
Yes, and I see this thread has turned into one of those Catholic vs Protestant “debate” threads. I guess we could have seen that coming a mile away.
I know, I know. Gets boring, doesn’t it?
Well said. But sadly, those that do pray to her cannot admit it. They just refuse to see the Lord Jesus as He is, and has been and always will be.
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