Results 1 - 5 of 5
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Is Catholic considered false religion? | Matt 15:6 | CDBJ | 71772 | ||
You stated at the end of your post, “I think your fear of Catholics' reverence for Mary is more exaggerated than our reverence.” My answer to this is, I hope you are absolutely right on this point for your own sake! I only Know what my wife has told me from her past, as she spent 26 years as a Catholic 12 of which were spent in Catholic schools. She said that she never had the full assurance of her salvation until she completely believed in Christ and turned her life over to him. Up to that point in time in her life she said that she was always in fear of dying and only hoped the she had been good enough. I believed on Christ when I was 27 years old. Oh yes, I did believe that he existed, but I didn’t believe the way the Bible means that I should believe; until I started letting God the Holy Spirit reveal His Truth to me. When I gave up and turned my life over to Christ, that Bible virtually came alive to me, I can’t really explain what all happened but I knew that Jesus was right there with me and I felt like I could almost touch him. I started looking for a church to attend and looking for people that had experienced the same thing that I had found. I went back to the church that my parents use to take me to when I was younger. After talking to the minister of that church I realized that he wasn’t even saved and on the same track that I was so needless to say I looked elsewhere. My wife and I were both saved now and didn’t have a church where we could have fellowship and feed on the word. A friend who lived down the street invited us to a home Bible study; and I was shocked to find out that the man conducting the study knew Jesus the same way that I did. After the study I learned that he was a pastor of a church and when I ask him what the name of his church was he didn’t want to tell me because he said that that wasn’t his object in teaching the study. He said that all he was there for was to point people to faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. I finally wormed it out of him when I told him that my wife and I had been recently saved and we wanted a church that expounded on what it meant to really believe in Jesus. There is something within me, as a deep-seated concern, for all people that have a different view, other then that which is absolutely spelled out in Scripture. I think that Paul must have had the same sensation because of what he wrote in Romans. Romans 10:1-3 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. [2] For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. [3] For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Everyone on my wife’s side of the family is Roman Catholic and I mean with a big R and C, so maybe you see where I’m coming from. Something just struck me a funny; do you spend as much time and have as much fun interacting with Catholics as you do with “non Catholics”, as I am sure you would rather I call them? You are with out a doubt the most knowledgeable Catholic that I have ever run into. Most Catholics don’t know enough about the Bible to fill a thimble, and I am even including more then several priest that I have talked to in the past 37 years since I have fully trusted in Jesus. I guess I am like the poor blind man that Jesus gave sight to. John 9:25 B one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. CDBJ |
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2 | Is Catholic considered false religion? | Matt 15:6 | Emmaus | 71775 | ||
CDBJ, "Something just struck me a funny; do you spend as much time and have as much fun interacting with Catholics as you do with “non Catholics”, as I am sure you would rather I call them?" It depends on the individual Catholic or non-Catholic. :-). I enjoy biblical discussion with committed (born again) non Catholics who have a charitable manner. But I find anti Catholic bigotry based on inaccurate representation and caricatures of the Catholic Church which are passed down from generation to generation very tedious. I feel the same about anti Catholic prejudice from former Catholics who lived like pagans as Catholics and never bothered to delve deeply into the faith before they left it and then suddenly became experts on its faults. But I have more scriptural discussions with non Catholics than Catholics in general. Catholics, even those who read and meditate on scripture regularly are not generally as prone to discussing scripture as non Catholic Christians, perhaps because the essence of Catholic worship is the Mass, which is packed from beginning to end with scripture, but it not announced constantly by chapter and verse. It is more an immersion or osmosis process in the context of communal worship and prayer. What Evangelicals call the "born again" experience, Catholics call a "conversion" experience within the context of the faith. The lives of the saints are full of such stories. Great and small sinners who came to a realization of their state and turned wholly to God. In fact the great Catholic spiritual writers speak of second and third conversions as one goes deeper and deeper into the relationship with God. I know based on my interactions and freindships with non Catholic Christians that this is also experienced in their churches. Not everyone is on the same level at the same time and the Spirit moves when it will in the life of every person. I have had a conversion experience myself. Some in my family have been for a period of time in the Charismatic movement. That was not the context of my experience which occured at the end of a Mass, during which I could not receive Communion because of my particular state of sin. During a Eucharistic procession at the end of the Mass when I was blessed with the sign of the cross from a distance by one of the priests in the procession who was belssing those in the pews, I could literally feel the power come out of him and into me like a elctric charge. I was overcome by an overwhelming sense of God's love and forgiveness. I was reduced to tears as I stood among strangers with my nose running and no kleenex. It was somewhat embarrassing. :-). Interestingly the preist was completely unaware of what had taken place. Some years later he became very active in a healing ministry and also became the exorxcist of our diocese. I spoke with him years later about what had happened. He said he had been unaware of his gift and was actually drafted into the healing ministry a few years later by a nun who needed a priest to offiate at healing services and Masses. God works in mysterious ways. I know there as many or more (since they outnumber us)non Catholics who went to Church for years, attended Sunday School and bible studies, etc., who like many Catholics never made the faith their own or developed a relationship with the Lord and finally abandoned any semblence of faith, athough some still nominally and culturally identify themselves as Protestants. May God draw them all to Himself. Emmaus |
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3 | Is Catholic considered false religion? | Matt 15:6 | CDBJ | 71779 | ||
It is my belief that God is calling individuals to himself out of a lot of different denominations and forming what is his church, the living body of Christ. No denomination is the answer but genuine trust and belief and reliance on the person and work of Jesus God’s Christ and what he has done for us to secure our salvation. We have a song that goes, “To God be the glory great things He hath done, so loved He the world that He gave us His Son. He yielded His life an atonement for sin and opened the life gate that all my go in." All I can say to this is AMEN, I believe it, no church, no denomination, just Jesus! Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. CDBJ |
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4 | Is Catholic considered false religion? | Matt 15:6 | mbooker | 71810 | ||
I'm on one accord with you on that one brother!! ;) It's my prayer that all the demoninations would drop the demon, get on one accord and begin acting like the SINGLE body that we are - the Body of the Anointed One. Meredith |
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5 | Is Catholic considered false religion? | Matt 15:6 | CDBJ | 71826 | ||
I don’t mind the different denominations, what I am saying is that God is still building His church and it has nothing to do with a denomination or mortar or bricks or any such things. There are individuals that belong to a vast array of denominations and God has revealed to them the truth about His Son Jesus. They are fully trusting in the finished work of Christ for their salvation no matter what their denomination teaches. I doubt if there is a denomination in existence that teaches every thing the way it should be with out missing out on a single point. God speaks through his Word and the more of God’s Word that is communicated the more people will be saved. A lot of people are being saved in spite of churches and denominations and I am a good example of that. Everything that is done in churches apart from expounding on God’s Word is nothing more then glitter; it’s the Word that is profitable to individuals. 2 Tim. 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is PROFITABLE for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: Ritual was the vehicle for teaching in the Old Testament; in the New Testament it is God The Holy Spirit that is doing the teaching. John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. John 6:45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. Psalm 138:2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. If people are to have the faith needed for salvation the key is exposure to God’s Word. Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. In most churches today we get a little sermonette by a preacherette and that was not the advise of Paul to Timothy. 2 Tim. 4:1-2 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; [2] Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. Paul said I charge thee; this was a very strong word in the Greek, diamarturomai. Today it would be like a drill sergeant standing with the bill of his campaign hat stuck tight against your forehead screaming at you to get your act together and do it this way or else. Then Paul adds with all longsuffering so the drill sergeant throws his arms around you and says, I’m telling you this because I love you and it’s for the good of us all. The only thing that is going to sustain us in times of trouble is the Bible doctrine that we have metabolized into our soul; all of the beautiful songs and ritual and the elegant garb, worn by many, won’t sustain anyone for a minute when problems arise. To live in this world we need all the Bible doctrine we can get. Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Sounds like I’m back on my soapbox, so it must be time to go. CDBJ |
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