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NASB | Matthew 15:6 he is not to honor his father or his mother.' And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 15:6 he is not to honor his father or his mother [by helping them with their need].' So by this you have invalidated the word of God [depriving it of force and authority and making it of no effect] for the sake of your tradition [handed down by the elders]. |
Subject: Is Catholic considered false religion? |
Bible Note: 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 |