T
thessalonian
Guest
It is interesting when the anti-catholics come out. Their main focus becomes evil popes. They mix truth and half-truth with lies and slander. Peter tells us in 1 Pet 3:15 to give reason for the hope that is within. Yet for them it becomes "Pope this murdered" and "Pope that approved the inquisition" and homosexuality and evil catholic preists and holding the sins over Catholics in the confessional and oh by the way, Jesus Christ. Attack attack attack, Jesus Christ, attack attack attack, Jesus Christ. It is there hope that the sins they see in the Catholic Church will pull people away. They use a shotgun blast approach, digging as much dirt as possible, distorting as many doctrines as possible in order to make themselves and what they believe look good. They go about contradicting eachother and then band together when the issue becomes the Catholic Church. Some of what they say is true but it is so mixed with half truths, lies, and complete distortions, as to be useless in the debate. They will never be intellecutally honest about what they post and admit to what is false. They point out history when it appears against the Catholic Church, yet when we point out history they say "WE GO BY THE BIBLE ALONE". With their chests sticking out. Sad isn't it.
Let's have an honest discussion shall we. I don't care about whether Pope x did y except that it saddens me that it causes scandal and gives many reason not to look at the truth of the Catholic faith. Pope benedict XVI could have been a Nazi (something many accused him of but hardly anyone brings up any more because it was proven false) and my faith doesn't depend on it one way or another. First of all if he was a Nazi, did he repent. But second of all it became quite apparent that the haters of the Church were just distorting history as they so love to do. None of this is reason for me to change what I think. We are told there will be wolves among the flock. Tares among the wheat. Christ himself in answer to a question by PETER tells of the servant who was doing good (and would be rewarded) and then later started when the master delayed, doing evil in Luke 12 (a smoking gun passage against Once Saved Always Saved for the honest). God judges such with the unbeiever. I leave it to God to judge church leaders. We are told in Matt 23 that "the scribes and the pharassees sit on Moses seat. Therefore DO WHATEVER THEY TELL YOU but do not imitate their deeds.". Scribes and pharasses? Christ telling people to listen to them? Even the High Preist at the time of Christ's crusifixion, Caiphas, spoke the word of God when he said
John 11:
49: But one of them, Ca'iaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all;
50: you do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish."
51:
Do you get it people. This man had Christ crusified. Yet he also had great authority and spoke for God in spite of the evil in his heart.
Now don't get me wrong. There are realativiely few Popes that I see that truly did serious evil. You will of course will disagree. But let's see if we can have an honest discussion about these passages I just posted and how they fit in to the equation. Men most certainly will dissapoint us but we are still tolds "the gates of hell shall not prevail". That some men show weakness and failure in the face of all of this has little to do with whether or not the Catholic Church is Christ Church. 2000 years running says alot more to me about the power of God. Especially when there were weak leaders in the office and it surely should have been overrun.
Let's have an honest discussion shall we. I don't care about whether Pope x did y except that it saddens me that it causes scandal and gives many reason not to look at the truth of the Catholic faith. Pope benedict XVI could have been a Nazi (something many accused him of but hardly anyone brings up any more because it was proven false) and my faith doesn't depend on it one way or another. First of all if he was a Nazi, did he repent. But second of all it became quite apparent that the haters of the Church were just distorting history as they so love to do. None of this is reason for me to change what I think. We are told there will be wolves among the flock. Tares among the wheat. Christ himself in answer to a question by PETER tells of the servant who was doing good (and would be rewarded) and then later started when the master delayed, doing evil in Luke 12 (a smoking gun passage against Once Saved Always Saved for the honest). God judges such with the unbeiever. I leave it to God to judge church leaders. We are told in Matt 23 that "the scribes and the pharassees sit on Moses seat. Therefore DO WHATEVER THEY TELL YOU but do not imitate their deeds.". Scribes and pharasses? Christ telling people to listen to them? Even the High Preist at the time of Christ's crusifixion, Caiphas, spoke the word of God when he said
John 11:
49: But one of them, Ca'iaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all;
50: you do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish."
51:
Do you get it people. This man had Christ crusified. Yet he also had great authority and spoke for God in spite of the evil in his heart.
Now don't get me wrong. There are realativiely few Popes that I see that truly did serious evil. You will of course will disagree. But let's see if we can have an honest discussion about these passages I just posted and how they fit in to the equation. Men most certainly will dissapoint us but we are still tolds "the gates of hell shall not prevail". That some men show weakness and failure in the face of all of this has little to do with whether or not the Catholic Church is Christ Church. 2000 years running says alot more to me about the power of God. Especially when there were weak leaders in the office and it surely should have been overrun.
