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Desire to be a vessel of honor unto the Lord Jesus Christ?
Join For His Glory for a discussion on how
https://christianforums.net/threads/a-vessel-of-honor.110278/
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Taking the time to pray? Christ is the answer in times of need
https://christianforums.net/threads/psalm-70-1-save-me-o-god-lord-help-me-now.108509/
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Depending upon the Holy Spirit for all you do?
Read through the following study by Tenchi for more on this topic
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How are famous preachers sometimes effected by sin?
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Anti-Catholic?
- Thread starter JM
- Start date
D
Dalen Naskiel
Guest
Jack Chick
I, myself, used to be very much an "anti-Catholic." That is, a Christian who believes that Catholics are not really Christians and either through misinformation or malicious intent slanders the Catholic Church, Catholics and the various ways in which Catholics differ from mainline Protestants in terms of worship, tradition and beliefs.
For instance, I used to go onto a certain forum (not this one) and strongly, pridefully, and, in truth, ignorantly belittle Catholic beliefs and try to break them down by what people sometimes might call "strawman" arguments or other arguments that don't stand up to real investigation. I would insult Catholics to the point of considering them to be somewhere outside of Christianity -- a cult, even. Yes, I used that word.
To those who still, intentionally or not, are anti-Catholic, I think the best remedy to help with that is a study of history -- even a cursory study. Lots of reading and studying. Studying your own denomination and its history back to where it began. When that timeline comes to an end, those anti-Catholics should keep going back... to Christ and to the Church that immediately followed Christ, following his directions precisely. Studying that will, at minimum, eliminate the unspoken hatred that many anti-Catholics truly hold in the hearts toward Catholics... many of whom they believe are not really Christians at all. Which could not be further from the truth.
I was an anti-Catholic. At age 28, I worked HARD to convert my girlfriend (now wife) to my non-denominational faith or ANY protestant faith. I was even willing to "convert" to Lutheranism or Anglicanism (Episcopalian) if it meant drawing her away from the "evil" Catholic Church. It was when I began to study for the purpose of dis-proving and dis-crediting her Church that I found a disturbing lack of a real connection with Christ and the Apostles in my own churches (non-denom, Baptist, Methodist and even a very broken, disturbed connection with Lutheran). It was my PRIDE... My belief that what I had been taught as a child must be the only possible truth, my PRIDE that I could not be wrong, that *I* should be the final authority when interpreting what God wants for me... I believed that the Pope must be the anti-Christ that I was told he was and that the Church had no right to tell me what is moral or not moral.... that pride definitely went before a fall. I fell... I submitted to God, and I am certainly no longer an anti-Catholic.
Anti-Catholics should deepen their knowledge of the history of Christianity... the Church... the Catholic Church...
Christ's Peace,
Michael
P.S.
Jack Chick is the greatest example of how satan can use a man as a purveyor of lies to create hate between Christians... We cannot determine his final judgement, but I pray for his own sake that he is not knowingly doing what he is doing... and that he truly is as ignorant as he seems.
For instance, I used to go onto a certain forum (not this one) and strongly, pridefully, and, in truth, ignorantly belittle Catholic beliefs and try to break them down by what people sometimes might call "strawman" arguments or other arguments that don't stand up to real investigation. I would insult Catholics to the point of considering them to be somewhere outside of Christianity -- a cult, even. Yes, I used that word.
To those who still, intentionally or not, are anti-Catholic, I think the best remedy to help with that is a study of history -- even a cursory study. Lots of reading and studying. Studying your own denomination and its history back to where it began. When that timeline comes to an end, those anti-Catholics should keep going back... to Christ and to the Church that immediately followed Christ, following his directions precisely. Studying that will, at minimum, eliminate the unspoken hatred that many anti-Catholics truly hold in the hearts toward Catholics... many of whom they believe are not really Christians at all. Which could not be further from the truth.
I was an anti-Catholic. At age 28, I worked HARD to convert my girlfriend (now wife) to my non-denominational faith or ANY protestant faith. I was even willing to "convert" to Lutheranism or Anglicanism (Episcopalian) if it meant drawing her away from the "evil" Catholic Church. It was when I began to study for the purpose of dis-proving and dis-crediting her Church that I found a disturbing lack of a real connection with Christ and the Apostles in my own churches (non-denom, Baptist, Methodist and even a very broken, disturbed connection with Lutheran). It was my PRIDE... My belief that what I had been taught as a child must be the only possible truth, my PRIDE that I could not be wrong, that *I* should be the final authority when interpreting what God wants for me... I believed that the Pope must be the anti-Christ that I was told he was and that the Church had no right to tell me what is moral or not moral.... that pride definitely went before a fall. I fell... I submitted to God, and I am certainly no longer an anti-Catholic.
Anti-Catholics should deepen their knowledge of the history of Christianity... the Church... the Catholic Church...
Christ's Peace,
Michael
P.S.
Jack Chick is the greatest example of how satan can use a man as a purveyor of lies to create hate between Christians... We cannot determine his final judgement, but I pray for his own sake that he is not knowingly doing what he is doing... and that he truly is as ignorant as he seems.
francisdesales
Member
ZeroTX said:
Excellent witness, Michael. What was it that made you open your heart to the POSSIBILITY of that you were wrong? That is a crucial first step that many refuse to take. What was it that got you to even consider reading about the Church or exploring her claims?
Regards
F
Fulton Sheen's Warrior
Guest
+JMJ+
An anti-Catholic? I suppose the simplest answer would be someone who hates the Church.
Though, I am reminded of the words of Archbishop Fulton Sheen who said:
"I could not find one-hundred people who hate the Church for what she truly is..... I could, however, find millions who hate the Church for what they think she is."
PS.
Welcome home Zero!
An anti-Catholic? I suppose the simplest answer would be someone who hates the Church.
Though, I am reminded of the words of Archbishop Fulton Sheen who said:
"I could not find one-hundred people who hate the Church for what she truly is..... I could, however, find millions who hate the Church for what they think she is."
PS.
Welcome home Zero!
The truth is, I wanted to prove my girlfriend wrong by convincing her to come to my church and to abandon the "overly complicated" Catholic faith. I told her I couldn't understand why they needed to be so "ritualistic" in their worship, and I told her I thought that Catholics were only going to church out of obligation and didn't really want to be there. I tried HARD to convince her. I took her to my church (then a non-denominational "mega church" in the Houston area) to show her how great it was and how hers surely wasn't as good.
But, what really got me looking at history was that I wanted to prove to her that the Catholic Church wasn't the real Church of Christ. It was some sort of over-ritualized version of it created by Constantine -- that's what I told her. That's what I believed. So, I sought out the history of my own denomination, which was basically Baptist. I read about the "trail of blood" theory that some Baptists hold to to convince themselves that they are descended from early Christians. Here, I thought, I had found the solution! The Catholic Church WAS in fact the original Church, but they were wrong! The dissenters, the Cathars, or whoever else is on that "trail of blood" were always the real Church! ..... then I tried to find any real connection between these heretical groups and their theologies.... they really weren't the same. Each was its own and there were huge gaps. The trail of blood is more like a spotty blanket of heresy. It was a bogus theory... But that certainly, in my mind, didn't invalidate Baptists and their beliefs. So, I bought books on the history of Christianity.... from a Protestant (Baptist) bookstore, Lifeway. I thought, surely these books would be truthful, since they came from a trusted source. These won't be Catholic-biased books! True, they weren't. However.... who are all these guys before the 1500's?... These sound like Church leaders... like there is a hierarchy... The things they say sound Catholic. What is this???? Where is the history of my Baptist belief before the Reformation era?.. Hmm. I was lost.
I had already decided before (when I bought into the "trail of blood") that Catholics were, in fact, the majority of the earliest Christians.... but I tried to reason that they were wrong, and those they called heretics were right (e.g. Cathars). But, I found I had disagreements with those heretics and, in fact, they were really heretics....
So, then I decided the Bible was the final authority, as I had always been taught..... I dumped Church history as a basis for my concerns and switched to proving that the Bible was the final, lone authority on every matter...
Then, I bought another book from the Baptist bookstore (Lifeway), about Biblical authority.... I read it cover to cover in one day, GRASPING for the truth. What I found was circular logic... things like "the bible is the final authority, because it says so"... well, no, it really didn't. When the Apostles were writing, the word "scripture" referred to the Old Testament scriptures. They didn't realize that what they were writing would be compiled into our New Testament. That circular logic doesn't work for me... furthermore, it didn't ever say that it was the ONLY authority. It just said that it was "an" authority. Even worse, the book really never told me why I should believe that the Bible and the specific books that were ultimately chosen, should be accepted as the Word of God -- other than "because we believe so..".... not good enough!
Then, I began to read about the canonization process and how the canon of scripture was developed... and low and behold, I had to finally come to the conclusion that the Catholic Church decided which books of the bible were to be considered God-breathed, which were good to read (but not necessarily directly inspired) and which were heretical or unworthy. It wasn't a magical process of a bible falling from the sky -- it was an arduous process of Church leaders consulting, praying, deciphering, studying and listening to God speaking to their hearts as they worked under the power of the Holy Spirit to create the canon.... the canon of the Bible that we use... that we used as Baptists (save for a few in the old testament)...
Ok, now what?... Well, then I worked on proving that the Deuterocanonicals (apocrypha) were not supposed to be in the Bible and Catholics were just wrong about this and that Protestants really had these books of the bible right... again, dead end.
Then, I decided, well, I do agree that the Catholic Church was the original Church created by Christ himself.... but.... well, what about the Pope? I didn't agree with the pope being "in power" or having so much authority to create dogma. Then, I found an amazing book called Upon This Rock by Stephen K. Ray. This book put me over the edge...... It's pure history, 50% commentary and 50% direct words of the Church fathers... PRIMARY source material... not someone else's view -- the church father's view, through 500 AD.... everyone, in every time, in the early church saw the bishop of Rome as the head of the Church. Everyone....
Yeah, I thought, but I am a History major, and I remember all those bad, evil popes in history, and even the times when there was more than one at a time!...... but I came to understand that the fact that the Church will NOT have the gates of hell prevail against it... doesn't mean that the Church won't have bad people in it... or that bad decisions won't be made by Church leaders.... or that popes, cardinals, bishops or priests won't do bad things, sinful things..... it doesn't mean those things wont' happen. It means that the Church won't be overrun by them. It means that Christ's Church will prevail over these evils.... even as we have the sexual abuse scandals, the Church is not going to be destroyed -- Christ told us so... What the Church must do is learn, repent and continue to do the work of Christ, worshop Christ, and do for Christ.
I decided that I had to put a big dose of humility into my life... I had to stop being so prideful... I had to submit to the truth when the truth was right in front of me. I had to become fulfilled in God's truth, Christ's Church, and do what I knew I had to do, else I would never feel whole.
This is a really condensed version of this story... it was a rapid series of events that hit me like an avalanche. I couldn't concentrate on work or anything else for 6 months. I read 2 dozen books by both Catholic and Protestant apologists. The Catholic books told me why the Catholic Church was the original Church. The Protestant books insulted Catholics and broke down individual people as a ploy to discredit Catholicism... not once did I find any real argument (other than insulting the other side) that would come close to convincing me. The authors of those protestant books sounded like they were saying just what most Fundamentalist/Evangelicals want to hear when they go into research on the Catholic Church. They were feeding the hate....
I was confirmed into the Catholic Church at easter 2005.
It's difficult to explain to people who don't seem to understand the magnitude of my journey... I can't even go to protestant services anymore (though I used to go to both for a while).... It is just so... incomplete.
-Michael
But, what really got me looking at history was that I wanted to prove to her that the Catholic Church wasn't the real Church of Christ. It was some sort of over-ritualized version of it created by Constantine -- that's what I told her. That's what I believed. So, I sought out the history of my own denomination, which was basically Baptist. I read about the "trail of blood" theory that some Baptists hold to to convince themselves that they are descended from early Christians. Here, I thought, I had found the solution! The Catholic Church WAS in fact the original Church, but they were wrong! The dissenters, the Cathars, or whoever else is on that "trail of blood" were always the real Church! ..... then I tried to find any real connection between these heretical groups and their theologies.... they really weren't the same. Each was its own and there were huge gaps. The trail of blood is more like a spotty blanket of heresy. It was a bogus theory... But that certainly, in my mind, didn't invalidate Baptists and their beliefs. So, I bought books on the history of Christianity.... from a Protestant (Baptist) bookstore, Lifeway. I thought, surely these books would be truthful, since they came from a trusted source. These won't be Catholic-biased books! True, they weren't. However.... who are all these guys before the 1500's?... These sound like Church leaders... like there is a hierarchy... The things they say sound Catholic. What is this???? Where is the history of my Baptist belief before the Reformation era?.. Hmm. I was lost.
I had already decided before (when I bought into the "trail of blood") that Catholics were, in fact, the majority of the earliest Christians.... but I tried to reason that they were wrong, and those they called heretics were right (e.g. Cathars). But, I found I had disagreements with those heretics and, in fact, they were really heretics....
So, then I decided the Bible was the final authority, as I had always been taught..... I dumped Church history as a basis for my concerns and switched to proving that the Bible was the final, lone authority on every matter...
Then, I bought another book from the Baptist bookstore (Lifeway), about Biblical authority.... I read it cover to cover in one day, GRASPING for the truth. What I found was circular logic... things like "the bible is the final authority, because it says so"... well, no, it really didn't. When the Apostles were writing, the word "scripture" referred to the Old Testament scriptures. They didn't realize that what they were writing would be compiled into our New Testament. That circular logic doesn't work for me... furthermore, it didn't ever say that it was the ONLY authority. It just said that it was "an" authority. Even worse, the book really never told me why I should believe that the Bible and the specific books that were ultimately chosen, should be accepted as the Word of God -- other than "because we believe so..".... not good enough!
Then, I began to read about the canonization process and how the canon of scripture was developed... and low and behold, I had to finally come to the conclusion that the Catholic Church decided which books of the bible were to be considered God-breathed, which were good to read (but not necessarily directly inspired) and which were heretical or unworthy. It wasn't a magical process of a bible falling from the sky -- it was an arduous process of Church leaders consulting, praying, deciphering, studying and listening to God speaking to their hearts as they worked under the power of the Holy Spirit to create the canon.... the canon of the Bible that we use... that we used as Baptists (save for a few in the old testament)...
Ok, now what?... Well, then I worked on proving that the Deuterocanonicals (apocrypha) were not supposed to be in the Bible and Catholics were just wrong about this and that Protestants really had these books of the bible right... again, dead end.
Then, I decided, well, I do agree that the Catholic Church was the original Church created by Christ himself.... but.... well, what about the Pope? I didn't agree with the pope being "in power" or having so much authority to create dogma. Then, I found an amazing book called Upon This Rock by Stephen K. Ray. This book put me over the edge...... It's pure history, 50% commentary and 50% direct words of the Church fathers... PRIMARY source material... not someone else's view -- the church father's view, through 500 AD.... everyone, in every time, in the early church saw the bishop of Rome as the head of the Church. Everyone....
Yeah, I thought, but I am a History major, and I remember all those bad, evil popes in history, and even the times when there was more than one at a time!...... but I came to understand that the fact that the Church will NOT have the gates of hell prevail against it... doesn't mean that the Church won't have bad people in it... or that bad decisions won't be made by Church leaders.... or that popes, cardinals, bishops or priests won't do bad things, sinful things..... it doesn't mean those things wont' happen. It means that the Church won't be overrun by them. It means that Christ's Church will prevail over these evils.... even as we have the sexual abuse scandals, the Church is not going to be destroyed -- Christ told us so... What the Church must do is learn, repent and continue to do the work of Christ, worshop Christ, and do for Christ.
I decided that I had to put a big dose of humility into my life... I had to stop being so prideful... I had to submit to the truth when the truth was right in front of me. I had to become fulfilled in God's truth, Christ's Church, and do what I knew I had to do, else I would never feel whole.
This is a really condensed version of this story... it was a rapid series of events that hit me like an avalanche. I couldn't concentrate on work or anything else for 6 months. I read 2 dozen books by both Catholic and Protestant apologists. The Catholic books told me why the Catholic Church was the original Church. The Protestant books insulted Catholics and broke down individual people as a ploy to discredit Catholicism... not once did I find any real argument (other than insulting the other side) that would come close to convincing me. The authors of those protestant books sounded like they were saying just what most Fundamentalist/Evangelicals want to hear when they go into research on the Catholic Church. They were feeding the hate....
I was confirmed into the Catholic Church at easter 2005.
It's difficult to explain to people who don't seem to understand the magnitude of my journey... I can't even go to protestant services anymore (though I used to go to both for a while).... It is just so... incomplete.
-Michael
P.S.
I was married, with a full Nuptual Mass celebration on 7/8/2006... at St. Laurence Catholic Church in Sugarland, TX.... to the beautiful lady that I tried to take away from the Church. God does indeed work in mysterious ways... I tried to take her out of the Church, but the truth, the Church, drew me in. ... Me... a former anti-Catholic... One who spread hate for the Church.... one whose pride ruled every part of his life.......... sin I still struggle to avoid.
I was married, with a full Nuptual Mass celebration on 7/8/2006... at St. Laurence Catholic Church in Sugarland, TX.... to the beautiful lady that I tried to take away from the Church. God does indeed work in mysterious ways... I tried to take her out of the Church, but the truth, the Church, drew me in. ... Me... a former anti-Catholic... One who spread hate for the Church.... one whose pride ruled every part of his life.......... sin I still struggle to avoid.
Zero,
What makes one accept Catholicism and one not accept Catholicism? Is one spiritually superior then another? ex. less pride
Is one morally better then another? ex. God gives him more grace to accept it
Is one intellectually superior to another and able then to accept Catholicism?
What’s the reason?
What makes one accept Catholicism and one not accept Catholicism? Is one spiritually superior then another? ex. less pride
Is one morally better then another? ex. God gives him more grace to accept it
Is one intellectually superior to another and able then to accept Catholicism?
What’s the reason?
T
thessalonian
Guest
JM, surely you know the answer to this. You would answer it the same way. Surely it is by the grace of God. We of course just disagree with eachother on which side of the isle it was recieved.
JM said:
In truth, I think most people aren't terribly interested in getting deep into Church history. Had I never dated a Catholic, I would never have gone so far into my study and prayer over the matter. If one feels satisfied with his/her spiritual life, it doesn't feel good to rock the boat. It didn't feel good at first... it was scary at first... terrifying... terrifying that the schema I had built up in my mind over a lifetime of being a Baptist pastor's son (did I mention that part?)... over a lifetime of assumptions about what Christianity is (the Bible and only the Bible, right??)... It was hard to be truly open to what else might be true. After all, I was really inspired by the music ministry and sermons at the non-denom church I had been going to. I had been undergoing a spiritual revolution after 7 years of "backsliding" and not going to church....
Unless there is an impotice for really digging deep, most people never arrive at the idea that there is any reason that they should. They and their family, spouse, friends go to the local [insert denomination] church, and that's what they do. In fact, the very mentality of "denominations" plays into it, as most Christians don't even know what the Reformation was or that the Catholic Church is not a "denomination"... and they certainly don't know how their denomination or church was formed.
I praise God for bringing the conflict into my life that lead me to study, to read, to seek, to pray... Not everyone will necessarily ever encounter this... some may encounter it later. I am still growing in my own faith, but I hope one day to be given the right words to express how I feel to family and friends without sounding like something crazy...
I don't know if that really answers your question, but really, for a lot of people they just never get to the point where they consider their faith -- to the deepest root of it... Most people have their underlying assumptions that they never consider may be wrong or incomplete.
God bless,
Michael
What I mean by underlying assumptions... things that we never questioned as Baptist (or Methodists or non-denoms... I attended all of those at different times)....
...Why do we say the Bible is the sole authority?... In 28 years of attending Protestant services, nobody ever really addressed this in any way other than circular logic. Note: we were not Calvinists or Lutherans, so I had never even heard of the"solas" until I began to study Christianity during my fulfillment process.
...With the underlying assumption that the Bible-only is the authority, how do we know that our denomination's interpretation of scripture is true and correct and that the others are wrong?... Why do we look down (and are implicitly taught to) on Pentecostals or Lutherans? We assume we're right... our preacher says we're right... says who? If all us protestants are using the Bible as our sole authority, then why do we all disagree on what it says?...
...With the underlying assumption that the Catholic Church is wrong, overly ritualistic, and believes in "unbiblical" things, then we must assume that is the truth.. there's no real reason to dig into it... no more than I want to become an expert on Islam. It's not my faith... I should become strong and knowledgeable on my own faith before spending time studying another... as such, it would not be in the regular course of events to go digging into Catholicism... after all we're "Christians" and they're "Catholics"... we don't want to "join a new religion" so let's just leave them be, though we do think they give Christians a bad name (sometimes implicitly and other times explicitly taught by parents, pastors, sunday school teachers).
Truth is, without some reason to search.... people don't search. They assume (me included) that growing stronger in faith means growing stronger in the faith taught by the denominational protestant church currently attended... or perhaps a similar one down the road that is a "better fit" for "my own personal worship style"..... In fact, most people "church shop" simply based on their "personal worship style"... and are not really even seeking truth... as we have been taught this relativism idea that everything is relative....
What I sought in the Church was objective truth.... If one thing is true, then an opposite thing cannot be true. Truth is objective. Only one truth can be right. When one discovers that the one they believed is wrong... it is difficult. It's heartbreaking... it's a hard pill to swallow.
I swallowed several large pills before I simply set aside all that I knew and re-evaluated everything.
God bless,
Michael
...Why do we say the Bible is the sole authority?... In 28 years of attending Protestant services, nobody ever really addressed this in any way other than circular logic. Note: we were not Calvinists or Lutherans, so I had never even heard of the"solas" until I began to study Christianity during my fulfillment process.
...With the underlying assumption that the Bible-only is the authority, how do we know that our denomination's interpretation of scripture is true and correct and that the others are wrong?... Why do we look down (and are implicitly taught to) on Pentecostals or Lutherans? We assume we're right... our preacher says we're right... says who? If all us protestants are using the Bible as our sole authority, then why do we all disagree on what it says?...
...With the underlying assumption that the Catholic Church is wrong, overly ritualistic, and believes in "unbiblical" things, then we must assume that is the truth.. there's no real reason to dig into it... no more than I want to become an expert on Islam. It's not my faith... I should become strong and knowledgeable on my own faith before spending time studying another... as such, it would not be in the regular course of events to go digging into Catholicism... after all we're "Christians" and they're "Catholics"... we don't want to "join a new religion" so let's just leave them be, though we do think they give Christians a bad name (sometimes implicitly and other times explicitly taught by parents, pastors, sunday school teachers).
Truth is, without some reason to search.... people don't search. They assume (me included) that growing stronger in faith means growing stronger in the faith taught by the denominational protestant church currently attended... or perhaps a similar one down the road that is a "better fit" for "my own personal worship style"..... In fact, most people "church shop" simply based on their "personal worship style"... and are not really even seeking truth... as we have been taught this relativism idea that everything is relative....
What I sought in the Church was objective truth.... If one thing is true, then an opposite thing cannot be true. Truth is objective. Only one truth can be right. When one discovers that the one they believed is wrong... it is difficult. It's heartbreaking... it's a hard pill to swallow.
I swallowed several large pills before I simply set aside all that I knew and re-evaluated everything.
God bless,
Michael
JM said:
Actually, it is for everyone... All are welcome, but most people are never faced with a situation where they question their religious faith in the way that I was a couple of years ago. I never disbelieved in Christ... what I found was my human weakness and submitted to that and obeyed Christ's will. I'm sure I would still be very faithful and very much Christian had I not gone through that process.. and maybe I never would have had any reason to search. But, I had occasion to search. I hope that others will someday, as well.
-Michael
No problemo... and I want to clarify one thing. While reading my own post, it sounded like I questioned my faith... I didn't. My journey was for the purpose of finding out how I felt I could serve Christ in the best, most complete way possible. The bottom line came down to this: Our Lord Jesus Christ told us that the "the gates of hell would never prevail against" His Church. If that was true, I had to find THAT church...
It's so long and drawn out that it's hard to explain. Maybe I will write a long testimony one day when I can sort it all out
-Michael
It's so long and drawn out that it's hard to explain. Maybe I will write a long testimony one day when I can sort it all out
-Michael
L
LittleNipper
Guest
ZeroTX said:
To see the early church one needs only to read the epistles to the various cluster community churches. The letter to the church at Rome is addressed to ALL and no mention of Bishop Peter!? The church at Corinth get two letters and they mention the names of seeming average Christians and no one seems a dignitary.... Rome gets one ---- Corinth two.... Galatains could have been addressing either the North or South of that provence but in either case GOD does seem to have meant that this epistle to by read by everyone. Again it addresses converts. The epistle to Ephesus is once again to what seems to be an indigenous congregation or what Protestants might call an independent church body. The connection is by faith/ belief alone and not through "church" government attachments. You may also wish to consider the various church bodies mentioned in Revelation, chapters 1 through 3. The Lord Jesus Christ does not seem to be placing a higher authoritative value on one church bady above the others, but is clearly speaking to each as an equal entity. So this IS the early church. It will be centuries before Leo makes his grab at power. ANd the Celtic church will remain untouched for a lot longer. NO, I feel that Roman Catholics have THEIR history and they have THEIR reasons for what THEY believe, but the truth is far more interesting and a lot more complicated then the Reformation.
S
Solo
Guest
ZeroTX said:No problemo... and I want to clarify one thing. While reading my own post, it sounded like I questioned my faith... I didn't. My journey was for the purpose of finding out how I felt I could serve Christ in the best, most complete way possible. The bottom line came down to this: Our Lord Jesus Christ told us that the "the gates of hell would never prevail against" His Church. If that was true, I had to find THAT church...
It's so long and drawn out that it's hard to explain. Maybe I will write a long testimony one day when I can sort it all out
-Michael
At what point were you born again? When did you become a believer? If possible include your testimony. Thanks.
T
ttg
Guest
ZeroTX,
Your conversion reminds me a lot of Jimmy Akin's. He also had a Catholic girlfriend (later his wife) whom he wanted to prove wrong. Jimmy Akin was an Evangelical who wanted to be a preacher. But Bible study revealed certain verses about the Apostles having the power to bind and loose, and even having the power to forgive sins. At the same time he was discovering the "Catholicity" of the Bible, his wife was dying of cancer.
Its a touching story and you can read it on his web page: http://www.cin.org/users/james/files/triumph.htm
Your conversion reminds me a lot of Jimmy Akin's. He also had a Catholic girlfriend (later his wife) whom he wanted to prove wrong. Jimmy Akin was an Evangelical who wanted to be a preacher. But Bible study revealed certain verses about the Apostles having the power to bind and loose, and even having the power to forgive sins. At the same time he was discovering the "Catholicity" of the Bible, his wife was dying of cancer.
Its a touching story and you can read it on his web page: http://www.cin.org/users/james/files/triumph.htm