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I am not insulting Catholics. As a former Catholic I am sharing my viewpoint regarding the beliefs that religion holds. I completely disagree with the Catholic religion and personally felt extremely deceived by practices such as praying to Mary, saints, the Eucharist etc. I am not speaking against any one person, I am speaking against the people who invented these ideas to be a revenue stream for the Catholic religion. That is my belief and if it insults you I do apologize as it's not meant to be mean spirited toward you or any other CD person who reads this post.
It's ironic....those things that you define as deceiving are the actual things that were instrumental in my return back to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church:
The 7 Sacraments
The Blessed Mother
The Vicar of Christ
The Saints
Many of the Protestants here may or may not know this, so I wanted to make a point that might be worth contemplating...... the Eucharist is one of the core central beliefs of the Catholic Church, but it's not just a belief...it's THE main reason why we go to church. We are a sacramental church and the Eucharist is at the heart of our relationship w/ Christ.
So, to understand why some of us Catholics are hurt and angry on this post is due to the fact that some Protestants here are "going for the juglar" in a sense....it's a direct attack on not only what we belive, but what we love.
Many of the Protestants here may or may not know this, so I wanted to make a point that might be worth contemplating...... the Eucharist is one of the core central beliefs of the Catholic Church, but it's not just a belief...it's THE main reason why we go to church. We are a sacramental church and the Eucharist is at the heart of our relationship w/ Christ.
So, to understand why some of us Catholics are hurt and angry on this post is due to the fact that some Protestants here are "going for the juglar" in a sense....it's a direct attack on not only what we belive, but what we love.
Amen.
Proud to be Catholic
-Mod cut-
Last edited by Hoosier; 05-30-2007 at 02:51 PM..
Reason: signature lines not allowed
Many of the Protestants here may or may not know this, so I wanted to make a point that might be worth contemplating...... the Eucharist is one of the core central beliefs of the Catholic Church, but it's not just a belief...it's THE main reason why we go to church. We are a sacramental church and the Eucharist is at the heart of our relationship w/ Christ.
So, to understand why some of us Catholics are hurt and angry on this post is due to the fact that some Protestants here are "going for the juglar" in a sense....it's a direct attack on not only what we belive, but what we love.
As a former Catholic I know that...hence one of the reasons I left.
MBG
It's ironic....those things that you define as deceiving are the actual things that were instrumental in my return back to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church:
The 7 Sacraments
The Blessed Mother
The Vicar of Christ
The Saints
That is why the so called protestant churches and the Catholic church can never agree, because we go by the Word directly and not by man's doctrines. Besides that we know that the OTC is not the Catholic church, hence we cannot belong to what we know is not true.
The "real presence" (transubstantiation) is as old as the Church, instituted by Christ Himself. It was not "invented" in the 12th century. It was defined only because errors and heresies were beginning to confuse the faithful.
And yes, Mark S. is one of the local Catholics. Maybe if we had avatars it would help to identify everyone?
And this is in the Word where?? It is only there if manipulated.
God is not a God of manipulation or confusion His words are Clear.
MBG
That is why the so called protestant churches and the Catholic church can never agree, because we go by the Word directly and not by man's doctrines. Besides that we know that the OTC is not the Catholic church, hence we cannot belong to what we know is not true.
MBG
Jesus Christ founded One Church, an apostolic church. A catholic(universal) church and he prayed that we would remain one.
Funny you would mention a "man's doctrine". Ever since the protestant revolt, where men began to re-form religion to their own liking, rather than following the authority which Christ established, those "Christian" churches have splintered, and splintered, and splintered, now into the tens of thousands. There are over 20,000 Protestent denominations now. Yikes!
What do you mean by the comment, "you have the Bible because of the Church?." Is this a Catholic belief? I do not have my Bible because of the church. . . . I read the Bible and it is my responsibility to make sure that the church I attend is adhearing to the Bible.
But the Bible you read came to you through the Church. The Bible did not fall from heaven. Angels did not deliver it to us. Christ sent His Spirit to His Church, and His Church codified the Holy Scripture. That's history. To take that scripture ratified by the Church and then discount the Church makes no sense to me.
It would be like taking a restaurant's menu, insisting that the menu entails the ONLY true way to eat, then refusing any of the restaurant's food -- in fact using the menu to condemn the restaurant. Makes no sense to me.
You really can't find a Protestant website and expect me to take that seriously as evidence. That would be like me sending you to Wikipedia to prove the existence of Bigfoot.
Jesus Christ founded One Church, an apostolic church. A catholic(universal) church and he prayed that we would remain one.
Funny you would mention a "man's doctrine". Ever since the protestant revolt, where men began to re-form religion to their own liking, rather than following the authority which Christ established, those "Christian" churches have splintered, and splintered, and splintered, now into the tens of thousands. There are over 20,000 Protestent denominations now. Yikes!
Jesus did not found the Catholic church... sorry myth #1... Myth #2 your 20,000 protestant denoms:
That was claimed in a book World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in the Modern World A.D. 1900—2000 (ed. David A. Barrett; New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), and you are taking what he said totally out of context!And this myth exploded... BTW I am not a prot...but a blood bough, bible believing Christian...no strings...
Barrett identifies seven major ecclesiastical “blocs” under which these 22,190 distinct denominations fall (Barrett, 14-15): (1) Roman Catholicism, which accounts for 223 denominations; (2) Protestant, which accounts for 8,196 denominations; (3) Orthodox, which accounts for 580 denominations; (4) Non-White Indigenous, which accounts for 10,956 denominations; (5) Anglican, which accounts for 240 denominations; (6) Marginal Protestant, which includes Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, New Age groups, and all cults (Barrett, 14), and which accounts for 1,490 denominations; and (7) Catholic (Non-Roman), which accounts for 504 denominations.
According to Barrett’s calculations, there are 8,196 denominations within Protestantism—not 25,000 as Roman Catholic apologists so cavalierly and carelessly claim. Barrett is also quick to point out that one cannot simply assume that this number will continue to grow each year; hence, the typical Roman Catholic projection of an annual increase in this number is simply not a given. Yet even this figure is misleading; for it is clear that Barrett defines “distinct denominations” as any group that might have a slightly different emphasis than another group (such as the difference between a Baptist church that emphasizes hymns, and another Baptist church that emphasizes praise music).
No doubt the same Roman Catholic apologists who so gleefully cite the erroneous 25,000-denominations figure, and who might with just as much glee cite the revised 8,196-denominations figure, would reel at the notion that there might actually be 223 distinct denominations within Roman Catholicism! Yet that is precisely the number that Barrett cites for Roman Catholicism. Moreover, Barrett indicates in the case of Roman Catholicism that even this number can be broken down further to produce 2,942 separate “denominations”—and that was only in 1970! In that same year there were only 3,294 Protestant denominations; a difference of only 352 denominations. If we were to use the Roman Catholic apologist’s method to “project” a figure for the current day, we could no doubt postulate a number upwards of 8,000 Roman Catholic denominations today! Hence, if Roman Catholic apologists want to argue that Protestantism is splintered into 8,196 “bickering” denominations, then they must just as readily admit that their own ecclesial system is splintered into at least 2,942 bickering denominations (possibly as many as 8,000). If, on the other hand, they would rather claim that among those 2,942+ (perhaps 8,000?) Roman Catholic denominations there is “unity,” then they can have no objection to the notion that among the 8,196 Protestant denominations there is also unity.
Before you make such erroneous statements you may want to check them out first.
MBG
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