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I have heard it taught that the born agains who stay in the Catholic church are acting as missionaries to their fellow Catholics...if so..one wonders if they are doing any good at all...They are a cult - not really Christians, but having said that there are likely true believers somewhere in the denomination. Why they stay is a mystery to me? I'm just glad I got out of it and saw the light. Post #100 by Everlasting Life above explains it so well!
The Pope just went to Canada to apologize to the native ppl for crimes against them. Will he admit to n apologize for killing martyrs too? I read it was like 50 million they killed. Sick. Some say the Pope is apologizing so that non Catholic Christians will come back to the "Mother church". Beth Moore did, n other big time preachers are bowing to Rome. Yup, get everyone to get in line for the one world religion...Chrislam? I wonder if they finished building the Chrislam center yet...forget where it is, but the campus includes a church, mosque, and jewish temple.Check this excerpt out from an article and a website about the RCC and the Bible:
The following is excerpted from an article by David Cloud entitled, "The KJV and the Latin Vulgate".
Dear Catholic friend, why do you think Rome prohibited Catholics, and others, from reading the Bible? Why do you think they killed over 50 million people and called them heretics for reading and believing the Holy Scriptures? Why did Pope Pius VII say that the Bible causes men more harm than benefit? Why would God's word cause harm? The Devil and these fake religious leaders know that if you read the Bible with the intention of learning the truth, you will leave the false for what is true.
Over hundreds of years, the Catholic religion, headed by the popes, did unimaginable cruelties to Bible-believers. They were burned, tortures, imprisoned, banished, etc. because they would only believe the Bible. Nice guys, huh?
Amen! I view the RCC as a cultI wonder about their effectiveness as well. The RCC excels at eliminating any opposition to their dogma. They used to murder people, but now they just throw them out of the church. They become a pariah to their family. Most of the cults operate this way to exert pressure using the family structure. It's quite effective.
Note that the church representing Christians is a Catholic church
Yup n Peter was married n not infallable! Jesus even told him "get behind me satan" when Peter's words, well-meaning as he might've meant them, were taking Jesus' focus off of His mission.The Catholic church depends upon a crowd that has an attitude of submission to their claims of authority. A crowd that stays within the formula that had been devised over centuries and will not question that formula.
Many Catholics will read up on the common anti-protestant arguments without really getting to the point of truly understanding the problem with going outside of biblical doctrines. Reading only one side of an issue is essentially worthless. If all you can handle is pro Catholic propaganda it will be a tough job for anyone to sort out the truth.
The same goes for us here. It's a nasty experience to sort through the world of pro Catholic apologetics but it's also very enlightening. As an ex-catholic you learn firstly that you have excommunicated yourself from the true way and you are now an apostate bound for hell. You are then scorned as an idiot that swam the wrong way across the Tiber. How could you be so foolish as to reject the doctrines of Rome. After all, these doctrines are encased in theological cement with no way to correct even errors mistakenly made out of ignorance or syncrotism or politics or lust for power. To call them mistakes would also be a mistake because Rome added the no-mistake clause for the Pope when he speaks ex-cathedra (from the chair of Peter) and for the magisterium when they approve of the inclusion of doctrines as a body ( church councils). It also does away with the need to even think about reform because of the handy no-mistake clause.
Reading the apologetics of any of the Romanists does make you really appreciate biblically grounded teachers. Too often as you sort through the rationale and application of their arguments you'll get the opinions of multiple people who quote "Saint Whoever " or Pope Pointyhead to satisfy the grounding of their apologetic. To simply quote the bible alone is almost unheard of. You end up not knowing anything really enlightening that helps you reach a deeper understanding of God's Word. All you end up with is a fragment, a brief feelgood whiff of a truth somewhere out there that is supposed to somehow build you up. Only problem is that they can't get to the bottom of the issue. They cannot deal with the whole Word of God because it says things contrary to Rome's word. They need the three legged stool in order to stand.
Here's one to try out. Ask the question: Where in the Bible does it say you get to add to God's Word? They cannot answer this without referencing Rome's manufactured doctrines.
This is where they will pull the authority card. Peter... blah, blah. Blah! Pope Bigglesworth, cardinal Fang. Their authority is not grounded in historical fact nor is there any Bible only context available for them to establish the authority. They will try to shred Peter's declaration of Christ's identity to somehow mean that Peter is "the Rock". It's just dumb. Christ is the rock and Petros just stated that. Christ is the bedrock, the Petra. Words mean things and Rome can't fake it when they try the lame argument.
I'm sure that Miriam would be appalled.
Jeff
The Hail Mary... asking a dead person to pray for you is akin to necromancy. In my RCC upbringing, Mary WAS worshipped...kneel before her statue, lay roses at the statue n light candles. Mary prayers and songs sing TO her included calling her a Holy Queen, etc. It is worship. It is idolatry too. Many feast days are to honor her. Just sick. Like kissing a crucifix or the Pope's ring...etc!Besides worshipping the Eucharist, I don't see what would constitute a greater example of idolatry than the Catholic elevation and devotion to “Mary”. I, as also an ex-Catholic, would have to call you out on that. There aren’t too many Roman Catholic households that do not have a figurine of the “Mother of God” or at least rosary beads in their houses, all for the exclusive purpose of lifting her up, praying to her and placing her before God.
He said that a personal relationship with Jesus is dangerous, too. And Catholics dont question him...I just read on the web that the pope doesn't want Catholics to pray to Jesus or asking Jesus for help or for forgiveness. The person needs to go to the Pope. Did I read this wrong because this sounds terrible. I don't have a lot of Hope in this current pope and I think that he is spreading a lot of lies and untruths to his flock
Wow, how did God open your eyes when you were in the cult, if you dont mind answering (plz dont if you dont want to)Yeah! That one is a real head scratcher to me, especially since the bible is actually quite clear and plain in many parts, with the more difficult parts becoming clear when other parts of the bible fill in the gaps, so to speak.
I was recently talking with some RCC adherents and what you said SkyRider is exactly what I was told, one had to go to 'experts' to get the proper interpretation. Talk about completely blocking people direct access to God and His clear Word!
As I was engaging it came to me to speak about the Apostle Paul and how he positively commended the Bereans for double checking what Paul was teaching with.........SCRIPTURE! They themselves, sat down, OPENED SCRIPTURES for themselves and read them with their very own own eyeballs. to confirm if Paul was just feeding them a bunch of nonsense or not. Paul, the big honcho of the Church at the time gave them big kudos for doing this. There was no chastising them for reading the scriptures and double checking. He didn't tell them that he needed to interpret the scriptures for them (they had brains in their noggins and the Holy Spirit was probably there helping them to connect the dots). In fact that's how I was saved, double checking people's words with God's Word.
This is the Apostle Paul, mind you, the biggest go to guy who taught further about God and the Church at the time. I shared how Paul said that these people were open minded for doing so. Additionally, the author of Acts seemed to think this was good too as he spoke well of this and the reader the letter was addressed to would certainly be encouraged by this notation of the Bereans searching scripture themselves to also do the same himself.
It's interesting that Paul in his important teachings used copious amounts of scripture, from the bible (not some supposed 'expert') to teach and build up the Church. I would think that's the example to be followed. In fact Paul encouraged others to teach as he did, utilizing....not other men's words but God's words directly, scripture....the bible (that's not to say Godly people's words shouldn't be used, but they should line up with the bible):
Hold on to the pattern of wholesome teaching you learned from me—a pattern shaped by the faith and love that you have in Christ Jesus.
2 Tim 1:12-14
That pattern was to dive into scripture to show how it all pointed to Jesus Christ, his payment for our sins and our eternal life through repentance and faith in Him. Period.
And Peter also support how Paul was teaching as well:
And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him— speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.
2 Peter 3:15-16
At any rate, there was a continual going around and around about interpretations, traditions, Mary, beads and quoting of this or that 'saint' (not to mention that in the bible anyone who's of Christ is called a saint). You are so right SkyRider about the constant pushing to seek man's interpretation.
I realized that I needed to bow out as I'd done all that I could to share scripture showing how they point to Jesus Christ as the preeminent point of scripture, how one can be saved through faith in Him alone and nothing else. Anything beyond was going to get into ceaseless arguing that would go no where. But, I'm praying for these people along with others here that God in His mercy would remove this massive religious burden that's been placed on people unnecessarily and draw them into the freedom of Jesus Christ through faith in Him.
And, I'm so glad to have you brothers and sisters in Christ who've come out of this place. It's hard to do so but I know it's a blessing (I know this as one who came out of a cult myself).
The RCC has 151 anathemas or curses leveled against those who don't fall in line with the papists. Most of those are pointed directly at true Christians, or Protestants as they like to call us - well, heck yeah, we protest against the abuses and false doctrines of Romanism.One cannot follow the Roman Catholic Jesus and be saved. That Jesus must be wholly disavowed and the true Jesus of the Bible be claimed for salvation.
"Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing." Galatians 5:2
So anyone who says they are following Jesus but stays within Catholicism are still following the Jesus that Catholicism points to. It is a false Christ and will lead them to hell. They must "come out of her" and reject everything about Roman Catholicism.
Wow..how arrogant to believe that someone loses their salvation just because the pope says so...Sorry this is long: From the Catholic Encyclopedia:
Anathema remains a major excommunication which is to be promulgated with great solemnity. A formula for this ceremony was drawn up by Pope Zachary (741-52) in the chapter Debent duodecim sacerdotes, Cause xi, quest. iii. The Roman Pontifical reproduces it in the chapter Ordo excommunicandi et absolvendi, distinguishing three sorts of excommunication: minor excommunication, formerly incurred by a person holding communication with anyone under the ban of excommunication; major excommunication, pronounced by the Pope in reading a sentence; and anathema, or the penalty incurred by crimes of the gravest order, and solemnly promulgated by the Pope. In passing this sentence, the pontiff is vested in amice, stole, and a violet cope, wearing his mitre, and assisted by twelve priests clad in their surplices and holding lighted candles. He takes his seat in front of the altar or in some other suitable place, amid pronounces the formula of anathema which ends with these words: "Wherefore in the name of God the All-powerful, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, of the Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and of all the saints, in virtue of the power which has been given us of binding and loosing in Heaven and on earth, we deprive N-- himself and all his accomplices and all his abettors of the Communion of the Body and Blood of Our Lord, we separate him from the society of all Christians, we exclude him from the bosom of our Holy Mother the Church in Heaven and on earth, we declare him excommunicated and anathematized and we judge him condemned to eternal fire with Satan and his angels and all the reprobate, so long as he will not burst the fetters of the demon, do penance and satisfy the Church; we deliver him to Satan to mortify his body, that his soul may be saved on the day of judgment." Whereupon all the assistants respond: "Fiat, fiat, fiat." The pontiff and the twelve priests then cast to the ground the lighted candles they have been carrying, and notice is sent in writing to the priests and neighboring bishops of the name of the one who has been excommunicated and the cause of his excommunication, in order that they may have no communication with him. Although he is delivered to Satan and his angels, he can still, and is even bound to repent. The Pontifical gives the form for absolving him and reconciling him with the Church. The promulgation of the anathema with such solemnity is well calculated to strike terror to the criminal and bring him to a state of repentance, especially if the Church adds to it the ceremony of the Maranatha. (Emphasis mine.)...
Wow, how did God open your eyes when you were in the cult....
I guess we are all anathema to the RCC!
Amen! Hallelujah! Come quickly Lord Jesus! Yes, it feels quite good being an anathema to the RCC.I am fine with being anathema in their eyes. It's just not important. I know Jesus! He's my Savior and King.
The day that all of this drops away and fades from sight is coming. Trumpet and shout, I'll fly away. My Lord in the clouds receiving his bride by the Father's command. Holy, perfect righteousness by his grace, sin nature gone, guilt gone, pain gone. The light of the Lord's presence will be SEEN. We'll enter into a feast with the Lord. We'll be in the presence of God. Holy holy holy is the lamb. Perfection.
Maranatha.
Jeff