09 September 2008

Changeable Truths?

I sure don't share *all* the strange things I come across on the internet (before you say it, shut up LOL!), but I thought this might make for an interesting discussion. A Catholic website discussing the idea that it's the Protestants, not the Catholics, who have distorted and changed the One True Faith:

"A Protestant elder of the 17th century looking at many protestant churches today would be astounded and appalled. He would see "Signs", "wonders", and "miracles" supposedly manifesting at nearly every service. He would see big-name evangelists rating themselves by the number of miraculous healings that took place at their meetings. He would see people "baptised in the Holy Spirit" and "talking in tongues". All these things would be entirely foreign to him. Not only would they be foreign to his view of Protestant religion, he would probably see them as deceits and abominations!

"If the Reformers preached one thing consistently, it was that the time of miracles was long past. The Reformers considered that the age of miracles had ended with the Age of the Apostles, and that in the current dispensation miracles simply did not happen. All miracles and healings that took place at Catholic services and Holy Sites were obviously feigned and deceitful - a sign of ignorant catholic "superstition." In England, orders were issued to, "utterly extinct and destroy all shrines... and all other monuments of feigned miracles, pilgrimages, idolatry and superstition, so that there remain no memory of the same". People were punished for claiming that miracles had taken place. The greatest miracle of all - the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the mass, was denied.

..."it is they, not the Catholics or Orthodox, who are continually changing and rejigging their beliefs."

I would imagine that if I read Scripture, or realized something from Scripture in a new way, that I would have to "rejig" my beliefs accordingly, no matter how stupid it might make me appear to others. But I have to admit one of the advantages the Catholic church would have over the Protestants would be name-brand recognition. I don't mean to be trite in that statement, but don't know how else to put it. Under Catholicism, to my understanding, you either are or you aren't. You're either in the "Church" or you are not. With Protestants, it's a bit more tricky. Does Protestantism include Mormons? Maybe some Mormons would say "yes," but there isn't a central Protestant church to tell them to go take a hike.

Do you count the likes of Benny Hinn as being Protestant? Who gets to decide?

I find it interesting, however, that the Catholics I know personally are not very strong in the area of reading the Bible for themselves. In fact, one called me not too long ago to ask how to look up stuff in the Bible. Another person from this family came to borrow a Bible and D asked, "Which version?" and the fellow had no clue there were different ones, let alone which version his church teaches as being the truth. And these are very nice, kind-hearted folks. I was the same way before learning how to read the Bible myself. Except I was worse off... I didn't even realize there were separate "books" within the Bible. That's a public school education for ya.

But like Protestants, I've noticed something about Catholics. The ones who attend Mass regularly seem to be more conservative than the ones who do not. I could not tell you *why* that would be, whether it is because conservative people like going to church more or because churches ARE more conservative and only the conservative ones seem to stick around because they feel welcomed.

Thoughts?

5 comments:

  1. My husband's family and my father's side of my family are all (at least nominally) Catholic, so please be considerate in your responses.

    Of course, I disagree with Catholicism but just want to warn "anonymous" to be nice or his posts will be deleted.

    :]

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  2. We (family and extended) had a bad encounter with a priest and his handling of the zookeeper's uncle's funeral. The uncle committed suicide (priest says unpardonable sin, no funeral sorry!) then he decided they could declare him mentally unsound and have one for him. I was furious. The kids all had to agree that he was mentally unstable (he was 35 for pity's sake, his kids were little) and then it would be fine.

    I think this borders on the post that I mentioned. I did avoid the speaking in tongues thing (which was one of their things) because I knew it would really make some of our friends mad.

    Theology makes my mind hurt. But I think that people who only come to mass once in awhile, just do it to make themselves feel better. But then do some of us.

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  3. My leanings are all towards Quakerism which acknowledges individual leading by the Holy Spirit & that therefore *adjustments as necessary* must be made.

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  4. Like any religion out there, they will all give there reason as to why they are right. They will twist, plead, sometimes even kill, to make their way "right". Remember how people died because they simply wanted to translate the bible into English so we could all read the beloved words? Many, many died. Why? What were the Catholics afraid of?

    The only way to find out what is the truth is by studying the scriptures for yourself. I think it's strange how they preach against murder but have lifted their stand on abortion.

    My husband was raised Catholic. He said that's where all his party friends went. His uncle recently, who is a heavy drinker and bar bum, says he feels uncomfortable until he can say his confessions every Sunday to the priest. Why is that? The bible says that when Jesus died, the veil was ripped in the temple where we were supposed to be seperated from God's presence. The bible says we no longer have to confess to a priest but we can go straight to God ourselves. Catholics also say you can pay money for the sins you are gonna commit in advance. Like if you want to commit adultery, you have to go pay with money to the church. That'll pay for your sings. I asked my mom who was raised Catholic and she said it was true. Some of the worst partiers I know, attend mass once a week. Everything I have ever studied about the Catholic church, conflits and contradicts the Bible.

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  5. I could never understand how anyone could say that the age of miracles, signs, tongues, etc. was over with the Apostles.

    I guess when you were raised like I was--no health insurance and no money--it was Divine Healing or nothing else! And we just learned to lean on it. And we've seen lots of them!

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Non-troll comments always welcome! :)

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