Andy
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 9:46 PM
To: CF-Community
Subject: Comments on Catholic Church
A few threads back, I said that my wife had some issues with the Catholic
Church.
Someone asked for specifics, I said I would ask her to respond.
Here is Nelda's commentary on "Being Faithful" as she put it.
She wanted me to point out that this is in the context of Catholic vs.
Protestant or non-denominational Christian, and in no way is meant to put down
people of other faith traditions.
-Ben
===============================
Ben has asked me to respond to the question, “In what ways the Catholic
Church does not follow the ways of the Christian faith.”
First, I need to say that all Christians and even Jews we all need to be
wary of “falling away” from our faith.
Second, if you are interested in opinions about the apostasy (“falling
away”) of the Catholic Church, one only has to look into the many books and
writings about the original Martin Luther and his 99 treatises that he nailed
to the cathedral doors in the 1700’s. He and others, who were finally reading
the Bibles that had been distributed after the invention of the printing
press, were discovering that many things that were practiced and preached in
the Catholic Church were not according to scripture. Sadly though, even we
Protestants have “fallen away” from our faith.
Third, we all need to get back to the “Word”, scriptures, Torah and Tanakh
(Torah, Psalms, and Prophets). We all need to have a time with the Lord,
praying, reading prayerfully, and even singing to/with the Lord. This will
bring us all closer to the divine life that is able to get us through our
daily living and even be the source of our life supply.
Items of concern:
The falling away from “Justification by faith”. See Galatians, and Romans
5.
Faith in Christ Jesus is faith in His death and resurrection. He is our
grace to get things done. Keeping the law is not faith. No one is good, not
even one. If we could be “good” by trying harder, Christ would not have had
to come as our sacrifice. No amount of Hail Mary’s will make you better, only
faith in the Lord’s blood will wash you clean. (That is a whole other email).
Idol worship. See Exodus 20:3. Some say that Catholic statues and icons
were created to tell stories to an illiterate public. Those times are over
and the idols should be taken down. Especially the Hollywood/Renaissance
picture of Jesus should be destroyed. Check out Isaiah 52 and 53. The
Messiah was/will be not comely to look at. He was marred beyond any other
man. Some say that these statues are not worshipped. Then why do people bow
down to these idols and pray to them instead of to the living God? See the
book of Judges and how many times the Lord tried to get people to turn back to
Him from lifeless idols. We all need to check with the Lord as to what
people, matters for things are modern idols in our lives and turn to God from
idols.
Making Mary, the mother of Jesus into a God. She would be the first one to
protest this practice. Yes, she was a devout woman, knowing the scriptures
well. See her exaltation to God in Luke 1:46-55. She quotes verses from
Psalms, Samuel, Exodus, Hosea, and Daniel. She obeyed God to the uttermost
even to the possible loss of her respect and dignity in the society of her
time, but she was not a God.
Claiming that Mary was a virgin all her life. Read Matthew 1:25 and through
out the Gospels. Joseph did not “know” Mary until after Jesus was born. Jesus
had brothers and sister’s. See also John 7:3. I can’t remember where the
verse is where it talks about his mother and brothers were looking for him,
sorry.
The belief that you have to be a special person to be a “Saint”. See 1
Corinthians 1:2. All believers in Christ are called saints. We are all
brothers and sisters. There should be no special designation of Saint,
Brother or Sister.
There is a verse about not calling anyone “Father” except God the Father.
There are verses about there being one mediator between God and Man the man
Jesus Christ. When we mess up, we should all make confession directly to God
through Jesus Christ. (Without the shedding of blood there can be no
forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 9 and Leviticus 17– but that is a whole other
topic. If we came to God directly we would be burnt to a crisp). There
should not be confessing to a priest.
The whole clergy laity system is wrong. All should bring a Hymn, a verse, a
song. See 1 Cor. 14:26.
The Pope is not God.
Celibacy is only by a rare and special gift from God. It should not be
entered into except on rare occasions when one is gifted to be totally
dedicated to God. Without this gift sometimes negative things happen. See
the daily news.
The assertion that Peter was the leader of the church after Jesus death and
resurrection. See the Acts and Galatians. Peter shrank back and was wishy
washy on the faith. But he kept turning back to God. He is a model of most
of us. Paul and James were the leaders in the early days of the church.
A religion of guilt and focus on the death of Christ more than the wonderful
story of His resurrection (witnessed by over 120 people over 40 days. See
Acts). A Christian life should be a life of hope, renewing, and grace not
death and guilt. Christ is now the life-giving spirit. 1 Cor. 15:45.
The gilding and riches of the Catholic hierarchy and Protestant hierarchy
while it many members are starving and in a bad way. Many theologians believe
that Revelation 2:18-19 and Rev. 17 are about the Roman Catholic Church and
even the Protestant religions that have followed in the same way over the
years. This is a sober warning for all of us.
Miscellaneous items:
“Lent” is not in the Bible
Christmas, Easter, and Halloween (All Saints Day the day after) were
invented to attract the local people of an area by putting the leaven of the
pagan religions and mixing it with the Christian faith. See Matthew 13:13,
also read up on the history of the different holidays.
Several Catholics that I know have told me that they were told not to read
the Bible and not to read the Bible to their children, but only to read the
Catechism. All scripture is God breathed and profitable of teaching, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God
may be complete. Fully equipped in ever good work. 2 Timothy 3:16. Man shall
not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out from the mouth of
God. Matthew 4:4. Your words were found and I did eat them and they became
the joy and rejoicing of my heart. Jeremiah 15:16. The prophet Ezra read the
Word to the children of Israel when they returned from Babylon and they were
strengthened to rebuild the Temple.
We will not even go into the persecutions of the Jews & Christians who would
not follow the Catholic way, or forced conversions throughout history.
I hope that all Christians and Jews, including myself, will continue to come
back to the Word and treat it as a living document not dead letters. We need
to not only study it but also prayer with it. We all need to “talk” to God
about everything that is going on in our lives.
I am sorry that I am very busy right now and will probably not be able to
respond to rebuttals to this email, but I hope it gets us all to think about
being true to our faith and not falling away from it.
Grace and peace be with you all,
Nelda Braver
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