Did you know we are a false religion? A cult?

S0uljah, even in some more "respectable" Protestant circles, we are classified as a cult. I was in a Church of God (Anderson,IN) youth group in my high school, and we were learning about cults - one of them that was "questionably a cult" was Catholicism - in all its expressions (Eastern and Western Rites, and of course the splinter groups - except Anglicanism/Episcopalianism)!!! Very surprising, since the ChOG's party line is tolerance and acceptance (my parents' pastor doesn't care that I converted; he thinks it is great, if that is where God has called me), but the youth leader we had was a bit anti-Catholic.

Originally posted by s0uljah
Yep, thats right folks.  According to such "Christian" sites as http://www.carm.org and http://www.warrior-triumphant.com, we are a false religion.  Lined up right along with Islam.
 

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AHH, yes. Been hearing it all my life.   Now 'carm' I've read and left without ever posting. They will ban you if you get too 'Catholic'.  Went to 'warrior-triumphant' but never saw a lot in the short time I browsed. Best to stay here in good company and respond to REAL discussion.  

Kotton   

I have read many things at CARM, and learned a lot about the Mormon Church through that website.

But Matt Slick insists on painting Catholicism with the cult brush. And what AMAZED ME, was in his apologetics page, the ONLY argument I found against Catholicism was a very watered-down complaint against "Mariology."

Bah.


Peace,
~VOW

Let it roll off your back, s0uljah. As a Catholic in the United States of America, you will hear this over and over again for the rest of your life.

In their defense, they are merely parroting back what they've been taught, and they are also using the standard Protestant mechanisms of sola Scriptura tempered with the belief that "Scripture interprets itself". They also know little or nothing about hermaneutics, philology, patristics, linguistics, or ecclesiastical history. They have probably never even considered the question of where the Bible actually came from. The general mindset is, "Well, God wanted us to have it, so He inspired it, and it's just always been here." No, my children, it has not "always been here". God did want us to have it, and yes, He did inspire it, but it has not "just always been here".

But they never see beyond the "Bible interpreting itself" concept enough to see that. As far as they're concerned, 2 Peter 1:21b is all they need to know about where the Bible came from. *shrug*

As a result, anything that doesn't come pre-packaged in the 66 books of the Protestant Bible, they will strenuously reject---not because it's wrong, but because they don't understand it. It ain't in their Bible, but Catholics believe it, and therefore, the Catholics are wrong. End of story.

You get used to the mindset after a while. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

I KNEW IT , I KNEW IT , I KNEW IT , I KNEW IT !!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I knew I should have taken that trash out before I left yesterday, now the whole kitchen stinks!

You think CARM is bad? Try posting to Proclaiming the Gospel Ministries, a website run by Mike Gendron.

Any Catholic that tries to post there is immediately banned and their IP provider is emailed with claims of harrassment.

http://pro-gospel.org

Come Lord Jesus the light is dying,the night keeps crying,Come Lord Jesus.

I think u can show non catholic christians that the bible does not agree with "bible alone" which means no tradition and magisterium
recommend them to read 2 peter 3:25?-30? if i am not mistaken
i read it once but i couldn't remember the quote but i assure u that it is in the last chapter of 2 peter

i agree fully on Wolseley's statement

i just dun understand,how people's mind works
if it is a false religion,why has it been standing since who knows when
Like a prodigal son saying to his father that his father is an illegitimate child
get the idea

firing a bullet at themselves through an opaque glass

Y'know, the thing that bugs me most isn't that Christians disagree with each other. It's that they have to call everyone else "cults" and "false teachers".

It's the "no true Christian" game. Someone says "What about the inquisition", and there's a big chorus of "oh, well, they weren't *really* Christians". Weren't they? What gives us the right to judge them; surely, we too sometimes do wrong things out of ill-considered zeal.

I think it's important to make the distinction between "I believe that this person's belief on this particular matter is wrong" and "That person is not a Christian, but a member of some weird cult".

It's really amazing finding the variety of things about which people will make those claims. Just about any belief, from "does God really have a gender, or is that a linguistic convention" to "is that wine or blood", is enough to get people to call other people "cultists".

FWIW, I think it's pretty obvious that the Catholic church isn't a "cult". I think some of your beliefs are probably wrong, and I still don't think you're a cult, or not "true Christians"... After all, I think your central belief (Jesus died for our sins) is not merely true, but *THE* important true belief, and I don't see much point in quibbling over the rest.

Come Lord Jesus the light is dying,the night keeps crying,Come Lord Jesus.

I think u can show non catholic christians that the bible does not agree with "bible alone" which means no tradition and magisterium
recommend them to read 2 peter 3:25?-30? if i am not mistaken
i read it once but i couldn't remember the quote but i assure u that it is in the last chapter of 2 peter

i agree fully on Wolseley's statement

i just dun understand,how people's mind works
if it is a false religion,why has it been standing since who knows when
Like a prodigal son saying to his father that his father is an illegitimate child
get the idea

firing a bullet at themselves through an opaque glass

Hey, here's an idea! Instead of it having to be either catholicism is right or protestantism is right, in a mutually exclusive way, why not write an essay on why YOU think that God allowed the schism to happen in the first place.

That way, you acknowledge that in all events, God has a hand, and that your brothers and sisters-in-Christ who are not catholic might not be all crackpots and heretics.

I think it's part of how He tries to keep corrupt beliefs from dominating the church; no matter what false beliefs might creep in somewhere, someone else will remember why they're wrong.

He allows all sorts of good things too. Instead of just looking at why protestants are wrong, really look at why the schism happened at all.

Originally posted by s0uljah
God allows all sorts of evil things, and I dont blame Him for those.

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I don't know that this was entirely an evil thing. The Catholic church was beginning to slide into error, although the error was (I believe) limited to actions, not yet teachings... but the error needed to be corrected. Whatever the other effects were, something happened which resulted in the error being corrected. A nice piece of work, that.

Originally posted by s0uljah
Yes, that is true. But to make up a new theology, almost 180 degrees from the doctrine of 1500 years, is just beyond me.

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I don't think that much change occurred all at once - or rather, in the cases where it did, it was an attempt to "correct" errors.

Current Christian thought on many issues is 180 degrees from what we believed for hundreds of years. I think that's a good sign; we are being led *out* of error, slowly, and generally kicking and screaming.

To Seebs:

But the Catholic Church acknowledges no error. For to do so would negated Jesus's words to Peter, "And the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it [the Church]."


Peace,
~VOW