I think this is a fair statement although Sacred Scripture does not state this explicitly. I think it is fair to say that it is implicit in Sacred Scripture that the basis of our salvation is our personal relationship with our blessed Lord.
I can agree with this to a large extent. Certainly no person is incapable of living his life without sinning, unless God gives him a special grace to do so. And no sin is so great that it cannot be repented of. So in that sense I agree that whether a person repents from his sin and turns back to God is more consequential than the sin itself.
[Perhaps Anti-Catholic is too strong a term, but it was a lot shorter than saying, People who seriously disagree with the Catholic Church on Biblical grounds. But I digress.]
Update: As many people have made fair arguments about my challenge, I have thought this through a little more, on how to make this more reasonable (though to be fair, I do have a user who took me up on this, and at least 1 friend who's doing this in real life). The principle reason for why I choose Catholicism isn't just because I think Dave Armstrong's arguments prove the Church as the most Biblical; I see a lot of very Biblical arguments for a lot of contrary views. I see the Church as an authoritative institution. The Bible is complicated; God knows that. He wouldn't leave us on our own, to figure out a notoriously difficult book by ourselves; it makes sense that He would institute some sort of living authority to teach us (with the infallible guidance of the Spirit) the essential moral & theological information about the faith. I intend to make a post about this in more detail in the near future; for now, I would direct anyone with the book (mentioned below) to Appendix 2: The Visible, Hierarchical, Apostolic Church. Thank you for your recommendations on how to refine my challenge, and may God lead us all to the true Church, wherever that may be!)
Update to the Update: Here it is! Please pray for good things to come as a result!Why I Choose Catholic Christianity
A very common argument against Catholicism is the idea that the Catholic Church is unbiblical. A valid concern; however, I truly believe that this idea is a misconception. I've spent quite a bit of time arguing theology here & in real life with my Protestant brothers & sisters, and my Protestant brothers and sisters have spent quite a bit of time arguing theology with me. To date, nobody has changed their mind either way.
This is often due to an understandable lack of thoroughness; the Bible is a very detailed, sometimes complicated, and remarkably long book. A proper understanding of all its implications would take extensive time & effort that many of us just don't have.
So I will direct you to a book written by someone who has put in all that time & effort...an evangelical Protestant, who did a year-long in-depth Bible study to disprove Catholicism.
Long story short...he converted.
The author is Dave Armstrong, and the book is titled A Biblical Defense of Catholicism. It's around 350 of very meticulous Biblical analysis, written to explain how the Catholic Church is the most Biblical Christian Church, and even the only truly Biblical Church.
It's detailed enough that it can be hard to read, especially when Armstrong discusses the original languages used in the Bible. But if you really want to convince me against my Catholic Christian faith, this is my challenge: Read the book (all of it), take careful notes if that's how you do things, find out how the concert got it all wrong, and let me know. Give me a thorough enough explanation for how the Catholic Church isn't Biblically & historically valid, and I promise I will convert. You have to read the book first; I can't defend my faith & explain Scripture as well as Armstrong can, so I direct my apologetics to him (sometimes it's good to let someone more educated do the explaining).
You can find it pretty cheap online (remember to use Amazon Smile if that's your avenue; that gives money to a charity of your choice, with no extra fee to you). And if you don't want to, I understand, it's a lot of reading. But if disproving Catholicism is really what you want to do in this life, then a Catholic Theology major just told you what you need to do to convince him.
May God continue to bless us all!
[Perhaps Anti-Catholic is too strong a term, but it was a lot shorter than saying, People who seriously disagree with the Catholic Church on Biblical grounds. But I digress.
Update: As many people have made fair arguments about my challenge, I have thought this through a little more, on how to make this more reasonable (though to be fair, I do have a user who took me up on this, and at least 1 friend who's doing this in real life). The principle reason for why I choose Catholicism isn't just because I think Dave Armstrong's arguments prove the Church as the most Biblical; I see a lot of very Biblical arguments for a lot of contrary views. I see the Church as an authoritative institution. The Bible is complicated; God knows that. He wouldn't leave us on our own, to figure out a notoriously difficult book by ourselves; it makes sense that He would institute some sort of living authority to teach us (with the infallible guidance of the Spirit) the essential moral & theological information about the faith. I intend to make a post about this in more detail in the near future; for now, I would direct anyone with the book (mentioned below) to Appendix 2: The Visible, Hierarchical, Apostolic Church. Thank you for your recommendations on how to refine my challenge, and may God lead us all to the true Church, wherever that may be!)
Update to the Update: Here it is! Please pray for good things to come as a result!
A very common argument against Catholicism is the idea that the Catholic Church is unbiblical. A valid concern; however, I truly believe that this idea is a misconception. I've spent quite a bit of time arguing theology here & in real life with my Protestant brothers & sisters, and my Protestant brothers and sisters have spent quite a bit of time arguing theology with me. To date, nobody has changed their mind either way.
This is often due to an understandable lack of thoroughness; the Bible is a very detailed, sometimes complicated, and remarkably long book. A proper understanding of all its implications would take extensive time & effort that many of us just don't have.
So I will direct you to a book written by someone who has put in all that time & effort...an evangelical Protestant, who did a year-long in-depth Bible study to disprove Catholicism.
Long story short...he converted.
The author is Dave Armstrong, and the book is titled A Biblical Defense of Catholicism. It's around 350 of very meticulous Biblical analysis, written to explain how the Catholic Church is the most Biblical Christian Church, and even the only truly Biblical Church.
It's detailed enough that it can be hard to read, especially when Armstrong discusses the original languages used in the Bible. But if you really want to convince me against my Catholic Christian faith, this is my challenge: Read the book (all of it), take careful notes if that's how you do things, find out how the concert got it all wrong, and let me know. Give me a thorough enough explanation for how the Catholic Church isn't Biblically & historically valid, and I promise I will convert. You have to read the book first; I can't defend my faith & explain Scripture as well as Armstrong can, so I direct my apologetics to him (sometimes it's good to let someone more educated do the explaining).
You can find it pretty cheap online (remember to use Amazon Smile if that's your avenue; that gives money to a charity of your choice, with no extra fee to you). And if you don't want to, I understand, it's a lot of reading. But if disproving Catholicism is really what you want to do in this life, then a Catholic Theology major just told you what you need to do to convince him.
May God continue to bless us all!
Well, that was an interesting thing to read!Oh don't get me wrong I absolutely have a list of grievances against the Catholic Church. I don't even have a problem calling the office of the Pope an affront to God that is ruled by an Antichrist spirit. However I also realize that while the institution of Roman Catholicism is rotten to its very core there are great people who choose to associate with that church due to their own personal convictions. So my comment to you Alex would be if worshipping in your local Catholic church brings you closer to God then keep on attending! Just don't get too deep
First time I've seen someone take extremist views of the Catholic Church while wishing me well within the institution! Honestly, I really appreciated reading this; while I have deep disagreements with what you said, I truly do appreciate seeing someone who can separate beliefs against an institution from beliefs against the people therein.
Yes, I'm open to this; my request is that these questions be taken to the Catholic subforum, or another debate area. This is just for practical reasons; if everybody starts saying everything they disagree with on Catholicism, there will be no way to handle the back-and-forth of every issue at once. This thread is better left for discussions about the book I mentioned, or other general ideas. You will see in the Update to the Update that I have another thread that lays out what needs to be explained for me to change my mind; the post I link is what you should read if you want to understand how to change my mind. Give me a very good answer, and I promise I'm open to whatever your better suggestion may be.
Yes, I'm open to this; my request is that these questions be taken to the Catholic subforum, or another debate area. This is just for practical reasons; if everybody starts saying everything they disagree with on Catholicism, there will be no way to handle the back-and-forth of every issue at once. This thread is better left for discussions about the book I mentioned, or other general ideas. You will see in the Update to the Update that I have another thread that lays out what needs to be explained for me to change my mind; the post I link is what you should read if you want to understand how to change my mind. Give me a very good answer, and I promise I'm open to whatever your better suggestion may be.
May God continue to bless us all!
I don't believe JMT is actually presenting an accurate account of Catholic teaching, so I don't think what you have rejected is Catholicism. Not that I particularly care as I am not Catholic myself.
Hi @Rebecca4Christ It's all about, What saith the Scriptures? isn't it?
Good morning! I appreciate your feedback, and I would like to build on what you said by providing an official Catholic Church document called Dei Verbum (The Word of God); please read it & let me know if you will continue to maintain your views that the Catholic Church has a low view of the Bible. If you want to disagree with me, that's fine, I would be foolish to create a thread like this & not listen to disagreements. I just want you to be educated, to understand what the Catholic Church actually teaches before making such lofty claims.
[Perhaps Anti-Catholic is too strong a term, but it was a lot shorter than saying, People who seriously disagree with the Catholic Church on Biblical grounds. But I digress.
Update: As many people have made fair arguments about my challenge, I have thought this through a little more, on how to make this more reasonable (though to be fair, I do have a user who took me up on this, and at least 1 friend who's doing this in real life). The principle reason for why I choose Catholicism isn't just because I think Dave Armstrong's arguments prove the Church as the most Biblical; I see a lot of very Biblical arguments for a lot of contrary views. I see the Church as an authoritative institution. The Bible is complicated; God knows that. He wouldn't leave us on our own, to figure out a notoriously difficult book by ourselves; it makes sense that He would institute some sort of living authority to teach us (with the infallible guidance of the Spirit) the essential moral & theological information about the faith. I intend to make a post about this in more detail in the near future; for now, I would direct anyone with the book (mentioned below) to Appendix 2: The Visible, Hierarchical, Apostolic Church. Thank you for your recommendations on how to refine my challenge, and may God lead us all to the true Church, wherever that may be!)
Update to the Update: Here it is! Please pray for good things to come as a result!
A very common argument against Catholicism is the idea that the Catholic Church is unbiblical. A valid concern; however, I truly believe that this idea is a misconception. I've spent quite a bit of time arguing theology here & in real life with my Protestant brothers & sisters, and my Protestant brothers and sisters have spent quite a bit of time arguing theology with me. To date, nobody has changed their mind either way.
This is often due to an understandable lack of thoroughness; the Bible is a very detailed, sometimes complicated, and remarkably long book. A proper understanding of all its implications would take extensive time & effort that many of us just don't have.
So I will direct you to a book written by someone who has put in all that time & effort...an evangelical Protestant, who did a year-long in-depth Bible study to disprove Catholicism.
Long story short...he converted.
The author is Dave Armstrong, and the book is titled A Biblical Defense of Catholicism. It's around 350 of very meticulous Biblical analysis, written to explain how the Catholic Church is the most Biblical Christian Church, and even the only truly Biblical Church.
It's detailed enough that it can be hard to read, especially when Armstrong discusses the original languages used in the Bible. But if you really want to convince me against my Catholic Christian faith, this is my challenge: Read the book (all of it), take careful notes if that's how you do things, find out how the concert got it all wrong, and let me know. Give me a thorough enough explanation for how the Catholic Church isn't Biblically & historically valid, and I promise I will convert. You have to read the book first; I can't defend my faith & explain Scripture as well as Armstrong can, so I direct my apologetics to him (sometimes it's good to let someone more educated do the explaining).
You can find it pretty cheap online (remember to use Amazon Smile if that's your avenue; that gives money to a charity of your choice, with no extra fee to you). And if you don't want to, I understand, it's a lot of reading. But if disproving Catholicism is really what you want to do in this life, then a Catholic Theology major just told you what you need to do to convince him.
May God continue to bless us all!
