DinaDavisVargas said:
Oh wow, jeepers, lol! I did not think I would get such an overwhelming and great response. This is amazing. Ok so I had lots of questions from everyone, and I ill go one by one. For Irish Gob- You stated you seen few couple of interfaith make it work. I am not going to convert however, I would consider it because I feel it is still my religon and my boyfriend would defintely help bring me closer to God. I just wanted to know is that something realistic, like going from Catholic to Christian.
Hi Dina
I hope it is OK to respond to your responses to others as well.
I can understand the feeling that, if you gave up being Catholic to join your boyfriend in his faith tradition, you really wouldn't be changing anything since you would still be Christian, but is that really true?
Yes you would still be Chrsitian, but at what cost? Would you have everything in his faith tradition you have now in Catholicism? Would you have the same fulness of faith and protection from doctrinal error you have now as a Catholic?
I know that this perspective will not sit well with some who are Protestant, and I do not mean to offend. But since we are talking about Catholicism and Protestantism (and the faith tradition your boyfriend is in is protestant in the general usage of that word) it is important to really consider the differences.
As one who has had to closely examine the differences between them on my faith journey into Catholicism, I say this sincerely and seriously.
Here is a little bit of my background. I was raised Eastern Orthodox, but I was not well instructed in my faith as my father was an agnositic (though his father and brother were priests). I fell away from the Christian faith when I was a preteen . . into the occult.
I had a deep and powerful conversion experience that happened just between myself and God on night alone in my room when I was 14. it changed my life forever. I was given a protestant understanding of it by my new Christian friends at school and I reamined strongly Protestant for the next 30 years, Charismatic, etc . . I probably have a good understanding of what your boyfriend believes.
4 years ago this month, God pulled the rug out from underneath me and began to show me the errors of Protestantism . . the shock was incredible, for many things I had beleived to be true about Protestantism I found out were false. That began my journey into discovering which Church today was closest to the Early Church of the New Testament and first couple of centuries. 3 years later, I had discovered so much that it became quite evident that the Catholic Church was the same Church Christ founded, and that where Protestantism has fractured into thousands of groups with different, competing beliefs, Catholicism maintained the fullness of faith through the centuries. Much prayer went into this process, much deep interior searching and struggling to let go of myths and embrace truth, constant turning to God over and over again to know and understand what was true and what was error. All this led me
into the Catholic faith.
And this is what I found.
As a Protestant, immersed in the Holy Spirit, I thought I had been feasting from this huge, rich banquet table of the Lord . . it was marvelous, tremendous . . it seemed nothing was lacking. As I was reaching the point of understanding that the fullness of faith is in the Catholic Church, I had a vision . . I saw myself like a small girl in a white dress sitting on the floor, joyfully catching crumbs as they fell off a table with a white linen table cloth that reached to the floor. These crumbs were delightful, wonderful, rich and so full - how could I desire anything more than these?
Then I realized that there had to be more, so I stood up and looked . . and my eyes got wide . . THIS banquet table was vaster, bigger than anything I had ever imagined . . it went on and on forever. I realized then that what I had previously perceived to be the banquet table of the Lord was in reality the crumbs that were falling off of THIS banquest table . . and as glorious as those crumbs had been, THIS was the banquet table of the Lord, and everything on it was available to me. It could never be exhausted.
Because of this, because of all I have learned, because of all God has revealed to me in ths process, I could never want to go back to less than everything God is offering me.
And I cannot recommend that you do so either. I cannot recommend or say it is OK to leave this fulness of faith for something, though Christian, offers so much less. You have been baptized into the fulness of the Christian faith, the Catholic faith . . should one leave it for any reason? Is being in love with someone reason enough to leave it?
Jesus said that we would have to make tough choices to follow Him. He said we would have to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him or we would not be worthy of Him. He said He came to send a sword. . . .
Our commitment to follow Christ FULLY will result in those we love perhaps rejecting us if we don't deny even part of what we know to be true.
I am going to be very blunt.
To leave the Catholic Church, even to join another Christian faith tradition, to satisfy your boyfriend and save your relationship with him would meean that you would have to compromise your faith by rejecting part of what you know to be true. It would mean you would be putting your relationship with your boyfriend before your relationship with Chirst . . making a full relationship with your boyfriend more important than a full relationship with Christ.
You are facing some tough choices in this relationship, and I don't think they are going to get any easier . . in fact, the more you try to compromise to make this all work, the more you will have to compromise down the road unless God intervenes and changes his heart.
There are no sacraments in the Charismatic/Pentecostal Churches (other than baptism if done correctly). And here is a very important question for you . . how do they baptize believers in your boyfriends church? Do they use the Trinitarian formula, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Or do they baptize in the name of Jeus only? If the later, then those baptisms would not be valid.
There is no Eucharist, the Real Presence of Jesus, in the Charismatic/Pentecostal Churches . . . . (what they have is only a symbol of the reality we have in the Catholic faith)
There is no sacrement of reconcilliation . . so they can never avail themselves of the promise of Christ given to the Apostles . . "whosoever sins you forgive, they are forgiven".
They do not hold the Keys of the Kingdom of heaven given to Peter. They do not have valid Apostolic Succession.
They deny Sacred Tradition. . . . All they have is the scripture, but they have no plumb line to measure their interpretation of scripture against, so there is not way to determine if their interpretation of scritpure and doctrines developed from such are indeed correct. Scripture has to be interpreted, so you can not use what you are interpreting as your plumb line for measuring your interpretation against, or you enter into a logically fallicy known as ciruclar reasoning . .
Are you willing to give up all of this, and much more, that Christ died to give you trhough the Church He established, all that your boyfriend's faith tradition rejects, to keep your relationship viable with your boyfriend?
This is a question you have to ask and answer . .
For Cright- He stated when we first had a date that there could be no sex, he went as far to say his church would ban him if they knew!! But why not ban him for being divorced?? but changed his tune shortly after (now saying that he sometimes questions certain things in his faith, cause if you love someone u should, I guess consummate, (i dunno).
Consumation outside of marriage is fornication . . it is a sin, black and white . .no grey area.
it sounds to me like your boyfriend needs to get his own act together . .. if his church would ban him if they knew he had sex outside of marriage, and he wants you now to engage in this, it sounds like for all his claims and outward show of Christianity, he needs to get himself right with God . . . He is questioning certain things in his faith . . it sounds like at least one of these has to do with morality, and what the bible clearly states is sin . .
So, is he questioning just the teachings of his faith tradition?
Or God Himself . . . .
It seems to me, God Himself . . . .
Also I do not want want children on two belief systems, I told him its fine to raise them Christian, because I do not pratice my faith as adamantly as him, so the religon should come from the stronger parent, which would be him.
I understand your reasoning, but I would ask that you reconsider this. Should your decision be dependent on which one is stronger in their faith?
Or on which offered them
the most truth?
Would you prefer to receive less truth yourself? Would you want your children to receive less truth?
However even that is not enough all I asked him was that he understand I raising a child before anything. The reason I say this is because he said no costumes on Halloween, and I do not agree with this, i told him no ghouls, devils or etc but I want to be able to enjoy every moment of my first child. (another dilemma)
I completely understand where your boyfriend is coming from . . he is coming from a fundamentalist mindset, and anything to do with halloween is evil. I used to believe very strongly that way, would not let my children to out trick or treating, though we would take them to the Church parties on halloween ..
But as I learned where halloween came from, and contrary to what it means to some in the secular and even occultic groups today, it still remains something that celebrated rightly, is a Christian celebration . .and I believe it should be celebrated as a fully Christian feast day regardless of how the secular and/or occultic groups have tried to make it theirs. . . . So I agree with you, no ghouls, devils, witches, etc . . but costumes that are appropriate for a Chrsitian celebration are just fine.
My kids had a lot of fun this last halloween.
Also he states he would be happier if I went to his congregation (which I would because this is something he hold to his heart) its just I told him please do not expect me to follow or do things as they would. For, example no-make up or pants, because those are not my rules and I fell I am simply going there to praise GOD.
This will remain a bone of contention that will get deeper and deeper . . . . as long as he believes his group is right and yours is wrong (and I would not be at all surprised to learn that his group believes the Catholic faith to not be Christian at all, that the Pope is the anti-christ, and that the Catholc Church is the harlot of babylon), I believe this will continue and get more difficult. Eventually, unless God softens his heart, he will want you to chooose between him and your Catholic faith . . . especially if he and/or his church beleives the Catholic faith is not Christian.
Is this a position you want to be in? Are you willing to deny the truth of your Cahtolic faith to accept his so you an make this relationship last?
kenny Se - I am no one to question him as a christian its just dont toot ur horn if im a sinner for no church - then so is he for being a divorcee
The question of his divorced status . .whether it is sinful or not depends on the validity of his previous marriage. Where they both validly baptized? Where they non-Christians who divorced and later he turned to Christ? For instance, Paul allows for the unbelieving spouse to leave a believing spouse after the spouse converted, and the believing spouse is not bound in that case and is free to remarry. Thsi is called the Pauline priviledge. . . . Just because someone is divorced does not mean that they are guilty of a sin directly related to the divorce . . but it raises very serious questions that have to be answered.
And that take us back to what I talked about before, being married validly in the Catholic Church and in the eyes of God.
The Little Flower - thanks for the hug! He is a charasmatic christian and what I meant by validated is, how can a churvh recognize my marriage if he is a divorced person,
Because, as I mentioned above, the "why" of the divorce has everything to do with it as well as the baptismal state of the parties involved. But it has to be carefully determined; otherwise, how do you know you are not entering into an adulterous relationship when you marry someone who has been previously divorced?
I have to break this up . ..
Peace in Him!
