Tag Archives: protestant

Truth in the Catholic Church?

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The following question was sent to me in an email. Rather than answer it myself, I thought I’d present it to my readers. I’ll send your responses by email. 🙂

"you seem like a very intelligent man. far more so than i. do you know why we – christians, i mean – succeeded [sic] from the catholic church? please look into this because the catholic doctorine [sic] is about as far from the truth as you can get. i implore you to pray and meditate on the truth and it will be revealed to you. Luke 8:21 John 1:1 John 4:23" – K K

Here are the verses he recommends (taken from the ESV, a Protestant translation).

"But he answered them, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.’" – Luke 8:21

I assume this is a reference to Mary.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." – John 1:1

When have I ever disputed this?

"But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him."

I guess this implication is that Catholic’s don’t worship in spirit and truth.

So, what say you, gentle readers? How shall I respond to my critic?

GodBlogCon: *Yawn*

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So the GodBlogCon started a few days ago. Big fat hairy deal. It’s a mutual admiration society for Calvinistic Evangelical Republicans*. I really don’t think it’s going to make any real impact within the blogosphere, let alone without. It certainly won’t do anything to help Godbloggers break out of their ghetto.

If you’re about as enthused about GBC as I am, you might find Mean Dean’s mock coverage interesting.

Behind the scenes – Installment #1
Behind the scenes – Installment #2

* I have no beef with the participants, just the bias in speaker selection.

Update 10/09/06: Unfortunately, blogs4god is no more and all that’s left of these behind-the-scenes posts must be found in Google’s cache.

Purgatory Pickle Redux

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A fellow by the name of Charles recently commented on an old purgatory post of mine that has long since sunken below the horizon. He says:

“Why do Catholics use 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 to prove Purgatory? It couldn’t be plainer in the text that the fire will reveal all works on ‘the Day’. The Day of Christ at judgment. ‘ The Day’ is too obvious but surprisingly overlooked by Catholics.”

My first reaction would be to say that Catholics believe in two judgments, personal and universal. We are faced with personal judgment when we die. The universal comes when Christ returns to Earth to judge all of mankind. On “the Day”, that is the day of our judgment, our works are tested by fire. That fire is not literal, of course, but suffering of some kind is implied. I see no contradiction whatsoever regarding purgation and judgment.

What are your thoughts?

Forgiveness and Anger are NOT Mutually Exclusive

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Would one of my astute readers please tell Adrian why Blink is wrong?

[ireneQ:] ‘How can God not be angry when we sin? He hates sin!’

[Blink:] ‘When Jesus died on the cross, He took upon Him the consequences of sin. One of those consequences is God’s anger. Therefore God cannot be angry with us any more.’

I like this Blink guy……

Here’s some starter material from the Catechism.

"1849 Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as ‘an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law.’"

"1850 Sin is an offense against God: ‘Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight.’ Sin sets itself against God’s love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become ‘like gods,’ knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus ‘love of oneself even to contempt of God.’ In this proud self- exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation.125 "