What Divides Catholics and Protestants?
Poland actually has a picture of the black Madonna. It is not what they look like that matters, but the thought behind it. ps. Madonna in Catholic thinking is not the singer, it is Italian for "Our Lady" We sometimes call the Virgin Mary, Our Lady. (Monday Aug 18 | post #22166)
What Divides Catholics and Protestants?
I would assume Mary would have been a Hebrew, just a thought! How do you really know what George Washington looked like? You have a portait to look at, but portaits were meant to flatter the person, not to be an accurate representation of what they really looked like. So why have it? Because it helps us picture someone in our minds when we say the name George Washington. Same with a picture of Jesus, it probably is not exactly what He looked like, but it is nice to look at. When your kids draw a picture of you, and it looks NOTHING like you, you keep it anyway, you don't look down upon them. Well, we are just children to God, ACTUALLY we ARE children of God. So when we draw a picture of Jesus, even if it is not exactly what He looked like, I don't think it upsets God too much. There is nothing I can find in the Bible that forbids pictures, just idols. Pagans worship idols. Catholics are fobidden to worship statues. (Monday Aug 18 | post #22165)
Op, you caught us. Mary existed before every creation The Eucharist is really Mary Mary created the universe We worship Mary Mary is eternal Mary founded the Catholic Church I guess most Catholics are going to hell since they have no idea they are suppost to believe that crap above! right! You see Steven how dumb that sounds. What I posted above is EXACTLY what you are accusing us of believing, but as you can see, not one Catholic ever says they do! How is the Catholic Church the cult of Mary, when ever single sentence I posted above SHOULD be replaced with Jesus, and NOT Mary. We worship Jesus, that is why it is HIS body and blood in the Eucharist, NOT MARY'S! If we were the cult of Mary, we would believe everything in the top part of the post, but we don't. They are blashphomus statements that I would never take seriously. Jesus is Lord. ps. How is the Catholic Church the cult of Mary? We spend WAY more time on God than we do Mary, have you ever been to Mass? We only have a couple of feast days out of the whole 365 days a year that focus on Mary, every other Mass, 365 days of the year (there is a Mass ever day) we focus on Jesus, I have been to more Masses in a year than you probably have been in your whole life. (just assuming) therefore I think I should know better than you that we mostly focus on Jesus, not Mary. The WHOLE Mass is all God that is who is mentioned the most, like 90% of the time, 90% out of the year. So we are actually the cult of Jesus! (Monday Aug 18 | post #2965)
The infinite God CAN AND WAS fully contained in human flesh. Jesus was fully God in the flesh. Who are you to say God can't do that. He is Almighty, God can do whatever He wants, and that includes all the infinite God being contained in the sacred body of Jesus. CIB, God is not limited by your theories. Was Jesus parially in heaven while He was on earth? No, Jesus is one person. Not two, only one. (Monday Aug 18 | post #2964)
Because we believe that the Father separatly is 100% God, the Son is 100% God, and the Holy Spirit is 100% God. Jesus is not 1/3 God, Jesus is fully God. Trying to explain the Trinity with addition is stupid. 1x1x1=1 The first 1, second 1, and third 1. Are all FULLY 1 whole. But they still all together equal 1. It is possible. Jesus is not 1/3 God, separatly from the Father and the Holy Spirit, He is still 100% God. We believe there is only one God, in Trinitrian form, but we do not believe the Trinity is made up of parts. (Monday Aug 18 | post #2963)
What Divides Catholics and Protestants?
A sacramental is a physical thing that God chooses to work through. Like water at baptism, God chose to work through the water. A blessed medal would be an example. If you were it by faith, you will be granted graces. Now if some satanist wore a blessed medal, it would be no good. It must be worn in faith. Does God have to use it? Not by any means, but He chooses to grant us graces by us doing spiritual things, like praying and reading our Bible, and physical, like medals, Holy Water, ect. Your Bible is a sacramental, it is holy, but it must be revered in faith. Sacramentals are not get out of jail free cards, if not done in faith, they are worthless. A sacramental is like a "little sacrament" A sacrament gives you an abundance of graces, your soul overflows with grace, the sacraments are: Baptism, the Holy Eucharist, Confession, Matrimony, Holy Orders, Anoing of the Sick, and Confirmation. A sacramental doesn't give you the grace you recieve during the sacraments. ps. Catholic's aren't gnostics. The Gnostics were a heretical group that felt matter was evil and God was against anything physical, like holy water, medals, ect, and only with spiritual things. Catholics believe in both. (Monday Aug 18 | post #22164)
What Divides Catholics and Protestants?
Then you would have to know the whole truth to know religion has the whole truth. It's a contractictory statement. (Monday Aug 18 | post #22163)
No, God has revealed to us through the Bible and Catholic Tradition that God is a Trinity. One All powerful, all knowing God, in three divine persons. The Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. (Monday Aug 18 | post #417)
What Divides Catholics and Protestants?
I agree, we don't need statues to remind us of Jesus, but it is just a nice physical reminder of Jesus or His mother. Catholics believe in sacramentals, statues are sacramentals. We don't believe matter is evil. There will be no statues in heaven, statues are what we use on earth, that is what they are, earthly, but we can't use them as long as we don't worship them. There are many paintings of ancient people we really don't know how they really looked, but it is nice to be able to see a picture of the person you are reading about. (Monday Aug 18 | post #22064)
Belief of God in an age of Skeptism
I was just wondering how other Christians have been able to keep their saving faith in Jesus in this age of skeptism where athiests and agnostics are contantly attacking the Faith, expecially with anti-Catholicism growing rapidly. (Sunday Aug 17 | post #1)
Really 300+ years? Christians have always believed Jesus was God. The Apostal Thomas said to Jesus "My Lord and my God!" Mary was called the Mother of God as early as 189 AD, MUCH ealier than 325 AD at the Council of Nicea where the dogma of the Trinity was formally defined. The Trinity is a Christian doctrine. (Saturday Aug 16 | post #374)
Occult boom: Exorcisms in big demand
Your sure right about God answering our prayers in His time, and He hears every prayer, and that keeping our faith is what it means to trust in the Lord God. (Saturday Aug 16 | post #3329)
Occult boom: Exorcisms in big demand
I am not sure how spells are suppost to work, but I know that when we prayer we believe God is the one that answers the prayers, the words themselves don't do anything. Just asking, but I do really see how spells are like prayers. One of my favorite prayers is the Hail Mary, which goes like this. "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen" Maybe they are similar, it is just confusing and kind of chilling to think of a prayer like a spell. I hope you understand. :) (Saturday Aug 16 | post #3328)
Messianic Jews say they are persecuted in Israel
I never understood the whole Messianic Judiasm. I have been told by many Jewish converts to the Faith that being Catholic is the most Jewish you can be. I heard this on a Bible study on EWTN called 'Reasons for Our Hope" and a Jewish lady said that when she became Catholic she felt that it was the most Jewish anyone could be. JMO (Saturday Aug 16 | post #2462)
What Divides Catholics and Protestants?
You right, back when most people were illiterate, statues and stained glass windows told the stories of the Bible. You can listen to the Bible all you want, but if you don't read it everyday, it is hard to retain all you have heard. So the icons helped people remember. Sometimes I have doubts Paul N is Catholic, but I am not going to challenge him on it. He worships Mary, but I don't think he worships statues. Anyway, when Protestants stoped calling Mary the mother of God, some Protestants stopped worshipping Jesus. They are called Arians, or anti-trinitarians. Everything may be a stumbling block at one time or another, the best thing we can do is explain to them why we do things, and hope they don't get confused. I'll use this example. It is not a sin to drink alcohol in moderation, but it can cause a brother or sister in Christ to stumble, so sometimes it is best not to, but that doesn't mean you must stop competely unless you have a problem. Same with statues, going to an extreme and having them all over your house and yard can cause someone to stumble, so it may be best not to have a bunch of them, but why throw the baby out with the bath water? (Friday Aug 15 | post #21771)
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