THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC CONVERSIONS TO THE OTHER FAITH

Built on the Rock

 

I just read this post on another blog. I found it very interesting. Of course she liked my conversion story. It starts out:

Recently, in the debate about whether or not Catholics worship the Pope with Pastor Meadows, he took the occasion to remind me of an ex-priest by the name of Richard Bennett. Mr. Bennett has since made it his life’s work to try to bring others out of the Catholic Church. I have read his story before. It was either recommended to me by my parents or my pastor when I was considering becoming Catholic. I decided to read through his testimony again, and remembered why I had written him off the first time around.

I had read his testimony before, and I remember being surprised that an ex-priest used the same lies about Catholicism as his reason for leaving the Church that most protestants (who I often just assume to be ignorant) use…..To read more click the link—>EX-PRIEST, RICHARD BENNETT – A MAN IN SEARCH OF TRUTH?

Why was Jesus Baptized?

IS EASTER PAGAN?

Is Praying to the Saints Necromancy?

Ouija Board, Tarot cards and other Divination tools.

Dan: Regarding Praying to Mary!
“What does the Bible say about praying to / speaking to the dead?”
Answer: Praying to the dead is strictly forbidden in the Bible. Deuteronomy 18:11 tells us that anyone who “consults with the dead” is “detestable to the Lord.” The story of Saul consulting a medium to bring up the spirit of the dead Samuel resulted in his death “because he was unfaithful to the LORD; he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance” (1 Samuel 28:1-25; 1 Chronicles 10:13-14). Clearly, God has declared that such things are not to be done.

BREAD FROM HEAVEN: I am sure that your pastor taught you this and used this verse to back up his denunciation of the Catholic Church. But, what is condemned is DIVINATION-(the occult practice of trying to get information from the dead in order to make decisions) NOT Intercessory prayer requests.

So the purpose for speaking to the dead when practicing DIVINATION is SEEKING OCCULT INFORMATION.

Let’s define our terms.

Definition of OCCULT

1: not revealed : secret
2: not easily apprehended or understood : abstruse, mysterious
3: hidden from view

Witchcraft

Definition of DIVINATION: Practice of discerning the hidden significance of events and foretelling the future. Divination is found in all societies, ancient and modern, though methods vary. In the West, psychics claim innate ability to predict the future, and horoscopes, palm reading, and tarot cards are popular methods of divination. Other methods involve or have involved interpreting dreams, discovering omens in natural events, reading the entrails of animals, casting lots, and consulting oracles. Divination has long been viewed as the province of specially gifted persons, such as prophets, shamans, and magicians. See also astrology.

When we ask the dead (but alive in Heaven) to pray for us we are asking for intercessory prayer. We are asking them to pray for us. We are not asking them for information in order to make decisions.

If you notice your quote above:

Deuteronomy 18:11 tells us that anyone who “consults with the dead” is “detestable to the Lord.”

Consults has a very different meaning than “speak to”.

Definiton of Consults: to ask the advice or opinion of

Exactly as the I Chron. passage says: Saul “consulted a medium for guidance”

And here is the Deuteronomy passage:

Deuteronomy 18:10-12
Revised Standard Version (RSV)
10 There shall not be found among you any one who burns his son or his daughter as an offering,[a] any one who practices divination, a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, 11 or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 12 For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord; and because of these abominable practices the Lord your God is driving them out before you.

Definition of NECROMANCY: conjuration of the spirits of the dead for purposes of magically revealing the future or influencing the course of events

I Sam 28:15 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Saul answered, “I am in great distress; for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams; therefore I have summoned you to tell me what I shall do.”

As you can see, DIVINATION through necromancy, consulting a medium is the seeking of hidden (occult) information for decision making or attempts to control events. This is what God condemns because we are to trust Him; seek guidance only from Him. This is because God knows that the so called “dead” consulted in necromancy are not really the spirits of a human person but DEMONS disguised as the intended person.

A DEMON would NEVER join us in praying to God for anything. Therefore when we ask someone, in Heaven, to pray for us we do not have to worry about contacting Demons. They lose any power over us. We ask for prayers only not for information. Therefore, we also do not need to be afraid we will be led astray by Demons either because we give them no power to give us any information.

It is very sloppy exegesis to tell people that Divination is the same thing as asking for intercessory prayer and is therefore condemned by God in the OT.

Good Friday Freak-Out!

On Good Friday, the day before I was to be received into the Catholic Church they brought out a large crucifix and people began to process forward to kiss Jesus.
I ABSOLUTELY FREAKED OUT!!
Although, outwardly I appeared calm I was thinking,

“AhHa! Here it is! Right before my own eyes!!

IDOL WORSHIP!!

I need to get out of here!”

But I was trapped in the middle of the pew. Then the voice of REASON intruded into the voice of FEAR and I thought,

“Wait a minute. I have been confronted, time and time again, with Catholic teaching and practices. At first, I immediately thought, at those times, that there ABSOLUTELY COULD NOT BE A GOOD EXPLANATION FOR THAT!

But, then, each and every time, as I looked into the whys and wherefores of why the Catholic Church taught and did THAT, I discovered an explanation that was absolutely SUBLIME! The answer was better and more intellectually satisfying than anything I could have ever thought of or asked for.”

Therefore, I decided to just trust the Church. I dutifully processed forward with my pew-mates and kissed the feet of Jesus. Now, I KNEW that statue on that crucifix was NOT really Jesus; it just represented Jesus. And so in my heart and soul, when I kissed the feet of the statue, I showed HIM that I desired to truely kiss HIS feet, the feet of my Beloved! … of my Savior! … of my GOD!

I could hardly wait to do it again next year!

THE SAINT AND THE POPE

Sola Scriptura is NOT Found in Scripture

JJ: The Word SOLA SCRIPtura is a coined term by men, so is the label Roman Catholics…I find it amusing that you keep trying to keep everyone who isnt a CAtholic away and off by calling ALL other source of debate – SOLA SCRIPTURA….just because Christians Listened to the word of God, and keep to the bible, and not from Men, nor from Traditions, nor by Rituals nor by a so called High Priest, …When there only is one ~ God himself and Jesus Christ himself whom we should listen to and not get distracted by so many Man Made traditions and arguments just because The Roman Catholics was formed by the Emperor first to regulate this “religion”…Wake up…Read the whole bible and find out Love,…in its form and how God want us to OBEY…and not be like Pharisees and get stuck to own vision.

BFHU: I have read the Bible many times especially as a Sola Scriptura Protestant. I studied with a Greek Interlinear and Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words along with Strong’s and Young’s concordances.

I know what Sola Scriptura means. But it most certainly is a Tradition of Men, first pronounced by Martin Luther a mere 500 years ago. Sticking to the Bible Alone is a wonderful theory. It sounds like a good idea and one that would work.

If I just read my Bible myself, the Holy Spirit will lead me into all Truth.

I agree it should work. The Holy Spirit could do that. It is a great Theory. However it has several problems:

1) It cannot be found anywhere in Scripture so it is self-refuting. If the idea of sticking to scripture alone and not to Apostolic Teaching (Catholic Sacred Tradition), not rituals, not Pope’s etc is held so dogmatically by Protestants then why can’t they find this teaching in Scripture? Why are they so unconcerned that Sola Scriptura is not in Scripture? How can they criticize Catholics for not having everything in Scripture whey they don’t either?

2) The newest parts of the Bible were written nearly 2000 years ago. The oldest parts of the Old Testament were probably written at least 3,200 years ago by men from cultures very different from our own. The Theory of Sola Scriptura falls apart and disproves its validity because a person in 2013 who sits down by himself with his Bible cannot accurately interpret everything in scripture unhinged from history and an understanding of the cultures in which the various books were written…unless of course it is true that the Holy Spirit will accurately interpret scripture for them despite ignorance of all these historical issues.

3) The Theory of Sola Scriptura is disproven because it has resulted in a chaos of conflicting interpretations in the hands of laymen and preachers. And this has in turn, given birth to thousands of various Protestant denominations rather than unity of interpretation given to every Christian by the Holy Spirit. So, despite the fact that the Holy Spirit could cause every person who ever read Scripture to accurately understand it, He has not done this.

4) Protestant disunity, due to the belief in Sola Scriptura, is in direct opposition to Jesus who said:
20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may [f]believe that You sent Me.

John 17:22 The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”

For more info—>Sola Scriptura is NOT Scriptural