Quote:
Originally posted by Beryana
Oh, if I didn't have mid-terms tomorrow! I am a VERY practicing Roman Catholic - and I KNOW my faith. If you would like I could debunk ALL your 'myths' about Catholicism after I take my exams (one of which is actually Early Christian Church History - and I'm at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point which is a public university!).
Here are just a few things to note:
Papal infallibility has only been used about twice in the past 2000 years - both of them around the 1800s (I can get exact dates if you would really like them)!
Praying for the dead is actually in the Bible (I can get you the exact reference).
We do not worship Mary or the saints - we pray WITH them (I can get more theological on this if you would like. . . )
The celebration of the Mass/Eucharist has been around since Holy Thursday. The earliest record of a Christian worship service was in 120AD.
The 'funniest' thing is that it was until 367AD that the Christian Church (now the Roman Catholic Church) formally published the contents of the Bible. The statement of faith was written in 325AD. (Only slightly less funny was being told by someone that Constantine brought Christianity to the pagans and so was the first Pope. . . .)
As I said, I will address each of the 'arguments' (either on the board or in a PM) after I'm finished worrying about the formation of Parliament and the English system of feudalism.
Sarah
P.S. if you want a GOOD site to look at to learn about catholicism try Catholic Answers
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I'd love to have a respectful conversation with you. But the Christian Church started with Christ; and Christian worship services started in the Book of Acts (not 367 AD-years after Christ). Archeologist William F. Albright and director of the British Museum, Sir Frederick Kenion both stated that the Gospels were written 5-30 years after the death of Jesus. This is important because there were eye-witnesses to Jesus' life still alive and no one disputed it (according to first century historian Josephus).
The first "Christians" were Jewish. Think about it--they were his disciples. The Christians went through well documented era of persecution for their beliefs. According to the history books, Roman Governor Constantine stopped the persecution of Christians. His "solution" was to forbid the Christians to stop practicing their Jewish festivals and combined them with pagan festivals. For example, Dec. 25 is the birthday of the Sun God Ra. Constantine combined the celebration of Ra with the celebration of birth of Christ. We know from the Bible that Jesus was likely born around what we know as September or October. Remember that the ancient Hebrew calendar is different from ours.
Likewise, the day of worship, the Sabbath was a Saturday and it was changed to Sunday (named again after pagan god Ra). It goes on an on...it's actually quite fascinating when you study history...
When you get time-shoot me a PM--I'd love to discuss with you my research, and I'd love to hear your perspective!
Fraternally,
BFCD