Some things about Christian culture confuse me

Catholicism and Christianity are the same thing and they were the only Christians until 1000AD then the orthodox schism, and then another 500 years were to pass until the first Protestant was to even exist, and even they didn’t have an issue with the intercession of the Saints. Regardless, your objection is clear indication you know nothing about Catholicism. You should research it before making false accusations. No catholic believes Mary’s prayers gets them closer to the Father. They believe her prayers of intercession help you become closer to Christ and there is nothing against being a mediator between man and Christ. Her role as mediator between man and Christ is also why she’s venerated, because like in the Old Testament where they venerated the Ark because it brought them closer to the mana from heaven, so Mary is venerated for bringing us closer to the bread of heaven; Christ. Furthermore the veneration the Jews gave the ark never took away from the worship of God.

 

Catholics also don’t believe Hail Marys forgive sins. Catholics believe forgiveness comes from the sacrament of confession in where Christ absolves you of your sins not the priest. The priest acts in the person of Christ meaning he is simply the tool Christ uses to convey His grace and absolution. This is why Christ gave his Aposltes the ability to forgive and retain sins AFTER His death. It is also why St. Paul says “if I’ve forgiven anything (sins) then I’ve done it in the person of Christ”.

 

But Christ's death on the cross takes away any need of intersession. I can go directly to Christ in prayer.

 

That’s not completely accurate friend. We can talk with Christ personally in our hearts but He has also willed that we go through His representatives on earth. Why would He give His Apostles the ability to forgive or retain sins if he did not want us to go to them? Who are the gospel and epistle writers but intercessors who have brought us closer to Christ? If we could just go directly to Christ then we wouldn’t have needed any of them, or any present day ministers and pastors, but that’s not what He willed for us to do.

You see my brother in Christ everything in the Old Testament faith when it comes to sacraments and liturgy is fulfilled in the New Testament through Christ. Fulfilled doesn’t mean done away with, it means it’s source is now Christ.

The Old Testament faith has/had:

• Priests
• Confession
• Passover
• Sacrifice
• Chair of Moses (A person who acted in authority over matters of faith and morals.

And a whole list of other things. These things still exist but through Christ and His Church! They exist because God is unchanging. He doesn’t create something and then change His mind. The fullfiment of these things are now:

• Holy orders: all bishops and priests get their authority from, through, and in Christ (Luke 10:16) who is the High Priest. This authority has transferred form the first Apostles in an unbroken line of succession until the present day, right now. Apostolic succession is where the office of bishop is given to another. When Judas died his bishopric and all of his authority was given to Mathias. Every bishop the Catholic Church has can be traced back to the aposltes.
• Confession is still done but now sins are absolved by Christ and his sacrifice on the cross. His death has paid the sin for all, but it’s like a well where you get water. You only get some if you go to it! You go to it by confessing your sins to a priest, who’s revived his authority from the bishop, who has succeeded from the apostles, who got their authority from Christ.
• Passover and sacrifice are now the Eucharist aka communion. In the OT the Jews celebrated Passover by sacrificing a lamb, first born, and without blemish. Another requirement, yes REQUIRMENT, was that the Passover lamb be fully consumed. Christ is the Passover lamb in the NT. He is first born, without sin, sacrificed, and has to be fully consumed in order to fulfill the last requirement instituted by God. How do you consume Christ? You consume Him in communion! This is why Christ had the Last Supper to show in what manner we are to consume the Lamb and also to show that His sacrifice, because He’s God, transcends time. This is why Catholics when they go to mass aren’t Sacrificing Christ again, they are REPRESENTING the same sacrifice on Calvary.
• Chair of Moses is now called the Chair of Peter. Where god built his chosen preople on Moses, so Christ who is God, built his church on top of Simon whom He changed his name to Peter which means Rock. The name change is significant because in the OT god changes/alters the names of patriarchs. It’s also significant so all Christians would be able to find the Church if they look for which one is built on Peter. The greates thing about that is in the Catholic Church Peter is the first Pope, but also that the Church is literally built on top of Peters body!

Catholicism is the fullness of Christianity my brother.

 

Here is some verse that might help you more.

John 20:21 – before He grants them the authority to forgive sins, Jesus says to the apostles, “as the Father sent me, so I send you.” As Christ was sent by the Father to forgive sins, so Christ sends the apostles and their successors forgive sins.

John 20:22 – the Lord “breathes” on the apostles, and then gives them the power to forgive and retain sins. The only other moment in Scripture where God breathes on man is in Gen. 2:7, when the Lord “breathes” divine life into man. When this happens, a significant transformation takes place.

John 20:23 – Jesus says, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” In order for the apostles to exercise this gift of forgiving sins, the penitents must orally confess their sins to them because the apostles are not mind readers. The text makes this very clear.

Matt. 9:8 – this verse shows that God has given the authority to forgive sins to “men.” Hence, those Protestants who acknowledge that the apostles had the authority to forgive sins (which this verse demonstrates) must prove that this gift ended with the apostles. Otherwise, the apostles’ successors still possess this gift. Where in Scripture is the gift of authority to forgive sins taken away from the apostles or their successors?

Matt. 9:6; Mark 2:10 – Christ forgave sins as a man (not God) to convince us that the “Son of man” has authority to forgive sins on earth.

Luke 5:24 – Luke also points out that Jesus’ authority to forgive sins is as a man, not God. The Gospel writers record this to convince us that God has given this authority to men. This authority has been transferred from Christ to the apostles and their successors.

Matt. 18:18 – the apostles are given authority to bind and loose. The authority to bind and loose includes administering and removing the temporal penalties due to sin. The Jews understood this since the birth of the Church.

John 20:22-23; Matt. 18:18 – the power to remit/retain sin is also the power to remit/retain punishment due to sin. If Christ’s ministers can forgive the eternal penalty of sin, they can certainly remit the temporal penalty of sin (which is called an “indulgence”).

2 Cor. 2:10 – Paul forgives in the presence of Christ (some translations refer to the presences of Christ as “in persona Christi”). Some say that this may also be a reference to sins.

2 Cor. 5:18 – the ministry of reconciliation was given to the ambassadors of the Church. This ministry of reconciliation refers to the sacrament of reconciliation, also called the sacrament of confession or penance.

James 5:15-16 – in verse 15 we see that sins are forgiven by the priests in the sacrament of the sick. This is another example of man’s authority to forgive sins on earth. Then in verse 16, James says “Therefore, confess our sins to one another,” in reference to the men referred to in verse 15, the priests of the Church.

1 Tim. 2:5 – Christ is the only mediator, but He was free to decide how His mediation would be applied to us. The Lord chose to use priests of God to carry out His work of forgiveness.

Lev. 5:4-6; 19:21-22 – even under the Old Covenant, God used priests to forgive and atone for the sins of others.

Source: https://www.scripturecatholic.com/catholic-faith/

I highly recommend checking out that Scripture Catholic site since it will address a lot of your common false accusations and misconceptions.

God bless.

 

As an interesting aside to #Iamhealing
Catholicism isn't the only form of Christianity that venerates Saints, it is merely the grandfather of all western offshoots of churches.
The Eastern Orthodox or Greek Orthodox tradition venerates Saints, as well as Coptic Orthodoxy, which is the oldest practiced form of Christianity and requires a facsimile of the ark of the covenant to be placed in the church.
There has always been revolutions within theocratic doctrines that have changed some forms of worship. For the east, they went through the periods of the Iconoclasts, for the Roman Catholics, the Prostestant reformations laid the groundwork for new churches to form.
But to say they are not Christian only depends on what your own interpretation of Christianity is.
You may not agree with the veneration of Saints. I personally am apathetic towards it, as long as it doesn't take away from the core teachings of the religion, or becomes single unhealthy area of focus, then it should not be a source for contention.
I will say that to de-legitimize the founding churches of your religion, and Roman Catholicism is, is to ultimately de-legitimatize your own.

 

I find there is alot of hypocrisy and confusing (contradictory) things about the Catholic religion. (I'm catholic). This is the same with almost every religion. And that's O.K., bc it's a belief. And having a set belief system is a beautiful thing (unless you don't consider other possibilities, or worse, criticize others for their beliefs)

 

In a Facebook group where a lot of Christians are I asked what someone has to believe to be a Christian and I had about 6 different answers. It seems to me there's no clear definition of what it means to be a Christian.

 

Name some contradictory things please. I’ve met plenty of people who’ve claimed “I’m Catholic” but who’ve made the same false accusations as non-Catholics.

This isn’t completely accurate regarding Eastern Orthodox and calling Catholicism a western offshoot. The term Roman Catholic is inaccurate and mostly used because the see of Peter is in Rome. The Catholic Church has both Eastern and Westen Rites and encompassed the whole of Christianity until the Schim in 1000 AD when there was an argument regarding the creed. Despite this argument some Eastern churches never split, one of them being the Maronites. The belief that all of these churches weren’t all ONE Catholic Church before the schism is historically inaccurate.

 

Tbh I have had this discussion on this site 30 ish times. I'm tired of it bc the strong believers dont consider other possibilities. Its fine, just people set in there ways.

It's kinda like politics, people say there stance have an argument. And then at the end (99% of the time) people go back to their previous belief.

Again I'm not roasting strong religious people. Religion is great, unless you just blantanly don't do personal research into other religious philosophies. That's when it becomes a problem and to be honest, naive.

 

This is a common dodge. I’ve looked into other faiths and I have even spouted some of the same false accusations as others towards Catholicism. The more I would research Catholicism the more I’ve found all of the doctrinal accusations have been false. If you can provide proof of something different then I will leave the Church right now. My stance is to follow truth, that’s it.

If you can’t provide said contradictions then don’t make claims you can’t back up.

 

Almost all Christian churches have the Sunday morning service together.
Things like men’s breakfast are a great opportunity for young men to be surrounded by more mature men that can set a good example, or perhaps help them work through issues that make deal with.
Things like youth pastor are there to take care of youth groups. Groups of somewhat like minded individuals growing together, building friendships and devleping their relationships with Christ.

Think of it as a big community that sometimes has different subsections that help address different things. Like the forum topics or groups on this website: some are for people 20+ some are for women only.

Hope this clarifies.

 

Lol. I wouldn't want you to leave your church under any circumstances. the catholic church is a great religion to believe in and is a fantastic religion to raise kids in.

I said previously that almost every religion (except possibly hinduism) is contradictory, not just catholics. They emit a motive of helping others and spreading their religion (which they do to an extent, hell some people do it excessively) but the main idea is for you to reach a goal, in this case heaven. I said before this isn't a bad idea, it's a basis of all philosophies. You can do selfless acts, but in the end there has to be a benefit for you.

Putting that aside sorry bud, the Bible which people take in a literal sense (perhaps mistakely), is ridden w contradictions. Have you read the whole Bible? I take the bible figuratively to show you lessons on how to live (which is brilliant).

It's not called dodging questions lol Now you are either going to get angry or be calm and state your side calmly like a rational person. At the end of the day with religion (much like politics) nobody's decision will change. Hardcore catholics that enjoy shoving their religion down your throat don't understand that. And to be frank, it's unethical

 

Why Hinduism? What about Buddism?

 

I would say Buddhism too. What's interesting to me is that hinduism is the oldest recorded religion by far, so I have serious consideration for it

 

You've taught me something new today. I would have assumed Judaism was the oldest but you're Hinduism is.

I find it interesting that Jesus and Buddha said similar things to each other. Some people say Jesus was actually a Buddhist.